Tom and Brenda Pepper and family milk about 250 cows here. This is
the second time the farm has been selected as a Dairy of Distinction
winner Brenda’s parents Ted and Norma Jean Schmelzle also won
this recognition for keeping a well-kept operation back in the 1980 s.
Tom and Brenda began milking in their newly built double-12 her
ringbone parlor just after Christmas last year. Sons Travis, 23; Taylor,
21; Andrew, 19; and Jonathan, 14, all work on the farm. Travis’s wife
Thomas and Brenda Pepper
Roaring Branch, Tioga Coun
Lancaster Farming Section E. Dairy of Distinction. Saturday. July 26, 2003
Amanda also works on the dairy and Ted Schmelzle still pitches in with
morning milkings and some field work. The Peppers grow 150 acres of
corn and 400-500 acres of alfalfa and mixed grasses to feed the herd.
The home farm consists of about 400 acres. The family also rents some
cropland.
“Most of the time it’s a real blessing,” Brenda said of the family’s
dairy enterprise.
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