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Alabama farmers visit Cambria County farm

Cattlemen stop at Yahner Bros. Farms in Patton

Courtesy photo / Marty Yahner (right) talks about Yahner Bros. Farms in Patton to a group of more than 40 cattle farmers from Alabama on Friday. The Alabama cattlemen were touring farms across Pennsylvania.

Courtesy photo / Marty Yahner (right) talks about Yahner Bros. Farms in Patton to a group of more than 40 cattle farmers from Alabama on Friday. The Alabama cattlemen were touring farms across Pennsylvania.

PATTON — Slivers of blue were visible as puffed, white clouds moved slowly above farm buildings and equipment Thursday in Patton, where the scene likely mirrored pastoral paintings hanging in local homes.

What made the scene unique was a local farmer, gesturing excitedly with his arms as he described day-to-day operations while waiting for out-of-state cattlemen to arrive.

That farmer was Marty Yahner, who owns Yahner Bros. Farms with his brother, Rick. Their property was selected as a stop for Alabama cattlemen, who were touring the state.

“The purpose is to coordinate our efforts, to network,” Yahner said, explaining cattlemen from different regions can learn from one another. “They don’t have winter down there.”

In total, 41 Alabama cattle farmers boarded a bus in Philadelphia for a five-day trip that would take them across the state and back.

Along the way, they aimed to visit 25 farms in five days, said Alabama Farm Bureau Beef Commodity Director Nathan Jaeger.

“It’s an educational tour that we do every year to another state,” Jaeger said. “There’s always things you can learn from other cattlemen.”

While the trip allows for the interstate transfer of trade secrets, it also gives cattlemen a chance to promote the industry, which Jaeger said is important to the economy on local, state and national levels.

“Beef is what’s for dinner,” he said, riffing on a once-popular advertising campaign.

On Thursday, the annual trip took the Alabama cattlemen to Yahner’s Patton property, where he houses about 500 feeder steers each year.

The steers, which are eventually sold for meat, are purchased from breeders in Virginia and West Virginia, with quality in mind, Yahner said.

“They have the genetics,” he said, explaining quality animals beget quality meats. “When I sell them, they are graded by the USDA.”

When the steers arrive at the farm, they weigh about 700 pounds, and by the time they leave — months later — they are typically double that weight, Yahner said.

That weight is increased by feeding the steers corn silage — a mixture of stalks and ears that is combined with a protein and vitamin supplement to give the animals a more balanced diet, he said.

Once the animals achieve their optimum weight, between 1,400 and 1,500 pounds, they are hauled to auction or market where they are sold for meat.

Selling at the right time, coupled with quality animals and quality feed, produces the best beef, Yahner said.

“It’s a whole systems approach, but it works for us,” he said.

The beef operation accounts for about half of the farm’s yearly revenue, Yahner said, noting the other half stems from the sell of cash grains.

“We’re somewhat diversified,” Yahner said, revealing the farm was more diverse in the past, also including a chicken operation.

The farm has been in the Yahner family for six generations and now spans hundreds of acres within seven Cambria County municipalities.

The brothers purchased the operation from their father in the mid-1990s and have been running it since, Yahner said.

“We stand on the shoulders of those who’ve came before us,” he said.

Yahner explained all of this before the Alabama farmers, who were running hours late, arrived.

He joked that he’d likely have to repeat himself later in the day, when the visiting cattlemen finally reached his Sunset Road property.

Mirror Staff Writer Sean Sauro is at 946-7535.

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