A34-Lancasier Farming, Saturday, January 26, 1991
Starting Out Alone
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
ENDERS (Dauphin
Co.) The 28-dcgrcc wind
whipped persistently on top of the
almost treeless, hill-top dairy farm
where Timothy Tobias rose at 5
a.m. to do his milking.
Head down against the wind, the
31-year-old Dauphin Countian
made the 200-yard walk to the bam
where most of the milking herd
waited in their tie-stalls. There was
warmer, almost 50-dcgrcc air cir
culating around them.
He was qlone, just as he is many
mornings, except for a small black
and while dog tagging along. He
has no wife to help with the book
work, no children to help out with
the chores.
David Trull, a local part-time
hired man, was expected to show
up soon, but until this past sum
mer, Tobias was completely alone
for the milkings.
He turned the vacuum pump on
in the milk house, and it began its
rumble-hum. In the barn, the radio
played.
This is the life he wants.
But it is not his farm.
Tobias is a renter. One of the
many who, starling out in produc
tion agriculture without strong
family financial support, have
sought to find some method of
breaking into the business.
In Tobias’s case, he said he is
lucky. He saved money for more
than a decade, he also found a land
lord who would to take him on and
provide a wealth of ready informa
tion and guidance.
The cows and heifers are
Tobias’s. He invested in them, and
continues to invest.
The landlords, Roy and Marie
Wilbert, own the 113-acrc dairy
farm. Tobias rents the bam, house,
silo, heifer bam and milking
equipment.
The tenant and the landlord have
formed a strong bond. Perhaps it is
unique.
Unlike many who get into dairy
farming, Tobias docs not come
from a farm family. His father is a
welder.
It was living in Halifax, near a
dairy farm, that spurred Tobias’s
interest into the dairy industry, he
said.
“I grew up next door to Roger
Campbell’s. I was the neighbor kid
who always hung around,” Tobias
said. He said he grew to really
enjoy cows and lending them.
Now he not only runs his own
" >
r- *
Tom Tobias shows off one of his young stock in his 4-year-old dairy herd, Talisman
Valor Margot, a former 4-H project heifer he purchased. Tobias is a single tenant dairy
man who owns the herd and buys forages and silages from his landlord, and Is making
dairy herd, he is in his second term
as president of the Dauphin Coun
ty Dairy Herd Improvement Asso
ciation (DHIA).
Up until 1986, the Wilberts ran a
dairy farm. One of the best in Dau
phin County, according to Tobias.
And for health reasons, they had
herd dispersal.
Timing was about perfect for
both the potential landlord and
tenant.
In high school, though not a
member of 4-H and a member of
FFA through vocational-technical
school where he studied to work in
a plant nursery.
While in school, he worked part
time for Campbell doing chores at
his dairy. For a while, during
school and afterward, he worked at
a nursery.
Then for five years he worked
for another dairyman, milking,
doing chores and helping out with
some light fieldwork.
He then became a milk tester, a
job he did for another five years. It
was through being a milk tester for
the Wilberts that the relationship
began.
It has since blossomed into the
current business arrangement.
In the arrangement, Wilbert
does as the field work and hauls the
manure. Tobias buys the forages
and silages to feed his herd. The
rent is paid on a cash basis.
During a recent rental and busi
ness arrangement seminar in Lan
caster, officials offered advice and
guidance about the many items
that should be investigated before
settling into a business arrange
ment; to look at the goals and
needs of the two parties and the
advantages and disadvantages of
each plan.
Four types of landlord-tenant
arrangements were presented in
outline form, although, in practice,
the farming world offers as broad a
spectrum of business arrange
ments as there are people.
The Wilbcrt-Tobias business
arrangement is a combination of
two of the four types discussed
during the seminar; it is a cash
only almost straight landlord
tenant operation, but the tenant
owns nothing but the herd and
buys all the forages he needs from
the landlord.
According to an oudine handout
provided to farmers who attended
the seminar, their are three major
advantages to the type of arrange
ment Tobias is in; it spreads the
risk of business between landlord
* «#
With Help Of Landlord, Family
Tom Tobias feeds some of the young replacement stock housed in a portion of a
Virginia-style shed. Tobias rents the property, and like other tenant farmers, must
make do with what already exists on the farm. In this case, he said he is very satisfied
with the property and landlord.
and tenant; it is a relatively inex
pensive way for a young farmer to
enter the business; and the tenant
farmer is assured of good quality
feedstuffs for his dairy animals.
