WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — The top annual honors for achievement and service to agriculture in Crawford County will be presented today at the Crawford County Fair in the Youth Show Arena.

At 2 p.m. the Agricultural Hall of Fame and Ag-Industry awards will be presented. The program will also include the local commodity queens and light refreshments will follow the program. 

Agricultural organizations and previous recipients of the Agricultural Hall of Fame and Ag-Industry awards have selected the 2012 recipients of this year’s awards.  Nominations are solicited from interested ag-related organizations and businesses as well as former recipients of both awards. 

Each organization or individual may submit two nominees for Hall of Fame, which may include those who have retired from farming, are currently involved in farming, or from the service industry or organization. One ag-industry nomination may also be submitted.

Named to receive the 2012 Hall of Fame awards are J. Howard Caldwell of Venango and the Robert T. Rose of Cochranton. The Ag-Industry Award goes to Allan Hart & Sons Farm Machinery of Cochranton.

-J. Howard Caldwell was born in Woodcock Township. He attended a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade and graduated from Cambridge Springs High School. While in high school he was enrolled in the FFA program showing beef cattle. He hauled milk cans in 1954 and later drove a tank milk truck for Erie-Crawford Cooperative. He became a member of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association in 1955.

Caldwell began operating a 100-acre dairy farm on Gravel Run Road in 1959, which has now expanded to nearly 200 acres. In 1959 he married his late wife, Marcy Weidner. 

The farm became known as LuJado Holstein Farm, named after his three children. The LuJado Holstein Farm has participated at the Crawford County Fair since 1969. 

Caldwell was a director for the Crawford County Holstein Club in 1964 and served as president for three years. He served as chairman of the Crawford County Fair Sale and Show Committee in 1975. Since 1964 he has been a member of the National Farmer’s Organization. 

In 1982 he was the director of the Crawford County Farm Organizations where he helped organize “Farm-City Day,” which was created to educate the public about farming. He was a director on the Farm Credit Board for nine years, and served for nine years on the Woodcock Township Zoning Hearing Board.

Caldwell is semi-retired, but still has a working hand in the family farm operation. He has been a tremendous supporter of farming and encouraging young people to become involved with animal projects.                      

-Robert T. Rose was born on a small dairy farm in Westmoreland County and moved to Crawford County in 1947. When he was 14, he started cutting meat at a small store in Cochranton that eventually led to his life-long affiliation with the meat business.

Rose attended Penn State University for one year and returned to the meat business, working at his father’s store. In 1963 he and Saundra were married and raised a family of four. He continued in the meat business as a supermarket meat manager, then as a meat inspector for the state Department of Agriculture, and then to selling spices to meat plants across Pennsylvania. 

He purchased a farm in 1972 and began a small beef herd. In 1978 he stopped traveling to sell spices and built a small meat plant, “Rose’s Abattoir,” that was operated until 1992. In 1982 he purchased a neighbor’s herd of Angus cows, leased their farms and continued leasing them until this year. For the major part of those years, the herd numbered around 100 brood cows, many times having over 200 animals on Golden Hill Farms.

Rose served as a 4-H leader and Resource Leader for 31 years, and organized a new 4-H club for youth showing breeding stock. He was instrumental in the formation of the Northwest Keystone Junior Beef Classic in 1985. He was a founding member of the Crawford County Fairground Building Association Inc. to initially construct the Livestock Complex, and served as its president for 15 years. He became the assistant chairman of the Crawford County Fair Beef Department in 1985 to 1998 and is currently the Beef Department chairperson. He has been a supporter of the 4-H & FFA Market Livestock Sale for 34 years.  As a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Meat Processors from 1975 to 1983 he served on the board of directors and as vice president and president.  Currently he is serving as a Fairfield Township Supervisor since 2000.

-Selected to receive the Ag-Industry Award is Allan Hart & Sons Farm Machinery, which includes Allan and Betty Hart, sons Ron and Jim, daughter Karen and grandson Joe. 

Allan graduated from high school in 1950, during which time he was an FFA Star Farmer. He married Betty Parker, who became his farming partner. They had five children. Betty took the children to the barn with her so that Allan could do custom farm work for much of their early years. Betty also had 1,000 chickens and sold the eggs.

In 1955 they purchased the farm next door, where they still live today. All five children helped on the farm. Kathy and Betty did the milking and the men the fieldwork, buying and renting more land each year.  They now farm more than 1,000 acres. 

Son Don and grandson Bryan now own the cows, milking 100 head with 100 replacement animals.

In 1958 Allan received the first conservation award given in Crawford County. A few years ago Don also received the same award. Allan was a member of the Holstein Association and on the Cochranton School Board in the 1960s.

In 1970 Allan started buying and selling farm tractors, which is now the business known as Allan Hart & Sons Farm Machinery. They have expanded to an export market and have added industrial equipment including most anything industrial and farm equipment available for sale or rental.

The Awards Program is administered by Crawford County Pomona Grange and includes the following sponsoring individuals and organizations: Crawford County D.H.I.A., Crawford County Dairy Princess Committee, Crawford County Fair Dairy Committee, Crawford County Farm Bureau, Crawford County 4-H Dairy Leaders, Crawford County Holstein Club, Ronald and Eleanor Kalinowski Farm, Ron and Barbara Kerr, Mercer County State Bank, Richard and Fritz Muckinhaupt, Northwestern REC, Jon B. Reese Family — Reese Dairy Inc., and Farmers Union Milk Producers Association.