Farmers Serving Farmers

Need feed, seed or fertilizer? Looking for animal health products, fenceposts or work boots? Want to discuss high input costs with fellow farmers?

If you’re within 40 miles of Concord, Pennsylvania, you’ll head to Bruce B. Gamble & Son Feed and Supply. The store has been drawing the local farm community since 1948 when Bruce B. Gamble, a fifth-generation area farmer, founded it to supply the agricultural needs of this valley in the Appalachian Mountain Range.

Today, his son and daughter, Ben Gamble and Brenda Nye, oversee the store where the family’s “farmers serving farmers” sign hangs above the door. This “mini Lowe’s,” as they call it, is the only one of its kind within a 45-mile radius.

“Our feed store plays an important role in our very rural area, which has few resources,” says Ben. “It provides a place for other farmers to gather, share stories and solve equipment, farming and animal problems they may be having.”

The business is part of a diversified family operation designed to “survive the volatile nature of the farming business,” he says. Besides the feed and supply store, the Gamble family raises 750 head of beef cattle, produces several crops, operates a tire-changing company and does custom farming. Ben and his wife, Laurie, their son, Brady, their daughters, Bethany Dell and Brittney Rupert, and members of their extended family are all involved in the businesses.

The Gamble family has owned and farmed this rolling, green land since the early 1800s. Today, it’s expanded to 2,500 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, rye, barley and triticale. The Gambles also grow alfalfa, brome and timothy hay, rotating the hay with their corn and beans.

The Gambles sell their top-quality hay to local farmers and feed the marginal hay to their own livestock. They also make haylage and silage bunkers for feed.

“We bale large and small square bales and large round bales, all with New Holland equipment,” Ben says. “We have a large Amish population in our valley along with smaller-scale farms that don’t have the equipment to handle large bales, so we do a good bit of square bales of hay and straw.”

Tackling challenges
Despite their business diversity, the Gambles still wrestle with increased costs, weather challenges, scarcity of parts and supplies, and labor shortages. They discontinued their dairy operation in 1998 when they couldn’t find adequate labor to milk their cows.

“Finding seasonal workers who know how to operate the equipment is one of the biggest challenges we face,” Ben says. “Fuel, spray materials, fertilizer, seed and basically anything needed to run a farm have increased while the prices we can get for things we produce are still regulated, and we can’t set our prices.”

Another worrisome trend they see is the decreasing number of young farmers in the area. The Gambles have purchased neighboring farmland with hopes that future generations can continue farming together.

To sustain their operation long term, the Gambles not only have diversified but changed with the times. For instance, after a late-night fire in 2017 destroyed the farm’s 1850-built barn, the Gambles replaced it with a new style of cattle barn and a new equipment shed. As a recent way of diversifying, oldest daughter Brittney and her husband, Aaron, started their own meat business, Rupert Farms. They raise and process beef, chicken, turkey and pork, and sell the meat products at local farmers markets and stores, including Bruce B. Gamble & Son Feed and Supply.

Ben and Laurie also believe in keeping up with technology, which they admit can be difficult. One example they’ve adopted is GPS in their corn planters and sprayers.

“GPS helps us save materials and costs while spraying and planting by shutting off nozzles that would be spraying over ground that was already sprayed or planted,” Ben says. “Our farming ground is not like the very large, straight fields out West. We have small, odd-shaped, hilly fields.” 

The Gambles upgrade their equipment every three to five years and often seek larger equipment. “Where we were able to cover 20 feet in a swipe before, we can now cover 40 feet,” Ben says. “We bought a larger manure spreader, which holds two to three times more so we make fewer trips, saving fuel and time.”

Planning for the future
For the coming year, Ben’s priority is to “continue to do our own farming first prior to taking on custom farming jobs,” he says. “We’ll get the grain off as fast as we can and bale straw so we can get a second crop seeded.”

While the long-term plan is for son Brady to take over the family business, Ben and Laurie have purchased neighboring land for each of their three children so that all, including their six grandchildren, can continue farming. Buying land is a great investment, they say, and it’s a way to keep the next generation involved and motivated.

“In this day and age, with the cost of land and equipment, this is one of the only ways they will be able to make it,” Laurie says.

Looking ahead, the Gambles hope the seventh and eighth generation of their family can continue farming together. To help strengthen their bonds, Gamble family members, employees and whoever else might be visiting the farm that day gather daily for a home-cooked lunch in the farmhouse dining room. It’s part of the original Gamble family farmhouse, built in 1850, where Ben and Laurie live today.

The meals, prepared by Laurie and Brenda Nye, give the Gamble team time to relax and reconnect before heading back to the fields, the store, the barn, the tire shop or wherever they’re working that day. Amid the changes that will inevitably come for future generations, this gathering is one tradition the Gambles plan to keep.

Watch more
Visit the Gambles’ multi-generational farm where the family runs a feed and supply store, raises livestock, and grows corn, soybeans, barley and hay here.