A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 6, 1998 MARSHA ANN CHESS Mercer Co. Correspondent JAMESTOWN (Mercer Co.) Albin and Betty Wester, Jamestown, Mercer County, started dairy fanning a little dif ferently than many other farmers. It all started when they brought a family Jersey cow to their eight acre home 22 years ago. It grew into a Jersey farm in the early 1980 s. Today they milk 57 head and have an expansion in prog ress. Westers still own only the ori ginal eight acres, but they rent ap proximately 200 acres on which they grow com silage and hay. They buy all of their grain and some hay. In the past they bought nearly all of their feed. Despite their small acreage, manure has never really been a problem. “We’re out of the way up here, so it’s not a real problem,” said Albin, adding, “We take great pains to keep it off the road and make sure the wind is not blowing toward the neighbors’ houses when we spread.” They started farming because it was something Albin had always wanted to do. “I’m a farm boy,” Albin said, “the farm Idnda grew on the rest of the family.” Growing up. Wester had work ed on Holstein farms, but he really likes his Jerseys. “We think they’re the cow of the future,” he said In addition to being a dairyman, Albin is a retired teacher, an artist, and a builder. “It’s interesting,” he said “I’ve been all these things and I have a daughter who is an artist, one who is a teacher, a son who is a carpen ter, and another daughter who is a farmer (currently a dairy science MARSHA ANN CHESS Mercer County Correspondent Marsha Ann Chess is a Decem ber 1997 graduate of Penn State University with a degree in dairy and animal science. A Mercer County correspon dent for Lancaster Farming, she is employed on her family’s Pleasant View Farm, in Fredonia, Mercer County, where her duties include milking, and calf and heifer care and management. When she is not working on the farm, she enjoys horseback rid ing, reading, exercising her Shet land sheepdog, writing, sewing, and swimming. While in college, she was active in the Penn State Dairy Science Club, Delta Theta Sigma, the College of Agricultural Sci ences Student Council, and was a member of collegiate 4-H. She competed in public speaking/presentation contests and was on the 1995 Penn State dairy judging team. She served internships with the Jersey Journal and Pennsylvania Farmer magazines in 1996 and 1997. Chess was active in 4-H for 11 years, with projects in daily, dairy goat, horses, dog care and training, and veterinary science. She was a member of her coun ty 4-H council, and also served as a member of the Penn State 4-H Ambassador state team, as well as a junior advisor. In addition. Chess was Pen nsylvania Jersey queen from 1992- and the Mercer County dairy princess from 1993- Wester Jersey Farm: The Art Of Becoming Farmers and pre-veterinary student at Delaware Valley College).” At present they are in the pro cess of budding a parlor and add ing onto the free stall bam with plans to milk 100-150 cows in the future. "We’re growing slowly, doing 90 percent of the work ourselves with help from our son. It’s en abling us to avoid taking on a lot of debt.” In addition to building the new parlor and expanding the free stall bam. Wester is working on an art studio in which to paint portraits. He hopes to have time to spend painting after they get the parlor up and running. Westers run the farm them selves with the help of a girl hired part time, and Albin’s right hand “girl,” a border collie named Es ther. As they look to the future, they hope to get into merchandising and have that as part of their in come. To reach that goal they’ve been working to improve the genetics of their herd “We started with some not very good cows,” Betty said “They were all grades, but we put them in genetic recovery and really fo cused on our breeding program.” It has worked. Their herd aver aged 51 pounds per cow on their most recent test day. Both Albin and Betty feel they appreciate good cows more now than they would have if they had them when they started. Westers are not the only ones who have noticed their success. They received the Pennsylvania Jersey Management Award in 1994. It hasn’t always been easy, get ting up at 4 am., and learning as they go, but they have survived. Albin laughed and said the biggest In other pursuits, she won the senior division of the All- American Jersey Youth show manship contest and placed seventh in the Jersey youth achievement contest In 1991, she was the state 4-H award winner and delegate to the National 4-H Club Congress. Chess said she takes some pride in the fact that she has worked with all six breeds of daily cattle, and said it gives her a chance to assess the comparative strengths and weaknesses of each breed in order to evaluate merits fairly, although, she said she con siders her Jerseys and Brown Swiss to be personal favorites. Albfn and Betty Wester and their grandson Gus show off their future parlor. Albin and Betty Wester along with grandson Gus, and Al’s right hand dog Esther take pride In their Mercer County Jersey Farm. challenge sometimes has been not running away. “I didn’t know anything about fanning when we first got mar ried,” Betty said, “I was afraid of anything larger than a terrier. “One thing that really helped us learn was 4-H. Our youngest daughter, Leanna, got involved in 4-H and I had to take her. 4-H helped build our interest and taught us about animal care.” Now, Betty said she has com plete confidence in her ability to work with the cows, although she feels there is always more to be learned. “In some ways building from scratch has been good,” Albin said, “but it would have been nice to start with one big bam instead of having to keep building on.” One advantage they feel they had was not having any bad habits or being set in their ways. Ablin said his advice to others wanting to get into the dairy busi ness is to hang around good Dann ers and learn from them. Albin and his right hand girl, Esther, take a break as the Jerseys look on. “Keep your ears open and lis- Albin added, “We’re very posi ten,” Betty said. “Think positive,” live.”
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers