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New discovery in Ohio waters sheds light on reclusive hellbender
Fire destroys dairy
By Barbara Mudrak A creature that literally spends its life under a rock, nonetheless, made a big splash in Ohio conservation news in September. That’s when a hellbender that had been raised in captivity was found with eggs in a nest. “This is a huge milestone,” said John Navarro, program administrator for the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Aquatic Stewardship program. “This is the first evidence of a released hellbender reproducing in the wild.” It is also an amazing feat considering the hellbender’s lifestyle of self-imposed seclusion. If it’s not disturbed, they can live under the same rock their entire lives. The only time they socialize is when they mate, Navarro said. In Ohio, that happens in the fall. The male fashions a nest in his underwater homestead and waits to see if a female finds it to her liking. If she does, she can lay up to 500 eggs in
Community rallies around Brunton Dairy after loss of barn and milk bottling plant
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By Rachel Wagoner
rachel@farmanddairy.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP., Pa. — There are still many unknowns for the Brunton family after a fire ripped through the farm’s connected processing plant, milking parlor and tie stall barn on Oct. 26. The facility was the heart of the beloved Beaver County dairy farm where they still sell half gallons of milk in returnable glass bottles and make deliveries directly to area homes. No one was injured in the fire and most of the cows are safe at other farms. For all of that, they’re thankful, but they don’t know where or how to start in moving forward. “We’re just doing what we need to right now,” said Mary Jane Brunton. It’s unclear how or where the fire started but it spread quickly into the milking barn, starting around 5 p.m. Oct. 26. Family members and neighbors rushed to let loose about 100 cows and push them out of the barn. Not all the cows wanted to leave the barn they knew as their home. About a dozen cows died. The smoke and flames engulfed the barn and forced everyone out in less than 20 minutes. What followed was a chaotic scene of firefighters trying to control the fire and people trying to corral panicked cattle.
Nearly two dozen fire departments from two states showed up to battle the blaze, which destroyed the buildings. The farm. Though Brunton Dairy remains a relatively small farm in rural Beaver County, its milk and dairy products are sold at more than 35 retailers in Beaver, Allegheny and Butler counties. The farm has been in the same family for seven generations, beginning in 1839 when Bill Brunton bought land in Independence Township. Brunton Dairy began bottling milk on the farm in 1962. The farm is run today as a partnership between brothers Herb and Ed Brunton, their sister-in-law Mary Jane and Mary Jane’s two sons Jerry and Jim. Mary Jane’s husband, Jim Brunton, Jr., who was known as “Junior,” died in 2008 after a farm accident at age 50. The community. Without prompting, people from around the community began showing up to help, even as the fire raged. They had enough people to help keep the cows contained in a field without a fence until they could push them into an empty barn, Jim Brunton said. Trucks and livestock trailers arrived next, waiting in line to load cows to transport them off-site. The cows went to three different farms
Leanne Brunton and a cousin share an embrace as they look into the barn that was destroyed the day before in a fast-moving fire. About a dozen cows died in the barn, but many more made it out safely. (Rachel Wagoner photo)
Thursday night but were consolidated into two farms Friday morning. Most of the herd went to the nearby farm run by Don and Barb Craig, who sold their dairy cows nearly two years ago. The Craigs had an empty freestall barn and milking parlor, and they were happy to help their longtime friends. Don Craig said it was fortuitous timing as he’d just gotten electricity hooked back up to the barn earlier that day after having his electrical service updated. Progressive Dairy came out that night to help get the milking parlor up and running again, after sitting unused for so long. Graham Dairy Supply also helped out the next day All the cows were milked around midnight. The herd was about halfway through evening milking when the fire broke out, so they ran all of them through again. Don Craig and Ed Brunton said they got done in the barn around 3 a.m. Friday. Each of them
No one knows how hellbenders got their name, but they have equally unflattering nicknames like “devil dog,” “mud cat” and “snot otter,” which refers to the mucus they produce to protect themselves from predators and disease. They got the name “old lasagna sides” because of all the folds and wrinkles in their skin, which are filled with blood vessels to absorb oxygen from the water. (Al Staffan, retired, Ohio Division of Wildlife photo)
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Volume 110 - No. 08 | Four Sections ©LYLE Ptg. & Pub. Co.
Alan Guebert..................................A4 All About Grazing..........................A2 Antique Collector.........................B13 Around the Table.........................A23 Auction Calendar...........................B1 Auctioneers Directory.................B25 A Wrangler’s Reckless Writings....C2
Calendar.......................................B23 Classified.......................................C5 Comfortably Dumb......................B21 Commodities.................................A6 Crossword/Sudoku.....................A20 Dairy Excel...................................A13 Dirt on Conservation.....................A3
Eliza Blue.......................................A7 Equine Calendar............................C3 FFA News......................................A9 Hazard A Guess...........................B14 Judith Sutherland..........................A4 Kids Page.....................................A22 Kymberly Foster Seabolt..............B1
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Markets........................................A17 Obituaries......................................A5 People..........................................A15 Real Estate..................................C19 Religion........................................A21 Scholarships................................B26 Tami Gingrich................................C1