00:00 - This program has been paid for by the sponsor and does not reflect

00:03 - the views of PCN.

00:06 - I'm Dave Williams, your host here in Pennsylvania County Roads.

00:09 - Come and join us every Sunday morning as we travel throughout the Commonwealth

00:13 - of Pennsylvania, bringing those stories of the festivals

00:17 - and fairs, as well as museums and train rides

00:21 - and of course, the heartland story of the people that produce our food.

00:26 - All this and much more right here on and TV.

00:38 - I'm Dave, we I'm your host here in Pennsylvania Country Roads.

00:41 - This week we're going to go out to South Canaan, Pennsylvania.

00:44 - Dark.

00:44 - The Tim Jaggers diversified farmer on a century farm.

00:49 - Robinson's farm been in the family well over 100 years

00:52 - and of course diversified in all different respects.

00:56 - All this and much more right here in Pennsylvania.

00:58 - Country roads every Sunday morning at 7 a.m., be.

01:09 - You know, one of the interesting things with,

01:12 - First Citizens Community Bank is a lot of our lenders, a lot of the team

01:17 - that we have can continue to be involved in agriculture today.

01:21 - I think that positions us very uniquely compared to a lot of our competition,

01:26 - because we are heavily involved in agriculture

01:28 - and we understand what our customers are experiencing,

01:32 - the people they're, treated as, like more than just a number.

01:36 - We took an interest in what we were doing, and,

01:39 - it was much more of a personal relationship

01:41 - than we've experienced with a lot of banks.

01:43 - We talked to many banks about this, about how to finance our our new opportunity.

01:48 - It was just far and away the best fit for us to use for citizens.

01:53 - As challenges arise,

01:56 - there's

01:56 - no one better to help you than people that are farmers themselves.

01:59 - And a first citizens. They're farmers.

02:01 - So why not deal with people who understand what you're going through?

02:05 - Welcome back.

02:05 - And today we're out at the Robinson Farm.

02:07 - I'm going to be talking to Tim Jagger.

02:10 - And, of course, he's into farming.

02:12 - How are you doing?

02:13 - I'm doing all right.

02:14 - How are you today? Pretty good.

02:16 - You know that time of year when everybody's running a plant and.

02:20 - All right.

02:20 - Yeah.

02:21 - It's, that time of the year, as you said.

02:24 - Mother nature shoots roses, some curve balls, spinning, farming all the time.

02:29 - And, you got to expect it this time of year.

02:31 - This morning was 18 degrees outside, but it's nice and warm in here.

02:35 - Yeah, I had friends down in York County I see, working on, some some,

02:39 - brush fires in the orchards trying to save the peach blossoms.

02:43 - People don't realize what farmers go through to try to get them,

02:47 - you know that fresh fruit to your farmer's market, to your grocery stores

02:51 - and your cans of peaches, the one sliced up in your ice cream, it all comes.

02:55 - You know, the work is involved.

02:56 - These guys were out early in the morning here trying to save their peach crop.

03:00 - Well, and you know, this goes on, you know,

03:03 - of course, in our part of the country here we have a lot of apple orchards.

03:06 - Yeah.

03:06 - It's the same thing, you know, and so many of the farmers, you know,

03:11 - of course, one of the great things of farming is the time

03:14 - we've got, the greenhouse and two high tunnels and,

03:18 - the greenhouses.

03:19 - It works great, as you can see, to, get things started.

03:22 - You know, we've got a lot of things that are seeded.

03:24 - We start, transplanting, then all our vegetables start.

03:29 - Flowers are underway.

03:30 - A lot of them get started earlier in the season.

03:33 - Onions get started, you know, February time from seed.

03:36 - And, but then, the high tunnels, as you mentioned.

03:41 - Starting them off in the,

03:43 - the early spring and taking them right through into the fall.

03:46 - But, you know, Tim, because no matter who you are,

03:50 - you know, over the years, the farmers have taken the bean.

03:54 - All right.

03:55 - The good thing about these items is,

03:57 - you know, you can grow the plant and you can sell retail.

04:01 - And that's so important to keep you in business again.

04:04 - Yeah. Yeah.

04:05 - Getting that, like I said, extending that season.

04:07 - We can get the tomatoes early or any other crops earlier.

