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Planning For Future Key For These Susquehanna County Farmers
(Continued from Pag* A 1)
“When a farm is sold around
here it is purchased for the most
part by an absentee owner,” said
Mark. “It’s cost-prohibitive to buy
land for dairy farming right here in
the shadows of Elk Mountain.”
So far the Wilmots have been
lucky. They’ve been able to rent
additional land at a very low price.
Although in the past they had
considered buying more land,
today they are happy leasing the
ground they need and take care of
(he ground as if it were their own.
They do realize that the day may
come when they can no longer rent
the ground for farming purposes.
That’s why the Wilmots have an
agreement in writing that ensures
them some protection.
“We have it in writing, so we
have use of the land for two years
after we pay one year’s rent to get
our seed and fertilizer out of it,”
said Sandy. “We looked into buy
ing more land when we were youn
ger, but now we’re not paying the
taxes in rent, so it’s stupid to think
about buying.”
Said Mark, “You’re also a little
more open when the day comes
that you don’t want to milk cows.
You don’t have all this land and
wonder what to do with it”
One of eight children, Mark was
bom and raised on this farm, and
knew he wanted to farm from the
start.
“I graduated from high school in
1964 and it seemed that all I
wanted to do was take over the
farm,” said Mark.
Sandra was not bom on a farm,
but got a fast agricultural educa
tion when her parents moved from
New Jersey to a nearby farm when
she was 10 years old.
Her father and mother wanted
something that they could do
together, so out of their three
options a hotel, gas station, or a
farm they chose farming.
“They didn’t know what
machine did what, they didn’t
know what you did when, they
didn’t know you had to breed a
cow to make her give
milk ... they knew nothing. I
thought it was great, because I was
learning everything at the same
time they were. We were a unit all
working together. I thought 1
moved to heaven,” said Sandy.
Even though times were tough,
Sandy knew at the age of 12 she
wanted to marry a farmer.
So in 1969, Mark and Sandra
purchased the farm. A few years
later they built an addition on the
bam and cm the house. They had
two children, Eric and Julie, neith
er of whom are interested in taking
over the farm.
Eric is in his last year at
Camegie-Mellon, studying indust
rial design, and Julie is in her sec
ond year at the College of Pharma
cy in Albany, N.Y.
The realization that they will not
farm forever coupled with the fact
that neither of their children was
interested in taking over the farm
provided two of the reasons why
Sandy participated in the Dairy
MAP program last winter.
In the course of the program,
participants learned about
decision-making, developing
long-range plans, making lists, and
communicating with others.
“Everyone (who participated)
got something different out of it,”
said Sandy, “Because whatever
your weakness was, that’s what
you picked up on. I think the point
was to make you realize how much
you’re handling and how much is
really on your shoulders, and so
you just don’t assume it’s all going
to take care of itself. You’ve got to
really sit down and really do a
good job of thinking things out and
planning things. If something’s a
problem, you’ve got to handle it.”
Another plus of the program is
that it provides an opportunity to
get together with other farmers and
compare notes.
“I really enjoy getting together
with other farmers and just talking
about your problems. Farmers
always complain. They complain
about the price of milk, they com
plain about how much work they
do, oh they just complai
n ... always have, always will.
But this doesn’t solve anything.
All it does is make others think
you’re a bunch of bellyachers. But
when you go to something like this
and somebody directs the conver
sation so that you’re actually talk
ing and not complaining, you
always get a lot out of it yourself
because you always have things
you can take home with you.” she
said.
Instructors often stress the
importance of writing things
down, a task that Sandy had
already mastered.
“You never really know how
much you do until you write the
things down,” she said. “If you
write down what you do instead of
always saying I have to do this and
I have to do that, I think you feel
better.”
The Wilmots milk 45 Holsteins
and raise 40-45 heifers. They made
the move from grade to registered
animals about IS years ago in
order to increase the value of their
herd.
“We bought about 10 registered
calves per year,” said Sandy.
"Bobby ‘TR’ Williams found us
good calves. We did that for three
years.”
Once all the replacements were
registered, the Wilmots gradually
weeded out the grade animals.
"Now they’re all registered and
homebred,” said Mark. “We have a
closed herd.”
Currently their herd averages
21,700 pounds of milk with 618
pounds of protein and 787 pounds
of fat.
Although they are former mem
bers of NFO and still believe in the
principles of the organization, the
Wilmots are now independent pro
ducers and ship to Reddington
Farms in New Jersey.
“I still am a firm believer (that)
if farmers gripe and complain
about the price of milk and if they
want a certain price, the farmers
have to price it NFO is the only
organization that I’ve ever found
that seems as if they have a viable
way of doing that,” said Mark.
The NFO membership dropped
after other farmers slowly moved
to cooperatives or stopped
farming.
Because there is no hired labor
on the Wilmot’s farm, the two try
to make the most of everything.
They do more haylage than dry hay
and try to do mote with mechanical
help.
They also raise their own com
for com silage and feed a topdress
ing formulated by their
nutritionist
For the past few years, Sandra
has also bred the cows herself
using the top bulk in the industry.
“I’m doing pretty well,” she
said.
The future for the Wilmots k
exciting. They hope to be out of
debt in the next four years and are
looking at all of their options.
“The kids will be out of college
in four years, and basically we’ll
be out of our long-term debt. That
way we can milk fewer cows, or
sell the cows and raise heifers. It
will give us infinite options,” said
Sandra.
The couple has also tried to take
control of their financial situation
so they can retire comfortably
without selling everything they
have worked for.
“We’ve poured money into the
farm, literally, for the past 25
years. And then when the kids
started college, you look at things
differently. It used to be a family
farm and we all did things
together. And we enjoyed working
together. But without the lads, all
of a sudden it’s just Mark and me
working hard. It really changes
things. We didn’t know it would
change our outlook on the whole
farm.
“Now we say, well, the farm is
nice, but let’s go vkit the kids. All
of a sudden it’s back to farming
and we have to change our goals.”
Ironically, just before attending
the MAP program, the Wilmots
had a chance to focus on the
(Turn to Pago A 24)