PLEASANT HALL, Pa. – It was another very hot day in a very hot week, but that didn’t stop the over 200 Holstein enthusiasts who came out to Raising Kane Farm for the annual Franklin County Holstein Field Night on Tuesday, July 29.

The farm is situated northeast of Letterkenny Army Depot, where the Kanes rent ground in addition to what they own — farming a total of 500 acres to grow all the feed for their 200 milk cows plus replacements.

The evening brought attendees from farms large and small, veteran farmers, young families, groups of teenagers, and representatives of the businesses that serve the area to gather for the meal by Long Catering and top it off at the Dietrich’s ice cream truck — thanks to the dozens of sponsors and the Franklin County Holstein Association.

The Kane family at the host farm has been dairying here since the late Ray Kane started Raising Kane Farm in 1975. Today, sons Shannon and Sam are the managing partners, working along with their mother Gerry who manages the calves raised here.

Sam manages the feeding, and Shannon manages the cow herd, housed in deep sand-bedded freestalls and the milking done twice a day in the double-8 parallel.

 He and his wife Katie have two sons Shay, 15, and Karter, 12, who work daily here too — feeding calves, helping with the milking, and getting into some field work. Two good employees, who are also cousins, work on this family farm as well.

The Kanes don’t register their cattle anymore, but they appreciate the Holstein genetics in their productive grade herd, using the mating program and CowManager system through Select Sires. 

They have also adopted the combination of sexed semen and beef x dairy. “That’s been very profitable for us,” Shannon observes.

“We try to focus on the total package in our breeding,” he explains. “We concentrate on components but also some on production and type. We try to get that total ‘perfect’ cow. If we see something is lacking, we address it. For a while, we focused on production but have shifted into components.”

The 200-cow herd averages over 28,000M 1130F 934P (2x). Their milk has been marketed through Maryland-Virginia Co-op for over two decades.

In general, “we try to make sure we don’t miss anything,” says Shannon, noting health performance is a big focus in their management in recent years. “We’ve come a long way in trying to keep a healthy herd and transition cows with fewer fresh cow problems. The more we manage, the better they do.”

He sees feed management as a key ingredient in herd health, from growing and harvesting quality forages to working with a good nutritionist. The Kanes use independent nutritionist Carl Curtis. Crops grown on the farm are corn, alfalfa, soybeans and some triticale; all of it going into feeding the cows.

“I enjoy going between the cows and the field work, the variety of something different every day,” says Shannon when asked what he enjoys about dairy farming.

The evening was a time of relaxation and conversation as attendees spread out to tour the buildings, view cattle, match their judging skills, and catch up with each other on everything from crops and weather to local and industry happenings — ending with door prizes and judging results.

The top three youth in the judging contest, in order, were Kent Wadel, Blaine Kaufman and Mason Martin. Adults were within a point of each other, starting with Marcus Martin’s perfect score, followed by Rick Wadel and Justin Sollenberger.

“Don’t think you have to have registered cows to open up and be part of this,” said emcee Eric Niswander of Eden-View Holsteins as he thanked the Kanes for opening their doors to the association’s field night while also thanking the many sponsors and encouraging other farm families to consider hosting in the future.

“We just love seeing good cows.”