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APRIL 7, 2019: Brad Truesdail, at left, and his brother Aaron, at right, tag and clean a newborn Angus calf at their cattle farm in Venango Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania.

CAttle Culture

A year in the life of a family farm in Erie County, Pennsylvania

WATTSBURG — On a warm, clear evening this past July, Merle and Cheryl Truesdail sat on a wooden swing in their front yard. Merle cut apple slices with his pocket knife. Cheryl refilled his lemonade. All around them was Truesdail Farms, where their family raises about 100 Angus beef cattle each year.

Farm work is sometimes difficult, always dirty, and never done. The Truesdails aren’t getting rich; in a good year, they clear a few thousand dollars for all their toil.

They do it because they love it.

“It’s to maintain a way of life,” said Merle.

JUNE 27: The Truesdail family raises about 100 Angus beef cattle on about 250 acres along Fuller Road in Venango Township.

Family makes a farm

Truesdail Farms is a prominent feature along the dirt lane that is Fuller Road, which stretches northwest through Venango Township from Wattsburg. The farm straddles the contours of the road like an old saddle on a good horse.

Merle’s father and uncle purchased about 250 acres in 1953. Merle bought that property from them in 2000. Since then, he and three of his sons — Brian, Aaron and Brad — and their families have worked the land together.

Keeping that process going is an all-in effort.

APRIL 7: From left: Brian, Brad, Merle and Aaron Truesdail.

“(Family) is very important,” Merle, 78, said in May, near the end of calving season.

“There’s no way I could do this without the three boys. There’s no more enjoyable time then when I’m working with all three boys fixing a piece of equipment, maybe during the haying season or whenever we’re all working together.”

Everyone does every job, but each of the sons has their strengths.

“Aaron, he’s more of a cattleman,” Merle said. “Brian, he helps us with the cattle, but he likes to keep (the farm) looking neat. Brad, when you need him, he’s always there.”

Along with Social Security, the farm is Merle and Cheryl’s main source of income. All three sons live on the property, making it easier to get the work done. But all three also have full-time jobs, making it easier for them to afford to be farmers. Brian, 50, is a service manager at an off-road vehicle dealership. Aaron, 43, is a CNC service technician. Brad, 38, owns his own construction business.

Aaron added 50 acres to the farm, and he and his children own some of the cattle. When Merle dies, the farm will be shared equally between the three sons through a trust. 

“This is a small farm and there’s a lot of outside money to support it,” Aaron said. “But we don’t have boats and fast cars. We just buy tractors and cows.”

MAY 19: Brad carries an unwilling heifer calf into the barn during a day of castration and vaccination of the entire herd. At this point in the season, some of the calves weigh up to 150 pounds.

MAY 19: Brad’s boots are covered in mud and manure during a long morning in the barn.

MAY 19: From left: Cali Truesdail, her grandfather Merle and her sister Jenna prepare vaccines for the herd. Each head of cattle in the herd will then be weighed and sorted.

‘It’s like someone flipped a switch’

As the Wattsburg winter melted away in mid-March, the calving season began. The Truesdails are about to get busy. Their 44 pregnant cows and heifers won’t keep bankers’ hours.

“It’s great to see the winter end,” Aaron said, as he watched a cow give birth in one of the fields beside their 150-year-old barn on a gray Sunday afternoon in early April. “But when spring starts, it’s like someone flipped a switch.”

At least one of them tries to keep an eye on each birth. As soon as calves are born and before they can walk well enough to keep away from their overseers, they are given ear tags to identify them. Birthdate, sex and lineage are entered in the farm’s record-keeping system, an online spreadsheet-on-steroids called CattleMax.

MAY 19: Cheryl Truesdail keeps track of all the data on each cow and calf as they are processed in the Truesdail’s barn.

By mid-May, the calves weigh about 150 pounds each. Vaccination and castration day — May 19 in 2019 — is one of the most important days of the year on the farm.

The entire family of 10 works together to herd the cattle through chutes in the lower level of the dusty barn so they can be vaccinated and weighed, the male calves can be castrated and all the animals can be separated into two herds, keeping cows with their calves. Cheryl records all the data for CattleMax. Shannon Truesdail, 39, Brian’s wife, makes sure lunch will be ready when they’re done.

“Everybody has a job,” Merle said.

Merle has three grandchildren who take an everyday role in farm chores: Cali, 13; Jenna, 10; and Levi, 8, are the children of Aaron and his wife, Janyl, 43.

After sticking a vaccine syringe in the neck of a cow in a chute, Jenna yells, “this cow is done!” over the din of braying animals. It’s a labor-intensive, expensive process. The family will spend almost $1,000 in medication today. 

The two herds pushed out of the barn later that day will stay together all summer. The cows and heifers will breed with specific bulls to preserve strong bloodlines and, hopefully, a healthy herd from one generation to the next.

