Mercer Vu Farms Inc. was started by Glenn and Mae Hissong in 1949. Glenn and Mae were married and bought a farm from James Karper just west of Mercersburg after Glenn returned home from service in WWII. Mr. Karper bottled and sold milk locally. His bottles can still be found bringing top dollar at estate sales locally. Glenn and Mae started with 7 cows that they milked by hand. By 1960 they had bought a neighboring farm and were milking 60 cows
In the mid 1960's Glenn and Mae's son Ron joined the operation. Soon after in 1967 he married Judy. They built a new freestall barn and a milking parlor and milked 100 cows. In the 1970's they had two sons Rick and Rod
Throughout the 1980's the farm added some acreage and grew to 120 cows. Rick returned home in 1993 from Penn State with a degree in Ag Mechanization and Rod returned in 1998 with a degree in Dairy Science. In 1996 a freestall barn and bunker silos were built and cow numbers increased to 220 cows
In 1999 a sub S corporation was formed between Ron and Judy and Rick and Rod, forming Mercer Vu Farms Inc. With the family looking to support multiple partners and the farm working in old, over crowded facilities, a plan was devised to build new facilities for 800 cows. Ground was broken in the spring of 2002 with cows milked in the new parlor on November 1, 2002.
Cow numbers continued to grow, reaching 1000 head by 2006. Another freestall barn was built and the parlor was expanded to milk 1500 cows. In 2012 a calf barn was built and in 2014 a new farm shop was built. Rick and his wife Becky, along with Rod and his wife Amy, bought out Ron and Judy in 2011. Along the way, feed storage was added, manure systems were upgraded, cropping numbers were increased and employees added.
In 2015 a satellite facility 65 miles away, in White Post, Virginia was purchased. This facility allowed for the expansion of cow numbers, land base and room to raise youngstock. At this facility 1000 cows are milked, 1200 head of youngstock are raised and around 1200 acres are farmed. This allowed Mercer Vu Farms Inc. to grow to its current size and scope.
