D2-Uncaster Farming Saturday, July 5,1986
Brown Is
Red Wing Believes 'Happy Hen' Is Key To Quality Brown Egg Production
BY ROBIN PHILLIPS
Berks Co. Correspondent
FLEETWOOD - Do brown eggs
make you smarter? Are they filled
with more vitamins and minerals
to make you healthier? Are brown
eggs better for baking? Do they
have tougher shells?
Whether all or none of the above
is true, brown eggs from Red Wing
Farms are top quality eggs
produced and processed by
dedicated family members and
employees of a family business
since 1926.
Owned and operated by R.
Gordon Yorgey and Sons, R 4,
Fleetwood, Red Wing Farms has
cornered the brown egg specialty
market with a high quality
product. “We have always dwelled
on a good quality egg,” states Mrs.
Fem Yorgey, concerning the start
of their operation.
' When Red Wing Farms began in
the early 1920’ 5, Robert and
Margaret Yorgey, Gordon
Yorgey’s parents, maintained a
general fruit and vegetable farm,
and operated a farm market.
Turkeys became a part of the
operation in the 1940’5, and 20
years later, additional layers came
to the farm. In 1963 the first
chicken house was built and the JJ
Warren Sex Sal Link bird was
Lamb and Wool Festival Begins Tuesday
STATE COLLEGE - A record
35 exhibitors will participate in the
Pennsylvania Lamb and Wool
Festival July 8-10 at the new Ag
Arena on the campus of Penn State
University.
Coinciding with the popular
Central Pennsylvania Arts
Festival, the 2nd Annual Lamb and
Wool Festival is a “woolly won
derland” spanning 4500 square feet
of boothes featuring quality lamb
and wool related crafts.
Sheepskins, slippers, coats and
vests along with unique wool yams
and fleece will be sold. Other
specialty items to be unveiled are
sheep pottery, glowing oil lamps,
casserole dishes to soap dishes,
sheepishly silly cards, wrapping
paper and stuffed lambs suitable
for hugging or display in a prized
York Angus Exhibitor Wins In Dixie
York's Jennifer Calderazzo showed the South that Pennsylvania is beef country when
she made the trip to the Eastern Regional Junior Angus Show held in Montgomery,
Alabama on June 20-21. Not only did she take top honors in the showmanship contest's
junior division, but she exhibited the reserve intermediate champion heifers, as well.
Shown with Jennifer and Premier Lass 6257 A is show judge Knic Overpeck. Young
Angus enthusiasts from 12 states exhibited 154 head of heifers, bulls and steers at this
year’s show.
Beautiful
chosen because of the high quality
brown egg and the calm nature of
the bird. As the family grew, and
took interest in the business, so did
the operation.
Today, Gordon Yorgey knows his
birds and oversees the entire
operation. With the large acreage
farmed, flocks at different
locations, and an efficient
processing plant, he gives credit to
dedicated family members and
faithful employees for the success
of the operation.
Two longtime secretaries, Betty
Price and Carolyn Forlini, oversee
the extensive office chores.
Because of their concern for a
high quality egg, the Yorgey’s
employ a quality control person.
Carol Adams, with the Yorgey’s
for over 14 years, monitors
processing daily for a consistently
high quality egg. She rechecks
shells for consistency and cracks,
and makes sure eggs are always
fresh and dated.
To produce the top quality eggs,
the 38,000 hens at Red Wing and the
thousands of layers contracted get
only the best available feeds. At
Red Wing, a nutritionist controls
feeding requirements, and the
Yorgey’s have their own milling
system to insure freshness and
quality of feed ingredients. They
corner of the family room.
Creatively-spun and woven “Art
to Wear,” including shawls,
ponchos, vests, shirts, sweaters
and jackets are among the
featured offerings. In the market
for sheepish T-shirts, wind chimes,
Christmas tree ornaments or
embroidered aprons? The Festival
will provide these and other sur
prises.
In addition to crafts, daily
demonstrations will be presented.
These include sheepdog demon
strations, sheep trimming and
shearing, lamb cookery, wool
dyeing, a fleece to shawl
exhibition, plus much more.
Lamb recipes tempting the most
discriminating taste buds, include
shish kebobs, gyros, burgers, roast
leg of lamb sandwiches plus
beverages and sweets.
are careful to use a great amount
of com to maintain a darkly
colored yolk in their eggs.
Over 500 acres are farmed by the
family, with 75 percent growing
com. The remainder is planted in
barley and soybeans. Phil Levan
oversees the farming operation
that also includes finishing hogs
and a liquid manure system.
