The number of farms in Washington, Greene has diminished in recent years
Mac Carter of Hickory said he has been farming all his life. Carter grows grains, corn and soybeans on his farm.
Mac Carter’s farm covers 115 acres in Hickory. Carter, 78, got his first tractor in 1943.
Mac Carter uses clover as a cover crop to help keep his soil healthy for planting.
Mac Carter said he has had his good years and his bad years with his crop production.
Bradley and Shirley Eisiminger have about 100 beef cattle on their Whiteley Township farm.
Cree Acres Dairy Farm sits on 400 rolling acres six miles east of Waynesburg. It is a designated Century Farm, owned by the Cree family for more than 100 consecutive years.
Bill Cree Jr. and his wife, Lura Ann, own the spread in Cumberland Township, a half-mile off Route 21. It is one of only two dairy farms remaining in Greene County, which had 65 a half-century ago. At 76, Bill Jr. has entrusted its operation to his son, Bill III, who lives a quarter-mile away.
A friendly farmer with a sharp business acumen, Bill III has been milking cows for 28 of his 45 years. He loves and respects his vocation, enjoys working outdoors, but isn’t sure whether, at some point, Cree Acres will be the place to be.
“The family farm is a thing of the past,” he lamented last week. “My son will be 15 in September and when I was in his age, all I wanted to do was milk cows and run the farm. He doesn’t feel that way, but you can’t blame him or other young people if they want to do something else.”
Agriculture is even more of a tradition in Washington and Greene counties than steep hills, hairpin turns and wrestling champions. Farms dominated the local landscape for decades, and although their numbers have diminished, they remain prevalent.
But while farms are woven into the region’s fabric, that fabric is fraying. Managing a profitable farm is increasingly difficult, even for those benefiting from oil and gas royalties. The cost of machinery, livestock and other infrastructure is high and the financial return often limited.
“If you were getting a paycheck today similar to what you were paid in 1983, would you like it?” Cree III asked. “Milk prices (paid to farmers) are the same as they were then. Our costs are in the world of 2016, but we’re paid like it was 1983.”
Finding workers – vibrant, young workers – is problematic, even within families. The labor is laborious, hours are long and the future frequently uncertain. And for those younger people eager to launch their own operation, the startup costs are daunting.
“For a 20-year-old who wants to start farming, you would probably have to borrow a million dollars to set up – for land, machinery and cows,” said Alvin “Mac” Carter, 78, a lifelong farmer in Mt. Pleasant Township, “It’s probably prohibitive. The only way to do it today is to inherit a farm somehow.”
A number of farmers, especially long-timers, are selling their tracts and retiring. How do you pass up an exorbitant offer from a developer with a housing plan in mind? Check out Route 19 north of Washington.
Farming remains a noble, vital profession in the region, but it has changed.
Farming is a many-faceted industry. There’s crop farming, dairy farming, cattle farming, organic farming, horse farming, sheep farming – and sometimes a mix thereof. Farms vary in size as well, although most in this region are 50 to 179 acres.
Both local counties have agricultural heritages extending to their foundings in the late 1700s. The Whiskey Rebellion (1791-94) was started and stoked by Washington County farmers in 1791. Delvin Miller, a harness racing legend and linchpin behind The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, was a Chartiers Township farmer.
Greene, following the Civil War, was the second-largest producer of wool in the state.
Each county’s ag history is celebrated at annual events like the county fairs and the Jacktown Fair in Greene, the longest continually running fair in the U.S., dating to 1865.
Family farming likewise is a long-standing local tradition. There are 2,004 Century Farms in the state, and Washington (56) and Greene (32) combine for 88. And of Pennsylvania’s 173 Bicentennial Farms – one-family ownership for 200-plus years – Washington has eight and Greene three.
Yet the farming landscape of each county has diminished in recent times. Both lost a significant number of farms between 2007 and 2012, according to census figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture website agcensus.usda.gov.
