Periodi ceils Division
VOL 18 No. 27
Ephrata's five-man team took first prize
in the Lancaster and Chester County FFA
Land Judging Contest held Thursday on
the Marvin Bennich Farm, Stevens Rl.
Aaron Stauffer, chairman of the Lancaster
County Conservation District, presented
No-Till Com: Is It For
No-till. Zero till. Minimum till.
These are all words used to
describe an increasingly popular
method of planting corn and
soybeans. It’s a method that
could change the appearance of
spring-time in Lancaster County.
Instead of plowed, disced,
harrowed and pulverized seed
beds for corn, we’ll be seeing
more and more fields of dead
brown thatch, with spots of green
where corn plants have begun
pushing through. At meetings
throughout the area, farmers
have been told the advantages of
no-till They’re told they’ll save
time, money, moisture and soil
with no-till.
That’s an interesting com-
Richard Buckwalter has oeen planting
no-till corn for three years. Here he’s going
bination of savings, and it has
attracted a fair share of converts.
Getting into a no-till system is not
cheap, though. No-till planters
cost anywhere from $2BOO to $4500
apiece. They can, however, be
pulled with a relatively light
tractor. And a man with a no-till
planter doesn’t need a plow, disc
or harrow.
For a farmer just starting out,
it would no doubt be cheaper to go
the no-till route. For someone
who’s been in business for awhile,
and who already has a con
ventional planter, a big tractor
and a barn full of tillage equip
ment, the decision to change to
no-till might call for some hard
swallowing and a lot of figuring
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 26, 1973
the trophy to the winning team. Accepting
the trophy from Stauffer is Paul Horning.
Melvin Weiler is also standing. Kneeling,
left to right, are John Weaver, Richard
Groff and Dale Weber.
with a sharp pencil
LANCASTER FARMING
talked to two no-till converts this
week about their operations.
Richard Buckwalter, Lititz RD3,
feeds about 300 steers a year and
grows 40 acres of no-til corn,
which he harvests for grain.
Robert E. Shore, Washington
Boro RDI, operates a dairy farm
with his father and brother. The
Shores plant some 500 acres of no
till corn every year, and chop
almost all of it for silage to feed
their 245 head of milking cows.
Both Buckwalter and Shore are
spld on the advantages of no-till.
Buckwalter said no-till saves
him time in the spring, because it
lets him plant his crop with fewer
back over a field to spray some spots ot
morning glory.
Lancaster Tanning' Thotos
Ephrata Takes
Ist Place Land
Judging Honors
Some 35 vo-ag students from
seven area schools took part in
Thursday’s Lancaster and
Chester County FFA Land
Judging Contest. Each school
was represented by a five-man
team, and awards were presented
to both the high team and the high
individual
Aaron Stauffer, chairman of
the Lancaster County Con
servation District, presented
trophies to the winners.
The teams from Ephrata and
Solanco had a battle for first
place, with Ephrata coming out
on top by a slim six-point lead.
The final scores were 1529 for
Ephrata, and 1523 for Solanco.
Ephrata’s winning team
consisted of Richard Groff, Paul
Horning, John Weaver, Dale
Weber and Melvin Weiler.
Solanco’s Gordon Herr took
first place individual honors in
the contest, beating out
Ephrata’s Paul Horning, who
You?
passes through the field. Buck
waiter seeds his no-till acreage to
rye in the fall, after his corn crop
has been harvested. The rye
serves as a cover crop over -the
winter and through the spring. At
planting time, he kills the rye and
kicks out most of his weed
problems by spraying with a
mixture of Atrazine, Banvel and
Paraquat. Then he plants his
corn in 30-inch rows, aiming for a
plant population of 22,000 to the
acre.
Besides his 40 acres of no-till,
Buckwalter plants another 20
with conventional methods. “We
grow some tobacco here, too, ” he
explained, “and I’m just a little
concerned about putting residual
herbicides on the ground I use for
tobacco. I have corn in the
rotation for those fields, but I
(Continued On Page 29)
Form Calendar
Saturday, May 26
Cherry Fair, Lobachsville, Oley
Valley, May 26-28.
Monday, May 28
Fulton Grange meeting, Oakryn.
Memorial Day Celebration.
Thursday, May 31
Elizabethtown-Donegal 4-H
Community Club meeting,
home of Roy Sauder, Mount
Joy.
Silver Spurs 4-H Club Meeting.
Saturday, June 2
9am.- Pennsylvania Chicken
“Cook-Off” Contest, Northern
Lebanon High School.
1 p.m. - Grooming and
Showmanship Clinic, all 4-H
Horse Club Members, Click’s
Trader Shop, Bareville; Rain
Date June 9.
$2.00 Per Year
came in second Others among
the top ten contestants were
Warren Schmuck, Solanco, Lewis
Good, New Holland, Tom Stot
tlemyer, Solanco, Richard Groff,
Ephrata, Dave Horst, New
Holland, John Weaver, Ephrata,
Melvin Weiler, Ephrata, and
Michael Hartman, New Holland.
The contest was held on the
Marvin Bennich farm, Stevens
RDI. To score, contestants had to
judge the land on soil depth,
internal drainage, texture,
stoniness and organic matter
content.
They had to list the uses for
which a particular field was
suited and give reasons for their
classifications. They also were
required to recommend any
conservation practices they felt
were necessary, and they had to
list limiting factors for special
uses.
Ag Society
Recognizes
Max Smith
ivl.M. Smith, Lancaster County
agricultural agent on The Penn
sylvania State University staff,
has been named recipient of the
1973 Cooperative Extension
Service Award presented by
Gamma Sigma Delta, national
honor society in agriculture.
Smith received an inscribed
plaque at the Penn State chap
ter’s annual meeting May 18 on
the University Park campus. He
was cited for his outstanding
educational contributions to
Pennsylvania’s agriculture.
A member of the Lancaster
County Extension Service staff
since 1937, the award winner, is
nationally known for his work in
livestock production, especially
beef cattle and sheep
In 1957 he was recipient of the
coveted U. S. Department of
Agriculture’s Superior Service
Award and in 1962 won a
Distinguished Service Award
from the National Association of
County Agricultural Agents