A2o—Lancaster Famine, Saturday, March 21,1911
BY SHEILA MILLER
MILLERSVILLE - “As a
Christian, it’s my duty to take care
of the land,” commented 27-year
old Jim Charles, who, along with
his father Roy H. Charles, ac
cepted the Outstanding Con
servation Cooperator award
presented by the Lancaster County
Conservation District on Thursday
evening.
In an on-the-farm interview, the
Charles team shared with Lan
caster Farming their views on
conservation and how it made the
difference on their farm
Since 1977, the Charleses have installed 8650 feet,of
cropland terraces which allow them to put more of their
cropland in corn without the danger of losing valuable topsoil
through erosion. Here, they look over a cover crop seeding of
winter rye, planted to protect corn ground harvested for
silage last Fall.
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Conservationists say saving soil is farmer’s duty
In its second decade, the 104 acre
operation was first purchased in
1962 by Roy’s father. Then, a few
years later, Roy said, he and his
wife, Alice (Brackbill), bought the
farm.
Until 1977, Roy explained, the
farm was “more-or-less” laid out
in strips But over the years, there
seemed to be more acres planted to
com with less small gram strips in
between.
“We had some problems with
washing,” Roy remembered, “and
with every big ram we had gut
ters.”
BUTLER
.State.
Roy confessed he was concerned
about the Clean Streams Law
which required all farms to have
conservation plans by 1977. So, he
got in touch with the Lancaster
County Conservation Distract that
year.
Both Roy and Jim praised the
work of District Technician Abner
Houseknecht who planned the
conservation work needed to
control water and erosion on the
farm and who laid out, designed
and engineered the practices, and
saw to it they were installed
properly.
Smce 1977, the Charles farm has
gotten a face lift, with 8650 feet of
cropland terraces safeguarding its
Class I and Class II Conestoga silt
loam soil The terraces allow the
operation to farm the maximum
acreage of corn on sloping
farmland (8 percent slope) while
holding soil losses to a minimum
Since hay is not necessary feed
for the farm’s 100 steers, 1200 hogs
and 60,000 laying chickens, the
traditional conservation practice
of contour strips wasn’t an
economical solution to their
erosion problem, said Roy and
Jim
‘ Contour strips are okay for
dairy farmers who need the hay,”
said Roy, ‘but for our livestock,
we don’t need it ”
So, both Roy and Jim traveled
with Abner Houseknecht, visiting
farms throughout the area where
cropland terraces had been in
stalled After seeing them work on
other corn fields, they decided
terracing was the way to go.
The first terrace was installed so
the intercepted surface water was
outletted in a grassed waterway.
But, said, Roy, that ‘wasted’ a lot
of land by keeping it in permanent
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Roy H. jarles, left, and son Jim were presented with the
Lancaster County Conservation District's Outstanding
Conservationist award on Thursday evening. During an'on
the-farm interview, the farming duo look over their con
servation plan. The last of their scheduled practices will be
installed this Spring.
grass. Now, almost the entire farm
has been terraced, with the
remainder of the systems designed
with tile outlets
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“That first terrace was so high,”
recalled Jim, “I felt it was
ridiculous. But last winter when
(Turn to Page A2l)
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