A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 18, 1994
Hunsbergers To Host Somerset County Day At Farm
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
DAVIDSVILLE (Somerset
Co.) Like a freight train about
to roll into his station, the 11th
annual Somerset County Day at
the Farm is sweeping upon Bill
Hunsberger in a hurry. It is on
Sunday, June 19, and Father’s
Day to boot.
“I don’t know,” sighs the slight
ly overwhelmed dairy farmer,
“I’m getting knots in my stomach.
There’s so much to do,” he says.
He’s right, of course and speaks
from experience that has no doubt
dimmed a tad from when he and
wife, Jearkiette, hosted the first
event back in 1984. He recalls
some 800 visitors attended.
Sponsored by the Somerset
County Farmers’ Association, the
free event has grown in both scope
and attendance throughout the
intervening years. Officials now
charge $1 for vehicle parking
space.
The popular hay bale toss and
milk chugging contest, bam tours,
hay rides, sheep shearing and
milking demonstration and petting
zoo promise an afternoon of great
country fun.
Square dancers will be swingin’
their partners to Day at the Farm
“mood music.” And folks really
should demand a fiddle perfor
mance by 16-yr. old Matt Huns
berger, the eldest of the six kids.
Matthew can really saw the fiddle!
Matt’s so dam talented with the
violin that he wound up a member
of the Johnstown Youth Sym
phony Orchestra some five years
ago and they’ve still got him.
Commodity queens and prin
cesses will help the various agri
cultural organizations promote
farming through food samples,
fine exhibits and many door prize
drawings. Day at the Farm, is after
all, an educational event to teach
non-farm consumers about dairy,
beef, lamb, vegetable, maple and
other agriculture products. Agri
culture is the leading industry in
Somerset County.
An added treat at the Hunsber
gers is the cemetery on the hill in
which the remains of Joseph Johns
1,1749-1813, are interred. He was
the founder of Johnstown, a well
known city located just a few
miles north of the Johns
Cemetery.
Visitors to Day at the Farm may
visit the cemetery which will be
staffed that day. Doubtless they
will find themselves so engrossed
by the glorious panorama of
country-side and the history of the
deceased Johns family they’ll lin
ger and linger.
Headstones in the cemetery are
in sequence. Each male was
named Joseph Johns until the
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) The slate secretary of
agriculture this week issued an
advisory statement to beef cattle
and dairy herd owners to have their
animals vaccinated against a new,
acute form of Bovine Viral Diar
rhea (B VD) called “Type 2 BVD.”
BVD is potentially deadly to
bovincs, but cannot be contracted
by humans or other species of farm
and domestic animals. However,
deer a"hd elk arc susceptible.
Symptoms of infection can
include fever, loss of appetite,
depression, diarrhea, abortion, and
in severe cases death. It has been
reported to kill up to half an unpro
tected herd upon initial infection.
fourth generation, when for
unknown reasons, the male
descendent was named Sem.
Joseph was again the name of the
fifth and sixth generation males.
Buried beside them are their
wives.
Hunsbergers, by purchasing the
farm in 1983, have broken a six
generation Johns family owner
ship. The sixth generation Joseph
Johns is 81. With his sister, they
still live in another house on the
farm. According to Hunsberger,
Joe, the last male in the line, never
married and so leaves no male heir
to continue the Johns name and
tradition.
A Bucks County native, Huns
berger worked in Blair Co. before
the Johns farm opportunity
opened to him.
He and Jeannette’s other offs
hoots are Nick, Butch, Reuben,
Lydia and Olivia. The kids are in
4-H, American Youth Soccer
Organization (AYSO), church and
school activities. They all attend
the Johnstown Christian School
and all participate in the Kaufman
Mennonite Church.
Hunsberger, and Dwight Spei
gle, his only full time employee,
are busy with a dairy herd of some
130 Holsteins, including dry
cows. Crops of com, barley and
alfalfa are raised, filling three silos
that are staggered in size.
Two Harvestores flank the old
er concrete silo and hold haylage,
high moisture com and other gras
ses, much of what is raised on
rented acreage. The farm itself has
some 114 acres so Hunsbeiger
rents another 340. He also has
cows at two locations, some six
miles apart, he said.
