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Gl4-Lancaster Farming, Friday, January 10, 1997
Walkers Ready
For Farm Show
JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
THOMAS VILLE (York Co.)
—The show box has been cleaned
out and restocked. Their Walk-Le
farm sign is ready to hang.
Feet are trimmed and some
rough clipping done on their four
Farm Show-bound Holsteins.
Probably, a few extra clothes
and snacks will be packed along
with all the other supplies this year
just in case it snows.
While Farm Show officials
hope the weatherman forecasts a
run of pleasant January weather,
Michelle Walker, 14, figures she
would not be upset if a repeat of
last year’s blizzard hit. She and
her brother Brad, 20. were snowed
in at the 1996 Farm Show, while
their brother Greg, 18, and parents
Brenda and Leroy battled to finish
the chores and make it to the Hols
tein show after some two feet of
drifting snow blanketed the
region.
“It was fun,” says Michelle, of
the howling blizzard that mar
ooned exhibitors inside the com
plex and kept would-be crowds
snowed-in at home. “There were
only a few people that came and it
was like a big party among far
mers that were there exhibiting
animals.”
“We piled everything in the
stalls and Grandpa took the trailer
home so he wouldn’t have to
shovel it out later,” she recalls of
the rush to exit the parking lot
before the flakes began piling up.
Even being picked up, by
friends, while in her sleeping bag
and being dumped out into a
snowdrift did not dampen the
York County 4-H dairy exhibi
tor’s enthusiasm to return this year
and chance another round of the
exceptionally bad weather that
plagued the Farm Show’s 1996
run.
The Walker family first showed
at the Farm Show in the
mid-1980s, when their children
began raising 4-H project animals.
Leroy grew up on the Glen
Rock dairy farm of his parents.
Hazel and Norman Walker, and
worked for several years in the
area as a dairy herdsman. He and
Brenda started their own milking
herd in 1990 on a rented farm near
New Freedom, then purchased
their farm at Thomasville in 1994.
Cleaning out and checking the necessities in the showbox Is a must-do before the
Walkers head for the Farm Show building In Harrisburg. Brad, Michelle and Greg take
inventory of what they need to add to their supplies.
Exhibiting at the Farm Show
has been a favorite family activity
since entering their first heifer
about 10 years ago. In fact, when
the Walkers discussed a possible
January visit to Disney World
some time ago. Brad opposed the
timing because it meant missing
the Harrisburg event.
Four head are entered in the
Walk-Le show string for this
year’s exhibit Michelle’s year
ling, Greg’s yearling and aged
cow, and Brad’s 5-year-old in the
open class show.
Absent from the lineup after
many years, however, will be
Brad’s junior show reserve grand
champion from last year. Warns
Sexy Lady.
Lady, an EX-2E-91 Sexation
daughter and the undisputed
“queen” of the Walker’s herd until
she was lost a month ago,
freshened early in December with
a bull calf, then died very unex
pectedly from internal bleeding.
Efforts woe made to salvage 13
eggs from her reproductive sys
tem, but none were found to be
transferrable. She had been named
supreme at the York Fair’s junior
show in 1993 and 1994, took first
in the junior division of her class
at the Holstein Association’s 1996
spring and fall championship
shows, was fourth in the junior
division at the September Harris
burg All-American.
However, the family’s pride
and pet will be recognized post
humously, having just been
named the Junior All-
Pennsylvania winner in the
100,000-pound category by the
state Holstein Association.
In four lacations. Lady made
more than 123,000 pounds life
time. including her last 391-day
lactation of 39,000 pounds of
milk.
Brad does have one heifer from
Lady, an August-bom embryo
transfer calf. He also plans to raise
her two bull calves, the
December-born natural calf and
one August-bom ET.
Brenda purchased for Leroy his
first registered calf as a Christmas
present about 10 years ago.
Descendants of that calf are still
part of the Walker’s 103-head
registered Holstein herd, which
recently topped the York County
DHIA production list for 1996.
The Walker family carries their farm sign to load on the truck in making final prepa
rations for exhibiting at the Farm Show. In front are Leroy and Michelle, Brenda and
G v behind and Brad at the top of the steps.
In October 1995, the Walkers
switched to a 3X milking sche
dule, increasing their rolling herd
average over 5,000 pounds and
gaining an average production
boost of 10 pounds per cow. Their
November 1996 RHA was 25,440
milk, 924 fat and 815 protein.
The Walk-Le herd now aver
ages about 80 pounds of milk per
head per day, on a carefully
balanced TMR ration geared to a
split grouping, one for top produc
ers and one for heifers. Both feed
ing and health programs are moni
tored closely with the assistance
of nutrition and veterinary
consultants.
“Quality of forage and cow
comfort,” arc two factors that Ler
oy pinpoints as key to their
increased production.
Putting up quality forage this
year was a challenge, with the sea
son’s prolonged periods of mois
ture, and feedstuffs are tested
frequently.
Pillow mattresses in the free
stalls, increased ventilation in the
bam and lining the feed bunk with
a smooth, non-concrete surface
have all enhanced overall cow
health, comfort and feed intake.
Since his graduation from Sus
quehannock High School in June
1995, Brad is full-time herdsman.
He milks the 3 and 11 p.m. shifts
in the double-five parlor, handles
freshenings and dryoffs, and
selects the matings, while Leroy
does the A.I. work in the herd.
Brenda does the 7 a.m. milking,
and Leroy fills in when needed on
any shift.
dreg, a junior at York Vo-Tech
studying welding, is kept busy as
the farm’s machinery and equip
ment “fix-er,” as well as being
responsible for evening and
weekend feeding chores. He was
recently recognized by his 4-H
leaders for his activities in the
program'this season.
Michelle is an eighth-grade stu
dent at Spring Grove Middle
School. She raises calves and
waters the heifers, helps to switch
(Turn to Pago Q2I)