APRIL 7: A newborn Angus calf is cleaned by its mother. The calf weighed about 95 pounds at birth.

Did you know:

Angus beef cattle, or Aberdeen Angus, have been raised for about 200 years, beginning in the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in the northeast of Scotland. They were introduced in the United States in the 1870s.

Angus are a hornless breed known for sturdiness and their marbling, which is the fat content in the beef that gives the meat more flavor.

An adult Angus cow will eat about 30 pounds of hay or grass and drink as much as 30 gallons of water each day.

Sources: American Angus Association, Truesdail Farms, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Wikipedia.

JUNE 27: Aaron and Merle adjust the operational width of a new hay rake. In 2019, the family raked and baled over 700 round bales of hay weighing about 1,000 pounds each, which will feed their herd through the winter.

Haying season

The Truesdails’ 200 farmable acres are used to pasture the cattle and to grow hay that will feed the herd in the fall, winter and spring when they can’t graze.

The first cut of hay should be baled by mid-June. In 2019, because of a wet spring, it wasn’t done until mid-July. They got back on track with the second cut, completing it in late August. The two cuts produce about 730 round bales of hay, each weighing 1,000 pounds or more.

They regularly rotate the cattle through new pastures. Each herd of about 50 head grazing on about 3 acres will eat down that grass from 10 inches tall to 3 inches tall in about three days. Then they are moved to a new pasture. This is done to keep the pastures healthy. If the grass gets any shorter, the roots will be damaged and the pasture will not grow back well, if at all.

JUNE 16: The Truesdail family periodically move the electric fencing around pasture areas for their herd of Angus cattle on their Venango Township farm. From left are: Levi, Cali, Jenna and their grandfather Merle.

JULY 23: Merle, top right, guides a herd of cows and calves into a new pasture. Continually moving the herd to fresh grass motivates them to eat more, which increases their weight.

Professional land managers taught this practice to the Truesdails.

“It helps the farmer to fine-tune anything,” said Tom Lamont, 63, who retired in December from a career as a Waterford-based environmental planner with Natural Resource Conservation Service, an agency the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“If you want to be productive, you should get (the cattle) off the pasture,” Lamont said.

For the past 20 years, Lamont helped Merle improve the farm.

“For a working farm, it’s really nice,” he said. “That’s his love. If you love what you do, you always want to improve it.”

AUG. 20: Merle takes a phone call in his barn after spreading lime and calcium on a pasture. The minerals are used to fertilize the pastures for stronger regrowth. The process is a dirty affair, covering Merle in dust.

SEPT. 1: A herd of about 50 cows and their calves runs across Fuller Road in Venango Township. The Angus cattle were being moved into a barn at the Truesdail farm so the calves could be weaned from their mothers.

Truesdail Farms 2019 cattle population

Jan. 1:
  • 44 cows
  • 3 bulls
  • 22 yearlings (heifers and steers), born in spring 2018
May 15:
  • 44 cows
  • 3 bulls
  • 40 calves
  • 22 yearlings
Nov. 1:
  • 58 cows, including heifers pregnant with their first calves
  • 3 bulls
  • 12 6-month-old heifers (which will replace older or non-producing cows)
  • 12 6-month-old steers (which will be slaughtered locally in October 2020)

On Sept. 1, the calves were weaned from the cows. Watching the process in the barn, Merle worried about their weight.

“The calves are gonna be light, the prices are gonna be down,” Merle said, as each calf was weighed and separated from its mother. “We’re gonna take a real whipping this year.”

He was right.

In 2018, the average weight of the Truesdails’ six-month-old calves was 515 pounds. In 2019, they averaged 500 pounds. The reason: They didn’t eat enough.

Cattle will be motivated to eat when they are on the freshest grass possible. “If you move them every day, they’ll eat more,” Merle said. But it’s a lot of work for Merle and Cheryl. “I’m getting to a point where I can’t rotate pastures every day,” Merle said.

In 2018, the Truesdails received $1.50 per pound for the six-month-old calves sold to a Mercer County buyer. In 2019, they received $1.40 per pound.

Cattle prices correlate to grain prices, which are affected by weather, fuel costs and other factors. This affects the Truesdails’ bottom line even though their feeder cattle are almost exclusively grass-fed. In order to make a living, a cattle farmer needs 300 animals or more. The Truesdails don’t have the acreage or manpower for that kind of operation.

“If you’re here for the paycheck, you’re doing it wrong,” Aaron said.

OCT. 8: Merle looks over the marbling of several butchered sides of his Angus beef with Marty Boyd, owner of Boyd’s Custom Processing in Greenfield Township. Boyd, 57, butchers all of the Truesdail’s locally processed beef.

In October, they ship some of their 6-month-old cattle to a Mercer County buyer, and slaughter older cattle locally, selling that meat to friends and family.

As the weather turns colder, the family stores and services their equipment, greasing fittings on hay rakes, changing oil in tractors and even rebuilding engines.

‘They’re just little farm kids’

Farm work consumes a part of every day. During the winter, when the cattle are in barns, they must be fed and watered twice a day. Barns are cleaned every week. Minor health problems with the herd are diagnosed and remedied. They rarely call a veterinarian.

Through it all, the Truesdail children are focused on the farm.

“They don’t play sports,” Shannon said of her nieces and nephew. “They’re just little farm kids.”

AUG. 14: Janyl and Aaron say goodbye to their children before taking the family RV for a vacation in Ohio. In Janyl’s arms is Levi. Hugging Aaron is Jenna. Not pictured is Cali.

AUG. 27: Jenna says goodbye to her uncle’s horse, a gelding named Red, before boarding her bus for the first day of fourth grade at Wattsburg Area Elementary School.

NOV. 23: Cali blows out the candles on a homemade birthday cake. Her mother, Janyl, background, used colored icing to top the cake with a likeness of Cali’s horse, Sassy. At right is Cali’s sister Jenna.

But the family fits in other activities.

In November, for Cali’s 13th birthday, Janyl used colored icing to top Cali’s cake with the likeness of the girl’s horse, Sassy. Levi sang in the chorus of Wattsburg Area Elementary School’s Christmas program, sporting a fresh haircut and shiny cowboy boots. Jenna enters her artwork in the school’s annual art show. She won a blue ribbon a year ago for her painting of a panda and a rainbow.

Aaron and Janyl own a recreational vehicle and the family camps several times a year. One annual trip is to Pulltown, a summer truck and tractor pull festival Bowling Green, Ohio. That trip is for adults only.

“What happens in Bowling Green stays in Bowling Green,” Janyl’s t-shirt proclaims.

When she’s not watching tractor pulls, Janyl and a friend exercise together, running on Fuller Road. She also tends a vegetable garden, producing canned goods including beets, pickles and sauerkraut.

AUG. 10: Brian helps remove a dozen roasted chickens from a spit during a neighborhood picnic the Truesdails host every summer.

AUG. 29: Brad rides in the saddle bronc event during a rodeo at the 135th annual Wattsburg-Erie County Fair.

OCT 27: Cheryl climbs down the steps of an early-morning eastbound Amtrak train in Erie as Merle waits. They were returning from an annual vacation visiting friends in Montana.

On Aug. 10, the Truesdails hosted a community picnic, which has been a fixture on Fuller Road for at least 25 years. Aaron took over the planning about seven years ago when he purchased the land that includes the picnic pavilion.

Everyone brings a dish. Brian is in charge of roasting a dozen chickens, which turn all afternoon on a spit over an open fire beside the pavilion. The children play tag in the yard behind it. The fire gets bigger and the laughter gets louder as the party lasts late into the night.

On Aug. 29, the whole family attended the Wattsburg-Erie County Fair. Brad, who has ridden professionally, entered the saddle bronc event on the fair’s rodeo night.

Merle and Cheryl take an annual two-week vacation in mid-October to visit friends — cattle ranchers — out west. They ride an Amtrak train from Erie, arriving in Whitefish, Montana, two days later. Merle likes to stay on the ground when he travels. His ears won’t equalize pressure at altitude.

“Merle cannot fly,” said Cheryl, 71. “He passes out.”

OCT. 24: Cali takes aim while her father Aaron steadies her rifle. Within an hour of sitting under a grove of ash and cherry trees and surveying about 20 acres of the property, Cali killed a 150-pound doe, her third deer in four years of hunting.

While his dad and Cheryl were in Montana, Aaron hunted with Cali. On Oct. 24, a beautiful afternoon with clear skies and a temperature in the high 50s, they sat under ash and cherry trees on the edge of their property, with 20 acres in their field of view. Within an hour, Cali killed a 150-pound doe she shot from across the field.

Aaron hunts alone as well, stocking the family’s freezers with venison and duck.

“My kids like deer meat better than beef,” he said.

OCT. 6: Merle and Cheryl attend Sunday service at Lake Pleasant United Methodist Church in Venango Township. Merle has been a member of the church all his life. “There used to be all farmers at this church when I was a kid. There ain’t no farmers anymore.”

Faith and the farm

Merle and Cheryl are members of Lake Pleasant United Methodist Church, just up the hill from the church’s namesake lake, in Venango Township.

Terry Brown has been pastor for about two years. He sees a parallel between the Truesdails’ faith and work ethic.

“If they’re concerned about how they’re living, that’s how they’re going to work,” said Brown, 68. “(Their) farm shows it.”

