y of Four Seasons Farm
h
The office walls display only a few of the plaques and rib
bons captured by the Kennedy’s Brown Swiss.
The majority of the buildings on Four Seasons Farm lie in a valley nestled among
Western Pennsylvania hills.
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David Roth , Loysvdle, Pennsylvania
herd average is 19,476 lbs. “1 tried
to increase milk production with
another feed)’ he says, “but it didn’t
work so I went back to Purina.
It’s a lot better feed.”
Richard Muller, Washington,
Illinois, who also feeds Purina
High Octane brand 36% con
centrate, reports a DHI rolling
herd average of 19,962 lbs. “My
father started feeding Purina Cow
Chow about 1925 and the herd
Nestled in W, Pa, valley
has been fed Purina since” Muller
says. “We have always been satis
fied with the results and felt that
Purina has done more research
than other companies I’
Another third generation dairy
man is Arnold Oechsner, Jr. of
Brownsville, Wisconsin. He feeds
his 115 head herd both Purina
High Octane brand 36% concen
trate and Purina Milk Generator®
brand 1056 complete ration.
Oechsner, who has a DHI rolling
Dairy Promotion Service Inc. In
addition, she does all of the milking
during the busy field work seasons
and more than one-half of the
milking during the other times.
Rita coordinates the family’s
Farmer’s Market efforts and
keeps all the farm’s records.
“She is the one who says ‘yes we
can afford that’ or ‘no, we can’t”,
Jim says.
Finances are an important part
of the running of a farm business
as is the conservation of land. Jim
was named the 1983 Cooperator of
the Year by the Butler County
Agriculture Stabilization and
Conservation Service. The Ken
nedy’s have a conservation plan
for every field on their farm. Some
of their accomplishments since
1978 include placing over 132 acres
in contour strips, using crop
residue management on 99 acres to
prevent erosion and installing
more than 10,000 feet of tile for sub
surface drainage. They have also
placed 138 acres into a Woodland
Management Plan.
The Kennedys are always
looking for ways to improve their
operation. They continue to strive
for increased production with
Arnold Oechsner, Jr, Brownsville, Wisconsin
herd average of 20,309 lbs., says
he has fed Purina milking ration
for more than five years because it
“has given me the most milk pro
duction per cow per year!’
•Recognition of dairymen who have fed Purina milking
rations for over 12 months and whose DHI rolling herd
averages arc in the top 5% in their state for their breed
® Ralston Purina Co , 1984 IH5L—^5l
The Kennedy's
Calves in hutches
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Calves on the Kennedy farm are housed in hutches initially
and are later grouped in pens of three or four.
higher butterfat and protein
content while maintaining type.
Currently, they have seen an in
crease in requests for calves and
breeding stock. This is a market •
they hope to pursue strongly. Jim
points out that they believe in
selling cull cows as culls not to
other farmers. It bothers him to
see “common looking cattle” at
shows and to have people thinking
“that’s what we’re striving for.”
Not only does the family do their
share of competing on the tanbark,
but Jim is well-known for his own
judging abilities. He has also
served as past president and
secretary of the Brown Swiss
Association.
Jim’s involvement in these areas
has helped him to stay current with
happenings m the dairy industry.
Jim believes that an abundance of
information is available to
dairymen today.
“Ninety-nine percent of that
information is free all I have to
Cornell plans seed day
ITHACA, N.Y. Progress made
in Cornell University’s plant
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do is apply it,” Jim says of the
information he obtains from
businessmen, bankers and others
he works with regularly in
managing his farm.
As Jiqi and Rita look to the
future, they hope in five years to be
independent of debt, establish
more strongly a business in
merchandising breeding stock
while improving production and
their heifer facilities, and in
volving their children in the far
ming business.
Like many purebred breeders,
they chose not to participate in the
recent federal reduction
programs. “Fifteen months is a
long time to stay out of the
market,” Jim says. “There are a
lot of up-and-coming breeders out
there trying to get their share of
the breeding stock business.”
The Kennedy’s future plans do
include continuation of the
diversification of their business.
This Butler County farm truly is a
Four Seasons Farm.
breeding programs involving food
and feed crops such as wheat, oats,
barley, and hay will be discussed
at this year’s Seed Growers’ Field
Day, Friday, July 6.
To be staged at Cornell’s field
crops research plots, the outdoor
event features tours and
discussions of a number of cereal
and forage crops being grown for
evaluation in Cornell’s breeding
programs.
New, promising varieties of
wheat, barley, oats, alfalfa, and
clover will be shown. Disease and
insect problems affecting field
crops this year in New York State
will be discussed, also.
Open to members of the seed
industry in the Northeast, in
cluding growers, processors, and
dealers, the annual event is
sponsored by the department of
plant breeding and biometry in the
New York State College of
Agriculture and Life Sciences at
Cornell.
The July 6 field day starts at 10
a.m. at the seed bam of the New
York State Seed Improvement
Cooperative on Route 366, near
Cornell Orchards. The program
will end at 3 p.m.
For more information about the
program, contact the field day
coordinator, William D. Pardee,
chairman, Department of Plant
Breeding and Biometry, Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY 14853. He
can be reached by telephone at
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