tio-Uncastw Farming, Saturday, August 16,1986
Schultz
BY HELEN KELCHNER
Columbia Co. Correspondent
BLOOMSBURG - The Shultz
Brothers of Bloomsburg R.D. #9
have a successful dairy and far
ming operation in which
cooperation and good management
have served them well.
Leo, Clark and Paul established
the family partnership 32 years
ago. Their father died in his late
40’s and the boys worked the farm
for their mother until 1953. At that
time they bought the stock and
equipment from her, combined two
farms in the operation and have
succeeded in building a herd of 150
registered Holsteins.
Their present acreage amounts
to 448 acres, 378 tillable. A creek
runs through the farm bordered on
both sides by a stand of trees.
The Shultz Brothers manage
their farm business with an eye
toward thriftiness. Clark says they
try to save big interest dollars by
avoiding borrowed money on items
they can do without. For instance,
no towering silos mark their farm
and their equipment consists of
good, well-maintained machinery
that has been in use for many
years. Leo says they have several
tractors which are old, but in good
condition. Their well run machine
shop repairs breakdowns and
keeps the operation running
smoothly.
This careful management does
not mean that modernization is
sacrificed. Far from it. A 3ft-by-150
bam built in 1962 accommodates 60
milking head. It is equipped with a
Surge Pipeline milking system
combined with Tru Test metering.
The cows are fed with a feed cart
which was designed and con
structed by the brothers.
An isolation transformer is very
much in evidence just inside the
bam entrance to protect the herd
from stray voltage. Leo says the
transformer protection amounts to
about the price of a cow, but could
amount to a great deal more in lost
Paul, Leo and Clark have installed a 125 gallon preheating
water tank which uses heat generated from the milking
system compressor.
r:
> ,v
* ,<
t ~ .
The heifers from 15 months old are kept out in this field all winter. A stream provides
water and they are brought in every morning for individual feeding. Free choice hay is
Brothers Make Partnership Last A Lifetime
revenue without it. He added, “We
couldn’t afford to gamble.” A
transmission power line runs
through the farm. Shultzs were
alerted that a problem existed
when shocks were experienced in
the cooling room sink during clean
up.
As for silo storage, Clark, the
youngest of the brothers, proudly
points out a 58-year-old wooden
structure that was under con
struction the day he was born. This
12|-by-30 storage for grass silage is
kept in good repair and is quite
adequate on the farm where the
heifers and dry cows are kept. An
additional 100 ton capacity trench
serves as storage for the heifers
mixed feed. Just a short distance
up the road, the second farm has a
12-by-35 Marietta storage bin used
either for grass or com.
Milking cows are fed a balanced
ration twice daily and about 16
pounds of silage. Each cow is given
about 20 pounds of hay in the
morning. Carts fashioned by the
Shultz brothers are loaded with
silage and pushed or hauled by
trailer to the respective stock. This
had been a 25-year-nutrition
practice following guidelines from
DHIA.
The brothers are also alert to
energy saving methods. They have
installed a 125 gallon pre-heating
water tank which uses heat
generated from the milking
system compressor. This tem
pered water goes into the hot water
tank in the milk storage room.
The Shultz farm operation finds
methods of getting around the $6O
to $lOO a ton bedding when their
straw runs out. Clark says that
good dry fodder goes farther than
straw. They chop their com stalks
in the field, turn it over in rows like
hay and gather it for bedding.
Leo explains another bedding
material they harvest from
timothy. First, they run a combine
through to harvest the seed which
amounts to about 150 bushels.
• '•■x* •**•*«!,
Following this, they cut the stalk
for bedding, a yield of about two
tons per acre. They keep enough
seed for their own use and sell the
balance. This profit recovers the
cost of the combine and the bed
ding is a bonus.
The only other grain they
merchandize is shelled com when
they have a surplus.
Seventy milking head of
Holsteins fill the new bam with
some juggling of 10 over capacity.
About 40 dry cows and 40 heifers
are housed and pastured on the
adjacent Shultz farm. The heifers
from 15 months are kept out all
winter. They are brought in each
morning and fed grain individually
with free choice silage. A hay cart
is available out in the field. When
the heifer is about a month from
freshening, she joins the dry cows
in the “dry yard.” This latter
group is never turned out.
The herd average in June for 74
cows was 18,751 pounds and tops
Columbia County with 785 pounds
of fat, as listed with DHIA.
