A34-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 22, 1991
Landhope Farms: We Are The Dairy Of The Future
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
KENNETX SQUARE
Every dairyman has his own idea
of the perfect farm, but one farm
manager is convinced the reality of
his operation is the ideal for the
future.
Landhope Farms in Kennett
Square is the milk production dairy
farm by which others will be mod
eled, according to farm manager
Sam Shotzberger.
“There’s no question about it,
we intend to be the leaders,” Sam
said recently.
Landhope Farms is one of two
large dairy operations in Chester
County. They milk about 400
cows, twice a day. They are about
to go on a tree-times-a-day
schedule.
“Plans are to eventually go to
three-timcs-a-day milking, and
expect about a 15-percent increase
in milk production. But we need to
add some equipment before doing
it. It will be done within the next
couple of weeks,” he said, adding
An interim cooling system was pressed into use at Land
hope Farms with the record heat of May and June. The hose
along the underside of the rood if perforated. A permanent
system is planned.
Sam Shotzberaer looks over work beino done to rennovate a freestall facil
that they have already hired a man
to head the third milking crew.
Currently milking in the
double-10 parlor is done with three
cow groups high producing,
middle producing and low
producing.
It requires two men about 5V4 to
6 hours per milking, from start to
cleanup.
The milking is done with two
different shifts and weekend duty
is rotated.
In addition to the sizable herd of
grade and registered Holsteins, the
operation has about 800 acres of
land 600 acres for crops, 200 in
pasture.
The pasture is used double duty.
Sam said they cut hay in the pas
ture, and that hay is used for dry
cows. In early June, they harvested
just a little over 200 big square
bales from the pasture. The pasture
is seeded with grass.
The milk from the cows is
directed to a processor and the
majority retailed at the nearby
Landhope Farms store.
This double-10 parlor has been used for 2x milking at Landhope Farms. It is about to
be used three-times a day.
Sam is young, in his mid-30s,
and energetic. He’s new to Land
hope, taking the manager position
in February. But he’s not new to
working at large operations or with
working with dairy near
Landhope.
For someone as eager to strive
for excellence in dairying, Sam
seems to be in the right place.
Sam and his wife Lisa live in a
large brick house next to the main
dairy operation. They have a son
Ben, S, and a daughter Aily, 8
months.
If the ideal commercial dairy
operation were to be built one
that was on the leading edge of
applied technology, effectiveness,
and profitability it would prob
ably look a lot like Landhope
Farms, in Sam’s opinion.
Now add this in the Univer
sity of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton
Research Center, a key research
facility for dairy animal health, is
litteraly Just down the road.
Researchers make weekly trips
to the farm to check up on the
breeding program, and other
aspects of herd health.
Shotzberger knows the
researchers well. He used to work
for them at New Bolton.
'‘New Bolton’s nutrition teach
ing program is big key. Just about
everything on the farm is related to
nutrition,” Sam said.
They use five different rations
for feeding their cattle, including
the 300 heifers they raise for
replacements. Sam tries to main
tain about a 30 percent culling rate.
Haylage, com silage, high mois-
Landhope Farm manager Sam Shotzberger shovels up
soybean meal left after a tractor-trailer unloaded.
ture com ... all are stored in
trenches. He gets soybean meal by
the tractor trailer load. Also used in
the rations are distillers grain, cot
ton seed, and blood meal, minerals
and limestone. All rations are cus
tom mixed and fed to the high
group and low group.
Pending approval of building
permits, Landhope is about to con
solidate its heifer raising area near
the main farm. The intent is to
build a 328-foot long Virginia
style housing complex with slatted
floor, and a manure facility cap
able of holding from four to six
months worth of waste.
While looking over work being
done to rennovate a large, older,
completely walled-in freestall
building, Sam said, “I don’t think
expansion is the plan sought now.
Excellence is the goal.”
The rennovated building is
being turned into an airy comfort
able freestall capable of housing
100 cows, including dry cow stalls.
It will also provide some box stalls
lift.
for better freshening conditions,
one of the areas that Sam has iso
lated as requiring improvement.
“My strength is in dairy and
what I need most education on is
crops. It’s important.”
But the dairy knowledge Sam
brings to the operation has made
for some of the changes at
Landhope.
They have Virginia style frees
tall housing and use three bottom
lots for heat detection.
“(Heat detection) is a challange.
The problem is, in the past we sat
back, now we’re developing a
strategy to attack.
‘The goal is a pregnancy rate ol
35 percent during each cycle. In
the past we’ve come somewhat
short and in doing so spent too
much money. We need to syn
chronize the whole herd.”
He uses a recently promoted
regime of prostaglandin shots, heat
detection, breeding and more pros-
(Turn to Pag* A 35)