Maryland Eastern Shore welcomes York Holstein tour
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
EASTERN SHORE, MD - York
County Holstein breeders took a
“busman’s holiday” April 9,
visiting four Maryland dairying
operations for their annual spring
farm tour.
Three of the four stops were at
the diversified setups of Fair Hill
Farms, near Chestertown. Fair
Hill began operations on Eastern
Shore in 1960, when the Ed Fry
family moved across the
Chesapeake Bay from Mont
gomery County.
Largest of the Fry family’s three
operations is Fair Hill Dairy,
where 540 head are milked three
times daily. The “home farm” still
maintains a herd of 60 head, while
another 60 investor animals are
handled at the Churn Creek leased
facility.
All three herds are included
together for DHIA purposes, with a
total of 738 head on the March test,
with a rolling herd average of over
19,600 of milk and 700-plus fat. With
replacements, Fair Hill totals
some 1500 head of cattle, three
quarters of them registered.
While milk production efficiency
earns top attention at Fair Hill,
type is not slighted. The most
recent classification, in March,
resulted in 26 Excellents, 150 Very
Goods, 162 Good Plus, and 133
Goods. Classification average on
the 469 head scored was 82.4, for a
BAA of 103.4.
Host and tour guide for the visit
was Ed Fry, Jr., who along with
his father and brother operates
Fiar Hill Farms, Inc. A third
brother in an area veterinarian.
Fair Hill Dairy, the large
commercial-type facility, with its
more than 500 milking animals,
was built in 1980 by Agri, Inc. of
Ephrata.
“Feeding, breeding, and milking
cows is the objective here,” says
Fry. Emphasis has always been on
efficiency, and the facility was
designed to maximize cow flow
and minimize handling. A staff of
eight maintains operations at the
"Home farm" at Fair Hill was a traditional hip-roofed stall
barn, with freestalls, young stock facilities, feeding complex,
and storage units added on since the Fry family moved here
in 1960.
Cows crowd this milking parlor holding area at Fair Hill
Dairy for 22 hours each day. As they wait, the “rainbirds”, or
spray nozzles, installed in the foreground, wash udders
before the cows enter the double-ten parlor at the rear of the
holding pen.
large dairy, with a total Fair Hill a^so k® integrated in the ration,
staff of 35, including a 4-man depending on commodity markets,
construction crew and two office Bunker silos and a commodity
employees shed allow for volume handling of
The double-ten parlor is in use 22 feedstuffs. Minerals are custom
hours per day, with one milker formulated, including the use of
handling each of the shifts. A spray chelated types,
wash system in the large holding McKnight is sold on the benefits
area preps cows prior to milking, °f barley in the ration over the
and udders on all but the first few tra< ?J, tlona use °‘ cofn
in each group are air-dried by their stay away from using too
turn in the parlor. much starch from the same feed
Manure is flushed from the source, he elaborated. Every
holding and free stall areas with 4 time we go to using shelled corn we
recycled water held in. 30,000 gallon see a drop in production. Because
tanks. Flush water in turn is cows in the Fair Hill Dairy herd
caught in a storage lagoon and are under heavy production stress,
recycled onto the crop ground. McKnight keeps ration levels of
Other energy-savings come from beans and fats higher than is
well-water tube cooling of milk and usually recommended by
equipment heat recovery systems nutritionists,
efficient enough to allow total hot About three years ago, he tried
water needs of the dairy to be to obtam a supply of an isoacid
handled through a 120-gallon water milk booster additive, but was
heater. unable to find a source. So,
All health and reproductive work McKnight developed his own
on the herd is handled in a lockup Mend, and dubbed it Bio Boost,
stanchion area, and a hospital area He s now marketing the product in
includes manger lockups. A Delvo selected areas > ai ]d acknowledges
test for antibiotic contamination is tb at the production booster is
run on every treated animal before working. ,
she is removed from the treated Results in the herds he s been
group. Every tank of milk is also working with show production
Delvo checked before being loaded increases of 3-5 pounds per cow,
on the farm’s transport tanker. usually in three weeks or less, at a
Cows at the large dairy are cost of about twenty cents per cow
grouped by production, with the per day. McKnight attributes the
high group averaging 135 performance of the production
pounds/day. Second herd averages boosting product to an increase in
92 pounds, third group is at 72 the saliva production in the cow s
pounds, and the 2-year-old group of mouth, which in turn carries
130 head is averaging 67 pounds, through the digestive process to
One two-year-old topping the group more efficiently utilize the feed
milked 110 pounds in just her nu iT ieats ; ,
second month of production. The lack of gram and decrease in
Roger McKnight, herd manager, forage Particle size in manure
is the nutrition specialist, utilizing att ests to that theory. In addition,
a computer to keep rations fine- McKnight sees the isoacid product
tuned for each production working as a preservative for
grouping. The Total Mixed Ration feedstuffs, allowing forages to,
is based on an 80 percent corn re mam palatable for a longer
silage and 20 percent haylage period of time once they are ex
blend, with roasted beans and posed to air. ...
ground barley. Cro P production includes 3600
“We go for the ‘best cost’ ration, acre ®’ a b° u f 40 Pf rc 6"t of that to
not necessarily the ‘least cost,”’ 1 ? . herd feedstuffs and the
stressed McKnight. Cottonseed, remaining for diversified gram
distillers grain or soy hulls may production.
The sixty head herd at the Fair
Hill home farm are milked twice
daily in a double-four parlor. All
cows for the farm complex are
calved out at this facililty, between
60 to 85 head monthly.
Hutches, up to 75 in use at a time,
house baby calves until weaning,
when they are grouped and held
until about fourteen weeks of age.
A custom raiser than takes over
calves, until they are returned for
breedmg, either by A.I. or as
embryo transfer recipients. Once
bred, heifers agam go to a custom
raiser.
Transfer work plays a large part
m Fair Hill’s merchandising
program with about 200 E.T.’s
done annually. All ET work is by
fresh transfer, and non-surgical
implantation. High pedigreed
virgin heifers are often flushed,
and up to forty percent of the total
ET recipients are mature cows
Calf hutches, up to 75 in use at a time, house replacements
at Fair Hill. In the background is part of the irrigation system
for the 3600 acres and a bred heifer facility with wooded
pasture.
Pintail Point, near Queenstown, is owned by Baltimore
automobile executive Louis Schaefer. The farm is located on a
point of land projecting into the Wye River, which flows into
the Chesapeake Bay.
Tall, typey cows, with impressive udders, and housed in a
spotless, airy, tie-stall barn, greet visitors to Pintail Point.
from the Fair Hill Dairy.
High indexed Excellent and Very
Good individuals comprise a group
bred to high TPI sires, with the
aim of continuing and building
“numbers.” A second breeding
group includes good type cows with
indexes of $35 and under. Sires are
selected to improve type and build
indexes in succeeding generations.
A third group is comprised of
Good Plus and Good individuals,
below herd scoring averages, but
the “bread and butter” producers
of the herd. Established sires
whose popularity has lessened are
crossed to this grouping.
Remaining cattle not meeting
the above standards are bred to
young sires, if offspring are
wanted for replacements, or used
as transfer recipients.
Fair Hill’s “elite” cows are kept
at the leased Chum Creek bam,
which houses 54 head of top
indexed, pedigreed investor
animals. Four individuals are
contracted for foreign frozen ET
sales, and ten either already have
or have potential for sons in AI
organizations.
Final visit was to a new Eastern
Shore establishment, still in the
process of building a herd of high
type, production and index cattle.
Pintail Point Farms is located
near Queenstown, on a point of
land projecting out into the Wye
River, which flows into the
Chesapeake Bay. The farm was
acquired some years ago by
Baltimore automobile dealership
owner Louis M. Schaefer, as a
hunting and fishing getaway. In
fact, the farm’s name comes from
the Pintail ducks which frequent
the waters of the Wye.
Schaefer felt the dairy bam on
the property should be utilized, and
purchased a small commercial
herd. After becoming interested in
purebred cattle, he chose to in
stead begin establishing a top herd
of registered stock. Walter
Johnson, a former purebred
Guernsey breeder, and his wife
Carol, who grew up with registered
Holsteins, were hired to put
together and manage a new Pintail
Point herd. Two additional full
time employees complete the staff.
In January of 1985, construction
crews began remodeling the old
facility. On Christmas Eve the
herd was moved into a new tiestall
barn, complete with paneled office
and board room amenities.
Goal is a herd of 70 head, with 45
currently in the milking string.
Foundation Holstein stock has
been acquired from various state
and national sales, Fair Hill
Farms and 21 head of high indexed
individuals at the November
Kingstead Farms dispersal.
Breeding program at Pintail
Point focuses on crossing to
strengthen individual cow
weaknesses, while selecting traits
that will fit anticipated future
industry markets for fat and
protein.
“We’re shooting for a four
percent test and higher protein,”
affirms Johnson. That means cows
get feedings of first and second
cutting alfalfa hay, some corn
silage, high moisture corn and a 29
percent protein concentrate.
A unique feature of the Pintail
Point barn is a small, closet-like,
“washup” room, where milking
equipment is cleaned away from
the usual milkhouse site. In fact,
the bam was constructed for en
trance direct to the stall bam, not
through the milk house, which is
offset via a hallway.
In planning is a baby calf unit,
immediately outside and protected
by a roof extension from the stall
barn. Construction is also un
derway for a new heifer facility.