AIS-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Junt 14,1986
Windsor Manor Holsteins is a Family Tradition
BY SHARON B. SCHUSTER
Maryland Correspondent
NEW WINDSOR, Md. - Just a
speck on the map, between
Baltimore and Frederick is New
Windsor, Maryland, home to a
Carroll County dairy farmer whose
impact has been felt as far away as
Japan.
At 35, Jason Myers has achieved
local and national recognition as a
progressive dairyman and
breeder. His big break came with
the sale of the 1976 Grand Cham
pion Holstein at the Maryland
Spring Show to Japanese in
vestors.
“That’s what really helped us to
go on our own,’’ he explained. “She
was an excellent show cow.’’ The
Kingstead White Rock daughter
went on to set a national record for
production in Japan.
As grand as that milestone was,
Myers hasn’t been resting. He
continues to capture titles, and
works at being an active leader in
the dairy business. Myers is the
current president of the Carroll
County Holstein Association and
has been on the board of directors
of the Maryland Holstein
Association for six years.
In 1979 he was named Out
standing Young Cooperator by the
Maryland Co-op Milk Producers. A
year later, he captured the title of
Maryland Holstein Junior
Breeder. This year Myers was
honored by the Jaycees as Out
standing Young Farmer.
“In our field, we have to be
experts in too many things,” he
said. “It’s important to know
where to go to get answers.” The
University of Maryland graduate
credits much of his know-how to
practical experience with his
father, whom he describes as “a
real progressive dairyman.”
Myers worked in a 50—50 part
nership with his father for nine
years. In the late 70’s he built up
equity by selling 20 to 25 cows per
year to other farmers and in
vestors.
“Building up enough equity to go
on your own, and deciding when
you have reached that point,” he
explained, “is one of the biggest
obstacles.” He also believes that
“financing is too easy.” Myers
said, “Now that we’re on our own,
we’re building up the herd. We
Myers feeds a grain mix to his 19,450 pound herd prior to
milking.
After milking, the cows enter the barnyard for exercise and
to feed at the bunk.
don’t sell many.”
The herd now numbers 58, with
approximately 90 percent
registered. The bovine of Windsor
Manor are as infamous as the
dairyman himself. The current
rolling herd average is 19,450
pounds of milk, 676 pounds of fat,
and 3.3 percent protein.
On the year ending high rolling
herd average, the Myers’s herd
was ranked eighth in the county.
The HFAA classification is 106.3
BAA on 4b cows. At the Maryland
Spring Show in February, Myers
showed the best three females.
Myers pursues various methods
of upgrading the herd. Besides the
AI services of Select and Sire
Power, he uses embryo tran
splants. “We work with our own
cows,” he explained. Sub
producing cows are used as the
recipients. “There are 10
pregnancies now in our own
animals,” he added.
Favoring super ovulation over
single ovulations, Myers said,
“While you’re at it, you might as
well do supers.” Recalling one
particularly successful attempt, he
said, “We got 14 good eggs from
one cow, implanted nine, six took,
and we froze some.”
The implants are done
surgically. He said the “tricky
part” is getting all the animals
ready at the same time. “Last
year’s ET’s produced two bulls and
two heifers,” Myers noted.
The young farmer has definite
ideas about the dairy industry.
“Government programs tend to
make over-production which keeps
prices down,” declared Myers.
He favors instituting a quota
system and explained, “We’re
good producers, but lousy mer
chandisers and advertisers. We’ve
got a lot going for us the value of
calcium, the protein in milk, and
cheese is popular in the country.”
Myers continued, saying that milk
must be viewed as a beverage that
has to compete in that industry.
The success that Myers enjoys at
Windsor Manor Farm is the result
of many years of planning and
practical modifications to the
facility. When he moved to New
Windsor two years ago, he leveled
a hillside behind the existing
stanchion barn, and built a
freestall barn on the newly leveled
Windsor Manor Farm, located i
dairy farmer whose influence has
ground to get more protection and
sunlight.
