VOL 37 NO. 12
Listen To
Customer,
Farm Market
Panelists Say
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.) —A
sellout crowd jammed the Hershey
Convention Center Trinidad
Room on Tuesday to hear how
retail marketers succeeded in the
vegetable and fruit farm market
industry.
More than 400 people attended
the afternoon session, “Making
Big Bucks Successes and Fai
lures in Retail Markets” at this
year’s Pennsylvania Vegetable
Conference and Trade Show.
Farm market representatives
from Pennsylvania and other states
listened to the panel describe cer
tain “secrets of the trade” in run
ning a successful direct marketing
business.
What the panelists agreed on
was simple you have to have
quality merchandise and the right
atmosphere that keeps customers
coming back.
Quality to start
"It’s easier to sell in the market
when you have quality to start
with,” said BobTrax, Trax Farms,
Finleyville. Trax Farms operates a
vegetable and fruit production
operation on 375 acres and leases
another 250 acres. Trax said that
the store regularly stocks com,
tomatoes, and peaches all through
the season, because people come
in “day after day’ ’ for those items.
He said it is important not only to
pick quality produce, but to choose
quality employees.
Several marketing ideas tried by
Trax Farms includes an 8-ounce
bottle of cider made into a six-pack
version. During the apple season,
about 200 bags of seven to eight
(Turn to Pago A 34)
Lancaster County Farmers’
Association Elects
First Woman President
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
ELIZABETHTOWN (Lancas
ter Co.) Lancaster County Far
mers’ Association chose its first
woman president recently.
“I didn’t want the job. I don’t
have time. And I said ‘no’ two
times,” Jane Balmer said.
But in typical Balmer style, Jane
said, “Somebody’s got to do it I
didn’t want to lose the Association
so I took the job.”
Jane is familiar with doing jobs
that need to be done. In 1978, her
39-year-old husband died of a
heart attack. “I had two loves: my
husband and the farm. I lost my
husband, but I wasn’t about to lose
the farm,” she said.
Through hard work and deter
mination, Jane has been able to
Four Sections
Zoann Parker, Lancaster 4-H agent, shows the design of
the special Wlnross truck now available. An order form
appears on page 812. Parker will be soon be leaving for
Poland to help start a 4-H program In that country. Photo by
Andy
Oakenbound Farms No. 8 In Nation For Bulls Tested
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
RICHLAND (Berks
Co.) More than 20 bulls from
the Oakenbound herd are in USDA
animal model summaries, making
the Berks County dairy farm
eighth in the United States for the
most number of bulls being tested.
According to the data, the
Oakenbound farm has 27 proven
bulls averaging a +124 pound for
protein, +1,023 pounds milk and
predicted transmitting abilities
(PTAs) of +29 protein and +34 fat
Impressive, by any standards.
And it is not lost on the Trout
man brothers. Nelson and Richard
maintain two farms with a total of
188 acres. She eventually sold out
the dairy cows and concentrates on
raising 100,000 chickens, 80 hogs,
and about 55 steers.
Her two children were teen
agers at the time, but now her
daughter. Belle, is married and has
a daughter, and her 24-year-old
son, Bryan, works full time on the
farm.
Balmer also has a full-time and
several part-time employees, but
it’s she who does “everything but
the mechanical work” to keep the
Elizabethtown farm profitable.
Her husband had been a member
of the Lancaster County Fanners*
Association. When he died, Bal
mer saw the benefits of remaining
part of the Association, which has
(Turn to Pag* A 32)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 1, 1992
Jr., who said they are pleased with
the results of their breeding
program.
But selling breeding stock is a
side business. The main business
at Oakenbound Farm is running a
profitable dairy operation that can
pay its bills and maintain two
households.
They do that by milking an aver
age 90 registered and grade
Holsteins.
“When Butch (Richard Jr.) and I
took over, we made some major
changes in management to go
along with changes in the industry.
“My goal is to really be profit
able and take care of our cattle so
Lancaster County Fanners’ Association president Jane Balmer believes in doing
what needs to be done even if it isn’t easy. Widowed in 1978, Balmer has been deter
mined to continue fanning. It has not been easy, and Balmer does not foresee easy
changes in the farm economy either, but she is convinced that the Pennsylvania Far
mer’s Association is the best organization to legislate changes.
Agent To Bring
4-H To Poland
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Until recently, for the children
of Poland, it was all work and no
play, which made for some pain
fully dull days.
But thanks to the efforts of lead
ing agriculture experts who recen
tly toured the large eastern Euro
pean country, some rays of hope
for the children and for the coun
trywide ag industry are shining in.
Several Pennsylvania represen
tatives will soon make a journey to
the country to further the efforts of
youth in agriculture. One of those
to introduce the 4-H way of life to
Polish children will be Zoann
Parker, Lancaster County 4-H
agent
The children of Poland “work,
they go to school, they sleep,’ ’ said
Parker. “Again, they work, they
go to school, they sleep. They need
a social outlet And so 4-H can
offer that to them.”
Mission to Poland
On February 14, a one-month
we have longevity,” Nelson said.
The family operation is basical
ly comprised of a 127-freestall
building and a 63-stanchion milk
ing bam. There are also calf, heifer
and bull facilities, a TMR setup
(They have been using TMR for at
list IS years and are on their third
mixer.), and bunk feeding.
The farm sits in a tiny, smooth
edged valley north of RL 422, near
the Lebanon County border. It’s
not very visible from the road
except for the roofs of the build
ings and the silos jutting high. The
soil is deep and good for produc
tion of the com, alfalfa and soy
beans they raise on the farm’s
60c Per Copy
mission to Poland begins for a
team of U.S. extension profession
als, including Dr. Donald Evans,
Penn State University, chair of the
team; Dr. Daniel Pfannstiel, Texas
A & M Univeristy; and Parker.
The team will arrive in Warsaw,
Poland, where they will meet and
discuss current high school ag cur
riculums with the Polish minister
of agriculture and food economy.
Then, for nearly a month, the team
will visit sites in south, west, and
east Poland working with the
schools, local extension offices,
and school administrations, said
Parker.
“I’m going to be out in the
schools and the community, and
we are going to start a couple of
very basic local 4-H clubs, teach
them some of the games that we
play that teach leadership skills,
how to run a 4-H project, and do
some hands-on programming,’’
she said.
Parker, working with an inter
preter, will be bringing in 4-H pro
ject books, such as gardening, rab
(Turn to Pago A2O)
acreage and the additional rental
property.
The brothers are in their third
year of jointly purchasing the farm
from their father Richard Sr., who
lives in a house at the mouth of the
farm lane where a hand-painted
Holstein sign proclaims the
entrance to Oakenbound Farm.
There’s also a shed and a sign at
the lane entrance which advertises
the Troutmans’ willingness to take
neighbors’ newspapers to use as
bedding.
Richard Sr. contributes to the
operation, doing jobs such as
watering and feeding silage to
(Turn to Page A 24)
19.00 Per Year