Washington went from 2,023 to 1,915, a 5 percent dropoff. Its ag acreage declined 2 percent, from 211,053 to 205,821 acres.
Greene’s declines were even greater. Washington’s southern neighbor lost 30 percent of its farms (1,245 to 876) and 25 percent of its farmland (150,203 to 112,358 acres) during that period.
Collectively, though, Washington and Greene accounted for 6.6 percent of farms in Pennsylvania. Lancaster and York, 200-plus miles east, may be the primary agricultural counties in the state, but the southwestern-most corner still has a formidable farming presence.
There is a way to preserve farms – the Farmland Preservation Program.
It started in 1988, when the Pennsylvania Agricultural Conservation Easement Program was established. The program allows state, county and local governments to buy conservation easements from landowners, restricting the use of that land to agricultural production. Landowners must meet certain requirements to participate.
“You can sell (the land) for agriculture, but not development,” Carter said. “With oil and gas, some farmers don’t want to join the program, although you can still be in the program and have your land drilled.”
Washington and Greene each has a Farmland Preservation Board. Cree is chair of the Greene panel, Carter vice chair for the Washington panel. The Crees’ farm was the first to sign on in Greene.
As of last month, Pennsylvania led all states in number of farms (4,951) and acres (520,619) preserved. Washington had 34 of those farms and 5,394 acres; Greene had five and 591.
Land preservation, however, isn’t for all farmers. Carter admitted. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Is this what you want down the road?’ You have to think, ‘What will the children want?'”
Two large Washington County operations with accompanying markets – Trax Farms, in Union and Peters townships, and Simmons Farm in Peters – do not participate in Farmland Preservation. Scott Simmons, owner of the latter enterprise, said: “We want to reserve the right to sell (to non-farming interests).”
Bradley and Shirley Eisiminger are typical of many farmers in this corner of the commonwealth. They have been doing this for decades, love their work, recognize changes and question the future of their vocation.
The couple own Woodside Farm, a 370-acre beef cattle farm in Whiteley Township, about seven miles southeast of Waynesburg. Bradley grew up there and is the fifth generation in his family to show the Shorthorn breed. Their farm has one of the oldest Shorthorn herds in the nation, and he was the top honoree at the National Shorthorn Show in Louisville, Ky., in November.
They also have hosted the Keystone Autumn Classic, an auction of calves, for the past 36 years. It is an annual event they started in 1980, after each lost a full-time job off the farm when their employers shut down.
The Eisimingers are 83 and, essentially, operate the farm on their own. Their son has a business and helps when he can, as do some neighbors. They have signed a gas and oil lease, but the property has not been drilled – yet.
“Buying machinery, feed and livestock is expensive and it’s hard to find help,” Bradley said, nodding toward his wife of 64 years.
“But,” he added with a smile, “it has been a good ride.”
It has been a lengthy one, too. The Eisiminger family has owned this Century Farm since 1871.
Carter has been farming since the ’40s, when he watched his father make the transition from horses to tractors. Carter raises corn, soybeans, speltz, oats and triticale on 115 acres.
Help, he said, isn’t as readily available as it once was. But he is ably assisted by his two sons, both of whom have jobs elsewhere.
“If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be doing this now,” Carter said.
He has witnessed other changes in his profession, notably at the farms themselves. “There used to be a dairy at every farm from Washington to Burgettstown. Now there are none.”
More people are farming part time, Carter said. Bookkeeping, once a simple task, has become so complicated because of ever-changing regulations, farmers are relying on a Pennsylvania Farm Bureau accountant to do their taxes,
Carter, however, remains fiercely dedicated to his chosen vocation. He mused: “A relative used to say, ‘The only thing that cures the disease of farming is when they lower you into the ground.'”
Cree III also embraces his work … with an occasional reservation.
“It’s not just my livelihood; it’s my mom and dad’s livelihood too. But there are days that I don’t want the responsibility.”