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.