..... Pennfield Dairy
Joshua Yoder enjoys milking Starla, one of his fine, home-bred first calf heifers. Starla
freshened at 1-11 and is projected at 15,554 pounds of milk and 753 pounds of fat. On
her June 16 DHIA test, she was 201 days in milk and tested 52.52 pounds of milk with
4.9 percent butterfat.
BELLEVILLE A few years
ago, Mifflin County dairyman
Joshua Yoder took a gamble
which he originally thought
would hurt his operation.
Farming some 180 crop acres in
com and alfalfa, a portion of
that rented, Yoder dropped his
acreage down to 85 tillable and
35 in pasture when the rented
land was sold.
The change in acreage would
mean a change in the feeding
program, and this was a factor
which Yoder thought would
cause problems. On the con
trary, however, the change
meant that Yoder was able to
put in more time with his
animals.
“Since we’re not farming as
much, we can spend more time
with the cows,” he explained.
“We started feeding grain three
times a day and I think it’s
paying off.”
In addition to the grain ration
which is a blend of Pennfield’s
new Hi-Yield fat added pellets
and flaked feed, the Yoder-
Crest herd, located near
Belleville, also gets two times
per day feeding of haylage, corn
silage and baled hay. All rations
are hand fed.
“What we’re doing is giving
them less each time and feeding
them more often,” Yoder said.
big dividends, and this is something f red yoder energy grain ration. Over feeding Ruby shows her 4-H project, Kenwoody Very
realizes as he milks the cows in the Yoder-Crest grain can hurt production and is very
herd. costly.
Less Crop Farming More Time for Dairy
Rebecca Yoder feeds one of the young heifers -
paying attention to the young replacements gets
them off to a good start.
“They don’t stall (stop eating)
near as quick and they eat
more.”
Yoder’s wife, Rebecca, added
another observation of the new
feeding system. “They’re able
to digest better,” she said of the
animals, “and we’ve had fewer
stomach problems with the
cows.”
The benefits of the new
feeding program, coupled with
the added attention the cows
now receive, are seen in the
herd’s production average. In
1962, the 50 registered Holsteins
recorded a rolling herd average
of 17,469 pounds of milk, 653
pounds of fat and a 3.7 percent
fat test. The average for 1963
increased dramatically to
18,669 pounds of milk, 701
pounds of fat and a 3.8 percent
fattest.
Aside from the growing herd
average, the benefits of the
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August It, 1984-A5
News
m
Joshua and Rebecca Yoder are pictured here with
daughter Ruby, and sons Marvin, left, and Fred.
system are also evident in in
dividual production records.
For example, the Lana cow
produced 22,227 pounds of milk
after never having topped 17,000
pounds.
Yoder also credits his herd’s
improvement to excellent calf
crops, which are mainly
Rebecca’s responsibility. “If
you set a calf off to a good start,
that’s about the best thing you
can do,” he said.
All calves on the Yoder farm
are housed in hutches soon after
birth. They remain there for
eight to 10 weeks and receive
close attention to assure a
proper start. This provides a
solid base of young cows.
Following up on calf
management is the breeding
program. Yoder said he prefers
to stick with his own stock, as
less than a dozen cows on the
farm carry a prefix other than
Yoder-Crest. However, he
added, he likes to “go out and
buy a good cow every now and
then.
At one time, Yoder said he
rented bulls, but for the past
three or four years all breeding
has been done through artificial
insemination. The herd
currently has one cow rated
Excellent, 14 Very Good, 19
Good Plus and 16 Good.
The Excellent cow, Boots, is a
9-year-old projected at 25,000
pounds of milk and 861 pounds
of fat. She has produced over
100 pounds of milk a day for four
straight months.
Since changing his feeding
program to Cornfield’s high
performance complete dairy
feed, Yoder decided to sell the
ear com he harvests off about
10 acres of his land. “I would
have fed the com, but the cows
were doing so good on the
commercial feed that I hated to
switch back again,” he ex
plained.
The remainder of the 40-acre
corn crop is chopped into silage
and stored in three silos on the
farm, which are normally filled
at the end of the harvest.
In addition to the crops, the
family makes sure it has home
grown vegetables year-round. A
small garden is kept next to the
house where Mrs. Yoder plants
strawberries, many of which
are given away to relatives and
friends. The remainder of the
other crops are canned for the
winter.
Joshua and Rebecca Yoder
have been married for 28 years
and have six children, three of
whom still help on the farm.
Fred works fulltime with the
cows, while Marvin, who is
employed by a breeding ser
vice, helps out part time.
Ruby, the only daughter, is a
high school student who also
has a strong dairy interest She
has shown cattle as a 4-ITer and
has done well at both local and
district shows.