Development board learns of connections between dairy industry and technology
By CHERYL R. CLARKE cclarke@sungazette.comArticle Photos
Instead, they learned about a technology partnership and the Pennsylvania dairy industry, two totally different and yet interconnected topics.
Larry Seibert, regional manager of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which covers 21 counties, used a PowerPoint presentation to share with directors the role his organization plays in promoting business in Pennsylvania.
Created in 1983, the partnership has helped the region’s technology companies prosper by providing them with access to capital, business expertise and university resources, Seibert said.
Among start-up businesses helped are 10 “incubator” businesses throughout northeastern Pennsylvania, including in Scranton, Pottsville, East Stroudsburg, Wilkes-Barre, Bloomsburg, Hazleton, Carbondale, Sayre, Mountaintop and Allentown.
The partnership typically makes investments of between $30,000 and $150,000 in companies, but overspending can bump that figure up to as much as $500,000, he added.
“We look for companies that have the potential for high growth and will create jobs,” Seibert said.
In Mount Pleasant Mills, the partnership helped expand American Holtzcraft Inc. The company designs market umbrellas and “upscale outdoor furniture,” Seibert said.
The owners originally had 700 acres of apple trees as their primary business, he added, but the seasonal nature of the work meant they lost much of their workforce during the off season.
“They wanted to hold onto their talented workers so they came up with some creative ideas and it took off,” he said. “They recently opened a second plant in Florida near Disney World, one of their biggest clients.”
Existing businesses such as Holtzcraft also can get low-interest $25,000 loans with five years to repay, he added.
Karl Kroeck, a long-time farmer from Liberty, who sits on the TCDC board and also is a 21-year member of the state’s agricultural board, showed a video produced by the Dairy Promotion Program for this year’s farm show demonstrating how the dairy industry works in Pennsylvania.
With 8,500 farm families who own or operate farms averaging from 65 to more than 1,000 dairy cows, producing 10 billion pounds of milk per year, Pennsylvania dairy farmers play a key role in keeping dairy products available and affordable to much of the northeast, the video declared.
“The average dairy cow produces 65 pounds of milk per day and, at many farms, technology and robotic milking parlors mean it is never touched by human hands,” according to the video.
The $45 billion in business generated by the agricultural industry provides some 40,000 jobs.
Much of the waste produced by the 55,000 cows is reused as fertilizer on farmers’ fields and some even is turned into energy using methane produced naturally.
The video, which cost $22,000 to produce, Kroeck said, has been shown on Blue Ridge Communications channel 13 and has been sent around the state to schools and other organizations.
Following the meeting, university personnel led a tour of the new 32,000-square-foot South Hall, which is nearing completion and will be ready for staff to move in by the end of the month, said Ben Jones, director of grounds and facilities.