Sire Power’s Elevation, Jet
Stream, Gemini, Stewart, and
Chairman are used for breeding.
The herd was produced 50
daughter from Chairman.
Shultz Brothers Farm has taken
the high producer award in
Columbia County several years in
the past.
One cow in their herd, Shul Bro
Job Dolly, produced 20,357 pounds
of milk with a 5.1 percent test, and
1,043 pounds of fat in 315 days. Her
dam, out of Elevation, was sold at
the Reading State Convention Sale.
Two years ago, Shul Bro Jet
Stream Jill completed a 305 record
of 29,040 pounds of milk with a 319
percent test and 1,136 pounds of
fat. She was sold at the Pocono
Sale in 1982 to join the “Excellent”
herd of former president Jimmy
Carter in Huntington County.
A Marshfield Elevation Tony son
from the Shultz herd is destined for
Taurus service.
Every year about 25 cows are
sold for dairy purposes after their
first or second record.
The Shultz’s have been involved
with consignment sales for nearly
a dozen years. They feel it has
given their stock good advertising
and they’ve made money over and
above their milk and grain sales.
About 150 acres of com are
raised on the farm with 40 to 50
acres of wheat and the balance in
hay.
Milk is sold to Farmland Dairy,
Wellington, N. J.
The only help on the farm
besides the three brothers is Leo’s
son Larry and Larry’s son Jason,
who is in 10th grade, in addition to
Paul’s son, Mark recently
graduated from Danville High
School. Mark was in FFA and
received a Keystone Farmer
Degree.
Leo, Clark and Paul have no
special jobs. They all pitch in
“The Shultz Feeder" is what Clark, Paul and Leo agree this
ration cart should be labeled. It was designed and con
structed by the brothers to meet their herd's individual
needs.
Leo, Clark and Paul reconstructed this former hog pen
chicken house into a drive-in maintenance shed. When a
bargain overhead garage door was purchased, the brothers
simply extended the entire two floor building to enlarge the
original 5 foot opening to accommodate the 6 foot door. The
door was advertised in a local paper and Clark saw the value
in the almost new door with a selling price of $5O.
where work needs to be done.
An interesting project they
recently completed was the
remodeling of a hog pen which had
a second floor chicken house. The
finished job is a roomy cement
floored, drive-in workshop for
machinery repair. When the
project was nearing completion,
they had a 5-foot opening, but no
door.
Some time ago, Paul saw an ad
for a used overhead sliding door,
but found out it was 6-foot wide. He
passed it by, but sometime later,
he noticed the door was still for
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Names Pq. Coordinator
HARRISBURG - The
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
announces the appointment of
Thomas P. Sexton 111, a Penn
sylvania native, to head the
Foundation’s new Harrisburg
office. As Pennsylvania state
coordinator, Sexton will oversee
development of CBF’s en
vironmental defense, en
vironmental education and land
conservation programs in the
Upper Bay area. Sexton comes to
CBF from a senior staff position
for a U.S. Congressman from
Maryland.
“Tom Sexton’s broad experience
in the fields of environmental
education, natural resource
planning, and legislation, coupled
with a long-standing familiarity
with the state of Pennsylvania, will
be indispensable as he shapes
CBF’s Pennsylvania presence,”
said Foundation president William
e
sale. He arranged to look at the
door and get a price. As it turned
out, the seller was asking $5O for an
almost new sliding garage door.
Clark bought it on the spot, but
he still had only a 5-foot opening.
No problem for the Shultz
brothers. They just moved the
entire side of the two floor building
about two feet to accommodate a 6-
foot door. This required a strip of
cement on the interior floor as
well. Transite siding covers the
exterior making an attractive and
durable addition to the Shultz
Farm complex.
C. Baker.
Sexton’s immediate challenge is
to show Pennsylvanians the direct
link between their treatment of
tributaries and the health of
Chesapeake Bay. “The
Susquehanna River drains an area
of 27,500 square miles (half the
state of Pennsylvania) and sup
plies half the Bay’s fresh water,”
he says. “How we, in Penn
sylvania, treat the Bay comes
right back to us both in
recreational opportunities and the
food products we enjoy. A healthy
Bay is in everyone’s best interest.”
CBF, with over 37,000 members
in 50 states, maintains its
headquarters in Annapolis, Md.
and a second field office in Rich
mond, Va. Establishment of a CBF
Pennsylvania office is made
possible by a grant from the
Richard King Mellon Foundation
of Pittsburgh.
4*