After eggs are produced and
gathered automatically, they are
processed immediately and
packaged. “We like to see them
leaving in a few days,” Mark
Yorgey, one of the sons in the
business, explains. Eggs are
stored at 55 degrees F., with 80
degree humidity. The younger
Yorgey went on to explain that
refrigeration tends to pull
moisture out of the egg so they are
careful about controlling the
humidity in the cooler.
Red Wing Farms wholesales
their brown eggs throughout
Pennsylvania, New York,
Delaware, and New Jersey. Health
food stores, restaurants, and
farmers markets are major
customers and like the high quality
and freshness of the brown eggs.
The market is shifting to
ungraded eggs though, the
Yorgey’s explain. Where
previously most of their market
A 100 percent wool shawl and
sheepskin vest will be raffled.
Competition will be held in sheep
art, photography, wool crafts and
exhibits. A fleece show and sale is
also scheduled, offering quality
fleeces for the most discriminating
spinner. More than $l,OOO is offered
in premiums.
The Pennsylvania Lamb Cook-
Off Contest, will be featured
Thursday, along with a craft
auction at noon.
Days and hours for the Festival
are Tuesday, July 8 from noon to 7
p.m.; July 9 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
and July 10 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Penn State Ag Arena is
located behind Beaver Stadium at
the comer of Fox Hollow Road and
East Park Avenue, State College.
Admission and parking are free.
Gordon Yorgey (left) explains his egg washing procedure to
members of the Berks County Chamber of Commerce during
a recent tour of Red Wing Farms.
was custom packaging and
delivery, they now sell a great deal
to other processors who can cut
costs of processing.
R. Gordon and Fem Yorgey
have four sons and a daughter.
Sons, Mark and Joel are very
active in the family business and
Andy helps when home from
college.
Mark Yorgey, a graduate of the
Russian School of Art,
Philadelphia, was instrumental in
the development of several lines of
advertising that have proved very
successful to Red Wing.
Addressing some of the current
problems that agriculture faces
with the animal welfare people,
Mark explains, “believe me, if
they (the chickens) were not
content, they wouldn’t be singing,
and they wouldn’t be laying eggs.”
He believes in promoting his
product and developed the “Happy
Hen” eggs billed as “Grade A
Fertile Brown Eggs, hand
gathered from free running hens
fed natural rations.” The Yorgey’s
maintain some flocks for this line.
Another approach Yorgey is
developing is “Fancy Free Eggs
... the Natural Way.” These will
be packaged in boxes of eight
Health Care Workshop Offered
UNIVERSITY PARK - Basic
livestock health care is the subject
of a practical workshop at Penn
State’s Circleville Farm July 19
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday,
July 19.
The program will emphasize
preventive husbandry, minimizing
drug use and using alternative
therapies for beef and sheep
production. Workshop leaders, Dr.
Colleen Erbel and Dr. Ron Erskine
of the Department of Veterinary
Science, will demonstrate a
number of preventive measures
related to housing, nutrition and
pasture practices.
NAILE Show Dates Set
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Harold receive a catalog should contact
Workman, executive director of the NAILE office at 502/588-3166.
the North American International The North American In-
Livestock Exposition (NAILE), temational Livestock Exposition is
has announced that NAILE the largest livestock show in the
premium catalogs were mailed world.
July 1. According to Workman, This year marks the 13th annual
over 10,000 catalogs will be mailed. NAILE, and dates have been set
He said that anyone who does not for November 8-21, 1966.
grade A large brown eggs.
“It’s been a price erosion for the
past 15 years,” Mark Yorgey
explains, “just too many eggs.” He
admits that their family has been
fortunate to have a high quality
brown egg when the market
demand is calling for more. “They
(the customers) go to these big
guys and they do not have the
quality,” he states about larger
competitors.
He would like to get into more
research and testing to sub
stantiate many of the beliefs about
brown eggs and looks to the future
for better markets.
Red Wing Farms also educates
the public for a better un
derstanding of their business. The
Yorgey family recently hosted
over 25 members of the Berks
County Chamber of Commerce
Board of Directors and the Ag-
Business Committee for a
nutritional country breakfast and a
tour of their farm and plant.
There were many questions as
businessmen tried to understand
the Yorgey operation, their
marketing concerns, and their
dedication to a superior product.
“If you want to do a good job, it
takes longer,” Fern Yorgey sums
up.
This will be a practical, hands-on
workshop and participants should
dress for bam and pasture work.
All who come are asked to bring a
bag lunch; beverages will be
provided.
The workshop is free and open to
students, faculty, staff and to
anyone interested in livestock
health care.
The farm is located on Cir
cleville Road between Science
Park Road and North Atherton
Streets in State College. For more
information about the workshop,
contact Tim Bowser at the Farm
Office at (814) 863-2745.