818-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 25,1989 Marlin Heisey says BY LOU ANN GOOD LEBANON “I hope you know you’re the luckiest guy around,” someone recently told Marlin Heisey. The 34-year-old Lebanon Coun ty farmer nods, “I guess I am. Not too many 18-year-olds get a chance to farm their own farm.” It was 13 years ago when Heisey got his chance to farm. “I had farming in my blood,” he said. “I wanted to farm more than anything.” His dad had sold the family farm when Marlin was 15 and moved to Hagerstown, Md., where he pas tored a church. Although still in school. Marlin found a farming job where he got up to milk at 4:30 each morning and hurried home each day for the evening milking for $l5 weekly. Then his boss had an accident, and Marlin did most of the duties for several months. After graduation, Marlin work ed in a store. “I hated it,” he recalls. “I couldn’t stand being pent up. I had fanning in my blood. I knew that somehow or other, I was going to farm.” His brother told him about a Lebanon County farm that was for rent. Annie Kreider, now 95-years old, was skeptical of renting her family homestead to a mere 18-year-old. Marlin persisted. It took some haggling until Marlin convinced her that while he might be young, his hard work and deter mination could make it go. “1 rented cheap, but I had to buy animals and all the bam equip ment,” Marlin said. Convincing her was only the first obstacle. Banks were even more skeptical of loaning money to Marlin. Finding financing to purchase a herd of cows and the milking equipment seemed unsur mountable, but Marlin managed to find it and move into the house. Three months later, at age 19, he married Brenda Martin from Hagerstown. Brenda did not have farming background and recalls that farm life was a big adjustment. “It seemed all his (Marlin’s) attention went to the cows,” she said. At first, she watched him milk. Chad, 3; David, 1; and. Colette 9. When Farming Is In Your Blood, You Find A then she started washing the cows’ udders and gradually progressed to milking. Marlin purchased a herd of 44 cows and they had problems adjusting to a bam with, gutters. The cows would fall, hurt their legs, and couldn’t get back up. Brenda said, “It seemed we were always needing to buy cows.” The first year, they had only two heifer calves; the second year, three. Heisey said, “It made things rough because we had to buy all our replacements.” But during the third year, things took a change for the better, and they had 13 sets ol heifer twins in one year. Although it’s 10 years later, the Heiseys’ faces still light up when they talk about that third year. Things had started to turn around for them. By the fourth year, the Heiseys had replaced all but a few of the original herd. “I didn’t buy regis tered cows, but I looked for a cow that looks like she’ll give milk and has enough strength to hang around for a while. Heisey said, ‘Two years ago, I made it a goal never to buy cows again in my life. I’m sticking to it. I had too much bad luck with bought cows. It’s much better to raise your own replacements, then they’re used to you and the farm.” The first year in farming, Heisey shared equipment with his brother to grow com and alfalfa. “We dragged the equipment back and forth for 15 miles. That was no picnic.” During the second year, Heisey purchased his own equip ment. Currently he continues to raise com and alfalfa on the home farm and rents an additional 120 acres for barley and soybeans. Because the farm had been rented for many years, facilities were outdated. Renters didn’t want to spend their money on it. Heisey said, “I fixed up the old bam, and I built a free stall bam. It was a risk, because I didn’t own the property, and we didn’t have anything in writing. I knew if the owner would die, I could lose everything I put into it.” Fortunately, things turned out Way To Own A Farm The Heisey family gathers around the kitchen table. Brenda said, “The farm is the best place to raise the family.” Her husband, Marlin, said, “Everybody always says that.” But their children, (from left) Colette, David, Parke, and Chad, agree the life on the farm Is great. fine. Last year the Hciscys pur chased the 120-acrc farm from Annie Kreidcr. Now 95, she still lives in part of the farm house. She plans to stay as long as she can take care of herself. Looking back over the past 13 years, Heisey said, “I was never scared that I wouldn’t make it, I was just trying to make things go. I wanted to farm that bad, I always looked for a way. If you whole heartedly want to farm and you know it, you will somehow make it work.” He added, “If the banker said, ‘You can’t do it,’ I didn’t argue. They know their business. You must watch your cash flow and debt.” The drought of ’B3 was the worst for them. Though many far mers were drastically affected by last year’s drought, not Heisey. He explained, “When it was time for spring planting, all my tractors broke down. I was fit to be tied. But it turned out for the best. I planted late and got the rain just at the right time. Things really took off. It was my best soybean year ever.” Two years ago, Heisey started selling Hoffman seeds on the side. He said, “I never thought I’d make a salesman, but they came and ask me to do it. My grandfather had grown seed for the company all his life so I decided to carry on the family tradition.” When Heisey accepted the ter ritory, hefwas assigned 12 custom ers, now he has 110. He said, “When I told my for mer pastor that I was going to start selling seeds, he said, T remember when Hoffman seeds was the num ber one seed company in the coun ty.’” Heisey paused, then added, “His comment challenged me. I have a goal to make it (the com pany) number one again. There’s a lot of competition. But Hoffman’s got a good seed line and that’s the bottom line. Customers want results and our seeds give them.” According to Heisey, “Milking cows and selling seeds are a good combination. When I get sick of milking, I go sell. If a customer gives me a hard time, I come back to the farm.” After years of gradually easing into milking, Brenda can now handle it alone when her husband is gone. She admits with four children and the dairy she doesn’t have time for much else. Her daughter Colette pipes up, “You like cooking.” Her mother wrinkles her nose, “I get tired of cooking. I just do.” Colette looked suprised and stated emphatically, “You’re a good cook.” The Heiseys now have four Farm Safety Course Offered To NEWARK (Delaware) —“Few farm parents would ever dream of turning a teenager loose in a gam bling casino,” says Ron Jester, University of Delaware Extension safety specialist. “Yet their teens are gambling with much higher stakes when they operate a tractor with a minimum amount of in struction and little or no supervi sion.” The many needless accidents involving youth on our farms can be prevented, Jester says. Safety training and more supervision can do much to reduce the high acci dent rate in this age group, which is about twice the rate for adults. Delaware Cooperative Exten sion is offering a safety training course in March for teen-agers who want to work on farms this summer. According to Ron Jester, feder al law prohibits youth under 16 from working in certain hazardous agricultural operations unless they have an exemption certificate from a safety training course. By completing this course, 14- and 15-year-old farm workers can receive exemptions. Although youngsters working on their parents’ farms don’t need a certifi cate, Jester recommends the course for all farm youth. Hazardous jobs closed to youths without safety training children; Colette, 9; Parke, 8; Chad, 3; and David VA years. For the Heisey family, things are going smoother than the first couple of years when they started. Heisey emphasizes, “In farming, you can’t ever say you made it. You’re always walking a tightrope between disaster and good fortune—things can go either way so easily.’’ He added, “I do my best on what I can control; the other 80 percent I can’t control so I just live with it” Teenagers include: * operating a tractor with more than 20-belt horsepower, * operating or assisting with the operation of most farm machin ery. * operating or assisting with trenchers, forklifts, chain saws and other types of machines, * working inside airtight pro duce and grain storage areas or silos, * working at high elevations, * handling hazardous materials, * working in pens with breed- ing stock, * handling explosives or anhy drous ammonia, * -wking in heavy timber operations, * transporting passengers in vehicles on farm property, * riding on a tractor as a pas senger or helper. The training program will be a correspondence course with three formal classes. The final class will include written tests and a tractor driving test. Classes will be held at night, and the sites will be deter mined after applications arc in. To register, call the county Extension office in Georgetown (856-7303), Dover (697-4000) or Newark (451-2506), by February 28.
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