y Ingenious Robbins Family
Andy Robbins stands in the diamond-shaped milking
parlor with Its Boumatlc-Polygon system that accomodates
24 cows.
Columbia
Lancaster Farming’s Col
umbia County correspondent is
Helen Kelchner of Berwick.
Helen says her freelance
writing and photography grew
out of a need to keep busy at
“something other than house
keeping.” When her four child
ren were through high school
she began to take her writing
and photography seriously.
Helen was bom on a farm in
Lewisburg and lived there for
16 years. In 1940 her family
moved to Berwick, where she
finished school, married and
raised a family.
“My husband’s business did
not lend itself to rural living, so
my farming background lay
dormant until several years
ago,” Helen said.
Although her first sales were
nature photography and feature
stories for the Harrisburg Pat
\\
Helen Kelchner
County Correspondent
favorite subjects in a farm
setting.
“Having lived in what I call
the ‘dark ages’ of farming. I had
v? V V *
$4
Fred Strausser'who has worked
for the Robbins since 1963, helps
Andy with milking and does the
feeding. One other hand is needed
and is usually the person which is
at free at milking time. It takes
two hours to milk the 270-head
milking herd. Andy projects a fu
ture milking herd of 300 by a gra
dual buildup of both heifers and
purchased stock.
The milking herd consists of
110 first calf heifers. Although
Randy is working to increase his
herd average of 16,000 with 600
lb. butterfat. The Robbins have
several good producers: a 4-year
old has 27.800 M with 890 F; a se
ven-year-old is projected at
25.800 M with 800 F; and three
other four-year-olds are at
24.000 M or higher and butterfat
ranging from 700 to 900 pounds.
Milk is sold to Durling Farms.
Randy says their milk has been
mucji to learn in the computer
age where some dairy opera
tions are automated from the
silo to the emptying of the man
ure pit and all points in
between,” said Helen.
Draft horses are one of
Helen’s pet subjects, especially
the few owners and breeders
who continue to use horses as
cultivation power.
Helen is 62 years old and
plans to continue writing as
long as she has a story to write.
Her work has appeared in the
Harrisburg Patriot, the Reading
Eagle, Baltimore Sun, the
Evener, Draft Horse Journal
(Iowa), Small Farmers Journal
(Oregon), Horse Illustrated,
and Dog Illustrated (Califomi
a), various church publications
and local papers in Berwick,
Sunbury, Williamsport and
Wilkes Bane.
'i- • ,
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out through the levee at the base of the pH. A tractor-pulled
spreader can pull up on the road at the bottom of the drop
off, position underthe pipe and get loaded In three seconds.
The gravi flow can be activated from the tractor.
Andy explains the purpose of the sawdust bun .tg jr
nace which heats the milking parlor and water for clean-up.
The furnace was designed and built by Dean Robbins and
his sons. Wood has also been used as fuel.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 3,1989-E25
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' * \
showing a regular low bacteria
count. A B S Genetic Mating Ser
vice is used for the mostly grade
Holstein herd.
The milking parlor has a time
saving feature in which a cow or
cows that may require treatment
or observation are channeled into
a catch-pen. This area can accom
modate six head and eliminates
the singling out and corralling of
these animals from among the
free-stall herd. A separate enclos
ure contains fresh cows and those
needing veterinarian care. An ad
joining drive-in for the vet’s ve
hicle is incorporated into the bam
design.
Any improvements that have
been made on (he farm are design
ed to save labor. The new bam
was planned to handle a greater
herd with less help. Andy says
probably the greatest labor saver
in the whole operation is the con
tinuous automatic alley scraper
which dumps into the gravity-fill/
gravity-empty manure pit. The 1.5
million -gallon pit has a six-month
storage with an expansion in the
planning. Just to give an idea of
how many loads are in I.S million
gallons, Andy says 450 loads of
3300 gallons each brings the level
down almost to the bottom.
Tammy, Andy’s wife, does the
bookkeeping. They have just in
troduced an IBM computer into