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Family business takes man to Kazakhstan By ALISSA EATON - aeaton@sungazette.com An area business owner is traveling across the world to teach other farmers better corn-growing techniques. Taylor Doebler III, owner of T.A. Seeds in Jersey Shore, is going to Kazakhstan to help farmers there with new techniques. “The biggest thing that we are trying to accomplish is to
show them that And Doebler isn’t the first person in his family to do this. He is a third-generation farmer at T.A. Seeds, and his grandfather, T.A. Doebler Sr., traveled to Russia to go over agriculture techniques. “He (T.A. Doebler Sr.) was very progressive in agriculture for that time,” Doebler said. This isn’t Doebler’s first time visiting Kazakhstan either. He went there in April to plant plots and now is going back to help the farmer’s harvest them. Corn isn’t Kazakh farmers’ main yield; dairy cows are. But of course the cows need good food to eat which is where Doebler comes in to help. He isn’t the only farmer to help them with advancing their techniques. John Rogers, a dairy farmer associated the Penn State Cooperative Extension Program shows the farmers techniques to get more milk from their dairy cows. “He is trying to bring some modern techniques to the farmers there,” Doebler said. “In Kazakhstan, many people do things the way they always have.” Doebler said the biggest problem for the farmers was keeping their cows comfortable. ”Once Russia pulled out of their county, there was just no one there to show them how to do things,” Doebler said. Doebler said that he got involved with the program when people from Penn State asked him to. “John Rogers came to me, because a Penn State official recommended me and told me that he wanted a feed farmer to help the people of Kazakhstan,” Doebler said. In April Doebler planted seven different strains of hybrid corn and one of their local ones with the help of some other farmers. Doebler will take agronomic data from it and write reports for Penn State. “If it leads to sales — the idea is a Pennsylvania-based seed company supplying Kazakhstan seeds with the help of Penn State and shipping out of Philadelphia,” he said. Doebler left Sept. 16 and will return at the end of the month. He said he would be interested in going back again and keeps in contact with some of the farmers there now. T.A. Seeds sells 77 different hybrid seeds, but in Kazakhstan only one is available. Doebler said that Kazakhstan farmers are slowly advancing. The county also has a lot of natural resources for use. Coal deposits, uranium deposits, gold deposits, oil and gas only name some of them. Doebler said the rural income for people in Kazakhstan ranges from $1,000 to 1,200 per year. “They are a very proud people,” he said. Posted: 9/23/2007 Williamsport Sun-Gazette, Sunday Edition, Business Section |
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there are other seeds available to them,” Doebler said.