A3O-Lancastef Farming, Saturday.Juty 21,2001
Love Of
(continued from Page AI)
Seventy-eight cows are
milked to the pipeline system of
the barn. The “L” shape re
quires that the family rotates the
two batches, or strings, of cows.
They feed the animals that
have been in the bam overnight,
milk them, clean out the barn,
re-bed the area, and bring in the
next group to milk. These ani
mals will stay in the barn during
the day until they are milked at
the afternoon milking and
turned out to spend the evening
in the pasture or freestall barn.
The twice-a-day job requires
about two hours for each milk
ing.
Herd production average for
the last three years is more than
22,000 pounds of milk, 835
pounds of fat, and 738 pounds of
protein. Besides the 162 milking
cows, the Schantzs have 160 of
their own replacement heifers.
The Schantzs use AI breeding
for the cows and live cover for
their heifers. A registered bull
from one of their top-producing
cows in the herd is the cleanup
bull. The bulls are replaced
every 15-24 months.
The rolling hills of the Dairy
of Distinction farm have long
ago necessitated the family’s
conservation practices. Burd
began techniques such as water-
Matthew enjoys spending his summer days in the
fields and barns of the farm.
From Eggs To Layers
(Continued from Page A 1)
cine.
Emphasis On Genetics
“The product sold to custom
ers is a combination of four fam
ilies,” said Kreider. The chicks
come from lowa, which has the
pure strains to make the “AB”
males and “CD” females, se
lected for feed efficiency, egg
quality, and disease resistance.
These chicks are then com
bined to produce the “ABCD”
line sold with the genetic poten
tial of all four lines. “We’re
always testing different kinds of
crosses,” said Kreider.
The AB and CD chicks
“parent stock” are shipped to
contracted farms when they are
one day old to become the breed
ing flocks for Hy-Line. They are
raised by contracted farmers to
20 weeks old, when they are old
enough to lay eggs.
In the breeding houses, a one
to-10 ratio of roosters to hens en
sures fertilized eggs. Well over
99 percent of the eggs come to
Fanning
ways, diversion terraces, and
strip cropping to help hold the
topsoil. They use conventional
and minimum tillage in their
fields.
Fair Competition
Late summer and fall is an ex
citing time for the family. Fair
time is show time for the
Schantz children, who exhibit
animals at Oley, Kempton,
Reading, and Kutztown fairs.
They are involved in the Berks
County 4-H Club, where Megan
and Matthew are teen leaders,
and show only 4-H animals.
Last year they walked away
with junior and reserve cham
pion honors at Oley Fair. This
year they have gotten off to a
good start by bringing blue rib
bons home from the Kempton
Fair.
In addition the extensive
garden in the backyard yields
produce, flowers, and fruits that
are canned, frozen, arranged,
and displayed by the Schantz
family for fair competition each
year. Also hay and grains from
the fields are entered at area
fairs. Megan’s FFA project
chickens yield eggs for local
fairs.
Summertime vacations for the
family are short respites in their
pool and wintertime brings time
the hatchery fertilized.
The breeding flocks will pro
duce for one year before they
lose efficiency. “We also want to
incorporate genetic progress to
our customers as soon as possi
ble,” said Kreider.
The farmers gather the eggs
that roll from the boxes into a
belt and onto a gathering table,
then are stacked in trays. To
slow the maturation process, the
eggs are cooled to 55-60 degrees
until they are sent to the incuba
tor to fulfill an order.
“Setting” the eggs at the
hatchery, which can set one mil
lion eggs at one time, is based on
orders. The average order is
100,000 chicks.
The eggs are nestled in at
100.3 degrees with a relative hu
midity of 50-55 percent and
turned every hour.
After they are hatched, the
chicks are sexed by the appear
ance of their wing feathers. The
females have fast-feathering
wings, with primary wing feath-
for snowmobiling, another fa
vorite activity.
