A34-Lmcaster Farming, Saturday, June 8, 1991
Howcrest Opens Farm
(Continued from Pago Al)
nowledgement from the National
Holstein Association. Each state
has only one award presented each
year. All the state winners then are
compared by judges and the
national awardee decided.
All dairymen in Lancaster
County area have a chance to see
the Howards’ farm and talk with
the young couple. Their farm, just
south of Lancaster City on Hans
Herr Drive, is the site for this
year’s Lancaster County Holstein
Association Field Day. An even
ing of fellowship and fun is
planned, starting 6:30 p.m., on
June 18.
The speaker and official judge is
to be Pete Blodgett, head of Land
mark Genetics. The meal is catered
chicken barbeque with numerous
side dishes.
The cost is $8 per adult, $3.75
per child. Reservations are needed
by Wednesday, June 12. For more
information or reservations, call
Lynn Royer at (717) 560-0632, or
564-2304 (farm), or call Steve
Hershey at (717) 367-4593.
The 1990 end-of-the-year roll
ing herd average for Howcrest
Holsteins’ 40 head was 23,063
pounds of milk, 868 pounds of fat
and 744 pounds of protein. Lan
caster County’s top producing
hard for protein last year was a
mixed herd which average nine
pounds of protein higher.
The most recent DHIA report
for Howcrest shows an increase in
average production. According to
the May test, the average was
24,148 pounds of milk, 913 pound
s of fat and 777 pounds of protein
on twice a day milking.
At their last classification they
had seven Excellents, now reduced
to five through attrition, including
the loss of one of the original
purchases made to start the
operation.
Those who attend the field day
will have a chance to judge three
classes of cattle with four in each.
The classes are tentatively going to
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be 2-year-olds, aged cows, and a
heifer class.
John said the herd is mostly
traced back to four groups of ani
mals he and Susan purchased.
He purchased a group of bred
heifers from a farm in Port Royal
which included a Jet Stream
daughter which eventually classi
fied an Excellent 92.
Also in the group was an Excel
lent Elevation daughter, which has
been ‘The foundation of the family
that there’s been the most interest
in,” John said.
“She had a 98 point Valiant
daughter that’s a contract cow. She
has a couple of sons in AI and was
flushed to Ned Boy.”
One of her Ned Boy daughter
has also been contracted to AI and
flushed. From there have been two
Very Goods, an 86 and an 87.
“I also bought a group of bred
heifers from Clarion County,
which included a Genesis daughter
with several thousand-pound fat
records,” John said.
A Morris Tony daughter pro
duced the first cows John and
Susan merchandised.
There are still members of that
family in the herd, and the How
ards are currently proving her
grandson.
The Howards also bought a
group of heifers during the 1981
Central Pennsylvania Classic sale.
There they picked up Ivanhoe Star
and three of her decendants are
home bred Excellents. Two are
still on the farm and one was sold
to Keystone.
“Star has been the foundation
for a lot of show cows,” John said.
“Last year we had best three
females bred and owned, we won
the last three years, and they all
came from that (cow) family.”
The one he sold was a Mark
daughter of Ivanhoe Star that was
consigned at a State College sale to
Keystone and eventually went
Excellent.
The Howards have pretty much
kept a closed herd since buying
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those initial groups. They said they
bought four animals since.
All the animals will be on dis
play during the field day.
Visitors will also get a chance to
view a new bam ventilation system
that should be completed by the
field day. It is designed for a com
plete bam air exchange every 30
seconds.
The bam and the house at How
crest are historic.
John and Susan rent the 70-acre
farm from her mother, Dorothy
Frey, of Fultonway Farm Inc., and
they also rent an additional, adja
cent 40 acres for cropping.
The farm house and the How
crest property is adjacent to the
historic Hans Herr house, a well
known Lancaster landmark. It was
one of the earliest buildings of
Hans Herr, an original German set
tler to the Lancaster area whose
house still stands at the edge of the
Howards property, within a
stone’s throw of the farm house.
In fact, for the field day, John
said he has gotten approval to use
the parking lot of the historic
landmark.
Those who are intending to
attend the field day should bring
some lawn chairs and park in the
Hans Herr parking lot
The Hans Herr house is a
remarkable structure, using one
solid wooden beam and a huge,
double-sided walk-in fireplace and
chimney for the main support
structure and wall-tie. When Susan
Howard was growing up, prior to
the restoration of die Hans Herr
house and its subsequent use as a
historic landmark, she said she
used to play in the house.
The farmhouse in which they
live, and five other homes nearby,
where also either built by Hans
Herr or one of his decendents.
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"This house was built by Hans
Herr,” Susan said of their farm
house. “It’s like living in a piece of
history.” Some day they’d like to
restore the house for historical rea
sons, she said.
The current bam at Howcrest
farm dates to 1866 and was built by
John and Elizabeth Hamish. The
stone bearing that information is
on the wall in the milkhouse.
The bam was remodeled in the
1960 s by Mallery Frey Jr., and the
stalls and manger are still in good
shape. However, a 2-inch milking
sysem was installed since.
Also of interest at Howcrest, a
15-acre pasture is across the street
Cram the ham. It has a small pond
and a stream running through it
The pond has been fenced off from
cattle since the second year the
Howards have been there, in order
to minimize the risk of mastitis and
for other sanitary dairy concerns.
At the same time, the pasture
was divided into two. John said he
allows the cows to feed in one of
the pastures for a time and then he
mows the other one, baling the
grass for use as bedding. Thai he
switches fields, allowing the cows
to pasture in the cut pasture, while
he mows the pasture they cows
started in.
Using the pasture is an attempt
to maximize the cost effectiveness
of feed. Sometimes the cows seem
to drop a little on pasture in the
spring. He pastures them during
the day in the spring and fall, dur
ing the night during the summer
and he allows the cows to use the
barnyard excercise lot everyday.
The lot, or barnyard also has
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several calf hutches on it and the
Howards raise all their heifer
calves. Ideally, he said he’d like to
wait until after the heifers freshen
before he decides whether a heifer
will become a permanent part of
the string.
However, he said he has sold a
few before he wanted to, when the
offer was right
John said that as far as conduct
ing business, income derived from
selling stock for breeding reasons
constitutes anywhere from 25 per
cent to 40 percent of the total farm
income. And he said that with milk
prices so low, the income from
selling genetic stock has increased
percentage wise and has become
even more important
While the Howards have owned
three grade cows, they are commit
ted to registering animals. “We
used the grades for recipients of
embryos. It doesn’t cost any more
to feed or raise a registered ani
mal,” John said.
As far as feeding, John doesn’t
have a total mixed ration, but they
do feed a balanced diet and test
their feeds regularly.
The farm doesn’t have a lot of
silo Stonge, so John keeps some
com silage bagged, although he
has to be careful with *e plastic
because of the many ways the seal
can be broken allowing air to spoil
the feed.
He said he tried hayiage in the
bags also, but he is going to try to
avoid making hayiage this year,
since it’s easier to feed baled hay
and its less time and labor consum
ing. Otherwise, he has to make a
lot of trips with a cart between the
bagged feed and the bam.
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