Deal Holsteins will host Somerset County Day at the Farm, from noon Scott Rohrbaugh, Rochelle Gossman, Zachary Rohrbaugh, Brad Koval,
to 4 p.m., Sunday, June 25. From left len Rohrbaugh, Justin Rohrbaugh, and Darryl Rohrbaugh, manager with Pongo the dog.
Deal Holsteins To Host Somerset County Day At The Farm
GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SOMERSET (Somerset Co.)
Deal Holsteins, owned by Allen
Rohrbaugh and his wife, Joyce
Rohrbaugh, from noon to 4 p.m.,
Sunday June 25, will host Som
erset County Day at the Farm.
Farm manager Darryl Rohr
baugh, Allen’s younger brother,
his wife Denise Rohrbaugh, and
their sons Justin, 12, and Zac
hary, 2, are helping with the
preparations and getting the
landscape spruced up for the af
fair.
Somerset County Farm Bu
reau is coordinating the annual
event, city dwellers, especially,
are invited, not only for an on
the-spot tutorial about the ori
gins of the food they eat, but to
sample some food too.
Farm tours, hay rides, petting
zoo, and commodities produced
in Somerset County by the dairy,
beef, sheep, poultry, maple and
potato industries will be high
lighted.
Also featured are a milk drink
ing contest, hay bale toss and nu
merous exhibits, including farm
safety, food safety, animal care,
veterinary care, alternative uses
of corn, crop protectants, animal
nutrition and soil and water con
servation exhibits.
“Day at the Farm is definitely
good for the business,” comment
ed Joyce, “but I am hoping more
city people show up.” She added;
A lot of times farm people show
up, too, because they know you.”
The 209-acre property is in
two townships, split by the Pied
mont Road. It goes between Al
len’s ranch house on one side
and the original farmhouse
where Darryl’s family lives on
the opposite side.
Allen lives in Milford, and
Darryl in Somerset Township,
but everybody’s mail is from the
same post office.
Deal Holsteins’ total stock is at
270 animals. The milking herd, a
registered and identified grade
combination, is 120 to 130 head
in size. Maryland-Virginia Milk
Producers buys the milk.
As far as diet, the cows get
haylage, high moisture com, pro
tein mix and dry hay. Some pas
ture is reserved for animal exer
cise.
The haylage and high mois
ture corn facilities are three blue
silos towering above the free-stall
bam and Double-8 Herring Bone
milking parlor, situated to the
rear of Allen’s tidy lawn and
above-ground pool.
The owner said the operation’s
animal refuse facility, built be
fore he took it over, should be
larger. It has approximately four
months storage capacity, which
is minimally sufficient.
The farm pond is pretty in
stantly, catches one’s eye with its
prominent dry hyrant the previ
ous owner installed for fire pro
tection.
Heifers are lodged in the origi
nal bam behind the other farm
house.
Allen tells the history behind
the Deal Holsteins prefix. When
he and his first wife, Debbie (de
ceased), and their children Jill,
now 18, and Scott, 10, moved
to Somerset County from York
County in 1992, they thought
hard about a business name.
Landmarks didn’t appeal, so fi
nally, they settled for the first
two letters from each first name
of the couple.
Although Allen owned ma
chinery and a dairy herd in York
County, they had rented a farm
from Charles Birch for 12 years.
Shopping for a place to call their
own took both time and patience.
Many sites in Pennsylvania
and New York states were avail
able, but as Allen, reflectively
says: “You are looking for the
best buy for your money.”
Then he learned about a farm
the Jonas Scheffel family wanted
to sell in Somerset County. It
was on Piedmont Road.
“I learned about it through
Lancaster Farming,” he said. Ac
tually, we looked at 35 different
farms before we decided to settle
here.”
Allen says farming was in his
blood. He and Darryl had grown
up on a farm managed by
George Rohrbaugh, their dad,
who now resides in Fayette
County. The men’s mother Au
drey Rohrbaugh, in 1992, died
just before the three household
family moved here, Allen said.
Not surprisingly, choosing to
move generated upheaval until
everyone got settled. During the
interim, while Allen was oversee
ing construction of the new milk
ing parlor, plus adding new stalls
in the existing free-stall barn, the
others were tieing up the remain
ing loose ends in York County.
“Allen was building the milk
ing parlor and the rest of the
family stayed behind to vaccinate
the herd,” chimed in Denise
Rohrbaugh. She is also secretary
of the Somerset County Farm
Bureau.
Denise Rohrbaugh, Darryl’s wife, keeps up the grounds around the old farmhouse
About- 22 tractor-trailer loads
of machinery and six tractor
trailer loads of cattle were in
volved in the relocation, not to
mention moving the families
themselves and household goods.
Prior to the Scheffels, Woody
Sanner owned the place, how
ever, an old deed with the signa
ture of D.B. Zimmerman indi
cates the famed coal and cattle
baron, also owned the property.
People still are awed by the life
and wealth of D.B. Zimmerman,
a Somerset farm boy who left
home at age 14 and went on to
make a fortune in the west with
cattle and in the east with coal.
The late millionaire’s private
mansion in Somerset, more re
cently, was restored as the land
mark Inn at Georgian Place.
Very elegant and gracious, it is a
bed and breakfast inn that sits
Lancaster Firming, Saturday, June 17, 2000-817
prominately amongst an array of
outlet shops.
According to records, D.B.
Zimmerman died in 1928 at age
65.
Prior to her marriage to Allen
in 1995, Joyce had also been wid
owed when her spouse died. So
now, the blended family of five
includes her daughter, Rochelle
Gossman, who is 7, and a dog,
Pongo, who seems to favor
lounging in the decorative flower
bed under the farm sign.
Joyce says she keeps the road
ways hot running errands all the
time and sometimes wonders
what the neighbors think when
she drives by so often.
In addition to homemaking,
Joyce manages to keep the books
and farm accounts up-to-date, do
(Turn to Page B 19)