04:10 - We can extend it out through the fall.

04:12 - Last year, my goal was to still have, fresh tomatoes.

04:16 - For Christmas.

04:17 - I met that goal.

04:18 - I don't think I've gone

04:19 - about past that at all without putting any supplemental heat in,

04:23 - but it was a great goal to, to meet.

04:26 - Well, you know, of course, no matter who you are,

04:29 - you know, whether you're in the dairy business or,

04:32 - you know, cheese business, of course, apples.

04:35 - And you and and I know you grow a lot of garlic, too, am I right?

04:40 - Yeah. We have about an acre of garlic planted.

04:41 - We plant that in the fall.

04:43 - Well, harvest that in July.

04:46 - It'll get sold.

04:47 - Off to, brokers, wholesale in September.

04:51 - And in October, we're starting right back again with the next crop.

04:55 - So it's almost, of around the year process.

04:59 - Yeah. With it.

05:00 - Yeah.

05:01 - And, you know, making the connections to sell

05:03 - your products is around a year or two, am I right?

05:05 - Oh, yes. That's very much so.

05:07 - We go to, we do a lot of, selling to the Newfoundland.

05:11 - Farmers Market and throughout summer months, middle of May or early May

05:15 - to middle of October, every Saturday in the right on Main Street in the park.

05:20 - But then also it was a very gracious of the the,

05:23 - library in town to open up the library, to us to be able to go there once a month.

05:29 - So the first Saturday of every month, we were in the Newfoundland Library

05:33 - to be able

05:33 - to keep a connection with our customers, keep them with some fresh, produce.

05:37 - As I said, I had some up until then,

05:39 - but then that stored stuff winter squash, potatoes, onions, garlic.

05:42 - And then also we have all of our meats too, that we sell with the ground or the,

05:48 - beef that USDA packaged up that we sell.

05:51 - We sell the fresh eggs, the Thanksgiving turkeys and the poultry.

05:56 - So the, the chicken side of things, which I also process here in, state

06:01 - licensed and inspected facility that I have right on site,

06:04 - you know, so many times

06:06 - people just don't realize the work that goes into the food, you know?

06:10 - And then, of course, you know,

06:11 - I know you're involved with Farm Bureau and different organizations.

06:14 - That takes a long time to do it does it does it does a lot of,

06:18 - you hurry up and get done with your work

06:19 - so you can, get off to a meeting at night time to get home in time to get to bed.

06:23 - So it's time to get up and get started again.

06:25 - And of course, what it really means is so many people that are,

06:29 - how should I say that, you know, 9 to 5 jobs, right?

06:32 - They, they just don't realize the effort that goes in by farmers

06:36 - to make their food supply and their flowers and everything else.

06:40 - Yeah, just a little bit special for them. Right? Right.

06:42 - Make their life better. I hope so. We try to.

06:46 - How many acres do you farm here in the farm?

06:48 - The farm is 176 acres.

06:51 - Vegetables.

06:52 - We do about six acres and vegetables.

06:54 - And then we have a lot of, hay crop for the beef cows and some pasture.

06:58 - And then there are some woodland. To.

06:59 - What kind of beef cattle do you actually grown?

07:01 - There are a mix.

07:03 - Yeah.

07:03 - We started off with some Herefords, but over the years, we get a different bull.

07:06 - We get some black Angus balls in there.

07:08 - We got some red Angus, we got some at all mix.

07:11 - So it's it's truly just a commercial mix.

07:14 - It's not a not a registered herd of any sort.

07:17 - No, but I guess, a good product, right?

07:20 - Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

07:22 - I once took a class that, Rutgers, on beef and,

07:27 - yeah, they pretty much said that if you really take good care of them

07:30 - and feed them and the right nutrition, a skunk would taste good. So,

07:36 - I got to believe that,

07:38 - I know, a black eyed and a black tan will bring a little bit more money.

07:42 - Yeah, but, once the skin is off, the tongue is out of it.

07:46 - The meat is, pretty much the same.

07:48 - And, Yeah, really, you know, and it's the feed quality that you give them.

07:52 - That's right.

07:53 - The feed quality, the water, the care.

07:55 - Yeah.

07:56 - Well, now you had some poultry also, right?

