84-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 17, 1994
Brubaker Farms
(ConllnuMi from Pago B 2)
age was needed since with they
farm 700 to 800 acres.
A 1,000,000 gallon pourcd-in
placc manure system takes care of
manure needs.
The office is decorated like a
home with color-coordinated
walls, furnishings, and flooring.
It’s in this room that the family
often gathers while Luke’s wife
Barb and Mike’s wife Lisa take
care of the bookkeeping and pay
roll. A cow-shaped cookie jar
holds cookies for the five grand
children who often join their
parents there.
The walls are lined with large
matted color photos of the grand
children, taken by daughter Cindy,
who is known for her artistic
ability.
Cindy is married to Marshall
Meador. They live in the farm
house and have four sons, Mitch
ell, 7; Brett, 4; Zachary, 2; and
Lucas, 1.
Although Marshall is a full-time
pilot for Delta Airlines, he enjoys
“pitching in some unskilled labour
needed around the farm,” he said.
The parents encouraged their
children to get a college education
before deciding to choose farming
as a career.
“We wanted them to choose
farming by choice and not by
necessity,” their mother said. “We
think it is important to have that
degree sort of as an insurance
policy.”
Five years ago, when Mike gra
duated from Penn State with an ag
business management degree, he
knew that the home farm was the
place for him. He and his wife Lisa
and their 9-month-old daughter
Molly live in a home that adjoins
the farm land.
Tony graduated this spring from
Messiah College with a business
administration degree. He said that
he had never wavered in his desire
to farm full-time. But to be able to
support three full-time partners,
changes needed to be made.
Luke said, “We realized the old
facility was not capable of support
ing three families so we chose to
expand in order to do what we
enjoy.”
Timing seemed perfect for mak-
ing changes. Luke and an older
brother, Jim. had farmed in part
nership since 1962, when they
began with 18 cows and used a
two-row com planter to plant 123
acres. Now, the brother wanted to
phase out of the farming operation
to open a bed and breakfast named
Olde Country Log House Farm.
The dissolvement of that partner
ship was affable and one that
enabled Luke to form a partnership
with his sons Mike and Tony.
With many doomsayers in the
farming business, the decision was
not an easy one.
Although Luke considers him
self average to aggressive when it
comes to keeping on the cutting
edge of agriculture, he was a bit
cautious about the expansion.
“The bigger you are the big
ger the losses,” he said. “It was
never my goal to make it big and
accumulate a lot If you own a
house with a roof, have a good
family, and enough money to pay
the bills, what more can you ask?
“Formerly we were milking in a
stanchion bam. We had two tie
stall bams with 100 head in each.
For years the boys would talk
about adding a parlour. Bull didn’t
take them seriously until Tony was
halfway through college. Then I
knew that we had to do something
to be able to support three families
on the farm. We decided to coun
teract the doomsayers. I want to
work with the boys and make it
worthwhile for them. After all, you
can’t take it (njoney) along.”
Luke pointed to the picture that
hangs above his desk. It’s a paint
ing of a businessman'at a desk con
sulting with Jesus.
“It’s the Lord who we counsel
for guidance. We don’t just make
decisions on our own,” Luke said.
His sons agreed. Mike said,
“Our main goal is allegiance to the
Lord. We work to make that a top
priority.”
At first, the Brubakers planned
to expand on the home farm where
Luke had grown up and raised his
own family. But it is located next
to a development so the family
decided to build on what they call
the Musser farm, which Lute had
purchased 18 years earlier for its
adjoining land. The farm had lots
of obsolete chicken houses, which
Brubaker used for raising hogs
before the new facilities were
built.
“I’m totally for using what you
have and doing the best for it. The
boys were creative with modem
trend of ventilation and renovated
the chicken houses into modem
designed calf and heifer bams with
lots of southern exposure,” Luke
said. “We arc still using all the
farms and all the buildings but with
different purposes.”
The whole family is delighted
with the new facility.
“I’m grateful to dad for having
things established so that we could
do this. We’ve been hoe only
three weeks and almost half the
herd are first calve heifers, but the
herd averages 62'A pounds milk
production,” Tony said.
He attributes it to cow comfort
“You can tell the cows are really
happy. They are so comfortable
and content in the new bam. With
the mattresses, they lay where they
should. It’s so easy to manage
because the gravity flow takes it
right into the manure pit” he said.
The cows are milked three times
daily and rather than more work
the Brubakers consider it less man
ual labour than when they were in
their outdated bams. Then it
required five people to milk 200
cows. Now it takes only one to one
and a half persons to milk 300
cows,” Tony said.
The three take turns getting
things started at 4:30 a.m. The
remaining two start work at 6:30
a.m. Each takes one nightime shift
and rely on hired help for the
remainder.
They oversee the evening milk
ing by viewing it on the computer
in the comfort of the office. It’s
possible to detect exactly what’s
happening in the bam because the
screen shows each cow as it’s
being milk, if the milker shuts
down, milk weights for each cow,
records times, compares produc-
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tion input and output costs.
“We don’t have the hands on
time that we did before, but the
computer allows us to spot prob
lems so that we can stay on top
without every day hands on milk
ing,” Mike said.
During the expansion, the part
ners purchased cows but ordinaril
ly 911 replacements are home bred
with AI.
Although the three share duties,
Mike and Tony manage the cows
together with Mike specializing in
dairy nutrition and Tony in herd
health. Dad is general manager and
takes care of the hog operation,
Mike and Mom manage the chick
ens and Mike also takes care of
field operations.
One of the agreements before
making the decision to expand was
that Luke could come and go as he
pleased. At his age. he wanted to
slow down from the hurried pace
that he had always kept. Now the
boys joke that he never completes
a milking, but Luke likes running
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for parts, phone work, taking care
of the details that general mana
gers do, and the public relations
required.
Luke is most grateful that, for
the first time in his working life, he
doesn’t need to get up early every
morning. He likes being able to see
all the cows and to detect when one
is in heat just by driving through in
his car while he’s still dressed in a
suit and tie.
Theoretically the brothers have
every other Sunday off, but time
off is easily negotiable.
All family members are active
in church Work, Mike and Lisa are
youth leaders. Tony teaches Bible
school and works on person to pa
son relationships.
The groundwork for family
togetherness was actually laid
when the family was growing up.
Barb’s advice to her sons when
looking for a spouse is “Don’tpick
a wife for active participation on
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