"Babe in Arms"
Kings-Ransom
Data Barn
320 cows
310 youngstock
980 crop acres
110 acres woodland
50 acres wetlands
8 employees
crops: corn & alfalfa
The Kings-Ransom Farm at Harvest Time
Kings-Ransom Farm
and Bed & Breakfast [mile 1.9]
"Holsteins Fit For A King"
As you approach the first intersection you see the silos of the Kings-Ransom Farm on the
left.
The King Family settled in Bacon Hill as tenant farmers in the late 1800’s and
purchased their first farm in 1901. In 1963, Edgar A. King
and his wife Carolyn purchased the farm from Edgar’s father and uncles. A year
later, they were milking 30 cows. Today the farm has 8 employees to help with crop
production and to care for and milk 320 cows and 310 youngstock. Expansion plans call for
another barn for 240 cows. The Kings also breed and market registered Holsteins.
King-Ransom Farm milks its cows three times a day, with shifts beginning at 4 am, noon and
8 pm. The milk is cooled and stored in a 2,500 gallon tank for marketing by the Dairlylea
Cooperative. All farm records are maintained on a computer. Cow records, which include
production and management information, are maintained on a program called Dairy Comp 305
which ties into the Northeast Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHI).
Like all Bacon Hill farms and nearly all farms in the nation, Kings-Ransom Farm remains a
family operation. Edgar’s sons Jan and Jeff, and Jeff’s wife Becky, share in its
operation along with their mother Carolyn. Today, Carolyn operates a Bed and Breakfast at the
Kings-Ransom farmhouse that lets guests experience life on a working farm. As on most
farms, the farmhouse – a repository of family history – is the focal point of
the farming operation.
Employee Rose Arsenault returned to this area after 15 years
as a legal secretary in Texas to enjoy the special beauty of Bacon Hill and satisfying
farm lifestyle. "Now I’m home for good, I have two little acres of fertile soil,
a job on a farm, and I wouldn’t go back for anything."
Map1
