A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 24.1989 No Room For Compromise At Apple Way Farm BY PAT PURCELL GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.) Roger and Mary Sprague don’t put anything in their milk tank that they wouldn’t drink themselves. As a result, for the past 17 years they have, received quality pre miums for producing milk of the finest quality - pure and fresh. “In the 15 years we’ve been shipping milk, we’ve gotten our quality premiums every month except for seven in all of those years,” said Roger with pride. It’s not what they do at Apple Way Farm that makes them one of the 39 members of the Atlantic Dairy Cooperative to earn their quality premiums for 12 consecu tive months. It’s how they do it “You have to do everything right. And if anyone tells you they have the product to solve all your problems, they are wrong,” said Guyi Roger and Mary’s son. Roger was 38 when he began farming. The only farm experience he had, came from working on his grandfather’s farm when he was a young boy. Mary was ‘very much a city girl’, having grown up in Letchworth, England, a town about the size of Gettysburg, located 30 miles outside of Lon don. They met while Roger was stationed in London and married in 1958. Much had changed in dairy farming during those 20 years Roger had been away from the farm life. Most of those years he had spent in the Air Force and gov ernment service. In 1973 Roger and Mary pur chased the Apple Way Farm, a 130-acre fruit farm with no dairy facilities. They had much to do to ready their new home for dairy cows. Roger and Guy laid the block, installed the pipeline and all the electrical work for their parlor which continues to serve the Spragues today. They added a silo and built a fireestall bam and 40 cows to HU it. “I thought I had all the answers when I started fanning, but I learned very quickly that I did not,” Roger readily admits. “A lot had changed in fanning. When I left my grandfather’s farm we were still using horses.” By January of 1974, Apple Way Farm was shipping milk. Today, they milk 80 cows, own 130 acres and farm an additional 280 acres. Guy, returned to the farm after gra duating with a degree from Penn State in electrical engineering and now he has his own herd of 22 registered cattle. Production at Apple Way is 15,273 pounds. Before the series of droughts during the past three years, production hovered at 16,000 pounds. “We could make more milk than we are making now, but not as cheap,” said Roger. “Before the drought 17 percent of the milk check went for grain and the herd their communication control center. A cow’s treatment and health record are kept on the calendar for each to refer to before milling begins. quality milk. “I drive the cows in at 4 a.m. If I see a cow with a problem I call the vet immediately,” said Roger. “We do pay attention to detail around here. In 1985 we hit 93 percent of the detectable heats. I guess that’s pretty good.” Their quick attention pays off. They don’t lose cows to coliform mastitis at Apple Way Farm. They last cows lost were in 1973 and they were not lost to coliform mas titis. They use a strip cup twice a day, use the California test and examine their DHIA somatic cell county report each month. All cows are cultured and dry treated. Guy’s herd ranks in the top three producers on the somatic cell count honor roll for Adams County DHIA. Roger would also make the list except for several older cows in his herd which tend to keep him off the honor roll. They bed with green but keep mastitis infections down. “The vet tells us we could do better with straw or kiln dried saw dust,” said Roger. The bam is scraped once a day and manure is raked out of the (hit beds at least twice a day. In the parlor, cows are washed with a damp cloth wet with an iodine and water solution. A sepa rate reusable towel is used and all are washed and dried daily. Roger feels the heat from the dryer steril izes the towels. They use strip cups. There are no automatic take offs in their double-three parlor, but careful attention to the milk flow prevents over milking and all udders are in good condition. Of first priority in the parlor, post dip is sprayed immediately after the milkers come off. Two different dips are used. The iodine solution is used most fre quently, but when it gets muddy around the farm as it did after the two weeks of steady rain they had recently, the Spragues use a barrier dip. It is much thicker and has a lot mote staying ppower than the nor mal dip. “We make sure we feed our cows enough, but we don’t feed them too much because we want them to stay on their feet long enough in the bam to eat and give their teat sphincter muscles time to contract and close the opening of