The Kutztown Young Farmers hosted the Pennsylvania Young Farmers Association Winter Conference Feb. 2 to 4, featuring a tour of Corner View Farm in Kutztown, which uses a robotic milking system.
“We’re showing Berks County agriculture to people from other parts of the state. People come as far as Somerset County, some Lancaster area and all over,” said Kutztown Young Farmers Chapter Chairman Ken Sanner. “We’re showcasing Berks County agriculture.”
PA Young Farmers Association is an adult educational organization under the PA Department of Education Bureau of Career and Technical Education. Every year the association hosts a winter conference, this year hosted by the Kutztown Young Farmers Chapter at Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading.
“We have tours, meetings, banquets and a lot of education going on for farmers,” said Sanner, a Kutztown dairy farmer for 30 years who now crop farms and raises steers.
He said young farmers is the term of their association but it’s really any farmer who’s willing to learn, 18 to 80. Association farmers from across the state came out for the winter conference.
“We hope they get an idea of what modern farming is all about. It’s not just mom and pop with the bib overalls anymore; it’s computers and robots and technology,” said Sanner. “Agriculture is right up there with any other business, you have to have this stuff to stay efficient and stay profitable.”
During the Winter Conference, the Ag Spokesperson Contest was awarded, as well as Outstanding Young Farmer, Community Service, and Outstanding Chapter awards. Agriculture Spokesperson Contest winner was Tony Rice of the Midd-West chapter. Outstanding Young Farmer Under 30 was awarded to Matthew Schantz of the Kutztown chapter and the state winner was Mark Balmer from the Cedar Crest (Lebanon) chapter. Outstanding Community Service State Winners were Ron and Mel Kurtz, of Fleetwood, from the Kutztown Chapter. Outstanding Agribusiness Person was awarded to Kurt Haas of the Kutztown chapter and the state winners were Richard and Brian Kreider from the Cedar Crest (Lebanon) chapter.
The Richard Hoppes Memorial Award went to Ken and Denise Sanner, Kutztown, for “Lifelong support and Service to the Pennsylvania Young Farmers.” The award memorializes a member of the Kutztown Chapter who was very active in the local, state, and national young farmers.
“It was a great surprise to us. We are the first from the Kutztown Chapter to receive this honor,” said Denise.
The Kutztown Chapter also nominated Senator Judy Schwank to receive the PYFA Honorary Member award. Schwank received this award for her continued support of agriculture in Berks County and across the commonwealth. She also presented the chapter with a Proclamation announcing the first week in February as Young Farmer Week in Pennsylvania.
Tours included East Penn Manufacturing in Lyon Station; F.M. Brown’s Feed Mill, Livestock and Poultry Feed Division’s new facility in Birdsboro and Corner View Farm in Kutztown, as well as the Ag Spokesperson Contest at Weis Market in Wyomissing during which one shopper received free food items and contestants talked to shoppers about the importance of agriculture and their food supply.
“We don’t just tour farms, we tour businesses that are associated with agriculture also. Farmers buy a lot of batteries,” Sanner said about the tour of East Penn.
East Penn Learning & Development Manager Brian K. Noecker said East Penn makes products for Original Equipment and aftermarket applications that serve the agricultural industry.
“In talking with some of the farmers I learned one farm alone buys up to 30 batteries for their tractors and equipment from us. We make wire and cable products that could potentially be in their livestock trailers. There are many ways our products support this industry. Our products may even be storing energy for some of these farmers from the wind and sun if they have that equipment on their property,” said Noecker.
He hopes the farmers came away with a sense of the unique culture at East Penn.
“From the start, the Breidegam family has always worked with the employees to build a better company that not only supports itself, but the community surrounding it. No matter how far our products travel, we place great value on the relationships that get our products from concept to reality for our customers,” said Noecker.
Corner View Farm is a dairy farm owned by the Biehl family, who use a robotic milking system to monitor their cows and the barn environment via cell phone. There are 121 milking cows, with a total of 270 milking cows, dry cows, calves and heifers.
“We’ve got a plan and a legacy we’d like to lead so generation after generation we can keep dairying here,” said Brad Biehl, fourth generation dairy farmer with his father Dalton Biehl. Brad’s children will be the fifth generation. “In order to do that we have to have a lot of cool technology.”
Brad said he and his father have been investing in new technology, making their dairy farm a viable operation for the next 100 years. They had the chance to show robotic milking, robotic feed pushers and automatic calf feeding technology.
“It’s mostly farmers so it’s just broadening their horizons on our robotic milking system,” said Dalton. “A lot of people are asking questions and are not too familiar with the new technology available for milking cows and feeding calves.”
Dalton said the new technology reduces labor costs.
Brad said they give a lot of tours. One thing he wants people to understand is that milk doesn’t show up on the shelf automatically. There’s a lot of effort from harvesting the crops that make the feed to caring for and raising the animals from birth to a cow that’s able to have a calf and generate milk.
“The other thing I like people to be able see is that it doesn’t have to be done like it was done 100 years ago,” said Brad. “There’s a lot of great technology that makes farming a lot of fun, makes it interesting, challenging and I think it simply makes it cool for my generation and my kids to want to do it.”
The tour included the dairy barn where the group could watch dairy cows being milked by the Austria 2020 Galaxy Robotic Milker. A cow walked into the milker and the robotic arms cleaned the utters and attached the milkers. When done the vacuum released and the milkers detached. The cow walked out and the next cow walked in. There were two stations so that two cows could milk at once.
“In a tight stall barn or parlor, you have all units on or all units off and over milking is not healthy for a tit,” said Brad. “We’re always worried about keeping cows and tits healthy so we can produce quality milk.”
Meanwhile, cows were being fed in the milking barn, either done milking or waiting their turn at the milker. Brad noted that throughout the day, cows will eat and push the feed around and out of reach. A robotic feed pusher roves up and down the feed alley pushing the feed closer to them so the cows always have feed in reach.
“We’ve seen a production increase of 3 to 4 pounds by making sure that they always have feed fresh in front of them,” said Brad. “The more they eat, the more they produce.”
Brad hopes that anyone who had a chance to visit the farm “gets to have an appreciation for how technology can be married to the dairy business and allow farmers to have a better quality of life and to be able to be more productive and be viable in decades to come.”
Somerset County grain farmer Greg Croner, of Berlin, Pa., said the conference is always very interesting, “The tours of how farming is progressing and what we need to do to stay with the innovations of today.”
Groner enjoyed the tours of East Penn and Corner View Farm.
“(Robotic milking systems) are really an advancement for the dairy farmer who no longer needs to hire a bunch of employees and run everything automatively,” said Croner.
Topton retired barber Larry Eisenhart’s daughter and son-in-law farm outside Kutztown. He joined them on the tour.
“It’s great. It’s really interesting,” he said about the robotic milking.
Kutztown FFA members also attended. Ayla Blatt and Kennedi Cavalier participated in the Spokesperson for Agriculture Contest. Casandra Wentz and Ethan Sanner, along with Ayla and Kennedi, helped the Kutztown Young Farmers as greeters, ticket takers, ice cream social ice cream scoopers, and line dancers during the entertainment, which was the Hannah Violet Trio.
For more information see www.payoungfarmers.com.
