86-Lancaster Farming, Saturday; Augusts, '2002 Homing Family Belongs On ‘Meant To Be Farm 9 LOU ANN GOOD Food And Family Features Editor LITITZ (Lancaster Co.) Nevin and Denise Homing are unique in this day of escalating land costs and fickle milk prices. Neither Nevin nor Denise were raised on farms, but today this young couple own 55 acres of prime Lancaster County farm land, 90 milking cows, and re placements. How did they attain a farm without the benefit of taking over a family-owned operation? “It was meant to be,” Denise said with a bit of awe still evident in her voice from the purchase that took place in 2001. “Meant To Be Farm” is the farm’s working name. Denise ex plained that the original owners had purchased a larger farm and thought they would need to sell the Lititz one. After selling it to the Hornings, the original owners found out they did not need to sell it afterall, and voiced their confusion to their listing real es tate agent. “It was meant to be,” the Hornings maintain of the farm that is an answer to their prayers and to biblical scripture Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to for welfare and not for calamity to give you a fu ture and a hope.’” The answer to their prayers was actually the unfolding of an 11-year quest. As a teen-ager, Nevin started out working for his dairy farm uncle. It wasn’t long before he knew he wanted dairy farming as his life’s vocation. Soon he was working as a herdsman for an other farmer, and eventually pur chased the small herd. The Horn ings rented a farm for several years until they needed to move because the landlord’s son want ed to take over the farm. That’s when the Homings dis covered their present location, which had been operated as a hog farm. The Homings weren’t interested in hog farming, but the 170-sow operation was in place and a viable business. So a made-to-order setup was put into place. Nevin’s younger brother Lewis and his wife Amy manage the hog operation and also help with milking. Barns, kittens, and children are a natural combination. Nevin and Denise Horning with Destinee, 11; twins Marcia and Monica, 9; Austin, 6; and Vanessa, 4 farm 55 acres and milk 90 cows in Lititz. The Hornings erected a 40X80-feet 80-cow tiestall tunnel ventilated barn. They moved their original herd of 45 cows and purchased an addition 32 cows placed on a three-times-a-day milking schedule. According to Beth Trachte, who takes care of the veterinar ian work for the Hornings, the family attained a proven track record while renting their former farm, and have experienced re markable success within a short period of time at their new place. The 32 cows that they had pur chased locally had only been av eraging 74 pounds, but increased to 96-pound average within 60 days. In fact, the rolling herd aver age is 31,076 pounds and climb ing. “They are self-started people, highly motivated, and pay atten tion to detail and consistency, and still manage to keep things simple,” Trachte said of the Homings. OMESTEAD GffiS Nevin said that adapting to a new setup took some time, changes are still being made, and obstacles are being worked out. One of the problems they faced at the new facility was that it was more difficult to detect beat be cause the herd has been kept in the barn. But a week ago, a dry lot was completed, and Nevin ex pects it to be much easier to de tect cows in heat. The calving in terval is 13.7 months. The herd is fed total mixed ra tions two times daily but feed is provided four times daily. The Homings have used BST since February 1994. They have 1.4 services per pregnancy and 1.6 for all cows, which is consid ered excellent, according to Trachte. Lancaster County aver ages are 2.2 and 2.9 service. The 21-day pregnancy rate is 17 per cent compared with the county average of 11-12 percent. In addition to the newly-built bam, two silos, feed bins, and a manure pit were installed. A dry cow bam is attached to the new one. Heifers are raised adjacent to the new bam. They raise com and alfalfa hay and purchase forages from neigh boring fanners to whom they are able to sell manure. One of the Homings’ top prior ities is to work together as a fam ily. Although their children range in ages from four to 11 years, each helps out on the farm in a responsibility they enjoy. “Destinee loves the barn. She’d rather be there than in the house. She’s up at 6 a.m.,” her mother said. “I like helping with milking,” Destinee said. So does her 9-year-old sister Marcia. Her twin, Monica, prefers scraping the barn. The younger children like to help with calf care. “The farm is a good place to A * \ K y t raise a family,” Denise said. “The farm is a business and needs to be operated as one but to keep it going, we need to take time away from it.” Monica and Vanessa like caring for the calves on the family farm. V ’ Destinee rises at 6 a.m. to hurry to the barn, where she’d rather be than any other place. The Homings recently re turned from a three-day camping trip. While they were gone, Lewis and Amy took care of the herd in addition to their daily care of the hog operation. This month the Hornings will have an all-expense paid trip to Minnesota as Land O’ Lakes young producers. Originally the families hope to arrange an every-other weekend off. But the three-times daily milking schedule makes that un realistic. “It’s just too much work for one family,” Denise said. During a recent open house on the Homing’s farm, Jay Mylin of Lancaster DHIA said that he is impressed by the Homings’ abili ty to maintain professionalism and yet operate it as a family farm. The Hornings’ mission statement is to provide high qual ity dairy products at a profit, fol low Godly principles of honesty, integrity, and good stewardship, provide a healthy family atmos phere, and be a positive influence in the community. When people asked the Hom ings why they have been able to achieve so much success includ ing a high rolling herd average, they said, “We are trying to do the best we can do, to make our steps count, to work together as a family, and to build long-term re lationships with professionals that can help us live in accord ance to our mission statement.”
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