Change is a given for two generations of two Mains families near Newville, Pa. Francis and Daniel Mains are a father-son duo from Newville, Pa. They’re the principal owners of Mount Rock Jerseys and Mount Rock Farming, with nearly 1,400 acres, 1,285 dairy cattle, a trucking business, plus a new 185-head dairy-beef enterprise.

Dan is the managing partner of both companies. Francis is slowly retiring, but still helping with field operations and land clearing.

By 1987, Francis had built up a 300-cow dairy operation. That’s when Dan joined as a partner, and they continued to grow their land base and dairy herd.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Daniel and Francis Mains joined their farming ventures to grow their dairy and crops business model.

In 2004, the pair began transitioning the 950-cow herd from Holsteins to Jerseys. In 2015, they broke the dairy and crops enterprises into two distinct companies.

“We began breeding a percentage of our animals to beef to start the third enterprise,” explains Dan. “Our goal over the next two to five years is to decrease the dairy to 350 animals, grow the beef to a 300-cow-calf operation, and grow the cropping entity based on land availability.”

Mount Rock Jerseys are bred AI using sexed semen, according to genetic potential. A portion is bred to produce Jersey-Simmental calves. All calves are raised on the farm, starting out with automatic group feeders. Dairy-beef calves are contracted to feedyards.

The Mainses’ business strategy is to minimize risks via diversification. They’re marketing animals from the dairy side for genetic sales, with plans to reduce milking herd numbers to 350, while internally growing the beef enterprise, using Simmental genetics, to a 300-cow-calf operation.

DIVERSITY IS GOOD: The Mains family brought beef into their enterprise mix via genetics and automated calf feeding.

On the corporate side, they haul their own milk, and operate their own trucks for feed and commodities. They also do their own field operations, involving double-cropped barley and wheat, plus soybeans and corn for grain and silage. “Our hope, with this diversification, is to help manage risk in coming years and offset financial lows occurring with each enterprise,” adds Dan.

Committed to leadership
The Mainses have been longtime members of Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, and have served in county leadership roles in the conservation district, Farm Service Agency and Farmland Preservation Board. Francis was Cumberland County’s 2000 Conservation Farmer of the Year.

Dan was a founding member of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, secretary of the Pennsylvania Dairy Stakeholders and an AgChoice Farm Credit director. He’s a Pennsylvania Beef Council board member and a corporate director for Land O’Lakes.

THE RENOVATOR: Francis Mains’ 150-hp CAT crawler is his “toy,” or tool of choice for taking out limestone rock and improving field crop productivity.

Watch for tomorrow’s 2016 Master Farmer feature on Julie Ballay and David Masser of Sacramento, Pa., and here for a roundup on all nine 2016 Master Farmers.