Merle has attended church there, on and off, since he was a child. It’s changed a lot over the years.

“There used to be all farmers at this church when I was a kid,” Merle said on Oct. 6 while sharing coffee and cupcakes with parishioners in the basement fellowship hall. “There ain’t no farmers anymore.”

The number of farms in Erie County dropped 24 percent in the past 40 years, from 1,529 farms in 1978 to 1,162 farms in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of cattle — dairy and beef — dropped even more, 50 percent, from 32,712 animals in 1978 to 14,968 in 2017.

Commodity prices — what farmers are paid for their milk or beef — haven’t kept up with costs.

“They can’t make a profit,” said Lamont, the retired USDA environmental planner. “It’s a nationwide problem.”

SEPT. 8: The Truesdail family. Seated from left: Brad, 38; Jenna, 10; Merle, 78; Levi, 7; Cheryl, 71; Mia, 4; Cali, 12; and Joe Anderson, 29. Standing, from left: Aaron, 42; Janyl, 43; Shannon, 38; Brian, 50; and Erica, 30.

Family first, and come visit

Back on the wooden swing, on another evening in early fall, Merle and his sons reflect on what’s important.

They want to educate “city people.”

“Anyone that’s interested in this and wants to see where their food comes from,” Merle said, “We’d be more than happy to have them come out and we’ll show them around and explain anything that they want to know. They’re more than welcome.”

As much as he would like to greet visitors, nothing is more important than the people sitting around him that evening.

“We are a close family, Merle said. “We enjoy working together.”

“I love being around my family,” added Brad, “Ain’t nothing better.”

“I got young kids,” Aaron said. “I want them to grow up the way I grew up: hard work and dedication. It all pays off in the end. Not everybody can say they have all this. Pretty sunset over a bunch of cows. It’s a great life.”

Contact Christopher Millette at cmillette@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNMillette.

Visit Truesdail Farms

If you’d like to visit Truesdail Farms, which is about a 30-minute drive from downtown Erie, contact Merle and Cheryl Truesdail at 814-739-2934.

Meet the family

Merle and Cheryl Truesdail were married in 1997. Between them, the couple has four other children from previous marriages who are not involved with the farm. Until recently, Cheryl, 71, was a licensed hairstylist. Merle, 78, served in the U.S. Navy as a radio technician on the destroyer USS Wadleigh. He was part of the collection mission of astronaut Alan Shepard’s Mercury-Redstone 3 capsule after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on May 5, 1961. Aaron and Janyl Truesdail were married in 2001. Aaron, 43, is a contract CNC service technician for Mazak Corp., based in Kentucky. Janyl, 43, is a supply chain planner with BASF Corp. in Erie. Their children are Cali, 13, a seventh-grader at Wattsburg Area Middle School; Jenna, 10, a fourth-grader at Wattsburg Area Elementary School and Levi, 8, a second-grader at WAES. Brian and Shannon Truesdail were married in 2011. Brian, 50, is a service manager for Off-Road Express in Greene Township. Shannon, 39, is the schedule coordinator for Healthy Smiles Dental in Corry. From a previous marriage, Brian has one daughter, Erica, 30, and a granddaughter, Mia, 5. Brad Truesdail, 38, is the owner of Truesdail Construction. He was a two-time qualifier (in 1998 and 1999) for the National High School Rodeo Association’s national championships in the saddle bronc riding competition. He still competes on local rodeo circuits.

Merle and Cheryl Truesdail were married in 1997. Between them, the couple has four other children from previous marriages who are not involved with the farm. Until recently, Cheryl, 71, was a licensed hairstylist. Merle, 78, served in the U.S. Navy as a radio technician on the destroyer USS Wadleigh. He was part of the collection mission of astronaut Alan Shepard’s Mercury-Redstone 3 capsule after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean on May 5, 1961.

Aaron and Janyl Truesdail were married in 2001. Aaron, 43, is a contract CNC service technician for Mazak Corp., based in Kentucky. Janyl, 43, is a supply chain planner with BASF Corp. in Erie. Their children are Cali, 13, a seventh-grader at Wattsburg Area Middle School; Jenna, 10, a fourth-grader at Wattsburg Area Elementary School and Levi, 8, a second-grader at WAES.

Brian and Shannon Truesdail were married in 2011. Brian, 50, is a service manager for Off-Road Express in Greene Township. Shannon, 39, is the schedule coordinator for Healthy Smiles Dental in Corry. From a previous marriage, Brian has one daughter, Erica, 30, and a granddaughter, Mia, 5.

Brad Truesdail, 38, is the owner of Truesdail Construction. He was a two-time qualifier (in 1998 and 1999) for the National High School Rodeo Association’s national championships in the saddle bronc riding competition. He still competes on local rodeo circuits.


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