BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
YORK - Hellam Township is the
site for the sixth annual York
Farmers’ Association’s farm tour,
Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m.
through 4 p.m.
“The purpose of the tour is to
promote better understanding
farmers and their urban neigh
bors,” according to tour chairman
Jack Dehoff, a Red Lion dairy
farmer.
There is no charge for the tour,
which takes participants, via
haywagon rides, to three farms
serving as this year’s hosts.
Opening their operations are
William and Louise Flinchbaugh
and their son Ritchie, operators of
a fruit, livestock and poultry farm,
Pearl and Paul Mills, owners of
Willow Tree Horse Farm, and
dairy farmers Harry and Donnda
Arnold.
The original 59-acre Flin
chbaugh farm was purchased from
the Dietz family in 1951 by
William’s father, Jacob. William
and Louise formed a partnership
with his father until 1968, when son
Ritchie joined the operation. In
1978, Ritchie and his wife Sonja
then joined in a family part
nership.
Seventeen acres are planted to a
variety of orchard fruits, with
apples, peaches, plums, cherries
and pears in season. Sales are
mostly wholesale, with small
amounts retailed.
A diversified operation, the
Flinchbaugh family also maintains
an 800-head hog finishing house,
and 8,000 heavy breeding chickens
for the Longenecker Hatchery at
Elizabethtown.
Crops are on 675 acres, 80 of
them owned, with 540 planted to
com, 100 in wheat and 26 in oats.
No-till planting is used primarily,
for soil conservation purposes.
Family members, full-tune em
ployee Rick Gamer and occasional
part-tune assistants handle the
chores of the changing harvest
seasons.
The Fbnchbaughs also have
another son, Brian, and tljjpee
grandchildren, at least one of
Three farms on display on York Farm Tour June 15
tour's stop at their orchard, grain, hog and poultry farm,
operated in partnership with their son, Ritchie, and his wife
Sonja.
pasture, enclosed with over six miles of new wire fence
whom they hope may someday find Thoroughbreds grazing wunin
an interest in becoming the fourth the six miles of new fencing around
generation to run the farm. HO acres of pasture will welcome
On hand to greet tour guests will the wagons rolling up the lane to
be Susan Green of Biglerville, the Willow Tree Horse Farm. This
Adams County Apple Queen, breeding and training facility is
serving apple juice from Knouse owned by Paul and Pearl Mills,
Foods. Related commodity who purchased the rolling land
displays will feature gram with its big bank barn in 1971. Two
equipment from Loucks Gram, new bams have been added, for a
planting and harvest machinery, total of 37 stalls available for the
and a bulk feed truck from average population of 65 head,
Spangler and Sprenkler Feeds. including two stallions, on the
farm. During peak breeding
season, as high as 100 thorough
breds roam the lush green
pastures.
Mills’ thorougbreds are regulars
in the racing ranks at Penn
National. President of the Penn
sylvania Horse Breeders
Association, he has been the
leading Pennsylvania breeder for
the past six consecutive years, and
seven out of the last eight.
A three-eighth mile length of
mg w;, jai yiack and ite Holsteins in Harry
Arnold’s 40-head dairy herd are a number of the more
unusual Red and White Holsteins.
training track of the farm allows
the Mills family to break and ready
their own two-year-olds. Son
Dennis is in charge of the family’s
training program at the Penn
National track, with 19 horses
presently in training and racing
there.
Pearl handles the care of the
brood mares, including her own
mare, Royal Arapaho. Their
daughter Kay is the farm’s
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