Library Ocr a o:C Agriculture
107 Tat tee ,
J:iiv rjj ty Pa', iffooa
Vol. 20 No. 16
Cathy and Eckert Erb, Millersville
Rl, hope their idea for a mini-farmer
cooperative catches on here. An
organizational meeting has been
Bankers Look At New
Liquid Manure System
Ag bankers from Lan
caster and surrounding
counties were given a tour on
Thursday of a new manure
handling system which its
makers say can save far
mers time and money, help
keep them from running
afoul of increasingly
stringent environmental
regulations, and perserve
more of the plant nutrients
persent in cattle, hog and
chicken manure.
The system, called a
Slurrystore, is manufac
tured by A.O. Smith, the
same firm that makes the
Ron Kreider
Young Manheim
FFA Member
Ron Kreider is a young
man whose interest in far
ming has been keeping him
quite busy. A junior at
Manheim Central School,
Ron has been a member of
the FFA at Manheim for the
past three .years. He has
served the Chapter as news
reporter and has been
chairman or the public
relations and recreation
committees.
Ron’s interest in many
phases of agriculture has led
him to take project work in
numerous areas such as
planned for Friday, March 21 at 8:00
p.m. in the Coca Cola Bottling Plant in
Lancaster.
familiar blue Harvestore
structures. The unit on the
Myers farm sells for about
$lB,OOO, the bankers were
told, and can store about a
three month supply of
manure from the farms 14ft
head dairy herd and small
beef operation. Manure is
scraped daily from the
barnyard into a reception pit
which holds a six-day output.
Milk house wastes also go
into the reception pit.
Every six days, the
reception pit is emptied into
the bigger, open storage
tank. In the process, all the
dairy, market hog finishing,
beef finishing, capons and
field com.
Along with his project
work, Ron has been on the
FFA parlimentary
procedure team and has
been involved in public
speaking often speaking on
the food shortage and work
of the farmers.
Ron has participated in the
livestock judging com
petitions at the county level
and has attended the
national FFA leadership
(Continued on Paie 26|
Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 1, 1975
solids are thoroughly mixed
with the liquids into a slurry.
Before the tour, the group
IConlinued on Page9|
Ron Kreider, Manheim R 5, has been active in many
farm youth activities including FFA and 4-H work.
“Mini-farmer” Hopes
To Start Co-op Here
by Dick Wanner
A place in the country,
with enough space for a few
chickens, maybe some
goats, and certainly a huge
garden ... ‘it’s a dream
shared by many subur
banites and city dwellers.
It’s a dream, that includes
space for the kids to play and
to get to know nature,
honest-to-goodness work for
children, perhaps a tumble
down farmhouse with
“potential”. Not many of the
city cousins who dream
these dreams, though, ever
come close to realizing them.
But Eckert and Cathy Erb
are living their dream. And
loving it more every day.
Two-and-a-half years the
Erbs sold their home in East
Petersburg, a Lancaster
suburb, and moved to a 30-
acre “mini-farm” near
MiUersville. They’re finding
that the things they've
gained from country living
have more than made up for
the things they left behind.
Instead of a comfortable,
modern suburban house,
they now live in a restored
farmhouse, with modern
conveniences but a patina
only age can bestow on a
dwelling. The neighbors are
no longer dose enough to
whisper at, but the Mend
ships formed in East
Petersburg are still strong.
And many of their old friends
visit them more on the farm
than they did in town. The
new neighbors are farther
away, and it took longer to
get to know them, but
they’ve found the
surrounding “big farmers”
all pleasant and helpful.
And, especially in the
beginning, the Erbs needed
all the help they could get.
A mini-farmer, espfecially
one who farms more for fun
than profit, does have a
special set of problems.
These are problems of scale.
A feed dealer doesn’t want to
deliver a ton of feed. A grain
broker doesn’t want to
bother with the half-ton of
surplus com the mini-farmer
can’t feed to his hogs, the
cattle trucker doesn’t want
to stop for (me or two steers.
Faced with these
frustrating problems, the
Erbs began discussing them
with other families like
themselves, and they found a
NOTICE
New LANCASTER
FARMING subscription
rates of $3.00 for one year
and $5.00 for two years will
become effective March 1,
1975.
This increase has been
made necessary by sharply
rising costs of postage,
newsprint and production.
Dairy Day
Details A
The 1975 Lancaster County
Dairy Day program begins
at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday,
March 4, at the Lancaster
Farm and Home Center,
according to N. Alan Bair,
associate Lancaster County
agent. Master of ceremonies
for the day’s program will be
Donald L. Hershey, a
Manheun farmer and
president of the Lancaster
County Farmers
Association.
The program will kickoff
with a slide presentation on
money returns from an ef
fective mastitis control
program. Dr. Samuel Guss,
Penn State’s extension
veterinarian, will talk about
new developments - in
mastitis control.
Guss’ presentation will be
followed by a panel
discussion on dairy farm
financing. Jay Irwin,
associate Lancaster County
agent, will moderate the
panel which will consist of
Stanley Musselman from
National Central Bank,
George Lewis,"-Farmers
First Bank, Carl Brown,
$3.00 Per Year
lot of people in the same
boat. They invited a number
of these people to their
homes one evening, and the
outcome of that meeting just
might be the first mini
farmers’ cooperative in the
country.
“That gathering was
really different from what
we were used to where we
lived before,” Mrs. Erb said
when Lancaster Farming
visited the Erb house on
Monday afternoon. “Before,
people always wanted 'to
know where everybody
worked, what their titles
were, and how big their
house was.
“The night we had the
group here, nobody cared. I
don’t know where any of
| Continued on Pate 7]
In This Issue
FARM CALENDAR 10
Markets 2-6
Sale Register 66
Farmers Almanac 8
Classified Ads 30
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 42
Home on the Range 49
Organic Living 57
Junior Cooking Edition 43
Farm Women Calendar 48
Youth Calendar 63
Sale Reports 75
Thoughts in Passing 57
Lancaster DHIA 58
Lebanon DHIA 12
Program
nnounced
Fram Credit Association,
and Roy Geisman, Farmers
Home Administration.
Preceding lunch, Lan
caster County daiiy princess
Diane Crider and her
popular friend, “Marvy
Moo”, will share the
spotlight for a few minutes.
Lunch will be available for
$1.75 per person.
After lunch, Jane
Alexander, Pennsylvania’s
deputy secretary of
agriculture, is sure to have
an attentive audience as she
delivers a speech entitled,
“The Great Milk Mystery, or
Who’s Responsible for
What?”
Mrs. Alexander will be
followed on the speaker’s
platform by Marlowe W.
Hartung, president of a
Lancaster Advertising
agency which bears his
name. He’ll talk about the
facts and fictions of product
advertising effectiveness.
Hartung will be the last
speaker, with the program
expected to adjourn by 3:00
p.m.