Lancaster Farming: History, Weekly Newspaper, Coverage and Editors
Profile updated November 2026
Lancaster Farming is the weekly newspaper of record for farm country in Pennsylvania and the wider Mid-Atlantic. It began as a 16-page paper in Quarryville in November 1955 to cover Lancaster County agriculture, and 70 years and more than 3,500 editions later it prints well over 100 pages a week from Ephrata.
| First issue | November 4, 1955, Quarryville, Pennsylvania |
|---|---|
| Founder | Alfred Alspach, owner of two southern Lancaster County papers |
| Owner and publisher | Steinman Communications |
| Home | Ephrata, Pennsylvania |
| Frequency | Weekly, Saturdays, print and digital |
| Executive editor | Stephen Seeber, editor since March 2018 |
| Official website | LancasterFarming.com |
History of Lancaster Farming
Alfred Alspach, who already owned two newspapers in southern Lancaster County, launched Lancaster Farming in Quarryville in 1955. The first issue appeared on November 4, 1955, with Ernest J. Neill as editor, C. Wallace Abel as business manager and Robert G. Campbell as advertising manager. Campbell later became the paper's longtime owner and general manager and died in 2005. From the first edition the paper promised to report the facts as they fall.
The editor's chair turned over often in the early decades. Robert E. Best, Dan McGrew, Jack H. Owen and Don P. Timmons each served in the late 1950s and 1960s, and later editors included Zane Wilson, Richard E. Wanner, Dieter Krieg, Curt Harler, Sheila Miller, Dick Anglestein and James H. Everhart. Everett Newswanger held the post longest, nearly 18 years across two terms, the second running from 1986 to 2001.
Andy Andrews edited the paper from 2001 to 2006, Dave Lefever from 2006 to 2010 and Dennis Larison from 2010 to 2018. Stephen Seeber took over in March 2018. Lancaster Farming is now owned and published by Steinman Communications, the Lancaster media company, and its issues from 1955 to 2003 are digitized in Penn State's Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive.
Lancaster Farming Today
Lancaster Farming still publishes every week, on Saturdays, and reports about 53,000 paid circulation. A typical issue runs to several sections and well over 100 pages, a size few farm papers anywhere still match. Its website, lancasterfarming.com, carries daily news, market reports and an e-edition.
In autumn 2025 the paper marked its 70th anniversary with a 32-page special section in the November 1 print edition, looking back at past editors and profiling winners of its Farmer's Choice Award. More than 50 staff members were credited in the anniversary coverage.
What Lancaster Farming Is Publishing Now
News, dairy and markets
The front section carries breaking farm news, dairy and beef coverage, commodity market reports and a calendar of upcoming events across the region.
Family and country life
A family section runs recipes, food and nutrition, antiques and history, and steady coverage of 4-H, FFA and the Grange.
Business and specialty sections
Agribusiness, new products and specialty segments such as Mid-Atlantic Horse, Eastern Dairy Reporter and Ag Technology, plus special sections through the year on dairy, horses and renewable energy.
Lancaster Farming Editors and Staff
Lancaster Farming's own anniversary coverage and its newsroom pages name these people:
- Stephen Seeber - Executive Editor (editor since March 2018)
- Philip Gruber - News Manager
- Dave Lefever - Reporter, former editor (2006-2010), rejoined 2024
- Stan Hough - Editorial contact, Mid-Atlantic Horse
- Eric Hurlock - Editorial contact
- Kelly Thomas - Editorial contact
- Everett Newswanger - Former Editor, longest-serving (1967-1970, 1986-2001)
Andy Andrews, editor from 2001 to 2006, now writes for the paper as a freelancer.
Who Reads Lancaster Farming
Readers are dairy, livestock, poultry, crop and produce farmers, agribusiness people and rural families across Pennsylvania and neighboring Mid-Atlantic states, including many Plain Sect and family farms in and around Lancaster County. The region's dairy herds make the paper's market and dairy pages especially important, and USDA's Economic Research Service tracks the pressures those producers face on milk prices and costs.
Lancaster Farming readers spend Saturday mornings with a paper thick enough to stop a barn door, so they know how much ground a good farm story can cover. For lighter reading between the auction reports, farm.FM serves up farm satire and farm humor in the same rural accent, with ranch humor for the beef and horse crowd. Its farm jokes are shorter than any Section E, which is a mercy at milking time.
If the name is new to you, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site, with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers on the side. One of its regular writers keeps a whole archive of stories like that.
Lancaster Farming Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Lancaster Farming: 70 years of editors - the paper's own list of every editor since 1955.
- Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association: Lancaster Farming at 70 - anniversary coverage of the founding and staff.
- Wikipedia: Lancaster Farming - overview of sections, ownership and archives.
- USDA NASS: Census of Agriculture - county and state farm data for Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic.
- USDA ERS: Dairy - federal research on milk markets and dairy farm economics.
Lancaster Farming FAQ
When was Lancaster Farming founded?
The first issue appeared on November 4, 1955, in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, launched by Alfred Alspach.
Who owns Lancaster Farming?
Lancaster Farming is owned and published by Steinman Communications and produced in Ephrata, Pennsylvania.
How often does Lancaster Farming publish?
Weekly, on Saturdays, in print and as a digital edition, with daily news online.
Who is the editor of Lancaster Farming?
Stephen Seeber has led the newsroom since March 2018 and is executive editor.
Seventy years after its first 16 pages, Lancaster Farming remains the weekly that Mid-Atlantic farm families reach for first.