An Extension Agent’s Life: Family, Friends,
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Father and son, Ken Winebark and Brandon lead Brandon’s Simmental heifer up
pasture.
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
MYERSTOWN (Lebanon
Co.) Almost everyone in Leba
non County who has a farm or a
child in 4-H has probably heard of
or met Kenneth Winebark, county
livestock extension agent.
But especially in the past year
and a half, his reputation has
grown, even among many outside
of agriculture and in other counties
of the state.
Through doing what he' consid
ered was routine obligatidn of his
job, knowledge of Winebark also
has spread.
He put together an information
pamphlet, “Please, Don’t Kill My
Cow,” to help with farm-city
relations.
The pamphlet was the result of
two things: an accidental killing of
seven cows from eating yew (a
residential ornamental bush) cut
tings which had been dumped in a
pasture by a neighbor; and because
a farmer’s wife asked for informa
tion to give to city neighbors living
on the edge of their pasture, so the
neighbors would know better.
First printed in the fall of 1991
for Farm-City Week, the pamphlet
has become very much in Remand.
In fact, he is to be a guest on the
Penn State University produced,
public television program, “Panor
ama,” on Dec. 7.
“The urban-rural interface is
tighter, tighter and lighter,” he
said. “Houses are next to pastures.
Developments are peopled with
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residents with no agricultural
background. There arc wrong
assumptions made that yard trim
mings are safe, but it takes educa
tion to allow people to act
intelligently.”
Distributing information has
potential drawbacks it can be
used for ill will.
But while the potential for
sortieone to deliberately poison a
farmer’s herd is real, Winebark
said that the benefits of neighbors
knowing what can kill a cow out
weighs the fear of destructive acts.
“There’s more of a risk involved
of not knowing what plants are
toxic,” Winebark said. “And, the
general public health standpoint,
it’s a lot better for them to know,
because most of these plants are
toxic to humans also.”
It also speaks to basic funda
mentals of American civil
rights fear of potential evil acts
should not hamper or discourage
the freedom of information to
Americans. An educated citizen
ship is the foundation of democra
cy and the key to its success.
“This is Penn State Extension.
We’re about education, not
supressing information. And we’re
charged with providing the best
information available to all clien
tele, not just farmers,” he said.
Furthermore, those now
knowledgeable neighbors may be
able to spot dangerous debris
dumped in a field and call'the far
mer to let him know.
Winebark said that, although the
information published in the pam
phlet is contained in numerous text
and reference bodes, it is not wide
ly disseminated.
“You don’t know how these
things really do hit, until it hap
pens," he said.
Accidental poisonings of lives
tock is something that concerns
farmers and animal owners
because when it happens, an ani-
A family that grooms together... Janet and Ken Winebark with son Brandon and
daughter Janine take the curry brushes to Brahdon’s Simmental heifer.
mal suffers, someone has to pay
the bill, and if we keep that from
occuring, that’s also our job,”
Winebark said.
But there’s more to the blond,
curly-haired man who doesn’t shy
from taking gentle control of a
large crowd.
And though his face may be
familiar to many because of his
judging livestock shows in Pen
nsylvania, Maryland, etc., many
aren’t familiar with the backround
of this 35-year-old livestock
specialist.
It was early March 1984 when
Ken Winebark and his wife Janet,
holding their 9-day-old baby girl,
drove into the Lebanon Valley for
the first time.
Winebark, fresh out of college
with a master’s degree was seeking
his first assignment as an Penn
State Extension agent and he had
two positions from which to
choose.
One job was in Washington
County, an area similar to his
childhood home in Indiana Coun
ty. The other job was in Lebanon
County.
Ken said the drive to Lebanon
was esthetically appetizing with
the rolling fertile farmland, its
well-kept farms, the rivers and
trees and the open valleys.
When they got to Lebanon, a
4-H leader. Donna McConaughey,
met them and put them up for the
night. He said it was the first sign
of the gregariousness of the Leba
non agriculture community and its
interest in agriculture’s
continuance.
The next morning, with flakes
from the start of an unusually late
snowstorm falling, the 4-H leader
drove Ken, Janet and the baby,
nicknamed C.G., to the farm of the
late Cyrus Bomberger, to meet
with some of the people in Leba
non agriculture.
In a rarity of weather for early
March, 8 inches of snow forced
Winebarks to stay the night at
McConaughey’s house.
But the Winebarks were certain
where they wanted to live.
“I was hooked,” Winebark said
recently at his north Myers town
farmette. “You visit a farm like
that and it makes you want to work
in the area."
The Bombetger farm is a farm
calander photo farm. It is pictur
esque from any angle, any season,
a tribute to the efforts of Cyrus and
his interest in perserving and hon
oring the family century farm.
Farming
Especially with a heavy blanket
of fresh snow erasing any possible
blemishes.
A long, neatly manicured per
fect gravel lane leads from a pas
toral bend in Rt. 241 back to the
farm.
The lane gently cuts through a
low protective ridge and opens up
to reveal, on the left, a several-acre
pond with a pier.
Just beyond the pond, a large
while bank bam and freestall sit on
a slowly rising southern-exposure
slope. Behind the bam and frees
tall are distinct symetrical blue
silos stacked side-by-side, right to
left, shortest to tallest
The farmhouse is a big old struc
ture and provides a counterbalance
to the scene.
With carefully pruned maple
trees at the house, and small patch
es of sky-reaching black walnut
trees in the pastures, the farm is
perfect enough to be shrunk down
and put on a model train layout
But Winebaik said it was not
only the beauty of the Lebanon
area and its strong agriculture and
agricultural support industry that
made the area an attractive place to
work. It was the people, Winebark
said.
“Without question, this was for
me. Driving in on (Route) 322 was
beautiful and I knew some folks
around here that I met through
livestock shows which made me
feel at home.”
Fresh on the job with a very
young baby, the Winebarks set up
house first in a farmhouse they
shared with a Mennonite couple,
Gerald and Mary Jane Martin.
Ken said it was his first experi
ence with followers of the Menno
nite faith, he had heard and read
about their plain ways, and the two
couples became best of friends.
They still are today, even
though the Martins have since
moved to upstate New York.
“We played softball, went shop
ping and picking strawberries
together, those kinds of things."
Ken said.
Eventually, Ken and Janet
moved to a farmette north of
Myers town.
It is a small farmette, that sits
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