A36—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday,. July 3,19§2 Wet weather challenges Balmer haymaking BY DONNA TOMMELLEO UTITZ Anyone who has ever saved for a rainy day probably depleted their nest egg and then some during June. For it seemed that no matter what the weather service predicted the result was always the same rain, rain and more rain. Constant precipitation prevented farmers from taking to the fields, either to harvest or sow. And many farmers watched in disgust as field after field of freshly mown hay absorbed the brunt of the rain damage. To many, it was like Agnes revisited. “This started earlier than Agnes/’ commented Jesse Balmer. The Lititz dairyman has been among the leading alfalfa growers in county, finishing in the top five in state alfalfa com petition. But despite his haymaking skills, Balmer, like everyone, lacked control of the weather. Balmer cut 22 acres of alfalfa on May 17, a day ideal for haymaking, he said. However, the forecast called for the wet stuff and two days later, Balmer decided to make haylage instead. “It would have been excellent hay,” he said. By ensiling the alfalfa, Balmer managed to put up the crop with little nutrient loss. “If we’d have left it for hay, it would have been too old,” he said. The Guernsey breeder also had designs on a new seeding of alfalfa. He had planned to use that field for haylage. Last week he began The rains of June 1982 spared no one. A pool of water rests in the middle of Balmer’s tobacco field. Jesse and son Jeff, 6, examine the blooms in of bloom. With weather permitting, Balmer is an alfalfa field. Balmer explained that he cuts out in his fields every 35 days, according to number of days rather than stage taking 10 loads off the new field and with the help of his 79-year-old father Allen proceeded to blow the crop into his 20 by 70 foot silo. The silo, however, already contained the 22 acres of alfalfa and Balmer knew it was going to be a tight fit. But he couldn’t have guessed how tight. While he was out in the field, his father continued to blow haylage. It was then that his wife Nancy got a call from a neighbor to inform her that it was raining haylage at the Balmer farm. When she looked outside, she saw her father-in-law hard at work at the blower but oblivious to the shower of green feed. The Balmer Guernseys probably thought they died and went to heaven. Within that rainy month, Balmer was able to make a few bales about 4,000 in hay and straw. But due to the heavy rains which washed his crops in a topsoil bath, strawmaking in the barley field proved to be a dusty chore. “It really made the bales tight,” Balmer explained. And if the weather wasn’t complicating matters enough, one of Balmer’s six tractors refused to start, causing about an hour’s de lay in a chore where every hour counts. An eight acre field of tobacco, contained a pool of water in the low areas. “The tobacco has at least an inch of topsoil. I’m afraid some of it’s drowned, ” he said. Balmer pointed to an alfalfa field adjacent to the house that ain 9 rain go awa Lititz Guernsey breeder Jesse Baimer has Alfalfa Growers Contest with a yii been among the top alfalfa growers in the" 7.751 tons per acre, state, placing third in 1979 during the state exhibited bare patches. He ex plained the damp ground provided no support to the tractors and wagon and destroyed some of the crop. The Lititz farmer noted that he’U most likely have to plow the field next year and plant corn. In making quality hay, Balmer explained that he keeps a record of dates for each field cutting and shoots for a cutting every 35 (fays. “If you want protein, you have to cut young,” he said. “You have to do it at the right time even if you lose a little sleep.” And Jesse has recounted more than a few in cidents of marathon mowing which lasted all night long, stopping only to milk. “We also soil test and fertilize according to the test,” he ex plained. To compensate for a bad crop, Balmer said, “you put up a little more corn silage in the fall and buy more protein,” but added, “But I think I’ll be alright. I’ll probably get four cuttings...maybe five.” In addition to the farm’s 120 acres, Balmer rents another 120. “A lot of my alfalfa is on rented ground,” he explained. The lan downer prefers his ground in alfalfa and Balmer usually breaks up his stands with a small grain. A few plaques rest in the Balmer ••• household which Jesse earned in the 1979 and 1980 state alfalfa growers contest. He placed third and fourth, respectively with yields of 7.751 and 7.8 tons per acre. Benefitting from Balmer’s success, understandably, is his well-fed registered Guernsey herd, with some cows testing better than 100 pounds a day and more than 5 percent butterfat. The herd receives a feed bunk full of haylage and com silage twice a day and alfalfa hay from the rack once a day. At each Checking his rain gauge on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, Balmer discovers that nine-tenths of an inch of rain have fallen on his northern Lancaster County farm. This Publication is available in Microform. I fliwrsirt Microfilms International "Mi)NorthZccbßoad Dept PR . AtmAibor. Mi 4ttltk> milking, high moisture com is fed and top dressed with a 32 percent , protein pelleted feed.- Roasted soybeans sometime take the place of the pellets during the evening milking. For some reason, the rains in Lancaster County have been unusually absent the latter part of this week but not before more than an inch was dumped on Tuesday. But for farmers like Jesse Balmer, they’ll not make hay only when the sunshines but by moonlight as well. average of
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