07:58 - Yeah. So we do a lot of broiler chickens.

08:01 - We raise them up and then, as I said, I have, facility here

08:05 - that gets inspected by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

08:08 - and licensed to,

08:11 - process the poultry myself and package it, freeze it,

08:14 - and then sell it by the piece, and, and also the fresh, Thanksgiving turkeys,

08:18 - you know, over the years, I'm

08:20 - sure you know this really well, but it seems like people really

08:23 - want to know their farmer, don't they?

08:25 - Yeah.

08:26 - More more more than before. Yes.

08:29 - And I think it's very important to to know your farmer.

08:31 - I invite people to come look at the farm all the time.

08:33 - I have nothing to hide.

08:35 - Yeah.

08:36 - You'll find a barn may have manure in it.

08:38 - We we do what we call a pen pack on them, and, when they're in for the winter.

08:43 - So we don't clean the barn all winter long.

08:44 - I keep filling up with a lot of, bedding in there, and, so the microbes,

08:49 - the nitrogen and, the carbon, the microbes are breaking that down.

08:54 - So it's almost like a composted, material when it comes out of there.

08:58 - And the heat keeps the cows warmer all winter. Right?

09:01 - And they stay very clean and very dry.

09:02 - It's hard to believe that they can be standing on,

09:04 - you know, that much manure pack and laying down.

09:09 - But it's dry as could be in there because of the heat going up through it.

09:12 - And I see a lot of farms doing that.

09:14 - You know, they, it's really, a campus makes more or less.

09:18 - Right. Pretty much. Yeah.

09:19 - And, and, you know, and there comes a cleaner because it's dry.

09:23 - Yeah.

09:23 - And then,

09:24 - when you drive by and you see an old money yard and the cow is all dirty, you know.

09:28 - That's right. Yeah.

09:30 - No, no, no, no, I had some of that years ago and I said, this is not right.

09:35 - This is not the right way to do it.

09:36 - We've got to do something different.

09:38 - And I don't think I see the customers in the comments.

09:40 - No, I wouldn't like that if I had cows knee deep in mud.

09:44 - Let's get back these. I don't. Okay.

09:46 - That's getting to be a big issue throughout the northeast.

09:50 - You know, the, USDA actually helped a lot of farmers get going with it.

09:56 - I don't know if they still do or not, but, you know, it's a way

10:00 - that we can actually put a dome over our crop, am I right?

10:04 - That's right. Yeah.

10:04 - So a high town, maybe a lot of, the viewers may not actually know

10:07 - what a high tunnel is when we're talking high tunnel.

10:09 - So a high tunnel is a very much like this greenhouse area we call a greenhouse.

10:14 - It's, a hoop structure of some pipes

10:17 - that are sunk in the ground, and they have the truss over top of it.

10:21 - And then we put plastic over that.

10:23 - And, the poly gets attached to it.

10:26 - They have some roll up sides,

10:27 - so if it gets too warm, it can roll up the sides

10:30 - and let the breeze go through to keep the plants cooler.

10:34 - But there is no flaw in it.

10:35 - So we, we're actually planting.

10:37 - So I tell people it's almost like a tent over your garden, is what we're doing.

10:43 - But we can control the weather better.

10:44 - So when, rainy seasons, when you're outside.

10:47 - Tomatoes are good.

10:48 - They're just about ready,

10:49 - and they get too much rain, and then they just grow overnight and split.

10:53 - And then you've got split tomatoes that nobody really likes.

10:55 - They don't look,

10:56 - you know, they don't look perfect like the ones in the grocery store.

10:59 - So with I don't we don't get rainstorms.

11:02 - Yeah. We control how much water.

11:03 - So we're actually saving water

11:05 - because we put it through a drip tape only right where the plant is.

11:09 - We're not watering the whole thing, so there's a lot of, value to that,

11:14 - where the conservation purpose of it.

11:16 - And that's where NRCs you mentioned, comes into play with the USDA.

11:20 - They do have a program,

11:23 - to, to help farmers.

11:25 - Yeah.

11:26 - Trying to think of the name of the program of,

11:30 - so my mind went like,

11:32 - but, you know, really, if you stop and think about it,

11:35 - the drip irrigation all saves water, there's no doubt about it for sure.

11:39 - The maximum, you need.

11:41 - And, but at the same token, disease is cut down a lot.

11:45 - And in our part of the country, the wildlife doesn't in or into these it.

11:49 - That's right, that's right.

11:50 - So if you can, do that, you eliminate a lot of your,

11:55 - the other problems, woodchucks, rabbits, deer,

12:00 - birds, they all can, can be a problem on your vegetables.

12:04 - Different vegetables are different size. Your smaller animals.

12:07 - There's still a little bit of a chore to keep them out of the high town.

12:09 - Unless you're putting, some wire around the bottom as well.

12:12 - But it does, for the most part, it keeps deer out.

12:15 - I did have a deer run right into the plastic on one.

12:19 - He didn't get in, but he made a mess of the plastic

12:21 - where you can see the indentation of it of a buck.

12:24 - You could see the horns where it went into the plastic.

12:26 - It kind of bounced off and left.

12:28 - I had the same thing. I had it, yeah.

12:29 - And my neighbor

12:30 - come down and sell it, show his friends, the greenhouse or the high ground.

12:34 - And there was a buck in there sleeping. Yeah.

12:36 - And he got all excited and jumped right inside of it.

12:38 - Yeah, yeah.

12:39 - So it cuts it out, but it doesn't eliminate it 100%.

12:43 - And it gives you another month, either way of growing season two, am I right?

12:48 - It does.

12:49 - More I'm going to say more so at the end of the season

12:51 - than the beginning, without using a supplemental heating,

12:54 - if you have start using supplemental heat,

12:56 - you start to defeat the purpose of a lot of cost.

12:58 - Yeah.

12:59 - Of the financial feasibility of having it. So,

13:04 - you can start a little bit earlier in the spring, but it really extends

13:07 - the season.

13:07 - I, I tell people it's kind of like once, once it gets heated up

13:11 - and everything is rolling, it takes longer time for that to cool back down.

13:15 - Right?

13:15 - So that way the ground is still giving off heat in the fall.

13:18 - So you get some cold nights.

13:20 - The ground is still, keeping your plants warm, which are down lower.

13:24 - So it's a tremendous value at the end of the season.

13:28 - The plant here now, you my plugs.

13:31 - Yeah.

13:32 - This year, with the cost of, the fuel,

13:35 - it takes quite a bit of fuel to happen on cold nights.

13:39 - And a lot of these flowers would have to be started in January.

13:42 - So the ones that needed to be started in January, we,

13:44 - we have like our coleus petunias,

13:48 - we have some rhubarb stock flats up there.

13:51 - That I bought plugs.

13:53 - So a plug is where a bigger greenhouse already did the seed.

13:57 - It gets to be about that big and a little bitty tray.

14:01 - Quite a few and a flat.

14:02 - Yeah.

14:03 - There may be as many as 512 and a flat.

14:05 - So if we buy a 512, they are just little bitty squares and all it

14:09 - this is that actually germinated and it's got its true leaf

14:12 - and it's ready to be transplanted. Right.

14:14 - It saves us three weeks of heating the greenhouse of us starting them from seed.

14:19 - Now some of the later flowers we do, we have a lot over there on our,

14:22 - germination bench that our flowers that we see here now, some of the later ones,

14:27 - marigolds and, zinnias, things like that, that we then have to start in January.

14:33 - We, we do them here from seed.

14:34 - But there's a great the whole thing really comes together and,

14:37 - you know, a lot of, thinking ahead of time.

14:40 - All right.

14:41 - Yeah.

14:42 - Planning and planning.

14:44 - Planning and looking back in your book.

14:46 - Yeah. All right, so you got to keep a book.

14:47 - You to keep, records. Yes.

14:49 - You look back in that book and you say last year on this date

14:52 - is when I plan something you try to think.

14:54 - Was was that a good date?

14:57 - Everything is a guess.

14:58 - And I'll tell you the truth, one of the hardest guest

15:01 - is to have Easter flowers.

15:03 - Yeah, because in order for us to have an Easter flower,

15:06 - we're doing what we call force.

15:08 - And then we might be putting some in a in a walk in cooler

15:12 - to cool down some bulbs.

15:15 - Maybe like tulips. Yeah.

15:16 - Yeah, I go through fertilization.

15:18 - I think it was winter time.

15:19 - We pull them out, we put them into a greenhouse,

15:21 - they think it's springtime,

15:23 - and we have to try to get it so that that perfect bloom on that one day.

15:27 - Yeah, that is what I like about it.

15:30 - Like, people that raised goats and sheep and stuff like that, they're the same.

15:34 - The same exact same thing. Yes.

15:36 - When to breed so that you have your your birth at the right time

15:40 - and then the right age in the right weight for that specific holiday.

15:44 - So it is it's what no matter what it, it's, it's different.

15:48 - No different for whether it be our Easter flowers or the proteins

15:52 - that you mentioned, you know, different kinds of meats or anything like that.

15:56 - It's all timing, record keeping, keeping track of it, knowing what to do.

16:01 - Learning from your mistakes.

16:03 - I think that's the best part.

16:04 - I forgot about six books of those that I write.

16:08 - Yeah, mistakes don't do that again.

16:10 - You know, try something different.

16:12 - And, you know, so many, young people, they want to get started.

16:17 - And I see this throughout the whole state.

16:20 - And, this is a great way to start small.

16:24 - It is.

16:24 - You know, I, I see, sometimes you'll see, a parcel come up for sale, a house,

16:30 - two acres.

16:31 - And, you know, they have a nice little one acre level spot, I think.

16:35 - But a young person could start off buying that

16:39 - and go actually into production and and that little spot of land

16:45 - with a couple of, you know, greenhouse, a couple of high tunnels,

16:48 - selling some produce, whether that or some plants.

16:52 - Yeah. They could add a small piece.

16:55 - They could really do something, or if they just didn't want to do it

16:59 - commercially, if they just wanted it for themselves, you know, a small

17:02 - greenhouse, a small high tunnel, a family can really help.

17:05 - Well, you and I both know that my leg is up there, right?

17:08 - Oh, yes. Yep.

17:10 - You know, they really don't have much land.

17:12 - Yeah, but I think they get 5 or 6 high home and, one,

17:16 - I believe one of them is, they even raised fish up there, but, aquaponic.

17:21 - Yeah.

17:22 - And, and one of them and, these are the things that you can start

17:26 - on a small piece of property and move to actually making a living off farming.

17:31 - Right? That's right. Yeah, yeah. You do.

17:32 - You don't need to have a 200 acre farm, so that's good.

17:36 - Yeah.

17:37 - Well, we're going to talk a little bit about your pardon.

17:40 - Farm bill.

17:41 - All right.

17:42 - We're going to be right back to talk about that okay okay.

17:44 - All right.

17:49 - My dad and

17:50 - I both have a CSP contract, but staff can't come out

17:54 - and check the fields to approve them for us to get paid.

17:58 - We're going through a very bad economic time.

18:00 - If we don't have the funds to support our conservation practices,

18:04 - we're going to see a major drop off in producers and U.S.

18:07 - agriculture. I don't know, guys. This is scary.

18:10 - I got a young family, a young business, and I have no idea what's going to happen.

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18:18 - mission has been and remains supporting rural communities

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18:37 - for the future, farm credit is with you every step of the way,

18:41 - helping your way of life thrive today and for generations to come.

18:45 - Visit Horizon Scope to learn how farm credit can help you achieve your dreams.

18:54 - Well welcome back.

18:54 - We're still out here with Tim Jaggers.

18:56 - And of course, it's all about the flowers today, right?

19:00 - I guess. Yeah, yeah, we've got a lot of them.

19:02 - Well, it's a beautiful here in in the greenhouse.

19:05 - And then, of course, nice and warm.

19:07 - But, you know, Tim, you play a major role with farm Bill, Pennsylvania farm bill.

19:11 - And, you're a state director here from five counties, I believe.

19:16 - Yes. I cover Wayne Pike, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Susquehanna.

19:20 - County and, you know, farm bill is so important to the farmers.

19:23 - You know, it's where we convey, how should I say when something ain't right?

19:28 - And government, we can talk up a little bit,

19:31 - have policies and pass them policies and get something done.

19:35 - That's right, that's right.

19:36 - So it is a true grassroots organization.

19:39 - You hear many others, say the name grassroots, but,

19:43 - all of our, our policies, you spoke about policies, come from the county.

19:47 - So you take members out across the county here that have a problem.

19:51 - Whether it, be,

19:54 - a municipal issue, you know, an agricultural issue.

19:58 - Any issue we have out here in rural Pennsylvania and our counties.

20:03 - Absolutely.

20:03 - And if it's eating on your mind and bothering you, they'll write up a policy.

20:08 - It'll go to the county level.

20:10 - At the county level, we'll have an annual meeting

20:13 - where the whole county will vote on that policy.

20:16 - A lot of chatter, a lot of conversation

20:18 - back and forth on some of them, good and bad.

20:22 - But that's what we need to do.

20:23 - We need to talk about things and come up with a solution.

20:26 - If we pass it, it goes on to the state level.

20:30 - And not only that, you know, by having more people involved,

20:33 - if you're wording is incorrect and doesn't hit the spot, right,

20:38 - all the input that's put from other people can make that policy so much better.

20:43 - Oh that's right, that's right.

20:44 - You might have what you think is the perfect policy.

20:47 - And someone brings up one point and we and we'll change a word on to it.

20:51 - Which makes a lot of sense.

20:52 - But you didn't think about but someone else did.

20:54 - And it's good, as you said, it's

20:55 - good to have a collective mind that way with so many members.

20:59 - They're all their input.

21:00 - So that we do have a good policy when it does go to the state level.

21:04 - And, the delegates from all 67 counties come to,

21:10 - you typically it's been in Hershey for the last year in a number of years,

21:14 - and we will take all those policies that came from all the counties

21:17 - and discuss them again and vote on them.

21:21 - Now you're getting more input from across the state.

21:23 - What bothers us in the northeast may not affect the southwest.

21:27 - And vise versa and the central.

21:29 - So we get all the different problems across the whole state.

21:33 - We hashed them all out and we come up with policies.

21:36 - Some of those policies are federal policies.

21:38 - They are. Yeah they are.

21:39 - So then therefore they're going to go to the American Farm.

21:43 - Bureau Federation, which takes in all 50 states.

21:46 - So now we have, something here and one of our little counties

21:51 - could have, just take care of our flowers here.

21:54 - The seed was planted and started to grow, and then it blossom,

21:59 - and it went all the way to end up in Washington, DC.

22:04 - In the policy book for the legislators to look at

22:07 - and say, the Farm Bureau stands for this.

22:10 - Right?

22:10 - And let's craft a bill and get something passed to help them out.

22:14 - And of course, that's 6 million members, which makes an impact.

22:18 - Yes, it does.

22:18 - It makes a great impact.

22:19 - Yeah. It's the amount of membership that really makes impact.

22:22 - And that's another point.

22:23 - You know, you don't have to be a farmer to join one bill.

22:26 - That's right.

22:28 - If you want to support agriculture, join the Farm Bureau, support agriculture.

22:31 - If you eat,

22:33 - two meals a day, three meals a day, we hope.

22:35 - Yeah.

22:36 - I once heard it said eat lunch on me.

22:38 - Yeah, yeah.

22:39 - A farmer knows we might miss a meal for timing, but we'll make up for it.

22:44 - I always say I've always got plenty of food.

22:47 - When the pandemic hit and the grocery stores shut down

22:50 - and the food supply crashed, as we all know it, because it's

22:54 - such a fragile food supply in the United States.

22:57 - The farmers kept on going.

22:58 - Yeah.

22:58 - You know, that's where we had a lot of people coming to the farm buying direct,

23:02 - because that was where you get the food and,

23:04 - you know, really if you stop and think about,

23:06 - I think that's when people start realizing how important a farmer was.

23:09 - I think so, I think so, I could see a growth in the farmers markets from that,

23:14 - realized that, they should get to have a relationship with a local farmer

23:19 - that can help, supply their family with with something to eat.

23:22 - Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

23:24 - And of course, I know you, you were raised right here in this area, right?

23:30 - Yeah.

23:30 - So this farm was, was my great grandfather's, it's a century farm.

23:35 - So, Secretary Russell Redding,

23:38 - gave a

23:38 - documentation to it, a couple of years ago.

23:42 - A century farm is a farm that's been in the same family for over 100 years.

23:47 - I'm proud of that.

23:47 - I'm hoping that it goes on to be a Bicentennial farm.

23:52 - That would be great to,

23:55 - Yeah.

23:55 - So I am the, I'd be the fourth generation

23:58 - here on the farm and, hope to keep it going.

24:01 - And that's what it's all about.

24:03 - No, today, there's so much that goes on that

24:07 - pertains to farming.

24:09 - A lot of, a lot of times I talk to celebrities in that.

24:13 - And people said, well, what do they know about farming?

24:16 - Well, believe it or not, a lot of the country singers

24:19 - especially come from a farming background of some sort here.

24:23 - A few years ago, I did Charlie Daniels before he passed away.

24:27 - He comes from a lion family, right? Yeah.

24:29 - Leroy Van Dyck, the auctioneer song and all he did.

24:32 - And they had a 4000 acre farm that he farmed.

24:35 - And, when he was a boy and still got a thousand acres of it.

24:39 - These are really many of the country singers

24:41 - come from the roots of farming, and they'd love to talk about it.

24:45 - Oh, yeah.

24:46 - I can tell you first offhand,

24:49 - when I was, probably about eight years old,

24:52 - driving around on a case, 530 around these fields, raking hay.

24:57 - We didn't have.

24:57 - Walkmans or, them MP3 players

25:01 - or or a Bluetooth with the earbuds.

25:04 - Nothing like that.

25:04 - So, I drove around these fields, and I'll tell you day, but,

25:08 - I sounded just like Kenny Rogers.

25:12 - Hahahahaha!

25:13 - All day long, all you did was steer the tractor insane.

25:17 - I believe it now.

25:18 - When I was a kid, we had a we had a tractor, had fenders on it.

25:22 - Finally most attractive.

25:23 - Didn't have them days.

25:25 - And, I found an old radio, a car radio,

25:28 - and I mounted on that fender, and, we put an antenna on and it screw down.

25:34 - And the neighbors had to put up with the noise all the time.

25:38 - But, you know,

25:40 - a farm boys, farm girls, you know, they definitely,

25:44 - I think they have an advantage in the world, you know,

25:47 - so many times when, I deal up

25:51 - in Susquehanna County with the gas companies in that they love them.

25:54 - Farm kids come to work for you know? Yeah.

25:57 - They learn a great work ethic from a young age.

26:00 - Yes, they do.

26:01 - And the poor age and the FFA and all.

26:03 - That's what it's all about.

26:05 - Well, Tim, I want to thank you for the great job

26:07 - you doing and the great job you do with, actually with the Farm Bureau.

26:11 - But also, you know, keeping the farm going another generation.

26:15 - Right.

26:16 - Thank you Dave. Yes, I'm going to do the best I can. Yeah.

26:22 - We. Pennsylvania Farm Bureau is about more than farming

26:51 - where people united around food, the environment and community.

26:56 - Our members include farms of every size and type across the state,

27:00 - as well as families who want to be a part of the state's local food culture.

27:04 - We advocate for farm families to continue to produce quality food

27:08 - for their neighbors,

27:09 - and for rural communities to have the tools they need to thrive.

27:13 - Pennsylvania Farm Bureau growing Communities,

27:16 - Many Voices, United Vision,

27:19 - The friends of the Farm Joe Foundation began back

27:22 - in 2010 as a way to support educational events

27:26 - at the annual Farm Show, we worked with the leadership of the Farm.

27:30 - Show, help them raise funds to conduct the annual Farmers Cup.

27:34 - I think what draws people to the annual Farm Show is the vast diversity.

27:39 - It is that diversity of all that equipment,

27:42 - livestock and the involvement of the youth, the friends of the country,

27:46 - the farm to the foundation are hugely appreciative of our opportunity

27:51 - to support the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg.

28:04 - I'm Dave Williams, your host here in Pennsylvania.

28:07 - Country roads.

28:08 - Come and join us every Sunday morning at 7 a.m.

28:11 - on PCN TV as we travel throughout the countryside

28:15 - of Pennsylvania, bring you those heartland stories

28:18 - about the places we love to visit and the people we love to meet.

28:23 - Everything that makes Pennsylvania such a great place to live

28:27 - and. And.

28:34 - This program has been paid

28:35 - for by the sponsor and does not reflect the views of PCN.