VOL 24 No. 41 US'
Paul Konhaus started retailing turkeys from a small roadside stand in 1950.
Today he owns two supermarkets and a smaller store, and the 40,000 turkeys
he retails every year are only a small part of hissales.
Turkey farmer to grocer
MECHANICSBURG—
It was just a few weeks
before Christmas in 1950.
Paul Konhaus was 35. His
brother, 40, was m the
hospital, near death. The
Konhaus brothers were
turkey growers on a farm
]ust West of Mechanicsburg
m Dauphin County.
The turkey business had
begun on the family farm in
1936. That year, the family
produced 100 turkeys for sale
at the farmers markets
where they handled mostly
chickens
The brothers gradually
expanded that first flock of
100, first to meet the
demands of their individual
customers, then to fill the
needs of their biggest buyer,
a customer that came to
dominate their business.
“When A&P told us m 1946
they’d buy every Turkey we *
could produce, we thought
we had the world by the
tail,” Konhaus recalled
earlier this week. He was in
the office of the processing
plant just across the lane
from his home, an old brick
Last tough on A&P
house his parents movea mio
while he was still in high
school.
A&P’s first order had been
for 1,000 turkeys. The
Slaughter steer
prices up this week
ByKENDACEBORRY
LITITZ It was a week of
higher prices for slaughter
steers at the Lancaster
County area livestock
auctions.
Due to the Monday Labor
Day holiday, there was no
cattle auction at the Lan
caster Stockyards, so the
sales really started on
Tuesday with Vintage.
Compared to the previous
Tuesday, at Vingage
Livestock Sales, slaughter
steers were $3.00 to $4.00
higher, with high choice and
Prime yield grade 3 to 4 at
1075 to 1400 pounds bringing
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 8,1979
grocery giant doubled and
redoubled its order in en
suing years. The Konhaus
brothers doubled and
(Turn to Page 29)
67.00 t0j59.25. Yield grade 4
to 5, at 1200 to 1500upounds
went for 62.00-66.00; and
Choice, mainly yield grade 2,
at 1100 to 1400 pounds, went
for 68.00 to 69.25. A few head
of choice and Prime, grade 2
to 3, sold for 69.50 to 70.00;
with choice, yield grade 2 to
4, at 1010 to 1400 pounds
bringing 65.00-68.25, and a
few head selling at
65.00. Choice 4 to 5, at 1200 to
1450 pounds, went for 61.00 to
64.50, and high good and low
choice, 2 to 3, went for 63.00-
65.75, and good, yield grade 2
to 3, brought 60.75-63.50,
(Turn to Page 15)
York farmland eyed
for sewage treatment
By JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
LOGANVILLE - Several
York County farm owners
near here are up in arms
over local plans for a
municipal sewage treatment
system.
Approximately two
hundred acres of privately
owned farmland are needed
for the Springfield Town
ship, Loganville and Jacobus
boroughs’ proposed disposal
treatment plan, scheduled
for completion in 1981. The
South Central Sewer
Authority, a body of
representatives in charge
from the three
municipalities, wants to buy
those acres of private land.
Few of the landowners,
, however, are prepared to
- sell and admit they’re ready
to battle for their right to
keep the source of their
livelihoods.
Last week, some lan
downers met with
representatives of the York
County and Pennsylvania
Farmers Associations, to
which some of the affected
farmers belong. Members of
the organization’s local
affairs committee plan to
continue monitoring the
proceedings and will attend
a public input meeting
scheduled for this Tuesday
evening, September 11,
beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the
Loganville-Spnngfield El
ementary School.
Eight sites were orginally
recommended by an
engineering study and
elimination is down to the
three most favorable sites.
At the Tuesday evening
meetmg, a final location
announcement is expected
and Authority members
hope to vote on that
recommendation at then
regular monthly meetmg on
Wednesday, September 19.
The controversial system
utilizes cropland spray
In thu issue
York Fair schedule 42
Clinton livestock sale 49
Classifieds 50
Homestead Notes' 86
Joyce Bupp 88
Farm Women news 88
Ladies have you heard 89
Home on the Range 92
Junior Cooking Edition 92
Susquehanna Co. livestock
sale 98
Kendy’sKollumn 100
F.W.S. Calender 100
Southeastern FFA 126
Marland Livestock Sale 134
Cumberland Co. DHIA 138
Sales reports 152
Public Sales Register 154
irrigation, a method in study
for several years by
specialists at Pennsylvania
State University.
Residential sewage wastes
would be pumped to a
several-acre lagoon,
aerated, then piped to a
chemical treatment and
disinfecting area. The
purified water would then
be sprayed over crop
covered soils through pivot
irrigation, at the projected
rate of one and one-half
mches of water per acre per
week. A twenty-acre storage
pond, with a 140-day holding
capacity, is also in the plan
to hold- effluent when
weather conditions do not
permit spraying.
An inch of the spray per
week, according to Penn
State studies, represents
approximately one hundred
pounds of 1 nitrogen, 45
pounds of phosphorus and 95
pounds 8f potassium per
acre annually, or roughly the
equivalent of a half-ton of 10-
10-11 fertilizer.
Two crops which
researchers say thrive on
the high moisture levels are
field corn and reed
canarygrass. Increased
yields with rapid and lush
growth are positive results
Charles Rauhauser, right, president of the York
County Farmers’ Association, and Chris Allen,
representing the Pennsylvania Farmers’
Association, met recently with farmowners whose
property is being eyed for a sewage disposal spray
irrigation system.
$7.00 Per Year
of the spray, studies add.
The treated sewage spray is
also valuable when applied
to hardwood forest areas,
resulting in better than
doubled growth seen in some
varieties of trees.
Farmers admit they have
no real complaint with the
merits of the system,
although they question some
aspects of it. What really has
them upset is Jthe threat of
condemnation of their
private-property, some of in
(Turn to Page 37)
92-acre farm
move* closer
to becoming
landfill project
PENRYN - The Penn
sylvania Supreme Court
decided two weeks ago not to
hear any further appeals in a
landfill lawsuit that has been
simmering in this rural area
of Lancaster County for the
past four years.
With that decision, the
landfill moves a step closer
to reality. As it goes into
(Turn to Page 15)