NEWARK, Del. Ernest W.
Walpole will retire June 30 after 20
years of service as Extension
agricultural engineer, researcher
and teacher at the University of
Delaware. A specialist in struc
tures, he is best known for his work
with the Delmarva broiler in
dustry.
A native of Canada, Walpole
earned his undergraduate degree
at the University of Guelph (then
Ontario Agricultural College) and
taught there for seven years before
coming to the U.S. to attend
graduate school. After earning a
masters degree in structures at
lowa State University, he worked
in the lumber industry for several
years. He came to the University
of Delaware in 1962.
Over the years, Walpole helped
the boiler industry make
significant improvements in
poultry house design and con
struction. '‘When 1 came to
Delaware there was no insulation
m chicken houses and there were
no truss houses,” he recalled
during a recent interview. “Today
we have what 1 think are the best
engineered bouses m the whole
country.” When asked what led to
the dramatic improvement in
construction practices, he said he
IT’S THE RIGHT SIZED 4-WD.
BUILT FOR PTO WORK.
Front wheel 4-wheel crab Rear wheel
only steering only
4-WHEEL
COORDINATED STEERING
STOUFFER BROS., INC.
1066 Lincoln Way West
Chambersburg, PA
(717)263-8424
C. H. WALTZ SONS, IMG.
RDI, Cogan Station. PA
(717)435-2921
THE WARNER CO.
Troy. PA
(717)297-2141
Walpole Retires As Extension Agricultural Engineer
thought one reason was simply
that the time was right.
“At first, improvements were
tied to feed conversion - producers
decided they had to keep houses
warm to get good feed conversion,
and it was inordinately expensive
to warm a house that wasn't in
sulated. Also, without insulation, it
was so wet inside that con
densation ran out of the windows.
Something bad to be done,” he
said.
According to Walpole, Delaware
was ahead of the energy crunch of
the 1970 s in making poultry house
improvements. "1 came in
January, 1962, and in October we
held our first broiler housing
seminar. It has continued ever
since as a forum for telling the
industry about new- ideas in all
aspects of housing,” he said.
the specialist said he found the
Delmarva broiler industry very
receptive. “I think the reason was
that we never pushed any concept
just because it was theoretically
good. We always presented the
economics of everything we
recommended and the poultry
people listened to our ideas about
dollars and cents. ”
One reason structural im
provements recommended by
Protect gear boxes and drive lines with a Case
4-WD tractor. Only Case has solid frame design
(no bend-in-the-middle)... and solid state 4-
way selective steering, allowing for straight line
PTO work. You can operate with front wheel
steering just like a 2-WD tractor. Or with the
rear wheels slightly angled (crabbed). You can
PEOPLES SALES & SERVICE ZIMMERMAN’S FARM SERVICE E. W. BILEWICZ EQUIP., INC.
Oakland Mills, PA Bethel. PA Elmer Rd., Rich wood, NJ
(717)463-2735 (717)933-4114 (609)881-2692
BINKLEY & HURST BROS.
133 Rothsville Station Rd.
Lititz, PA
(717)626-4705
Walpole and other engineers were
so readily adopted was that the
broiler industry was expanding
rapidly. “1 don’t recall what the
level of broiler production was m
1962, but it has probably grown on
the average of 5 to 10 percent a
year ever since, so there were lots
of opportunities to build new
houses. Also, the bigger companies
are always looking for new
growers, offering incentives to put
up new housing. As a result, you
don’t see many broilers coming out
of shed houses any more,” he said.
At the start of the energy crisis
in the early 19705, Walpole and his
colleagues at the University of
Delaware were recommending 2
inches of insulation for an entire
broiler house - sides and roof. As
fuel costs rose, they gradually
upped this recommendation. To
help determine the most cost ef
fective amount to use, Walpole
suggested that fellow engineer Dr.
Norman C. Collins develop a
computer program to evaluate the
effect of various insulation levels
on fuel use during growout.
For several years Walpole sent
broiler companies on the
Delmarva peninsula a weekly
printout, estimating the amount of
fuel they should have used the
ASE 4890 TRACTOR - 300 H.P.
ASE 4690 TRACTOR - 261 H.P.
CASE 4490 TRACTOR - 210 H.P.
EE YOUR LOCAL DEALER TODA
A. L (CRH & BRO.
312 Park Ave.
Quarryville. PA
(717)786-3521
keep PTO drive shafts straight from engine
through the implement gear box, eliminating
the damaging side thrust so common with
articulated tractors. Get the greatest possible
return on your 4-WD investment. Get a Case 90
series—l7s to 253 PTO hp* (130-188 kW). No
other 4-WD handles PTO work like a Case.
e-TH.
They Are Real Luggers... Will
Compare To Any Cummins Engine
previous week in six different
types of houses, based on weather
data collected at a local airport. By
comparing this information with
actual fuel use during the same
period, users were able to pinpoint
management or insulation
problems.
"Probably the biggest benefit of
this program was that they got into
end room brooding,” Walpole said.
"The second year I was here we
had built a windowless research
house down at the university’s
Georgetown substation. For
convenience we divided it m half
and started all our chicks at one
end. We noticed that we saved
considerable fuel by doing this, so
when we got our computer model
for growing birds, one of the things
1 asked Collins to look at was the
effect of using only part of a house
to brood in. He came up with 60-
percent fuel savings on the com
puter, and probably 40 percent out
in the field.”
Though several people claim
credit for mtroducmg the concept
of end brooding - now a standard
practice in the industry - Walpole
thinks he and Collins probably
were the first to recommend it.
“That’s likely the most important
thing we’ve done to save energy
C. & P. FULTZ EQUIP.
RO 1. Spring Mills, PA
(814)422-8805
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 2,1983—023
costs in broiler production,” he
said.
In addition to his work with the
poultry industry, as Extension
specialist Walpole helped dairy
farmers with farmstead planning
and consulted with swine
producers on confinement system
design. As a structures specialist,
he also answered homeowner
questions on a wide range of
subjects, including wet basements,
sewer back-ups, and painting
problems. As a member of the
Department of Agricultural
Engineering, he taught a course on
structures. His retirement marks
the end of a long and varied career.
PAUL SHOVER’S, INC.
35 East Willow St.
Carlisle, PA
(717) 243-2686
Loysville, Pa.
(717)789-3117
CASE POWER & EQUIP.
Montgomery ville, PA
(215)699-5871
New Castle. DE
(302)652-3028