Besides fair participation,
other community involvement
includes Kathy’s storyboard
demonstration that she gives to
students about life on a dairy
farm. Besides also giving dem
onstrations about farm life,
Megan and Matthew can be
found helping on the junior Hol
stein club’s milk shake wagon at
the Kutztown Fair.
The Outstanding Farm
Family honor is awarded by the
Grange. David has been in
volved in Grange all of his life,
beginning with Junior Grange.
He has served on Pioneer
Grange No. Mil's finance com
mittee since 1995. The children
are junior members.
Also during the banquet two
4-H members and two FFA
members will be honored for
their accomplishments.
4-Her Taryn A Stein, Bem
ville, has been a very active
member of the Leesport 4-H
club and has served in leader
ship for the club for several
years. She has also attend lead
ership conferences and State 4-
H Days for the past two
summers in the Fashion Revue.
She has also been a member of
the Planning Committee for 4-H
Capital Days.
A 9-year 4-H member, James
C. Kauffman, Laureldale, has
focused on the 4-H rabbit and
reptile projects besides taking
food and nutrition projects with
the Leesport 4-H club. He has
served in leadership positions in
the rabbit and reptile club. A
delegate to National 4-H Con
gress in 2001, he has also partici
pated in 4-H contests.
FFA member Amy Moyer,
chapter president this year,
placed Bth out of 77 contestants
at FFA Activities Week this year
in Dairy Cattle Judging. She
was recently selected as the Leb
anon County Dairy princess.
ers longer than the smaller
covert feathers.
Workers quickly check the
wings before putting the chicks
in the appropriate slot that takes
the males and females to sepa
rate destinations. According to
Kreider an individual worker
can sort an average 3,600 chicks
per hour.
Once sorted, the females are
vaccinated and delivered to the
farm within 24 hours. The yolk
sack serves as a 72-hour food
supply for the chicks, which do
not need to be fed at the
hatchery.
Once they are on the farm, the
laying chicks, a future laying
flock, will be productive for one
and-a-half to two years for the
customers in Pennsylvania,
Maryland, New York, and up
the coast of Connecticut and
Maine.
Kreider likens the hatchery to
a biosecure maternity ward.
Upon arrival at work, the em
ployees change into uniforms
supplied by the company and
laundered on the premises. Ad
ditionally each room is inde
pendently ventilated. The
hatching rooms are washed
down between sets of chicks.
Alarms and flashing red lights
help monitor the temperature of
the incubators via a fiber optic
network. If the temperature
varies more than one-half of a
degree, an alarm goes off to
signal the problem and make
sure the eggs stay in the proper
temperature zone.
After 17 days, just before the
chicks begin to hatch, the eggs
are transferred from the egg
racks into a hatchery basket so
the chicks do not fall through
the racks.
Editor’s Note: Next week, a
look into Longenecker Hatchery.
Nathan is quickly learning the ways of the farm and is al
ready beginning to help milk the cows and help in the field.
Additionally she was a Teaching
Lab Assistant (TLA) at Conrad
Wiser High School this year in
the Agriculture Department.
Her career plans including
taking a place in the dairy in
dustry as a producer, fitter/
showman or professional.
Angie Lengel, Elverson,
served as president of the FFA
Twin Valley chapter this year
and has served as treasurer and
After they are hatched, the chicks are sexed by the ap
pearance of their wing feathers. The females have fast
feathering wings, with primary wing feathers longer than
the smaller covert feathers. The wing on the left is a
female.
The eggs are nestled in these racks in a climate warmed
to 100.3 degrees with a humidity of 45-50 percent. They
are turned every hour by the angle of the steeply-sloped
racks.
sentinel. She has been involved
in Food for America programs,
pet therapy at the retirement
community, and creed speaking,
besides helping organize and
participated in contests and rec
reational activities for the or
ganization.
The Reading Fair is sched
uled Aug. 6-11 at the new Read
ing Fairgrounds near Leesport.