Warburtons Adapt
(Continued from Page 11)
animals.
The herd is milked in a double-six herringbone
parlor that was retrofitted into the original milking
barn two years ago. The Warburtons did much of the
work themselves. Before building the parlor, they
milked in 26 stalls with 13 units, switching cows. At
that time they were milking between 130 and 140
cows.
“It cost us around $45,000 to do it. We can milk
about 100 cows in less than two hours,” said Jim.
“You don’t have to spend a fortune on a parlor.” Herd
averages for the Holsteins run around 16,000 pounds
of milk, while the Jerseys produce between 12,000 and
13,000 pounds.
“We calved a lot of heifers in the past few years and
quite often, especially with the Holsteins, we sell the
best and milk the rest,” said Jim.
Calves are raised in a greenhouse barn and in
hutches and receive special attention from Barbara.
Grazing for the Warburtons has been, in many
ways, the answer to their prayers. Although they have
a hired hand to help with the milking, the Warburtons
do the bulk of the work themselves. Their three chil
dren and spouses, Bruce and Sandy, Amy and Nick,
and Brian and Eileen, work off the farm, but sons
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Bruce and Brian hth* M 'h-.n they can. Jim’s father is
also around the farm daily.
Besides running the farm, Jim and Barbara also
find lots of time to be involved in other activities. Jim
is a newly elected director of Dairy Farmers of Amer
ica (DFA) for Bradford and Sullivan Counties. In his
spare time, Jim attends pasture walks and tells every
one who will listen about “Project Grass,” an educa
tional program that promotes pasturing.
Barb works three days a week at a local Dairv
Queen, has been a 4-H leader for 18 years and is on the
state women’s committee for Farm Bureau.
If anyone asked them for advice on farming, their
first response is to not spend a lot of money.
“There are so many people who are just barely
hanging on and trying to survive farming. I think they
could benefit from grazing if they went at it. It’s been
really good to us,” he said. “If I had done it 10 or 20
years ago, I could think about retiring now,” said Jim.
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