A36*Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15, 1990
Nittany Lion players (left to right) Eric Ravottl, outside linebacker; trl-captain and
tackle, Matt McCartln; POPP Board Member Shirley Womer; and cornerback, Greg
Fusettl pause briefly for a photo, as the Nittany Lions claim possession of the coveted
Milkcan Trophy.
In Milk Production Increase
VERNON ACHENBACH, JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
FREDONIA (Mercer Coun
ty) Vantage Jerseys of Mercer
County was named the Jersey herd
with the most improvement in milk
production in Pennsylvania for
1990, according to records kept by
the state Dairy Herd Improvement
Association (Pa.DHIA).
The northwestern region of the
state in which the farm lies is appa
rendy a concentration area for
those with top-notch, commcerical
production Jersey herds.
Donald Koontz owns and oper
ates Vantage Jerseys and his 100
registered milking Jerseys are
located in Mercer County on a
109-acre farm near the Ohio
border.
In the same neighborhood as
Vantage Jerseys, about 100 miles
north in Erie County, is the home
of this year’s most improved
Jersey herd for protein production,
Windyfield Jerseys.
The close proximity of the two
Jersey herds is not coincedence.
Both operations market their milk
to an Ohio cheese manufacturer.
The milk from both Jersey herds
is bought by Mccili’s Dairy in
Cleveland, a manufacturer of moz
zarella and provolone cheeses.
“In the United States, this is the
best area of the country to live in,
as far as the cheese market,”
Koontz said.
It’s also a good place to see
waterfowl. Pymatuming Wildlife
Refuge is nearby and is a haven for
ducks and Canada geese. The
shore waters of Lake Erie also are
important for waterfowl.
In some areas waterfowl are a
problem with crop production.
“We get quite a few geese come
in,” Koontz said. “We always sow
a winter rye crop. And when it gets
any size at all, the geese are in here
chewing it. So far we consider
them beautiful,” he said.
There are other things of beauty
n
m 40k W
Vantage Has Advantage
to Donald Koontz, who, with his
wife Angie, a fulltime hired man
and a part-time helper, takes care
of the 100 milking cows and an
equal number of replacements.
The DHIA milk production
records of Vantage Jerseys is one
of those other things.
“It’s considerably ahead of a
goal that we set,” Donald said.
“We wanted to be over 17,000
(pounds of milk). Right now I
think we’ve come up more. We’re
up over 17,800. The thing we have
to work on now is our protein test.”
Koontz said he is happy with the
result shown by the DHIA records,
but he is cautious to brag about it.
“Frankly, they’re history and
it’s dollars that are most impor
tant,” Koontz said.
“When you see a herd average
you have no idea how much profit,
but they’re (DHIA records) good.
It’s a measurement. But I don’t
take it as everything.”
Koontz said a number of things
can be attributed to his herd’s
increase in milk production.
Feeding
“We’ve always tried to feed
well. Then, about a year ago we
signed on with a private nutrition
ist which we think has helped quite
a bit,” Koontz said.
“We grow our own com silage
and buy hay and grain. We have
limited acres and no real desire to
get into the equipment business.
We till 65 acres, all in continuous
com. We have some pasture and
about 13 acres of woodland.”
The Koontz Jerseys are fed a tot
al mixed ration (TMR), a practice
he has done for some time.
“We were making a primitive
attempt at it from day one, but only
actually put in the mixer unit in
1983. We mix corn silage,
chopped baled hay and custom
mixed grain.
“Our grain mix is basically com,
48 percent soy, distiller’s grain,
soy hulls, top grade animal fat, and
meat and bone meal,” Koontz said.
“We have two rows of free’stalls
with a bunk in the middle. Every
thing we feed is done mechanically
with a stationary mixer and
elevators.”
Breeding
Koontz said his breeding prog
ram is also important to milk
production.
“I do my own breeding. Now,
the last few years, we’ve been
selecting almost totaly on pounds
of protein.
“We take the top 10 or 15 bulls
on the USDA list and try to mate
them according to type strengths
and weaknesses,” he said.
Sire selection is not the only
important part of Koontz’s breed
ing program.
“The calving interval right now
is just short of 13 months. We’ve
been working pretty hard on that,”
he said. “I have nightmares of
waking up with a completely open
(not bred) herd.”
His heifers are all bred with arit
ificial insemination.
The heifers are kept in a
modem-style bam that is 60-feet
by 1,200-feet. Additionally, the
heifer area has a lean-to building
for additional housing.
“Some of the heifers are on
freestalls, some are on a manure
pack and there are some dry cows
in there also,” Koontz said.
