By SUSAN MYKRANTZ
Ohio Correspondent

WOOSTER, Ohio — The Wayne County Farm Bureau will host its annual farm tour on Oct. 11 from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., and on Oct. 12, from 1-6 p.m.

Stops on the tour include a popular spot from four years ago, the Wayne County Fire and Rescue training facility at 2311 South Millborne Road in Apple Creek. This serves as a facility for squads and departments across the region to train their personnel to handle all types of emergencies, from fires to farm accidents.

 Another Apple Creek stop is Orr Construction, at 5601 South Apple Creek Road. The Orrs construct ponds and do tiling and other drainage improvement work for area landowners. There will displays and demonstrations of antique farm and construction equipment at this stop.

A Saturday-only stop is the Mark Troyer farm at 9505 Criswell Road in Fredericksburg. This farm is 350 acres, where the Troyers grow corn and hay to feed their Holsteins.

Another Fredericksburg stop is the fire department, for the Pitch In For Scholars Corn Hole game sponsored by the Wayne County Farm Bureau Advisory Council, to benefit the local Farm Bureau scholarship fund.

Ervin Weaver’s farm, located at 5064 South Mt. Eaton Road in Dalton, is a Saturday-only stop. The Weavers farm 83 acres of corn, hay and oats for their dairy operation.

They are an organic dairy and use rotational grazing, having implemented conservation practices such as fencing off the stream and installing a stream crossing and drop box.

Clinton Hofstetter of 12064 Emerson Road in Apple Creek raises purebred Polled Herefords, manages intensive grazing and heats his house and shops with an outdoor furnace.

In Dalton is Streb’s Meats, at 220 South Mill Street. Streb’s was established in 1936. New facilities constructed in 1986 allow the business to process between 8,000-10,000 pounds of meat a week. About half is made into sausage and sold in grocery stores and meat markets in Ohio and surrounding states.

Farriss Dairy Farm, at 1373 South Eckard Road, also in Dalton, is owned and operated by William A., Carol and W. Alan Farriss. They raise corn, hay, wheat, oats and Sudan grass for their herd of 500 milking Holsteins and 525 replacement animals on 950 acres. The Farrisses have implemented numerous conservation practices. They installed a separator unit on their farm to separate manure solids from the liquids. The dry material is used to bed their two free-stall barns, where cattle are housed with air mattresses in one and with water beds in the other. They milk three times a day in a double 16-stall parallel milking parlor.

Founded by Harley Gerber and managed by Brad Gerber and John Nussbaurm, Gerber Feed Service – located at 3089 Moser Road in Dalton – manufactures feed for livestock farmers in Wayne County and the surrounding area. Gerber started in 1964.

Within the last decade, Gerber has seen its customer base go from 1,400 customers to 500 – but at the same time, it has seen a 40 percent growth in demand for its products, while the business has maintained the same number of employees, at about 35.