In the bam whirring fans ensure
a comfortably cool environment
for the cows, which Hunsberger
says are allowed outside for exer
cise an hour each day.
He says his theory is if the cows
are fed right in the bam there’s no
need to pasture them. And he’s a
die-hard believer in that theory.
Right now the rolling herd aver
age is around 22,415. he said.
Hunsberger listens as Speigle
talks about a new problem in a day
of many. “I’m gonna’ take an ear
ly retirement,” Speigle says in
mock seriousness.
A past president of both the
Somerset Co. Farmers’ Asso. as
well as the DHIA, Hunsberger has
no wish to hold high office in the
organizations to which he
belongs.
“I stay clear of those now,” he
says, “there’s a lot of calling
around and I get tired of it”
He’s also a member of Johns
town Christian’s school board, a
church youth leader and in the
county Holstein Asso.
Chronic BVD 2 Threatens, It’s Not Just BVD
Although recommendations to
vaccinate and increase farm biose
cunty against BVD were made last
week by the Field Investigation
Unit (FIU) of the state Animal
Diagnostic Laboratory at Penn
State, there is additional informa
tion in Wolffs statement.
The Penn Slate FIU is part of a
new statewide animal disease
diagnostic program that was
designed to pick up slack in pre
ventative and emergency animal
disease diagnosis and control. In
its report last week, no mention
was made of a potentially deadlier
form of BVD.
Also last week, because the dis
ease has been found in counties in
the northwestern part of the state,
the Pennsylvania Holstein Associ-
The Hunsberger family together on the lawn. From left, Butch, Matt, Nick (back), Bill,
Reuben, Lydia, Olivia, and Jeannette (back).
The history of his farm is pre
cious to Hunsberger. It’s some
thing he intends to preserve. For
that the Johns survivors can be
glad, as can the historians of
Somerset and Cambria Counties.
Although she works parttime in
a doctor’s office, Jeannette, a
licensed practical nurse, is always
transporting some member of her
very active group to an event
The kids were delighted when
Speigle and wife, Lori, gave them
a soccer net for their Christmas
gift Now they hold sibling com
petitions in their own yard.
Hunsberger’s farm is a mile
from Route 403 in Davidsville,
south of Johnstown but north of
Somerset off Route 219. Leave
four-lane 219 at the Davidsville-
Hollsopple exit on Route 403.
Turn at Davidsville’s only traffic
light according to Day at the Farm
signs.
ation canceled its annual Western
Junior Judging School to minimize
chances for exposure to the
disease.
(Its Eastern Junior Judging
School, scheduled for June 29-30,
as of presstime was still planned.
For more information, call the
PH A at (814) 234-0364.)
In his advisory, Wolff said far
mers should tighten biosccurity
practices “because the disease has
been confirmed in herds in north
western Pennsylvania and is sus
pected in animal illnesses at two
farms in Lancaster County.”
In the release, Wolff stated,
“Testing has confirmed that ani
mals were infected with acute
BVD on farms in Crawford and
Mercer counties.
The Bill Hunsberger farm buildings.
The burial site of Joseph Johns I, the founder of Johns
town, will be part of the visit to the Somerset County Day at
the Hunsberger farm on June 19.
“Considering normal large
scale movements of animals from
sales and from farm-to-farm, it
would be prudent for farmers in all
counties to institute precautions
against BVD. Many veterinarians
advise vaccinating herds to pre
vent infection.”
Herds in Erie, Crawford, Mercer
and Lancaster counties arc under
investigation, according to Wolff.
According to the release,
“While a mild form of BVD is
commonly found in many herds in
the United States, recent investiga
tions suggest cattle herds are being
exposed to a more acute form of
the disease.
“Cattle owners should minimize
contact with other herds and con
sult veterinary practitioners for
•a**** >»’•«*♦
advise regarding protective mea
sures. Persons having contact with
cattle exhibiting signs of, or
known to have been exposed to,
BVD should avoid contact with
other herds and should change clo
thing and footwear before leaving
affected farms.
“Otherwise people who might
deliver farm foods or supplies also
should minimize their travel
between herds and employ biosc
curity precautions that would help
stop spread of the disease,’
according to the news release.