“The heifers are bred in a frees
tall pen and it has a rough concrete
floor. The milking herd is on a
grooved concrete floor that is
scraped once a day.
“the heifers have access to out
doors as well, so we observe heats
in both places,” Koontz said.
Milking Schedule
Though it can’t necessarily be
attributed to any increase in milk
production over the last year,
Koontz said going to a three-times
daily milking schedule has helped.
“I started milking three times a
day in January of ’85," Koontz
Paterno Accepts $l,OOO
For College Of Ag
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
Winning is a sweet reward, but
receiving a $l,OOO academic scho
larship for winning a football
game is like double the fun.
The Nittany Lions of Penn State
defeated the Terrapins from the
University of Maryland earlier
this season in the annual Dairy
Gridiron Classic, sponsored by the
Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion
Program. Coach Joe Paterno
accepted the scholarship money
on behalf of the College of
Agriculture.
The PDPP has endorsed the
Dairy Gridiron Classic for five
years, supporting not only inter
PDPP Board Member Shirley Womer congratulates Penn
State Nittany Lion Headcoach Joe Paterno for winning the
Dairy Gridiron Classic sponsored by the PA Dairy Promo
tion Program. The College of Agriculture at Penn State
received $l,OOO for academic scholarships as a result of the
win over the University of Maryland Terrapins.
said. “At the time, we wanted to
hire more help, but couldn’t justify
it (the cost) on two times a day
milking. That’s why we went to
three limes.
“We started at probably an ideal
time, when we had the herd
freshened 60 to 90 days and the
cows immediatly jumped (in milk
production) about 18 percent,”
Koontz said.
The milking is done in a double
four herrinbone parlor with an
automatic take-off.
“The parlor was here when we
moved here. We updated it,” he
said.
Replacement Stock
Koontz has been raising his own
replacement stock for a number of
years and he attributes that to
adding to the high rolling herd
milk production average.
The building with his bam and
milking parlor is 178 feet in length.
It’s a freestall bam, but it also has a
separate maternity facility.
Calves are started in a nine-stall
calf condo. And then, when about a
month old, Koontz moves them to
a tie stall area where they stay for
six weeks before moving them into
small group pens.
“We lose very few calves,
almost none. I think we lost one
this summer. My wife Angie takes
care of that,” Koontz said. “Her
main function is calves and
books.”
Also herd health has been a big
consideration in maintaining a
high milk production average.
“It’s pretty much a closed herd. I
recently bought a high indexed
heifer, the fust in three years.
Three years ago I bought a heifer.
Occassionally I will, but for all
practial purposes, it’s closed
herd,” Koontz said.
The reason for that is had
health.
“We’ve been working on health
collegiate athletics, but the educa
tion of youth and the development
of the dairy industry.
The last three years the Land
Grant Universities of Pennsylva
nia and Maryland played for the
bragging rights. Of the three
matches, Penn State won twice
taking home not only the cash, but
a beautiful Milkcan Trophy as
well. The third game was a tie and
the schools shared the money.
The college of agriculture of the
winning school oversees the dis
tribution of the funds to students
needing financial assistance, who
are studying dairy or food science.
testing, elimination of leukosis,”
he said.
“When we were putting the herd
together, we were getting into all
the problems you could get into by
bringing in a large number of cows
at one time,” Koontz said.
“It was nothing drastic, but
showed up in calf raising. When
you are bringing in animals from
all different backrounds, you bring
in all the viruses and parasites from
those other farms. It’s nothing
severe, but things have been much
calmer with a closed herd, health
wise.”
History
Koontz is not a local boy to the
Mercer area.
“I moved to Fredonia in Sep
tember 1979,” he said. When I gra
duated from college, I worked for
seven years on a large dairy farm in
Montgomery County,” he said. He
then went into a partnership in
Bedford County for two years and
then “I located a farm in Mercer
County that I could afford and
that’s where I’m at now.”
Holsteins are the most common
breed in the state, but Koontz said
his particular affection with the
Jersey breed goes back to his
childhood.
“I guess the first reason for hav
ing Jerseys would be, I was raised
with Jerseys. And secondly, espe
cially in the last years, with the
protien, there’s no reason to
change. And Jerseys are increasing
in production.”
The Future
And while things having been
going well for the Koontz opera
tion, Donald said he doesn’t want
to sit back and stagnate.
“We’ve been on the farm been
11 years. I have not checked back,
but we’ve been in the top five in
the state for nine of those years,”
he said.
(Turn to Pag* AST)