Efficiency is alive and well and living at Four-Co Farm
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
DILLSBURG - The future
belongs to the efficient.
No one believes that more than
Doug and John Cope. At their
Four-Co Farm, located in York
County’s northwest corner, this
new family dairying operation is
intent on proving that they intend
to be around for the future on this
changing industry.
Four-Co has been in business
less than one year. Although the
Copes put together their herd, and
began shipping milk just last April,
the family has been part of the
area’s dairying scene for many
years.
John is manager of Ashecombe
Farms and Dairy, located at
Mechanicsburg. He and his wife
Helen have resided for many years
on the large Ashecombe operation,
which includes a jugging and retail
dairy store, as well as a large
garden center and plant outlet.
As a boy, Doug grew up helping
around the dairy farm his father
manages. But it was the
machinery and field work he
preferred, over milking chores and
work with cows. That all changed
when Doug entered Delaware
Valley College, where he
graduated with a dairy science
degree.
After college, Doug went to work
for two years at the New Jersey
dairying business of Lester Jones
and Sons. And he married hs wife
Joanne, a New Jersey native and
classmate at DVC.
But the lure of central Penn
sylvania was a strong one. When
an opening for a herd manager at
the Ashecombe’s “branch”
operation - at Dover in York
County - was available, Doug and
Joanne relocated. For six years, he
managed the dairy herd supplying
milk for Ashecombe Dover Dairy’s
retail store.
But a long-time dream of their
own farm nagged at these two
generations of Copes. And, when a
farm about midway between the
two Ashecombe locations tacked
Four-Co Farm is the last farm shipping milk in rural Carroll
Township in northwestern York County, and a testimony to
the optimism of the John and Doug Cope families
A farmer chicken house at the Cope farm has transformed from hatches to hutches,
housing heifer calves in a handy building near the dairy barn.
up a “for sale’’ sign, John and
Helen, and Doug and Joanne,
made their move to acquire land.
While the economy of dairying
has not attracted a stampede of
family farm interests over the past
few cost-price-squeeze years, the
four Copes - and that’s the source
of the Four-Co name - figured the
time was right for their move.
“Or, don’t buy when everyone
else wants in, ” is how John saw the
timing.
“Cow prices were down and we
could buy some pedigreed animals
at decent prices,” elaborates
Doug.
A rapid uphill climb on DHIA
records already points to a suc
cessful beginning. Rolling herd
average on the 48 head just passed
the 16,200 milk and 578 fat mark,
jumping a whopping 300 pounds of
milk production in just one month
span from January to February.
The Copes initially purchased a
42-head herd to move into their
bam, adding others acquired
“here and there,” largely
freshening heifers purchasd
earlier at the state and county calf
and bred heifer consignment sales.
“Production is our number one
priority,” explains Doug. And
second in importance is the goal of
merchandising offspring of the
herd, ideally within two years.
Heifer births through the first
year, however, haven’t leaned in
favor of Four-Co. Out of 45 calves
bom, only 16 have been females.
But with merchandising in mind,
additions to the herd must be of
decent pedigree, and of popular
bloodlines. Sires are selected to
meet the production
merchandising guidelines, with the
likes of Kirk Boy, Royalty,
Tradition, Rusty and an occasional
Ned Boy turning up on the
breeding records.
A quick trip around the bam
starts with John pinpointing his
favorite: a Valiant daughter, four
years old and scored VG-85. With
early records over 20,000 milk and
830 fat, she’s already been included
in the Holstein Association’s
The future belongs to the efficient and two generations of the Cope family plan to be
part of it. Flanking a favorite Valiant daughter in the Four-Co herd are, from left, Doug,
John, Joanne and Helen Cope.
Locator List of elite cattle. From
an EX-90 Kingpin, this Four-Co
headliner has four maternal
brothers in A.I.
Across the center alley is a ten
year-old Elevation. Scored VG-86,
she puts out lactations over 30,000
milk, has one son in A. 1., and
created some emotional
devastation among the four Copes
when the bull calf she was carrying
on contract died.
Also in the herd is a VG-87
Conductor daughter, bred back to
the popular Bell. Doug made that
crossing after an earlier Bell
daughter from her just scored VG
-85 as a two-year-old in the York
County herd of Jim and Holly
McCaffree.
With efficiency the watchwork
on this family farm, the feeding
program centers on feeds tuffs
raised on the acres that surround
the big, red, remodeled bank barn.