the teat canal,” said Roger. Equipment is disassembled and cleaned twice a day, with detergent and acid. "We try very hard to do all the things that need to be done and doing what’s most important first,” said Guy. All milk is tested before it goes back into the tank. Roger and Mary are proud to say they have never had to dump a tank of milk. Pro pounds.” The equipment is not new. The milking equipment was 20 years them IS years ago. Guy says that’s an advantage in one way. The equipment is simple to repair. However, the electronic controls are new as are the pipeline, tank and washer. Roger and Guy do check the system frequently and make repairs. Guy’s degree in electrical engineering comes in handy. There are several drawbacks to the system, Guy admits, “We do not have as big of pipeline as we should. The pipeline is 114 ”, the pulsator line is 114 ”, and the supp ly line is 114 ”. None of which are supposed to be adequate for six units,” said Roger. “But the vet checked them recently and the specs were okay.” It works for Spragues, accord ing to Roger, because their parlor is very compact. “We are just not moving the milk as far as most people have to. And there are not as many joints, so there are not as many leaks,” said Roger. Keeping somatic cell count low as well as the levels of P.I. and standard plate count is the result of setting priorities and their attention to detail. Inflations are changed every eight weeks. Roger buys soaps, detergents, and sanitizers by how well they work. He follows closely the sales representative’s recom mendations and the wash water temperature is always at the required level. In the parlor, red bands on cows mark the cows whose milk is not to go into the tank. The calendar in the parlor is a control center. Roger and Guy record dates and times when treament was begun or ended and withdrawal periods. “Communication is everything here,” said Roger. “We may not see each other between milkings. I milk in the mornings and Guy milks at night, so we’ve got to know what the other one is doing.” “We don’t trust luck. Every thing in the system has to work,” said Roger. “No point goes unchecked.” The Apple Way herd is on a monthly herd check. The calving interval is 13.1 months. The last three years Sprague’s herd has been affected by the drought. The stress affects the reproduction sys tem by shutting it down. But top nriority here is cow health and ducing a quality product and pro tecting their cows ’ health are prior ity at Apple Way Farm. The cow does not go back into the milking herd until she is ready and not before. Atlantic Dairy Cooperative members who were the reci pients of Quality Milk Awards for the 1987-1988 fiscal yean District 1 Luther Davis, Kutztown, PA District 2—John Bishop VI, Columbus, NJ District 3 Noah N. Sensi nig, Quarryville, PA District 3 Abner L. & Sar ah B. Stoltz/us, Peach Bottom, PA District 3 Donsdell Farm, Peach Bottom, PA District 5 Frey Dairy Farms Inc., Conestoga, PA District 6 Dan F. & Mary S. Petersheim, Gordonviile, PA District 7 John K. Peters, Manheim, PA District 9 Green Acres Farm, Lewes, DE District 13 Rodney D. & Marlene W. Reese, Port Matil da. PA iger- jyc. pi with their 80 head milking herd, but not for the same price vaccum . pressure valve > part of the original equipment Installed at the Apple Way Farm more than 15 years ago. It may be vintage equipment, but the Spragues’ careful attention to performance keeps this System In top shape and up to their veterinarian’s specifications. There is no room for eomprom- their milk tank that they wouldn’t isc at Apple Way Farm, because drink themselves. Now, that’s the Spragues don’t put anything in REAL milk. District 13 Harold J. & Norman W. Davis, Hunting don, PA ' District 13 Galen D. & Gordon C. Baney, Petersburg, PA • District 13 Gene Musser, Petersburg, PA District 16 Clyde & Mar illyn Fogelsanger, Shippens burg, PA District 16 Kenneth R, Voorhees, Newport, PA District 18 —Jesse L. Peach ey, Belleville, PA District 20 Harold M. & Priscilla Summers, Martins burg, PA District 24 Bernard Groft,* New Oxford, PA District 24 William Myers, Brodbecks, PA District 25 Edward R. & Deanna S. Smith, Myersville, MD District 26—Raymond E. & Leah F. Rodes, Waynesboro, PA District 26 Richard E. & Helen Hoffeditz, Mercersburg, PA District 30 Roger L. & Mary Sprague, Gettysburg, PA District 30 Ralph & Deborah Robertson, Westmin ster, MD District 33 Valley Stream Farm, Millville, PA District 34 Lloyd M. Oberholtzer, Lebanon. PA District 36 Rice Crest Farm, Chambersburg, PA District 36 —Dr. W. A. Ben der, Chambersburg, PA District 38 Alton & Paula Olver, Honesdale, PA District 38 Lynn & Brid gitte Soden, Thompson, PA
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