By RENEE TROUTMAN
Special for Farmshine
ONO, Pa. – Perfect weather and a beautiful, productive dairy farm greeted approximately 800 farmers and industry enthusiasts as they gathered on Friday, August 15th for the annual Lebanon County Holstein field night at Reeds-Creek Farm, the home of Brent and Lawanda Hostetter.
Larry and Lorraine Shuey opened Reeds-Creek for the field night 26 years ago in 1999, and now it was their daughter, Lawanda, and her family’s turn to showcase the farm again along with the many advances and improvements they have made.
Brent and Lawanda took ownership of the cows from her parents in 2001 and then bought the farm in 2010. They have added many new features such as a heifer barn, calf barn, and freestall barn, but most notably the family installed Lely milking robots on the farm a year ago. Other Lely robots can be seen at work on the farm. So far the transition has been going well for the Hostetter family. It’s also helpful that their daughter, Cortney, is a certified Lely technician working for Fisher & Thompson.
The Hostetters have five grown children. Three are married, one is engaged, and there are several grandchildren. Brent said the decisions they make on the farm now are with the next generation in mind. The 85-cow herd has a RHA of 25,700 pounds of milk with 1010 pounds of butterfat and 800 pounds of protein. Currently they have two Excellent cows in the herd with 17 classified as Very Good and 16 Good Plus.
A hot catered meal was enjoyed along with fellowship and the popular dairy judging contest. Working in sales for Premier Select Sires, Ryan Allen of Maryland served as the official judge of the contest. Explaining his reasons for each of the three groups, he put a Warrior on Luxor that goes back to a J-Wow in first place for the 2-year olds. For the 4-year-old group, a VG-88 Piranha out of a Prince Red out of an Advent won. And in the group of calves, a Latenite out of a Warrior from a VG-85 Luxor was the top pick.
Winners of the dairy judging contest were announced. In the younger junior group, Maximus Brant was first followed by Tyrell Zimmerman and Brock Hoover. The older junior winners had Brent Zimmerman in first with Kendra Martin and Georgia Sellers placing next. For the women, Sarah Brubaker won the contest followed by Amy Hoover and Amy Bomgardner. Derek Good won the men’s division with Reid Hoover taking second and Jolan Brubaker in third.
Lebanon County’s Dairy Princess Jesslyn Risser provided activities for the children, including a feed identification contest. Addressing the crowd with her junior court of Evelyn Maulfair and Olivia Kline, she explained that her contest was to show that cows are given a balanced diet in order to reach their nutritional needs. “You too can have a balanced diet,” Jesslyn said, “by having three servings of dairy in your diet every day!”
Pennsylvania Holstein Association (PHA) Executive Director David Lentz mentioned that all the regional shows had just concluded and reminded the group of upcoming sales, such as the Know What You Buy Heifer Sale on September 4th.
Dr. Patricia Kitchen, PHA president, had encouraging remarks. “This event never ceases to amaze me,” she began. “The field night in Lebanon County is truly amazing.” She spoke of the dwindling dairy community in her area and how it now takes five counties coming together in order to support an event for farmers. “Remember this isn’t possible unless you are all actively promoting Registered Holsteins, promoting milk, and patronizing vendors that support the event,” she said.
Lebanon County has an active and successful junior member program, for which Pat offered praise. “Encourage your junior members. They do well at the state and national conventions and on the judging teams,” Pat said. “Continue to influence young people even if they don’t come back to the farm. They will go out into the world and tell everyone what dairy farmers do on their farms and where food comes from.”
Sponsors for the night included: Fisher & Thompson, Horizon Farm Credit, Locust Street Transport, Mar-Team Harvesting, Streamline Builders, Mark Hershey Feed, Wengers of Myerstown, Morrissey Insurance, E&F Ag, IBA, Keystone Embryo, Lebanon Custom Cutters, Martin’s Hoof Care, Matt Nolt, Red Dale Ag, Sensenig’s Feed, Sensenig Spreading, Shuey Excavating, Skyview Tractor, Burkholder Tractor, 4Ward Ag, ABS, Advanced Agri Solutions, Agri-Applicators, Cargill, Ephrata National Bank, First Citizens Bank, Fulton Bank, Growmark, Hoover Shavings, JBZ Dairy Advantage, K&K Feeds, Kissling Consulting, Larry & Lorraine Shuey, Little Valley Custom Work, Meadow Brook Electric, Premier Select Sires, Sporting Valley Feeds, Weaver Accounting, Zimmerman Farm Service, Zimmerman Electric, Cedar Crest Equip, Patches Crop Protection, Weaver Applicators, Zimmerman Transport, Zimmco, South Mountain Ventures, Richard Mellinger, BHM Farm Equip, Homestead Nutrition, Jeffrey & James Miller, Precision Diagnostics, Wicks AI, Lanchester Farm Service, MLF Consulting, Airtech Ag, Brian’s Ag, DiamondV, innovative Dairy Solutions, Zimmerman Trimming, L&N Zimmerman Excavating.
