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A26- Lancaster Fanning, Saturday; June 26, 1996
(Continued from Pago A 1)
requiring full- and part-time labor
on a consistent basis. Students will
have to know how milk is pro
duced and the certainty of sustain
ing farms in and around major
urban areas such as Reading.
And to do so, ag zoning will
have to involve all the municipali
ties working together, developing
multimunicipal planning, a com
prehensive plan based on school
districts that will allow farming to
remain viable in the county,
according to the extension agent.
Late last week, superintendents
of schools in Berks County found
out how important agriculture is to
business. They visited Clover
Farms Dairy, which employs
about 235 ftill-timc, processing
milk from 100 dairy farms in the
county.
Tom Mullety, vice president of
sales for Clover, said the dairy also
purchases milk from the
Maryland-Virginia Milk Market
ing Cooperative and Dairylea.
During the tour, Donna King of Clover Dairy Farms, noted that orders are taken for
drinks and packaged accordingly, including citrus punch, lemonade, ice tea, and
others. Notice the way orange juice and milk products are loaded on this linked
assembly area to the refrigerator.
Dr. Larry Schmidt, Conrad Weiser Area School District superintendent, second
from left, visited the farm operated by Dennis and Betsy Sattazahn, Womelsdorf.
Zahncroft Farm is home to about 55 milking stock and about 50 young stock, all regis
tered Holsteins. In front of the combine, from left, Steve Mohn, Schmidt, and the Satta
zahns, Ray, Doug, Dennis, and Betsy.
Berks County
About 65 percent of their products
are milk and the remainder are
other items, including teas, fla
vored drinks, juices, nutritional
drinks, and others.
The company employs families
from the Berks County region and,
according to Mullery, family
word-of-mouth is important to
obtaining good workers. He
emphasized the importance of
recruiting a good workforce and
the critical role schools play in pro
viding quality employees.
To meet growing demand for
product, Mullery noted that Clover
intends to expand, including
adding additional refrigerator
space to handle a wide array of
products. The new space, only in
the proposed stages, would include
more receiving doors and perhaps
a larger workforce.
The company is in partnership
with Teamsters 429.
One superintendent noted it was
important to teach students about
agriculture because it is something
“that takes place every day in com-
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tI t I > «« « I « I I I I • « ! > ’ t * Cf / ? f
School Superintendents Tour
muni tics, and students need to
learn how it affects them.” And
high schools should learn to pro
vide the skills necessary for work
dairy processors need, according
to other superintendents at the
tour.
Superintendents were allowed
to tour the factory, including the
receiving, processing, refrigera
tion, and shipping areas.
In the receiving area, two trucks
were being unloaded. One, a
Mount Joy Cooperative truck dri
ven by Jake Wise, contained about
6,000 gallons of milk from six
farms in the Elvetson area.
Testing it was Dave Boltz, milk
receiver. Clover tests the milk for
antibiotics and bacteria content
using the SNAP Beta Lactam Test
Procedure, which Boltz
demonstrated.
The milk is stored in four silos.
One holds 505,000 pounds,
another 425,000 pounds, one
465.000 pounds, and another
340.000 pounds. From die farm,
the temperature of the milk is kept
at 40 degrees or lower.
At the plant, ice tea products ate
mixed. They can be blended from
several silos. At one, Merrill Coda,
drink mixer, was placing ice tea
Testing the milk at Clover was Dave Boltz, milk receiver.
Clover tests the milk for antibiotics and bacteria content
using the SNAP Beta Lactam Test Procedure, which Boltz
demonstrated.
At the plant, ice tea products are mixed. They can he
blended from several silos. At one, Merrill <3ode, drink mhs
- was placing ice tea powder into a blender for mixing.
One drink packaged include* the Foodservice Resource
Health Shake. Clover also packages milk for GAF Seelig
from New York City, here on the packaging line.
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* -•■4
powder into a blender for mixing.
During the tour, Donna King of
Clover Dairy Farms, noted that
orders arc taken for drinks and
(Turn to Pago A3O)