Included in the new bam design
are four bays, with box stalls for
older cows, one bay with oversized
stalls which are 52 inches wide to
accomodate bigger cows, and free
stalls for heifers. During the
winter, the barnyard can be
separated by gates, allowing the
bred heifers to clean up the lef
tovers that travel around clock
wise on the 70 foot conveyor feeder.
“The cows always get fresh
feed,” he explained. The conveyor
is fed by two concrete silos; the 16-
by-72 silo contains alfalfa haylage,
and the 20-by-80 silo is filled with
com silage. “We put everything we
can get into those silos, ” he said.
Second cutting alfalfa goes into
square and round bales. Myers
said that he depends upon custom
work for most of his planting and
harvesting.
The barnyard is built on a 2
percent slope, a more noticeable
grade than the usual 0.5 percent.
This grade helps to keep the sur
face cleaner and drier, though the
lot is scraped daily. The last
several feet of the lot slope upward
to create a slight ‘V’ which carries
runoff to a natural grass swale
running to a nearby lagoon.
At the end of the barnyard is an
80-by-60 manure pit. The previous
level of the manure in the now
empty pit is still detectable on the
eight foot walls. Built on a 75
percent cost share as part of the
Rural Clean Water Project, the pit
is designed to hold the manure of 80
cows for 180 days.
It took 200 yards of concrete and
three miles of steel to build the
structure according to government
specifications. Myers has also put
in contour strips and 2,000 feet of
grass waterways as part of the
RCWP program, all on 75 percent
cost share.
The floor of the stanchion bam is
clean enough to wear white
“tennies” without ever having to
worry about scraping the bottoms.
It’s clean. Myers said he can milk
with four units at one time.
The skeleton of a future office
area stands adjacent to the
milkhouse. Asked if he is going to
computerize his operation, he
replied, “My computer is right
here,” pointing to the “gray
matter” underneath a thick crop of
brown hair. The office will house
the many awards and
photographs, and provide a place
to complete paperwork.
Myers manages the place along
with an additional 120 acres of
rented ground, with the part time
help of Jason Shutter. The 17 year
old Westminster High School
senior has been working at Wind
sor Manor since January, helping
with the 4:15 p.m. milking
County, Maryland, is home to Jason Myers, a
as far away as Japan.
In Carroll
been felt
Jason Myers attributes his sucess to his family working
together. With Myers and his wife, Donna, are their
daughters, Kelly (left) and Kristin
But, it is Donna Myers who sees
that things run smoothly both in
the bam at 5:30 a.m. and in their
home around the clock.
“She works with me,” said
Myers of his wife, and mother of
their two young daughters. She
raises the calves for the first year,
in hutches and then in a converted
hog barn for heifer calves.
“Newborn calves that’s my
favorite part,” said Donna Myers.
“I don’t trust them to anybody
else." She said that working on the
farm gives her the opportunity to
work with the family. “The kids,
Kelly, 8, and Kristin, 3 can work
with us.”
Well prepared to be a farmer’s
wife, Myers grew up on a Guernsey
farm as the farmer’s daughter,
and graduated from the University
of Maryland with a degree in Home
Economics, with a minor in Ex
tension. On days that find Myers
and his help in the field trying to
get a load of haylage into the silo,
his wife very capably starts the
afternoon milking.
Living proof that “Milk, it does a
body good,” the slender housewife
(who professes to eating “lots of
ice cream”) remodeled their 1815
home and decorated it with warm,
country colors. Wreaths, samplers
and the girls’ art work adorn the
walls around the stone firplace in
the kitchen.
Her husband confirmed her
abilities as a fine country cook, but
he is not the only one who sings the
praises of her culinary talents. A
cheesecake that she baked to be
auctioned by the Maryland State
Holstein Association at a fun
draiser to send the 4-H judging
team to Europe, brought a record
$95. It was bought by the team’s
coach, Dr. Lee Majeskle.
Together, the family enjoys
showing cows and attending shows
and conventions, such as the up
coming Maryland Holstein con
vention to be hosted by Carroll
County on February 20 and 21,
1987.
Vacations together are a rarity,
and are very much appreciated by
the whole family. It is evident that
Windsor Manor Farm is truly a
family enterprise, and, therein lies
the secret of its success.