When he was just 8 years old, Mason Scheetz entered his first farm show. He won reserve champion in showmanship. Other young farmers might have rested on their laurels, but Mason was just beginning. Now 22, he still loves showing hogs and heifers – when he has time.
The fifth generation to live on his family’s farm on Branch Road in Sellersville, Scheetz puts in long hours every day, year-round – feeding hogs and cattle, doing field work, maintaining equipment and hauling stock for breeding – and that’s after working a full day at his off-farm job.
The Scheetz family’s Homestead Farm, where Mason lives with his parents and siblings, covers 25 acres. The Scheetzes farm 250 acres in the area, growing hay, corn and barley to feed their 20 head of hogs and 25 of beef cattle.
Mason Scheetz is one of two recipients of Bucks County Farm Bureau’s 2020 Jerry Harris Young Ag Professional grant. He’ll purchase an in-bed stock hauler, also called a livestock box, an insert for his pickup truck bed that creates a secure space for animals.
His truck gets worked so hard, it’s like another member of the family. “We’re a small farrow-to-finish operation and we do a lot of local showing, plus, we do our own breeding — so we pick up young animals (a breed hog or sow) that we’ve purchased, and, we haul the finished ones to the butcher.”
The insert will improve the safety of his hogs and young heifers. Transported in a livestock box, “They’re less exposed to the elements, and are less likely to get shipping fever.” That potentially fatal respiratory illness affects young animals; stress of transport seems to make it especially virulent.
Scheetz grew up farming, learning from his parents to love the farming life. “I like seeing the progress of the livestock, and the crops, through the year. You see how what you’ve done has an effect on the way something grows.” He credits his admirable showing achievements to his 10 years in 4-H. He also enjoys working on machinery, applying advanced skills he gained in college.
The biggest challenge to being a young farmer in Bucks County, he says, is having to work a full-time off-farm job in order to afford to farm. But, so did his father before him.
Farms are people’s way of sustaining a long-term working relationship with land. There’s been a farm at Homestead’s location ever since 1747. As the oldest in his family, Scheetz is heir apparent to owner-operator, a role he looks forward to assuming.
In the meantime, though, he relishes his role as mentor to the next generation. “I like teaching,” he says. He has four nieces, all of whom he’s taught those precocious winning ways for showing. In fact, he grins, “The heifers that I showed had calves that my nieces are showing now.” He’s still young, but Scheetz is already shaping the future of Bucks County farming.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
