Jill Harnish Follows Her Father’s Example
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Fanning Staff
CHRISTIANA (Lancaster Co.)
For most of her life, Lancaster
County Dairy Princess Jill Hamish
has listened to her dad tell friends,
Tm lucky I don’t need to work for
a living because I can make a liv
ing off my hobby.”
His philosophy sounds great to
Jill, her sister Jenny, and brother
Brian. All three decided to follow
in their dad’s footsteps to make a
living off their hobby farming.
R. Edwin Hamish shakes his
head as he says, “Now I got bad
luck. I must buy three farms
instead of one.”
The Hamish family farm has
been in the family since 1934. In
1970, Ed purchased the 200-acre
Christiana farm from his parents.
He also rents an additional
200-acre neighboring farm.
“In the beginning, I liked the
field work better than milking
cows, but I soon learned that
there’s more money in cows and if
you’re going to make money, you
got to pay attention to your cows,”
Hamish said.
As his love for cows grew so did
his children. Now Brian, 23, works
full time on the farm and has his
own combine business. Jenny
recently married Gary Bowman
who farms in Paradise, and
17-year-old Jill has a passion for
cows and vows to remain in dairy
farming. She likes it so much that
the evening of her first date was
Nicknamed the Hay King, Ed Harnish checks to see If the
hay is drying properly.
Lancaster County Dairy Princess Jill Harnlsh with her parents, Ed ai
front of their dairy farm located at Nine Points.
spent milking cows. It was an
evening where everything went
wrong—pipes burst, the compres
sor would not shut off and the
time it took to fix everything
extended long past Jill’s curfew.
Since then, Jill and her date have
had better success when they took
over milking duties.
In addition to milking, Jill takes
a strong interest in studying breed
ing lines. She and her father like to
debate different breeding philoso
phies, which Jill claims that she
often wins.
Her father good-naturedly said,
“Although I’m the overseer, I just
do whatever they (the kids) tell me
to do.”
Over the years, Jill has pur
chased 12 of her own cows. She
buys registered Holsteins. She
said, “I look at the breeding, the
potential to milk, and for some
thing that looks like it will last”
In the fall, Jill will be a senior at
Solanco High School where she is
active in FFA. Last year, Jill was
part of the dairy judging team that
competed at the national
convention.
Keeping Up-to-date
Jill definitely plans to continue
dairy farming, but her plans for
college are undecided. She said
that if she does go to college it
probably won’t be ag related since
agriculture is constandy changing
and much of the written informa
tion is outdated. She believes that
she can keep more up-to-date by
rf
As Lancaster County Dairy Pi boxes v romotlon
ai material that she stores In the wash house shown in the background. Her parents,
Ed and Arlene, dissembled the building that was on Ed’s parents home and erected it
as a place tor Arlene to make and store crafts.
r|^l|
... shows off one of her favorite cows. The state dairy princess pageant wl
with the Solanco Fair where she shows sheep, pigs, steers, and cows.
reading dairy-related articles and
talking to other farmers.
“You pick up small things here
and there and leant by trial and
enor. Just because something
works for one guy doesn’t mean it
will for others. You’ve got to learn
to decipher what to apply.”
For the past one and a half years,
Wh
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es
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the Hamishes have been feeding a
total mixed ration to the herd and
notice that herd averages are up to
20,000 pounds, 810 fat, and 660
protein.
About three years ago, Hamish
returned to the old tradition of
housing dry cows on a manure
pack with straw and com fodder
used as bedding.
“The advantage is that it keeps
cows off concrete, which is better
for their legs, and it reduces udder
endema,” Hamish said?
Heifers are bred at IS months
and milking is done in a stall bam.
Hay King
Those who know Ed well refer
to him as the Hay King, for he has
received grand champion ribbons
in two out of three categories for
hay at Ag Progress, reserve
champion at the Pennsylvania
Farm Show, and grand champion
at the Solanco Fair.
When pressed for his secret for
V&mesiead
tMoips
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conflict
growing top quality hay, he
replied, “Do you think I’m going
to allow you to print that in Lan
caster Farming? Then I couldn’t
win anymore.”
He did say that he uses a drying
agent that only works in lagoons,
not on grass.
Multiple Talents
A teen with multiple talents, Jill
is an accomplished artist who won
her first art award in first grade and
went on to win many more. The
most notable, according to Jill, is
the one chosen for the Scholastic
Art Show. In other years, she won
gold keys for her work, but this
year, her work went on for national
exhibit.
The type of art Jill does depends
the mood she is in. Jill said,
“Sometimes I like wild and mod
em. Other times, traditional.”
(Turn to Pago B 3)