82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 27, 1991
Beef Club Tours Lancaster County Farms
Members of the Red Rose 4-H Beef Club admire the AcresdurlngatourofthreeLancasterCountyfarmsonJuly
purebred Polled Hereford and Angus cattle at Salunga 17.
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Some of the top farmers in the
county credit their success to 4-H
roots. It’s no surprise that they are
eager to find time in their busy
schedules to meet with today’s
4-H’ers.
“They are our future breeders to
maintain agriculture,” said CJ.
Furlong, manager for Salunga
Acres. “We want to get more
young people interested in raising
beef.”
With that purpose in mind,
about 20 persons affiliated with the
Red Rose 4-H Beef Club began a
day-long tour of county farms on
July 17. In addition to Salunga
Farms, the group toured Masonic
Homes, which has pastures with
Shorthorn, Simmental, and com
mercial beef, and the egg process
ing complex of Esbenshade Farms,
Mount Joy.
Salunga Acres
Purebred Polled Herefords and
Angus grazed on the gently, roll
ing hills at the Spooky Nook farm,
one of four that Salunga Acres
owns.
“We breed catde with perfor
mance,” Furlong said of the
250-acre operation. George and
Dorothy Metzlcr own the opera
tion that stunned competitors at the
Pennsylvania Farm Show in Janu
ary. At that show, Salunga Acres
look Polled Hereford grand
champion bull, reserve champion
heifer, best herd, premier breeder
and exhibitor and reserve grand
champion Angus bull. On the
national scale, the Polled Hereford
bull placed second.
“Our goal is to produce cattle
with balance, low birth rate, high
weaning weights, and better milk
production,” Furlong said. “All
cows are bred AI and detailed
'SCotnesifai,
ttfoips
records are kept in performance.”
Furlong told the 4-H’ers, “It’s
important to have feminine
females and to breed animals for
performance, style, and type.” He
pointed out these characteristics in
many of the individual cattle.
Even when things are done cor
rectly, puzzling results occasionly
happen. Furlong told of using one
Angus cow for flushing that pro
duced three bull calves with per
formance, style, and type. But the
cow’s natural calf was bom with
all white feet.
Salunga Acres prefers calves to
be bom in January and February
for better marketing. This year, the
farm bred 82 Polled Herefords and
38 Angus cattle. They do not
crossbreed. In the early part of
March, the calves are put out on
rye.
Salunga Acres operate a certi
fied and accredited vaccination
program. “We believe that an
ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure,” Furlong said. “We
worm twice a year, and I think
breeders would be amazed at how
much belter performance they get
out of their catde if they did
likewise.”
With increased frame size, the
catde are bred for 7 and 8. “Some
times we sacrifice a little milk for
size,” Furlong explained, “but you
need muscle to back the size to
have structurally sound catde.”
To remain in the business, Fur
long forsees that beef farmers neeo
numbers behind catde. Salunga
Acres plans to increase the amount
of shows they enter this year.
Although the barns are kept
extremely clean, the cattle are not
washed and brushed often. “We
don’t have a lot of dme to work
with show catde. If we ran this
operation in show condidon all the
time, we couldn’t get everything
done,” Furlong said.
They do concentrate on what
really counts in the show ring
breeding and performance. They
halter break close to show time.
Members of the 4-H beef club
judged four purebred Polled Here
fords on the farm. The members
needed to rely on both visual
observation and performance
appraisal by studying the EPD’s
(expected progeny differences)
chart.
“Look for balanced traits,” Fur
long cautioned the members. “You
must consider birth weight, wean
ing weight, maternal milk, year
ling weight, and look at the sire.
Remember the higher maternal
value the better the weight at
weaning.”
Masonic Homes
A drive-through tour of Mason
ic Homes grounds in Elizabeth
town revealed 600 acres of barley,
rye, and oats, a 100-acre orchard
and vegetable crops, and a farm
operation of dairy, beef, hogs, and
During the Red Rose4-H Beef Club tourof Lancaster County farms, thegroup found
found solace from the hot sun underneath the Esbenshade Farms feed equipment.
Front row, from left: Chris Hess, Joellen Donough, Ryan Donough, and Dwayne Llven
good. Second row, from left: Matt Hoover, Travis Donough, John Hess, and Delvin
Kropt. Third row, from left: Lilly Ann Kopp, Laßue Donough, Deb Hess, John Day,
Sean Kopp, Dean Livengood, and Dale Livengood.
poultry.
Frank Stoltzfus, herd manager,
said the farm was begun in 1910 to
supplements the nursing care cen
ter and retirement home on the
grounds. The cow-calf herd has 72
head of Shorthorns, Angus, Sim
mental bulls and 125 Ay shire
cows.
“Shorthorns have great maternal
instincts and make good mothers.
There are definite advantages in
crossbreeding,” Stoltzfus said.
“Dramatic increases are clear as a
bell on indexes. If one cow has a
high index, you can count on heif
ers having the same index range.
Figures mean a lot to use, and we
do use them,” Stoltzfus told the
4-H’ers.
The calves, usually bom in
February are weaned at 205 days
and weigh an average 583 pounds
with some more than 800 pounds.
The cattle are raised on pasture and
forages are used over winter. Due
to extreme dry weather, Stoltzfus
said that hay was put in the pas
tures for the catde to feed on. “It’s
the first time we had to feed hay in
July,” he said.
This year, the cow herd was
doubled. About 140 head are used
each year for consumption at the
Masonic Homes.
The tour included a stop at the
formal gardens and a picnic lunch
on the grounds before members
proceeded to Esbenshade Farms,
at Mount Joy’s north plant.
Esbenshade Farms
Glen Esbenshade owns the
Mount Joy operation, which is
Pennsylvania’s largest egg pro
cessing complex. It has more than
640,000 layers in seven chicken
houses.
Barry Renno, manager,
explained the egg processing oper
ation to the Beef Club members,
who are familiar with beef, not
chickens. The egg processing
complex includes a feed mill and
trucking operation for eggs and
feed.
Shavers, Babcock, DeKalb,
Delta, and Delta XL breeds are
used in the laying operation.