A farm for a family: Dairy expands, puts more emphasis on growing its own quality feed

摘要

Ted and Melissa Miller of Ickesburg, Pennsylvania, are a rarity in farming. They started on their own. With a 10,000 dollar down payment, they bought their 112-acre farm in 2000. They remodeled two buildings to finish hogs on contract. In early 2003,they started milking cows in their brand new New Zealand swing-style milking parlor. They built it with help from Melissa's father, who is a building contractor. The Millers appeared in Successful Farming magazine in December 2003, kicking off a series of articles entitled Up By Their Bootstraps. Those bootstrap farms have always been high-risk ventures. But the Millers had some advantages. Ted was no greenhorn. Growing up in a neighboring county, he had 4-H pigs and worked summers on dairy farms and broiler houses. As a young man, he ran a 2,400-sow farrowing unit. He was service manager for contract growers working with Pleasant Valley Foods when he started farming. Melissa, whose great uncles were dairy farmers, was a little apprehensive, but theirfirst year in dairying was "going better than I anticipated," she said at the time.