D2B—Lancaster Farming, Saturday,-October 24,1981
Buzzing saws, ‘baa’ing sheep, bunches of grapes,
burned trash, and best management highlight York tour
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
DALLASTOWN - A look at
modern erosion and runoff con
trols, plus a peek into a few
unusual ag-related enterprises,
combined into an interesting
October conservation tour for two
busloads of York Countians.
Sponsors of the annual tour were
York’s ASCS office, the Extension
service, Soil Conservation Service,
the county’s conservation .district,
and the Bureau of Forestry.
Charles and Shirley Hess’ dairy
enterprise at R 1 Dallastown was
the first stop. In the family since
1872, the farm’s home acres en
compass some of York County’s
steepest hills used for cropland,
plus another 200 acres of rolling
rented land.
Hess told the 70 tour participants
that he could remember ditches
deep enough to bury a horse inside
that cut through the sharply
sloping hills when he was a small
boy.
Although conservation measures
had been in use on the farm for
several decades, the 1972
Hurricane Angus deluge convinced
the Hess’s that more should be
done.
Two major diversions were laid
out on the 55-acre contoured area
rising behind the stately far
mhouse. These grassy areas catch
runoff, diverting it along a one
percent grade, or a drop of one foot
per every hundred feet of ditch.
Runoff thus has a chance to filter
down through the grassy diversion
areas, rather than tearing deep
gashes through the topsoil of the
hillside. Hay made from the
grassed diversions is a bonus.
Two thousand pine seedlings,
now maturing into a towering
stand, catch and hold additional
runoff on the steepest grade just
above the farm buildings.
In addition to the water that
cascaded down on them from the
hillside, the Hess family also had
to be concerned with runoff from
their dairy building complex. Just
several hundred yards down
stream from the 100-head free
stall, milking parlor bam lies the
backup, of Lake Redman, part of
the York City water reservoir
system.
Hess says his Slurrystore
manure holding unit, and excellent
relations with the water company,
have prevented any problems to
date on runoff from the cow lot.
A retired plowing champion for
the state and director of the
Conservation District, Hess
reminded the farmers on the tour
that any time soil is tilled, erosion
must be taken into consideration
and appropriate measures plan
ned.
Praising SCS’s efforts to im
prove erosion problems on the hills
surrounding their valley locations,
Hess said he felt sure there is more
topsoil on his fields today than
years before.
A pasture full of fat, wooly, and
somewhat wary, ewes, with a few
of the first fall lambs, captivated
visitors at the next stop.
George and Sue Dutrey bought
their Honey Valley Farm at
R 2 Dallastown, about four years
ago. The flock of ewes they began
acquiring has now grown to 155,
mostly registered Dorsets, but
about a quarter of the animals are
commercial-bred and Dorset
crossed.
About 40 of the ewes have now
been crossed with a prize Ram
bouiUet ram, and this group of
yearlings began lambing in early
October. A major goal of the
Dutrey’s is to build a flock that will
successfully lamb twice yearly.
They're also aiming to increase
the poundage of wool raised per
animal, with production hopes for
s '
fatter ■ fleeces pinned to that
Rambouillet ram whose own sire
once sheared 38 pounds of wool.
Dutrey figures it would take 200
ewes, reproducing at a2OO percent
lambing rate, to return a full-time
living.
One ewe in the flock seems bent
on doing her part to live up to those
expectations. She delivered five
lambs within a year, raising twins
one spring, breeding, back
promptly with a single fall lamb,
and then repeating the r twin
delivery again the following
spring.
Honey Valley’s flock remains
outside year round, except for” a
brief period at lambing time when
the ewes are penned in the bam for
delivery and assistance if
necessary. At lambing, ewes are
wormed, sprayed for parasite
control, and, in spring, sheared
before being turned back out to
.pasture.
Most of the pasture is seeded to
orchardgrass, and flock rations
are supplemented with alfalfa hay
made from part of the 20 acres
owned and 15 rented. Nursing ewes
get a regular portion of grain
added at feeding time.
Predator control, says Dutrey,
has not been a great problem.
Stray dogs pose the most regular
threat, and they stay clear of the
high-tensile fence being installed.
“Five strands of high-tensile can
be put up for about a fourth the cost
of other fencing,” says Dutrey,
“and electric in it does a better job
of keeping dogs out. ”
-In addition to their farm
responsibilities, both George and
Sue hold off farm jobs, are raising
three ’ daughters and have been
instrumental in forming the York
Sheep and Wool Producers
Association.
High on a windy hill, overlooking
scenic Dunkard Valley in the
southcentral part of the county, the
tour paused for a preview look at
the majestic contoured and
wooded valley that surrounds the
home of the Jack and. Nancy
Myers.
Dunkard Valley farm is another
of the county’s historic century
farms passed to succeeding
generations of tillers of the rich
soil. Concerned over the loss of
some of that family-rooted soil,
Myers recently completed several
conservation measures to protect
(Turn to Page D 29)
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Some 5 million board feet of lumber, from counties go through the large moving am
the hardwood stands of York and Baltimore sawing equipment at the Dubei sawmill.
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■ Shepherd on horseback, Sue Dutrey keeps
an eye on the flock of Dorset ewes from the
saddle_of the family's quarter horse, Charger.
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Wooded hills and contour strips frame a classic York
County farming valley, shown to conservation- tour par
ticipants. Centered in the picturesque Dunkard Valley is the
farm of 1981 York Conservation cooperators the Jack Myers
family.
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“It’s a lot easier than chasing them on foot,”
she admits. Sue and George Dutrey have over
100 head of purebred and commercial sheep.
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