BY HELEN KELCHNER
Columbia Correspondent
CATAWISSA - John Turofski,
Roaring Creek Township, arrived
at his present farm in 1968 with a
pickup truck running on five
cylinders and three calves on the
back. He was 21.
Ten years later, he paid off his
bank mortgage and had a herd of
grade Holsteins which today is
ranked with the top milk producers
of Columbia County.
His farm is appropriately named
Uttfe Acres. He has 50 acres under
cultivation.
How did he do it?
Turofski would tell you, “With
difficulty and determination.” The
first two years he worked in in
dustry. His working hours were
such that he milked at 1 a.m. and 1
p.m., a schedule he doesn’t
recommend. He remembers it took
two weeks pay to meet the monthly
mortgage payments.
Tight finances required Turofski
to make wise use of his cash
outlay.
If it can be built rather than
bought “ready-made,” he makes
it. For instance, the material for
equipment in his four unit milking
parlor cost him $3OO. The pipeline
was added a few years later. He
says, “We do things in steps as we
can afford it. I don’t go to F.H.A.”
In addition to all the hard work
and thriftiness, Turofski says, I
couldn’t have done it without my
wife Sandra, my stepfather and
stepbrother, John and Frank
Zarko, and many good friends and
neighbors.
And here-in lies a story that
Turofski wants everyone to know.
When he took on die farm about
18 years ago, there were many
repairs necessary to make it
functional, outstanding of which
was a barn roof. He had money for
materials, but not labor.
One cold November Sunday, his
neighbors, friends and relatives
gathered to replace the roof.
Working in snow most of the day,
they succeeded in tearing off the
old shingles and replacing them
with new, for which they accepted
only a hot meal.
A couple of years later, Turofski
John Turofski, Catawissa, stands beside a few of the
awards he has received in recent years. In 1982 he had most
improved butter fat; in 1985 he was Columbia County's high
producer. He received a 100% U.S. Public Health rating for
his milk handling.
Dairy Started With A Broken-Down Truck
and his wife were in a head-on
collision. When he got home from
the hospital after emergency
treatment, there were neighbors
all over the place.
One neighbor had the green
chopper cutting green feed,
another was feeding the cows and
still another was tending the
chickens. Turofski says, “Even my
furnace, which needed repairs,
was fixed.”
His wife, hurt more severely,
required more extensive hospital
care. All the while she was in the
hospital and during recuperation,
the neighbors arranged for
Turofski’s meals.
“That’s the kind of friends and
relatives I have. I wouldn’t be
where I am today without them
and I want to give them credit for
it.”
It’s quite evident from an
“outsiders” point of view that
Turofski is equally ready to help
his neighbors, a bilateral practice
that has benefited the whole
farming community.
Turofski refers to his milking
parlor as “John and Frank’s
Milking System.” He says he and
his stepfather and a stepbrother
designed and constructed the
parlor on weekends. John
describes it as a series of welded
pipes and sliding doors which
compliment a Surge pipeline.
It certainly met all requirements
of state inspection for John was
issued a 100 percent U.S. Public
Health rating by Eastern Milk
Producers for “maintenance and
outstanding quality milk practices
and conditions.”
Glenn Vance, inspector, noted
that the 100 percent score was only
the second issued in his tenure.
This isn’t surprising because it’s
quite evident that one of John’s
priorities is cleanliness.
Ninety percent of the herd traces
back to King Pin and Elevation
with Spirit used quite frequently.
Turofski has 35 milking head, 13
bred heifers and 10 young stock.
Turofski has received a number
of awards for outstanding dairy
performance. Among others, in
1982 he received an award for most
improved butterfat. In 1985 he
Turofski credits his high milk production to the free choice silage
He fills the pit with 700 ton per season, a cost of about $l6 per ton
$2OOO, and it has cresoteplank sides and cement bottom.
received an award for high com and fills the pit. It takes about
production with 680,000 pounds sold two days and costs about $3O (plus)
from 34 head. His mature cows are an hour.
all milking more than 20,000 For the balance of his feed he
pounds. The herd average is 20,643 favors custom hiring to eliminate
pounds of milk, with a 3.6 test and the costly investment of
734 pounds of milkfat which figures machinery, and, he doesn’t need
out to be $1,457 over feed cost. A storage or maintenance. The only
four year old has a high production equipment he owns is for maldng
of 24,757 pounds of milk. hay. Of the 50 plus acres under
Turofski credits his high cultivation, 30 is in com silage and
production to his free choice com 25 alfalfa. A trout stream runs
silage stored in aim open pit. By through the farm and a wooded
way of a series of gates, the milk area for hunting,
cows have an almost constant The Turofskis’ have a coal fed
access to the silage with the dry stoker for heat and hot water in the
cows channeled into the bunker house. John replaced all his
storage at certain times during the windows with double panes and
day. storm windows. He added
The milking herd receives a styrofoam insulation and siding on
DHIA recommended ration from the back. A front porch was
Agway for about 10 minutes during glassed in, all of which amounted
milking and while in the parlor, to a one third saving on his fuel bill.
Feed boxes are attached to the John and Sandra have two
sliding doors of the milking parlor, children, Kim, 15 and Eric, 10.
Once a day the cows get 8 pounds of Both help with farm work, but Kim
alfalfa. favors cleaning house to bam
He produces com silage at a cost work. This preference is more than
of about $l6 a ton. He fills his open evident in the leadership she
pit with 700 tons a season. With the provides in the Roaring Creek
help of John and Frank Zarko, he Valley 4-H Club. She is the
built this storage bunker for less youngest assistant team leader in
than $2,000. It has cresote plank cooking, sewing, needlework,
sides and a cement bottom. photography, flower and vegetable
Lloyd George, a neighbor who gardening,
does custom harvesting, cuts the Kim also played saxophone in
SUDIA Provides Milk, Posters for Mini-Walk
“Molly Moo" looks on as Baltimore Blast soccer player Jay McCutcheon signs an
autograph for a young walker at the recent March-of-Oimes Mini-Walk at the Baltimore
Zoo. Southeast United Dairy Industry Association provided a "Milk America's Health
Kick” - Blast Team Photo Poster and a sample of chocolate UHT milk. Over 100
youngsters participated in the fund-raising activity.
stored in this open pit.
He built the pit for about
the Southern Columbia School
band for five years. She is in track
with shotput being her choice and
has been studying piano for five
years.
Both children are active in their
church, Our Lady of Mercy in
Slabtown. Kim teaches Sunday
School and Eric is an altar boy.
Eric is also active in elementary
basketball.
Last year John was assistant
wrestling coach for Southern
Columbia elementary school. He
said he was once a wrestler and
enjoys the sport. Three nights a
week Sandra did the milking while
John attended wrestling practice.
Turofski warns salesmen that he
is very hostile to those who come
uninvited. He doesn’t feel a
salesman has a right to take his
time if he hasn’t first been con
tacted.
The Turofski dairy farm is a
blend of a happy family and good
community relations resulting in a
good deal of success. Although
John and Sandra (like most farm
ers) cannot make a return to
compensate for the long, hard
hours they put into their farm
business, they have refined good
management and wise planning
into a success that would make any
farmer proud.
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