Reduced tillage increases P&K test readings in soil JcSl H SlifSa7 riviTvou a &!? en f o \f 1 t reSidue 60 top *° P robabl y »»ve to go over the land SSSZa Sitei •?“? ““tiation Bnd nearly an extra time - that’s a waste of surprise Bonus aner a couple ot eliminate runoff. tractor time and fuel plus an ad probably cut back That . s probably the key to ditional unnecessary com^ctfon on application and get holding the fertilizer P and Kin trip. aT place, says Anstee. But it’s not the Pulling a chisel or moldboard . ieasi , uiai 3 , n whole story at all The improved plow faster probably doesn’t yield 8011 aggregate structure and the same benefit from the higher potentially reduced soil com- forward speed, he adds. A plow Anstee of Sperry New Holland. paction may be more important in usually takes a lot more power to S tbe long run. . pull filer as computed w2"e“ red^untonmosTaiullowered Tl * tnck IK Ul lf»edisk to The extra power usually means a 4,16 P° wer - You need enough heavier tractor with more weights hi otece Pl Soil S W6ight to 011 ttaroa & h «sidue to added. This tends to cancel out the = 8011 whatever depth you need to till, speed advantage, and you need But you have to pull the disk fast more fuel. too. , farmers enou gh to toss some ’dirt, if you But the tillage disk, if you set it e P 88 necessary, and can .Their P and K reduced tillage using the disk go fast enough to get the tilth in one test readings are ninnuig high route The same disk pulled too or two passes, saves both time and even when not much fertilizer has slow W on’t give you the same fuel. And, it gets you the reduced been added. The drastically benefits. At slower speeds, you’ll compaction bonus, plus the benefit reduced erosion and nmOff are the of lo^er PandK to only easy explanation for the puzzlingly high P and K tests, Anstee notes. Any tillage method that stops runoff will probably do the trick. It probably doesn’t matter if it’s minimum tillage using a disk or a chisel or no-till planting. But tillage disks have been the tool involved where farmers have reported the unexpected P and K bonus A disk can be anything, good and bad, depending on how you use it, says Anstee who is product manager for tillage tools at New Holland. If land is over-disked, the soil is pulverized and soil structure can be destroyed. He warns you may even compact the soil if you misuse the disk. But today’s new range of heavy duty tillage disks let you avoid', most of the disk-related problems of the past. Because they have the heft to cut through the residue of the previous crop, even heavy corn stalks, you will usually be able to plant thenekt crop with * two ‘passes.* This brdinayily in- ' corporates enough of the residue to avoid planter problems,, but still . Trip, across field can be saved and fertilizer efficiency improved by applying part of total N-P-K requirement when ground is chiseled. P.O. 80x56, Ephrata. Pa. 717-738-4248 A RED / ROSE Owned & Operated By BUILDING SYSTEMS Local People FARM & COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS SPECIALIZING IN: Farm, Commercial, Horse Barns and Garages T r | Please contact me with information on the following: I □ FARM BUILDINGS □ COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS ~ | C DO-IT-YOURSELF BUILDING PACKAGES bee us □ horse barns Fnr I Fill out and marl to RED ROSE BUILDING SYSTEMS, rul J PO Box 56. Ephrata. PA 17522 Money i Name Saving | Address or RD Discoveries! I Town I Zip Research “Doubting Thomas” '' The relationship between agricultural research funding and bountiful food supplies is a real one. Although it may be difficult for consumers to see the direct benefit from research being conducted in far-flung agricultural experiment stations and other research locations throughout the country, the benefits are there. In fact, for. the past 20 or 30 years consumers have been enjoying and using up a reserve of agricultural research built over the past 50 years or more. Some of the thinkers in the agricultural ■ research community say that reserve is about gone. Granted we have enough food to eat, in fact we still have stockpiles here in this country, but how long can that continue and how quickly can agricultural research create new reserves of knowledge? institution. They feel that the manpower and facilities dedicated to this end are being badly eroded and that the result somewhere down the line will be reduced food supplies, higher food prices, and ultimately hunger. That’s a long term outlook, but it’s probably a realistic one when you look at the population demands, the steadily dwindling farm base, and the skyrocketing farm production It can take up to 10 years just to costs There are those research an tagonists who think all agricultural research should be abandoned until farm prices improve, or until the surpluses are all gone. Surely they realize that agricultural research cannot be turned off and on as needed. Most of the research that means anything in terms of farmer and consumer benefits requires years and years of painstaking work. f uL State Phone( ) Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 11,1982-D29 County Farm Talk Jerry Webb develop a new variety of soybean. It can take longer than that to perform certain basic research studies and maybe even the an swers cannot be sent directly to the farm. Some research administrators are a little pessimistic when it comes to the future of agriculture. They feel that most of the big breakthroughs have already been made that there isn’t another hybrid corn lurking around the research corner. And yet things keep happening that give hope. Researchers do find answers that make crops more productive and help the consumer hold the line on food prices. The research administrators through their various organizations are telling the public of the need for greater investment in the whole agricultural research (Turn to Page D3O) Sale Reports A Public Auction of farm equipment was held November 27 by George W. Morris, on Mason Branch Rd., off of Rt. 312, IVi miles north of Ridgely, Md. A large crowd attended the sale. Some prices were: 400 Int. tractor $l4 20, welder $lO5, Int. 2000 loader $1175, Int. 3 pt. hitch w/mower balance head $425, tire changer $l2O, Onan alternator $B2O, 2 axle Low-Boy trailer $3650 and ’77 Dodge Colt car $l3OO, plus a Ford Jubilee tractor $1925. A. Curtis Andrew Auction, Inc. conducted I the sale. ' /T\ cV« \Refresher/ i
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers