By Cheri Oechsle
Although not rooted in generations of dairy farmers, the
Holstein breeders at Pheasant Echo’s Farm do not lack any passion for their way
of life and their cows. Officially established in 1991, on a rented farm in the
gentle rolling hills of Maryland, Byron and Deborah Stambaugh began their
journey into the registered Holstein business with 30 head purchased from Owen Martin
of Hagerstown, Maryland and five children, Tanya, Crystal, Julie, Bud and
Kenny. Now, 26 years later, the Pheasant Echo’s name is synonymous with
champions and a dedicated and passionate family that thrives around the
Holstein cow.
Byron began the journey to establish Pheasant Echo’s from
working with the herd of Peace and Plenty as a teenager. The dairy bug bit and,
while working for his brother’s construction company, he and Deborah began
looking for a farm. They found the current 160-acre farm nestled in the hills
close to Westminster. With the help of Norman Hill they found the animals at
Martins. For several years, Byron continued to both milk and work at the
construction company until the herd began to thrive. The name Pheasants Echo is
derived from the crowing of the pheasants that lived on the land when the
Stambaughs moved there.
The farm has since been purchased and today is now operated
by the Byron and his children. The oldest, Tanya Miller and her husband CJ,
recently purchased the adjacent farm, Pheasant Echo’s West. Tanya and her three
daughters raise the show heifers there and Tanya is also in charge of feeding all
the calves. Tanya’s sister Crystal is the herd manager for the milking herd.
She is responsible for the herd health, milking and breeding decisions. She and
her husband Dan Edwards have two boys. Both of their husbands work off the
farm. A third sister that was mentally handicapped, Julie, passed away at age
13 in 2000. The two younger brothers are also involved. Bud is an integral part
of the crop raising and the custom harvesting business that they’ve done for 10
years. They farm 2,700 acres between their own and rented acreage. He and his
father, Byron, recently started a fertilizer business that is rapidly growing.
Kenny, the youngest, is in charge of feeding the milking herd and young stock
as well as helping Crystal with any other herd duties as needed. He and his
wife Nicole have a young daughter, Raelyn and a second baby on the way.
Crystal utilizes a fair amount of different bulls when
making mating choices. “They’ve got to be over 2.00 points on udder and feet
and legs and I don’t use anything negative on dairy form, strength or body
depth. I don’t pay too much attention to milk on bull proofs because I feel
it’s the cow care and feeding that determines how much milk a cow will
produce,” she said. Currently they are using McCutchen and his son, Beemer
along with Solomon, Cinderdoor, Jacoby and a few other Doorman sons. They use
Addiction, Diamondback and Jordy for red sons.
The herd is split in two freestall groups, one being all
first lactation and the other second lactation and up. “I feel that keeping the
first lactation girls all together gives them the very best start. It keeps
them from getting pushed back by the older, more dominant cows, and it seems
like they’re all learning the ropes together,” she said. They also have a
compost pack for recently fresh cows, higher scoring cows and bigger, older
cows. “Our hope is to get rid of both free stall barns and have all compost
packs but keep the groups the same,” Crystal stated. “We’d like to venture into
boarding animals as space provides too.”
Pheasant Echo’s Farm has had 40 excellent animals with their
prefix. Although there were some purchases in the early years, the herd is
primarily homebred from those original 30 registered animals. Crystal believes
the most influential cow was Pheasant-Echos Red Marker Tooty EX-90 with
multiple records over 27,500M. She has had seven family members score excellent
and is the granddam of Pheasant-Echos Turvy-Red-ET, this year’s Grand Champion
of the International Red and White show at Madison and the Grand Champion of
the Junior show at Harrisburg last year. Turvy 2E-95 has 31,880M 1,291F and
945P at 5-00 in 305-days. She is out of the Stambaugh’s first homebred red cow,
Pheasant-Echos Temper-Red, a 2E-91 September Storm from Tooty with records to
29,980M 1,090F and 863P.
Another cow that Crystal says is making her mark at Pheasant
Echo’s is Pheasant-Echos Sovereign Witley EX-93. She won the Maryland State
Futurity in 2012. Her oldest milking daughter is out of a homebred Temper son
and is scored EX-93. “She is a red carrier so we’ve got some exciting daughters
out of her by O’Kalif-Red, Diamondback, Sid and Doorman.”
One of the first trips to Madison for the Stambaughs was
with a fall calf, Pheasant-Echos Re Diego-Red who was first junior for Trinity,
Tanya’s daughter, in 2012. “Donna Myer of Windsor Manor was here and saw that
calf and said ‘That calf is going to be something!’ and sure enough she was
nominated All-American that year. We took her back to Madison as a yearling and
as a two-year-old. She’s now 92 points.”
Tanya’s daughters, Trinity, Ately and Jaycey have been the
junior show women to date but Crystal’s young sons, Blaine and Jarrett are
close behind to enter the show ring at nine and seven. Kenny was still a junior
when Tanya’s daughter, Trinity began her showing career. “We’ve always enjoyed
the showing,” said Crystal. “It has been fun; my sisters, myself and brothers
were in 4-H and now it’s the nieces who are 15, 14 and 13 and my boys at nine
and seven and they are just getting started.”
Despite not purchasing many, they have started marketing
some from their animals. “Kenny sold some embryos overseas out of Turvy,” Crystal
said. “One of Tooty’s daughters, Pheasant Echo’s Satchel P Twerk, was
second-high seller in the National Sale last year and went on to be first
Senior Two and Honorable Mention Intermediate Champion at the New York Spring
Show. We had a June daughter of Turvy sell in the Quest for Success this month
as well. If we had more to offer we would do more.”
Crystal says that they plan to remain at the current herd
size, with family being the work force. “We do have one employee that has been
with us for 10 years that does a tremendous job and is really part of the
family. That’s how we like it, doing it with family. That way we do it the way
we want it done.” From the winner’s
circle at Madison to the RHA of 24,500M on 150 cows, the Stambaughs of Pheasant
Echo’s Farm, like the birds that roam their ground, have something to crow
about.
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