B6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 9,1980
Fire collapses bam in minutes
TURBOTVILLE - The
intense blaze destroyed the
large bank bam in a matter
of minutes, reported
Assistant Fire Chief Jeff
Webb, of the Turbotville
Volunteer Fire Company.
The bam fire occured on a
Northumberland County
farm owned by Donald
Rovenolt, R 2 Watsontown.
“Even though we were
only five minutes away from
the scene, the bam was a
total loss upon our arrival,”
Webb said. The volunteer
firemen of Turbotville were
all at a practice session at
the station when the call
Corn stalks offer cheap erosion control
LANCASTER More
Lancaster County fanners
are baling up com residues
for fodder than ever before.
However, those that are
leaving these residues in the
field are finding that they
offer surprising erosion
control, and are very
inexpensive to maintain, so
stated Edward Petrus of the
U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation
Service.
“In fact,” says Petrus,
“maximum crop residue,
combmed with little or no
soil disturbance ji preparing
seedbeds, can reduce water
erosion by 95 percent.”
Each piece of residue, it
seems, acts as a tiny shield,
protecting the soil from the
impact of raindrops.
But just how much residue
is enough to be effective?
“The more residue the
better the protection,” says
Petrus. “At least 1500 lbs.
per acre must be left as a
minimum. Real protection
begins taking place at about
3600 lbs. per acre, which, in a
chisel-disk system, should
control erosion on slopes up
to 6 percent and 200 feet long,
if tilled and planted on the
contour; 5,000 lbs. per acre
will control erosion on most
slopes up to 8 percent when
com is planted on the con
tour ”
In order for fanners to
estimate the amount of
residues left in their fields,
SCS recommends the
following method
Place a yardstick on the
soil surface, perpendicular
to the plant row Count the
number of mch marks that
have residue under them.
If any point has two or
more pieces of residue,
count that point twice. For
example, if you have 36-mch
rows and 18 of the mch
marks have residue under
them, you would have 50%
coverage
\
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Farmer loses cows , hogs , chickens
came in at 8:27 p.m. on
Tuesday evening.
The fire was discovered by
Albert Brown, a livestock
hauler who had arrived at
the farm to pick up hogs
from the Amish farmer,
David Hostetler. Brown
turned in the alarm.
Firemen from Tur
botville, Watsontown, and
McEwensville were able to
contain the blaze to the large
bank bam. They saved a 20 x
60 wagon shed which was 30
feet from the fire.
“We weren’t able to save
any of the livestock, and
Hostetler’s attempts to free
the animals were halted
Take readings several
places in the field and
average them.
The following table
roughly changes per cent of
com residue to pounds per
acre:
45 percent cover=lsoo
Ibs./acre
65 percent cover=2soo
lbs./acre
83 percent cover=36oo
lbs./acre
93 percent cover=sooo
lbs./acre
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Krause of the intense heat.”
noted Webb. A tragic loss of
50 Holstein cows, 110 hogs,
and about 25 chickens and
ducks resulted.
The assistant fire chief
added that around ten cows
had managed to get out of
the barn before it collapsed
But at least one of the
animals had to be destroyed.
Along with the livestock,
Hostetler lost two-thirds of
his farm machinery when
the bam floor collapsed.
Webb noted the damage
estimate came to $lOO,OOO on
the barn, and $125,000 on the
contents, coming to a total of
$225,000.
Petrus points out that com
stalks offer the most
protection if they are
shredded, disked, or chiseled
onto the sod surface as soon
after harvest is practicable.
It is also recommended
that an extra 20 pounds of
mtrogen per ton of residue
be used in the fertilizer mix,
since some nitrogen will
have been lost through
decomposition.
Crop residues alone will
not solve all erosion
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Ho aaid the tue chief did
not consider the fire to be of
a suspicious nature, but the
state police fire marshall
has been called in to in
vestigate.
Webb explained the barn
went up in flames so fast
because it was an old bam,
very dry and dusty. ‘‘lt was
highly combustible, and the
fire was helped by the fact
that one of the large barn
doors had come off the
hinges and was left open.
The draft created by this
situation fanned the flames;
and once the fire had burned
a hole m the roof, the barn
burned in seconds. ’ ’SM
problems. They must be
used in combination with
other conservation practices
such as contour farming,
stripcropping, terraces, etc.
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