Third-generation dairy producer Milton Rotz didn’t expect any new insights when he brought a few of his pregnant dairy cows to the live birthing center at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in January 2023. But when he saw the crowd gathered around the corral of the Calving Corner exhibit in Harrisburg, he realized visitors were in awe as they witnessed a calf being born, something most had never seen.
“As dairy producers, we’re around animal births all the time,” Rotz says. “We take it for granted. But the crowd got super quiet as the newborn calf appeared. It was awesome to see. It gives new respect for what we’re doing.”
Watching the outside looking in at the Calving Corner reminded Rotz of how the public often sees the world of agriculture and dairy farming. It reconfirmed that most people don’t understand what’s involved in caring for a dairy cow 365 days a year.
Perhaps most of all, the encounter underscored the importance of leading his Pennsylvania dairy to withstand outside scrutiny while ensuring the family business succeeds for the next generation.
Rotz has been steering that course since 2010 when the management of Cedar Pine Farms transitioned to him. An only child, he had grown up on the farm his grandfather started in the 1940s near Chambersburg, about 100 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. Even as a teenager, he was envisioning change.
“When I grew up, I did it all,” Rotz said. “I milked and fed the animals, cared for the calves, went to the fields. To ask people to do that much in a day, you’re talking a 15-hour day.”
Rotz vowed he would one day grow the family operation to a size where things would be different. He would hire employees to handle specific roles. There would be people to feed the milking string, others to feed the calves and others just to do the milking.
“That way, everybody gets a vacation,” Rotz says. “There’s less stress on other employees when somebody takes off because we have somebody to cover for their spot.”
Expansion changes the game
Rotz made that happen by expanding Cedar Pine Farms. Today, the Franklin County operation consists of three locations, just minutes apart. There’s the home place near Chambersburg, another dairy near historic Gettysburg and, since 2021, a site near Shippensburg. This growth has enabled Rotz and his wife, Stacey, to expand their dairy herd from 200 to 1,200 milking cows. Cedar Pine Farms also raises its own herd replacements. The farm produces corn, wheat, barley, grass hay and soybeans on 1,100 acres near the dairies.
With that growth, Rotz realized his dream of a more significant labor force for the dairy. Now numbering 26, the increased help provides “a better quality of life for us and our employees,” he said.
Further, as the dairy’s workforce grew increasingly Hispanic, Rotz’s son, Shaine, became fluent in Spanish. Rotz says his language proficiency was a game-changer in bridging the communication gap with employees. “We don’t have a lot of turnover with our employees,” he said. “A lot of them have been with us a long time.”