Vol. 20 No. 30 Glenn Williams, a Lehigh County dairyman and jug store operator, has a lot to smile about these days. He’s selling milk for $1.40 a gallon to his retail customers, who also buy Over 100 Attend Manure Management Tour Here More than 100 people turned out for a manure management tour held all day Tuesday in Southern Lancaster County. The tour was organized by Associate Lancaster County Agent N. Alan Bair and Jerry Bod man, an ag engineer from Penn State. Bair said the tour was in the planning stage for about two years. Increasing pressure from government and environmentalists, as well as an increasing need to utilize the fertilizer value of manure, were the main Students Receive Ag Awards By: Melissa Piper A number of seventh grade students from the Garden Spot Junior High School in New Holland were awarded merit ribbons for their outstanding work in the Junior Agriculture Club during an assembly held on Monday afternoon. Dr. Robert Herr, chair man of the agriculture dept., at Garden Spot was on hand to give the opening remarks as well as presenting a number of the awards. Dean Miller, the Junior High School principal also presented awards to some thirty students. Awards presented in cluded the following: Dairy Judging: Ist-Jennie McComsey; 2nd - Cindy Denlinger; 3rd - Pam Houck IGonfinued on Pafe 31] hamburger made from his young Holstein bulls. Williams is an NFO member who believes the farmer should have more say in the price he gets for his products. reasons for setting up the tour, Bair noted. There were four different dairy farms included on the tour, each with a different kind of manm e management system. Jay Garber, Lan caster R 6, has an above ground concrete silo that is set up not only to store manure but to capture the methane gas which is given off by decomposing manure. Amos and Ken Rutt, Edgefield Road, Quarryville, store their dairy manure in an open holding area made of treated plants. Myer Bros, dairy farm, Spring Valley Road, Quarryville, uses an earthen bank storage facility with a Patz Liquidvator for removal. Henry and Mat thew Young, Peach Bottom R 2, have a huge pond, with a two-to three-million gallon capacity, to hold manure, milk house waste and flush water from their free-stall bam. Manure Power The first stop on the tour was the Jay Garber farm, where a 30’ x 48’ silo with wavy sides dominates one comer of the exercise lot. “The sides aren’t wavy, because the concrete wasn’t poured right,” Garber told the crowd. “The waves are from the urethane foam insulation that we had sprayed on the silo when we decided we wanted to try making methane. For good methane production, the manure will have to be kept at a temperature of 90- Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 7. 1975 degrees, and the insulation will help to do that.” Garber’s first reason for having the silo built was manure storage. The Gar bers are milking about 100 cows a day, and they have another 100 heifers. Daily spreading had become a very time-consuming and expensive chore before the silo was built. Underground storage was [Continued on Pate 26| For Linda Kauffman . . . Dairy Judging Has Been An Award Winning Interest Linda Kauffman showed her cow Hiilgien Dixie Fashion to grand champion honors during the State This Dairyman Wants To Set His Own Price By Dick Wanner Glenn Williams has built a farming operation around the finn belief that the farmer should have the ability to decide for himself what he’s going to get for his labor and investment. This 32-year-old Lehigh County dairyman from Walnutport has built his operation from 25 cows and rented land to a 100-plus acre operation that includes 300 cows, a jug milk dairy store and, around the home farm, almost as much blue on the ground as there is in the sky. Those blue towers are used for silage, haylage, high moisture corn and even manure. Lancaster Farming talked In This Issue FARM CALENDAR 10 Markets 2-6 Sale Register 94 ' Farmers Almanac 8 Classified Ads 37 Editorials ’ 10 Homestead Notes 50 Home on the Range 54 Organic Living 47 Junior Cooking Edition 55 Sale Reports 95 Farm Women Calendar 54 Country Corner 50 Farm Wives 58 Dairy Goats 65 Growing Degree Days 92 Lebanon DHIA 70 Lancaster DHIA 74 Berks DHIA 62 York DHIA 78 Chester DHIA 66 Holstein Show held earlier in the spring in Harrisburg. to Williams on Thursday morning in the comforatable kitchen of his remodeled farm home. Williams is a product of Easton, a small city near Allentown. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but did spend summers with his grandfather, Stanley Kemmerer, who operated a small dairy farm near Bethlehem. When he graduated from high school, Williams originally planned to pursue a career as a machinist, but soon switched to the dairy business. He worked for his grandfather for three years on the Bethlehem farm. When his grandfather retired, Williams moved to his present location. At first, he owned only 25 cows and rented the farm. In 1971, he got married and he and his wife, Joan, bought the farm. The following year, 1972, they went into the jugging operation, and opened the dairy store which Joan manages. “We went into jugging,” Williams said, “because we wanted to keep more of the money on the farm. We started out selling at $1.20, but we gradually went up to $1.40. Milk sells in stores around here for $1.55, so I figure we’re entitled to $1.40. It’s fresh, it’s good quality and our milk is worth $1.40. 1 Location is important to any direct-to-the-consumer farming operation, and his location has been an im portant part of Williams’ success. Tlie road running in $3.00 Per Year front of the store is a main artery for commuters going into Allentown during the week. Weekend traffic is high, too, because of its nearness to the popular Pocono resorts. Most of the trade, though, comes from the many small villages in the area. Surplus milk can be a problem with a jugging operation, but Williams feels he’s solved his problem by marketing his excess through an NFO marketing agency. “None of the dairies around here want to take surplus milk from juggers,” he explained, “so I sell it through NFO. They guarantee me a market for my surplus.” Williams is an NFO member, and is a strong I Continued on Page 22| Annual Dairy Issue by: Melissa Piper The dairy enterprise has been of special interest to many people in the Lancaster County area for some years; with a great number either being in volved in 4-H or FFA dairy projects or just raising some animals from the family herd. One young person who has become very interested in her family’s dairy operation is Linda Lou Kauffman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert H. Kauff man, Elizabethtown Rl. A member of the Lan caster County 4-H Holstein Club for the past eight years, Linda has taken several dairy projects and has been an award winning member of the County 4-H Dairy Judging team for the past three years. During her judging work, Linda has helped the county team place first in State competitions and has at tended judging contests in [Continued on Pace 35)
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