Al6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 16, 1960
CAMP HILL An update
on top producers and a look
at the future for Penn
sylvania’s 850,000 acres of
alfalfa highlighted the seed
symposium held in Camp
Hill Tuesday
The meeting, sponsored by
Beechley-Hardy Seed
Company, Shiremanstown,
drew on expertise from Penn
State agronomists and ex
perts from W-L Research,
Inc , better known to most
farmers under its old name,
Waterman-Loomis Seeds
Penn State’s John Baylor
told the group of over 100
persons that farmers in the
state alfalfa yield contest
last year had an average of
$2OO in costs to grow an acre
of alfalfa
That matches the cost to
grow an acre of com quite
closely Largest single ex
pense was for machinery
Smallest input was for seed
which represented about
four percent of the total
costs.
This year about 60 farmers
are expected to complete the
alfalfa growers program
The state average for
production by contest
members is about 5 5 tons
st to be
.Mg k pb. jsts at (6l _ symposium were, back
left. Bill Glessner, Naugle Feed and Supply, Jim Johnson, Farmers Brokerage
and Supply, A A Hanson, W-L's associate director of research, W-L En
tomologist John Kugler, front left, Corn States Hybrids’ Milke Harshbarger,
Penn State Agronomists John Baylor and Joseph McGahen, Vic Cappucci,
Kmtner Milling
Growers hear latest in alfalfa management
Top yield was 9.1 tons turned
in by Dan Schrack, Clinton
County
Average phosphate
removal was about 370
pounds per acre, or what
researchers expected But,
Baylor noted, potash
removal was a real eye
open T' —'nprs remove
allllUOl r
acre when growing a good
alfalfa crop.
The top 10 producers m
1979 averaged 7 6 ions hay
equivalent in the field
Storage losses were not
counted
AD but one grew his alfalfa
on a deep limestone sod The
exception ft as on shale
ground. All sod tested ano
used lots of manure in the
com phase of the rotation
Although the top 10 used
five different varieties,
Saranac AR and WL 311
were the most popular AD
growers got at least four
cuttings, one took five
Average cutting interval
was 36 to 39 days, except for
the fourth cutting, an af
termath cutting, which
averaged 46 days after third
cut
While most of the state’s
At seed symposium
top growers sprayed for
insects, three used no in
secticide at all, a fact Baylor
attributed to close
monitoring of insect
populations.
Almost aD of the top
producing 1979 stands were
spring seeded in 1978, and 90
percent of them were clear
seeded with Tolban or Ep
tam
W-L’s Associate Director
of Research A A Gus
Hanson said breeding for
yield and adaptation is the
route to high profits
The Highland, Maryland
based researcher said he
feels a broad range of
tolerance to pest problems is
more important than ex
cellent resistance to one or
two problems.
Broad ranging pest
tolerance, including insects
and diseases, makes a
variety useful to farmers
over a longer tune and
geographic area, and
therefore makes the line
commercially viable.
Hanson said the top
varieties m the Maryland
test plots include WL 311,
312,221 and 220
lines in the 200 series will be
available to farmers in the
near future
Joseph Graham presented
the group with facts and
figures to show how much
alfalfa disease problems
have been reduced in the
past 20 years
A 1960 USDA study showed
that Pennsylvania farmers
could expect to lose eight
percent of their, crop to
bacterial wilt, eight percent
to root rots, two percent to
viruses, nine percent to
lohar diseases like common
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and lepto leaf spot, and three
percent to nematodes
In addition, weeds took
about 12 percent of a crop
and insects would wipe out 15
percent Loss figures of over
50 percent on alfaDa valued
at $180,000,000 in Penn
sylvania had to hurt far
mers
Improved varieties have
helped greatly, he said
Bacterial wdt has been cut to
three percent, root rots to
five percent, insect damage
has been cut in half as has
weed damage
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P 0 Box 7
Newville, PA 17241
Phone 717-776-3129
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Result is tanners now are
losing only about a quarter
of their crop instead of half—
it’s still far from perfect,
Graham admitted, but it is
an improvement
He reviewed the Race II
Anthracnose problem and
assured the group that
resistance is coming,
although some lines like Arc
which are Race I resistant
are not secure from Race II
Race II has been found in
Maryland and Virginia
(Turn to Page Al 9)
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