Possible disadvantages to the
systems include uncertainty in
duration of business, which could
result in having a tenant who
doesn’t have the incentive to main
tain rented equipment as well as if
it were self-owned; not as much
profitability for the tenant, though
dependable-income for die land
lord because of the cash basis; and
it requires a closer relationship
between partners than another type
of relationship might.
The extension agents who pre
sented the information to both
potential tenants and landlords,
said that the main thing to remem
ber when working out an arrang
ment is to iron out as much of the
responsibilities, both work and
financial, before settling on
anything.
The agreement should then be
presented to an accountant and an
attorney.
Tobias and Wilbert used an
accountant to figure out rents and
"jf-; -
costs.
However, above all else their
successful arrangement is probab
ly made possible through one
clement mutual respect, under
standing and friendship.
For Tobias and Wilbert, the
arrangement has been working
well.
“I was a milk tester for five
years, so I got to know him real
well during that time,” Tobias said.
“I’ve known him for five years.”
The three of them, Roy, Marie
and Tom, “sat down and talked it
over,” after the Wilberts had the
herd dispersal.
Tobias’s savings amounted to
“half of what I needed to get
started,” when he entered into the
arrangement four years ago.
And, being single, it wasn’t easy
for him.
“When I started, I went around
and bought one held of 19. . . and
small groups from around here.
“The first night I milked four
cows. The next night I was up to
11. The following Saturday, I had
increased to 34,” Tobias said.
Now he milks 49, four of which
arc owned by someone else, has
six dry cows, and about 40 heifers
and calves.
All are Holsteins, except one
Brown Swiss, which Tobias said is
his best heat detector.
The first two years were rough
on him. Two years of drought hurt
crop production. Milk prices were
low and crop prices were high, in
addition to being low quality. And
on top of that, Tobias didn’t have
enough cows milking to absorb the
changes in income.
“1 guess I was kind of fortunate,
there were a couple of people
around here who had heifers they
wanted to keep, and they brought
them here to freshen. I got to milk
them for a while. That sort of
helped me,” he said.
And while any dairyman would
be foolish to ever say the “rough
times” are over, Tobias doesn’t
have it as rough as he did.
“The first two years, before the
high milk prices, were from milk
check to milk check,” he said.
During that time, his parents
would come help him milk, his
mother would help with the laun
dry and cooking. If they couldn’t
help him out in business with
--V
money, they could offer what they
could.
With the past year’s higher milk
prices, he could afford to hire Trutt
for the morning milking and Steve
Long, a high school student, to
help with the evening milking.
And while some tenant dairy
men don’t particularly care to have
the landlord involved with their
business, Tobias said having Roy
Wilbert living right there has
helped him out many limes, such
as when having trouble with milk
ing a just-freshened heifer . . .
Roy Wilbert has been his
mentor.
Since 1986, Tobias has
increased his herd, mostly with
home-bred young cows, which are
now in first, second, or third
lactations.
There is a large age gap between
the young ones and the older 13
cows he has remaining of what he
had purchased.
The herd is split about evenly
between registered and grade ani
mals, and he put it on test Jan. IS in
1987, “to give the cows a chance to
adjust,” he said.
Currently, the rolling herd aver
age is about 21,705. His highest
producing cow is an old Bossy
who made up to 28,000 for him,
but has no records at all. This past
week she made 117 pounds on test
day.
His culling isn’t as hard as it
may become, but he said he did get
rid of one, that while she milked
well, “she had a poor disposition. It
got so that I was almost afraid to
milk her. If she would have hurt
me, I’d be alone here,” he said.
The heifers and a portion of the
milking herd arc kept in a Virgima
stylc barn on a manure pack, at the
far end of an exercise yard. Some
pasture is available and more is to
open up.
However, there doesn’t seem to
be much potential in expanding the
40-stall budding for additional
room. As it is with the number of
cows he has, he now has to milk in
two shifts.
He said he knows he should
move them around according to
groups, but, “There’s a few who
like it better out there. If I bring
them in here (the barn), they stay
standing.”
(Turn to Pago A 35)
V.