Of the 85 total tillable acres, 45 are
planted to com, with another 25 in
alfalfa and about six in mixed
timothy hay.
Bulk of the ration is com silage
and dry hay. Bi-carb gets added to
grain feedings for a buffering
agent, and high producers in early
lactation earn a supplemental top
dressing of a forty-percent protein
booster concentrate. Plans for the
upcoming spring feed harvest
season center on adding haylage to
the herd diet.
Copes keep close tabs on return
over costs, so, at least for a while,
consideration of isoacids to boost
production is on a distant hold.
Doug figures that he hasn’t worked
with the herd long enough to feel
completely comfortable assessing
the capabilities of individual cows,
to justify the costs of the
production-boosting additive.
“We’re not spending any money
that we’re uncertain of getting
back in return,” he relates,
preferring a cautious approach to
the isoacid feeding development.
Feeding, from Doug’s point of
view, has been a real adjustment
for him to make in managing the
smaller, tie-stall-kept herd, after
handling a large, mechanized
operation for six years.
“I’ve had to go from push-button
to hand management feeding.
Some days I still don’t think I have
that down yet,” he grins, noting
some frustration over the time it
takes to make several trips around
the bam with the various feed
ingredients.
Still, the Copes plan caution in
any changes to the operation,
stressing that improvements in the
immediate future will definitely be
Potato group forms
ethanol committee
DENVER, CO - A newly formed
National Potato Council Ethanol
Subcommittee will work to
promote the use of ethanol as an
economical and environmentally
safe additive to fuel.
The Ethanol Subcommittee,
formed during the National Potato
Council’s annual Washington, D.C.
Steering Committee Meeting, Feb.
18-21, will set up a program to
carry out a NPC resolution which
stresses the U.S. potato grower’s
support of ethanol fuel develop
ment.
The resolution, unanimously
adopted by the 150-member NPC
Board of Directors during the
Council’s 37th Annual Meeting in
January, 1986, states: “The
National Potato Council supports
extensive advertising and
promotion programs for ethanol
that would focus attention to the
benefits to agriculture, the balance
of trade, new jobs, local capital
investment and reduced oil and
ethanol imports.”
The resolution also supports the
continuation of an increase in the
ethanol fuel tax exemption on the
federal and state level, the
diversion of Commodity Credit
Corporation surplus stocks into
ethanol production and the
restoration of federal energy tax
credits solely for the construction
of ethanol plants.
In 1984, ethanol-blended gasoline
(which used about 175 million
bushels of corn) represented 5.6
percent of national gasoline sales,
a report from the Renewable Fuels
Association stated.
An increase to 10 percent ethanol
in every gallon of gasoline con
sumed in the country could utilize
almost half of the corn produced,
Merle Anderson, Climax, Minn.,
geared toward boosting milk
output per person.
In spite of clouds hanging over
the economics of the dairy in
dustry, and troubled uncertainty
about future prices and surplus
problems, the Cope family
remains optimistic about taking
the plunge into family farming.
“There’s a major similarity
between the current stituation of
the dairy industry and the
problems of the steel and
automobile industries,” observes
John.
“We’ll come out of it, with the
dairy industry intact, but with a
different set of measures and
standards by which we evaluate
success.”
chairman of the NPC Ethanol
Subcommittee, said. The in
creased demand for ethanol
enhanced fuels will help deplete
some of the grain surpluses and
will improve the overall
agricultural market, Anderson
said.
Also, increasing ethanol
production will open a market for
lower quality agricultural
products, Anderson said.
Corn, barley and wheat are the
primary crops for ethanol
production. However, potatoes or
any commodity which contains
starch and sugar could be used,
Anderson said.
Anderson explained that the
National Potato Council is sup
porting this increase in ethanol
production to support agriculture
in general. Also, most potato
growers raise other crops which
could be used economically for
ethanol production, Anderson said
While in Washington, D.C., the
newly formed NPC Ethanol
Subcommittee met with the
leaders from the National Corn
Association, the National Wheat
Growers and the National Barley
Growers. During their first
meeting, the commodity leaders
agreed to work closely together to
promote the increased use of
ethanol.
“We invite other interested
organizations to wofk with us to
support ethanol,” Anderson said
“Agriculture is having financial
trouble- this is one way farmers
can help themselves.”
Along with Anderson, the
following potato growers were
named to serve on the NPC
Ethanol Subcommittee; J er D'
Larson, Climax, Minn.; Dave
Long, Othello, Wash, and Larry
Young, Howard City, Mich.