D2S-UmcaiUr Fanning Saturday, April 7,1990 VERNON ACHENBACH, JR. Lancaster Farming Staff CHAMBERSBURG (Franklin Co.) A group of Lancaster County dairymen loaded up on a bus last week and spent a day here seeing how some of their peers do business in another part of the state. Roger Mills, chairman of the tour committee for the Lancaster Holstein Association, said he orig inally farmed the lower Franklin County area, but sold that place more than 20 years ago and moved to the Lancaster area. He said the trip was like going home again. The group visited four Holstein operations ranging in size from a multi-building freestall parlor operation with a herd of more than 200 and plans to double that, to an older-style heavy-beamed tie-stall bam operation that had just started to use a permanent pipeline system. The lower Chambersburg area is characterized by rolling hills dot ted with numerous limestone out croppings and just the start of the suburbanization that has hit hard in central, south central and south eastern parts of the state. In this area of the limestone crescent that arcs from Maryland south of Franklin County, up through the Cumberland Valley, Lebanon Valley, and down through the Lehigh Valley, farm Touring farmers check out the milking parlor at the Rice operation. land is still the most dominant part of the landscape and Holsteins are the most dominant part of that. The first operation visited is owned by Clifford Hawbaker, called Hamilton Heights. It is a sixth-generation 234-acre “Cen tury Farm,” and the operation also includes 57 additional acres own ed, and 190 acres rented. His 210 milking cows have a cumulative average of 17,939 pounds milk, 635 butterfat. Of those cows, 42 are registered and 132 arc young stock He said he manages by objec tives. tries to make the best use of resources and strives for excel lence. His tools for managing include using DHIA, the Franklin County Crop Management Asso ciation, a private tax consultant, ABC Linear-mate, and an IBM XT computer, with Dairy TRAKPIus, AGRIFAX accounting, Agn-plan ration balance, LOTUS 123 and Display Write programming. He also uses the cooperative extension services, U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture’s Soil Conser vation Service (SCS) and Agricul tural Stabilization and Conserva tion Service, the Holstein Association and Farm Credit. Hawbaker employees six peo ple: a field and feed man for 13 years, a fulltime milker for seven years, a parttime milk and field Lancaster Dairymen Tour Franklin County Farms hand for eight years, and three part-time workers. Crops include 210 acres of com, 180 acres of mixed hay, 50 acres of alfalfa, and 10 acres of small grains. He said his herd objectives are to breed for a functional-type cow, a dairy cow with the ability to improve the offspring and for longevity. He said he wants first lactating heifers to produce an average 17,000 pounds of milk and then go on to a second lactation of more than 20,000 pounds. The layout of the dairy opera tion includes three large freestall buildings set parallel and stag gered to each other, and separated by exercise lots. A large main dairy building is parallel to the freestalls and is located at one end of the row. In the future, he said he plans to add a row of parallel freestall buildings and exercise lots on the other side of ihc milking building and build the herd to more than 400 head. A little farther south is Rice Crest Farms run by Fred and Dale Rice. The operation also has 210 dairy cows, but the two have no plans to add more. Two specific methods of operat ing at the Rice farm drew interest from the touring dairymen; the manure system and the bedding system in the lower of two freestall buildings. The manure system consists of an alley scraper and a gravity fed system to a storage lagoon. According to Fred, the cows don’t mind the slowly moving scraper blades and the cabling. The bedding system of interest was a sloped bed with about 8 inches of clay. On top of the clay, Fred said a couple of inches of sawdust are lain. On top of that, a heavy duty, canvas duck-like material is set, tacked at the top and draped down over the end. Still yet, about twice a week, the pair place additional sawdust on top of the canvas. Fred said he’s found that “cows want something soft.” Talk between the dairymen about dirt and sand as bedding led to the conclusion that those mater ials are too much work, even though apparently enjoyed by cows. The canvas, clay and saw dust combination seems to offer the best solution to cow comfort and maintenance, according to Fred. He said that Mason Dixon Farms experimented with the bed ding style and that, while “they do get dirtier,” the cows prefer it. He said one cow in particular would not use cement or wood but reacted well to the softer offering. The alley scraper was installed after Fred read about the system in a farming magazine, he said. The cost for their entire manure system came to only $15,000. A big differ ence from the cost of other systems recommended at the time, Fred said. The next farm visited was Gay mere located nearby. It is a registered Holstein operation since 1960 and in three-way partnership between father Harold Gayman and sons Mark and Grant since 1978. Working on about 800 acres of land, 400 of which are used for cash cropping, the family opera tion milks 180 cows (on test) in two different groups, according to Grant. “We have a low group and a not so-low group,” he said of his milk ing herd. The Caymans have been no tilling alfalfa for about 7-8 years and no-dll all their com. Grant pointed to the field and showed that they plant a rye crop in the fall for a cover crop for erosion control. He said last year their biggest problem with milk production, similar to many reports across the state, was forage. Their herd is all registered and “homebred.” He said his father has maintained a closed herd since about 1966. The outfit milks with a double four herringbone parlor and also have a freestall alley scraper. He said they also made the alley scrap er system for the Rice brothers. A difference in the manure sys tem, however, is that the Caymans (Turn to Pag* D 29) The open roof structure at the Rice farm shows some of the newer ventilation being promoted for better herd health. Fred Rice shows other touring dairymen the fabric covering used to create a softer bedding area for his herd.
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