22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Feb. 2. 1974
Hamish
< Continued From Page 1)
to grow continuous corn,
especially if we were using
no-till methods.”
Is it economical to employ
both terraces and no-till
methods? “Getting both at
the same time was kind of
accidental,” Hamish said.
“We had already decided to
get the terraces installed,
and then we decided we
needed a new plow, too. I had
been reading about no-till,
and I figured we’d be better
off getting a no-till planter
instead of a plow. I’m glad
we did. I wouldn’t want to be
without the terraces or the
planter.”
Terraces slow the
movement of rainwater
through Harnish’s corn
fields, and the ground cover
which is a feature of no-till
farming retards
evaporation. “Our corn
holds up very well in dry
weather,” Harnish com
mented.
Corn is grown on about 45
acres, with the rest of the
acreage given over to hay
and pasture for the 100 head
of breeding ewes on the
farm. In addition to the lamb
operation, Hamish contracts
some 27,000 broilers.
Harnish discs his corn
fields either in the spring or
fall. He uses Paraquat as a
preemergence herbicide to
kill vegatation before
planting, and also sprays for
weeds. Since each crop
requires only four trips
through the field, Hamish
figures he’s saving a con
siderable amount of field
work, in addition to con
serving soil and water. He
makes one trip to disc, one to
plant, one to spray and
another to harvest. While he
hasn’t run any yield checks
lately, Harnish feels his
average com yield is about
100 to 125 bushels to the acre.
While some of Hamish’s
Red Rose Farmers,
Officers Announced
Red Rose Fanner degrees were conferred on 49 Lancaster
County FFA members on Monday, and officers for the
coming year were selected at the same time. The new of
ficers will assume their posts in May during a leadership
training conference. On Thursday, the winners were an
nounced in the county FFA project book evaluation contest.
The officers named, and their respective chapters, were;
Barry Wissler, Cloister, president; Don Weaver, Grassland,
vice-nresident: Jeff Glackin. Solanco, recording secretary;
Brian Ober, Brownstown Vo-Tech, corresponding secretary;
Dwight Hauser, Lampeter-Strasburg, treasurer; Kevin
Rohrer, Manheim Central, reporter; Bob Buckwalter, Penn
Manor, sentmel; Nelson Martin, Pequea Valley, chaplain;
Dwight Martin, Elizabethtown, parhmentarian.
Red Rose Degrees went to the following members of each
chapter:
Brownstown Vo-Tech
Barry Smith, Bnan Ober, Keith Herr.
Elizabethtown
Dwight Martin,
Leonard Martin, Barry Wissler, James Felpel, Rick
Gensemer, Tom Horst.
John Hamish, Timothy Wilson, Dwight Houser, Jeff
Cramer.
Roy Sauder, Joe Snavely, Robert Hershey, Kevin Rohrer,
Doug Layton, Darryl Ebersole, James Heffley.
Lloyd Hoover, Scott Steffy, E. Clair Martin, Keith Fiester,
Glenn Hursh, Don Weaver, Jerry Long, Tom Martin.
Penn Mannor
Wendell Kibler, Richard Burkholder, Charles Kauffman,
Gary Long, Robert Buckwalter, Mark Fanner, Randall
Hunt, Carl Gerlach, Marlin Hamish.
Pequea Valley
Thomas Denlmger, John Beyer, Nelson Martin.
Solanco
John Zander, David Reath, E. Robert Peifer, Gary Wells,
David Young, Joseph Winter, Thomas Galbreath, Jeff
Glackm, Dave Geihart.
com crop is fed to the sheep,
most of it is sold either as ear
com or as grain. All the
stover is left in the field as a
ground cover. An at
tachment on the planter
allows Hamish to knife in
liquid nitrogen as he plants
the crop. Phosphorus and
potash are broadcast in
granular form.
If he could, Hamish would
plant a rye crop after taking
the com off. “Farmers who
cut their com for silage can
plant rye as a winter cover,
and this helps even more to
conserve soil. We can’t do
that, though, because by the
time the com dries to the
point where we’re able to
pick it, it’s already too late to
plant rye.”
Hamish recalled that the
terraces were constructed
after fall harvest without
any disruption at all in the
farm program. Sheep
manure is spread on the com
land, and Hamish says they
have very little runoff, even
in heavy rains. Grassy strips
next to the stream that runs
through the farm help save
even more soil.
Within the next few years,
all farmers in Pennsylvania
will be required by law to
adopt a certain level of
conservation farming.
Robert Hamish has been
ready for that day since 1966.
In fact, his program may
well exceed the state
requirements. Even so, he
wouldn’t want to be without
any of his conservation
practices. Law or no law,
Hamish is a conservation
farmer because he feels
conservation fanning keeps
more soil on the land and
puts more money in the
bank.
Crop Rotation
Thmk of the goodwill, progress
and increase in productivity we’ve
brought about in backward coun
tries through our technological
advice and assistance As a result
of our instruction, one little Asian
country is practicing crop rota
tion - Opium one year - hashish
the next
Ephrata
Lampeter-Strasburg
Manheim Central
New Holland
This 1956 aerial photo shows the strip cropping different layout, with a mobile home park in the lower
pattern that had been used on the Harnish farm since left, and terraces instead of strips,
the late 30's. An aerial view today would show a much
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