D6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 11,1984 BUSINESS NE Farm Hardware opens branch SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT - Farm Hardware, a division of G.P. Fasteners, Shoemakersville, recently opened a brach store in South Williamsport. “We have had a great interest from farmers in the Northern tier of Pa. and New York in taking advantage of our wholesale prices on bolts. This is why we opened the branch. Our feeling is that farmers sell wholesale so they should be able to buy wholesale,” explained Wes Pace, president of the com pany. Deutz-Fahr announces hay tools ATLANTA, Ga. A new 8%-ft wide turbo disc mower, a simple, easy-running mower-conditioner, a higher-capacity square baler and a round baler that ties automatically will be introduced to the North American market this spring by the Agricultural Equipment Division of Deutz Corporation, Atlanta, Ga. The new Deutz-Fahr SMSO Turbo Disc Mower is a rugged, easy running mower that cuts an 8%-ft wide swath. This versatile mower is strong, but light, and can be used with either Cat. I or Cat II 3-point hitches. A new cable strut suspension for all Deutz-Fahr turbo disc mowers provides flexible cutterbar flotation and mowing is smooth and clean in all terrain. Oval shaped discs give overlapping cutting paths and uniform stubble. The Deutz-Fahr SM4OCR Disc Mower/Conditioner is a 7-ft rotary disc mower equipped with a single, finger-conditioning rotor that picks up hay immediately behind the mowing disc and conditions it before it touches the ground. “This is the hay conditioner of the future,” says Mike Branham, product representative - hay equipment. Rotary conditioning fingers, mounted in rubber, are -arranged in a spiral design for uniform flow of the crop and for mation of uniform windrows. The rotor has two speeds, high for grass hay and low for leafy legumes. The rotating fingers rub off the plant’s protective, waxy stem coating, permitting rapid evaporation of plant moisture and speeding drydown. An “over-the Conditioning fingers on the new Oeutz-Fahr Turbo Disc Mower/Conditioner rubs off plant’s protective waxy stem coating to speed evaporation and drying. • •• The company warehouses 25 million fasteners including hex bolts, clevis pins, screws and plow bolts. The fasteners are sold at dealer prices or lower. The bolts are sold by the pound. Last year, thousands of pounds were sold out of the Shoemaker sville store. Farm Hardware will ship bolts UPS anywhere in the Northeast. The farmers can call toll free numbers to order or request price catalogs. top” design rotor lifts and'lays hay in fluffy, high-profile windrows for efficient air drying. The con ditioner can be removed in a few minutes for regular mower operation. Two new balers, the HD49O Square Baler and the HD22O Round Baler, are included in the 1984 Deutz-Fahr hay equipment line. The HD49O Square Baler suc ceeds the HD46O introduced to North America in 1982. The HD49O features an extra-wide (77-in) hydraulically-controlled, positive drive pickup and a virtually maintenance-free knotter mechanism that requires lubrication only once a week. Like the HD46O, it has a 100- stroke-per-mmute plunger earned on 10 roller bearings for smooth operation and long life, carries up to 8 balls of twine, and has an automatic cross-feed mechanism that delivers full capacity to the bale chamber without clogging. The GP22O Round Baler, field tested in North America in 1983, is Deutz-Fahr’s entry into the round baler market in the U.S. and Canada. It produces a 4-ft by 4-ft round bale in a baling chamber equipped with 16 coated steel rollers. The bales have a soft core and an extremely tight outer wrap to assure maximum quality and minimum leaf loss. Tie-off is automatic; the baler honks a warning hom when the pre selected bale density is reached and the cycle is underway. THe operator simply waits until the cycle is complete, hydraulically opens the rear door and eject the bale, closes the door and continues baling. Agri-Equipme Agri-Equipment, Inc., 2754 Creek Hill Road, Leola, received a “President’s Award” during Chore-Time Equipment's annual distributor meeting held recently in Lexington, Ky. The award was presented to distributors who had total 1983 Chore-Time product sales of between $500,000 and $1 million. Receiving the award from James Evans, left, President of CTB, Inc., the parent company of Chore-Time, were Bud Buch, President; Leon Martin, Vice-President; Dan Buch, Manager; and Leon Goshow, Chore-Time distributor sales representative. Chore-Time Equipment manufacturers automated equipment for the care and feeding of poultry and livestock with world-wide distribution from its plants in Milford, Ind.; Modesto, Cal.; and Maldegum, Belgium. Can aeration help improve alfalfa stands & yields CARTHAGE, N.Y. Aeration of alfalfa and other hay fields on dairy farms in Lewis and Jefferson counties of Northern New York is providing some significant benefits, according to Jim Mar tindale, of North Country Ag-Gro Consulting, Cathage, N.Y. The aeration, common for a number of years in the turf in dustry but still relatively new in hay crops, improves root growth of alfalfa and other hays and helps to correct soil compaction problems caused by wheel tracks, secondary tillage and normal silting or segregation of soil particles due to water percolation. Aeration has made it possible for alfalfa plants to grow larger than usual root masses prior to first cuttings and thereby increases stands which may be in com petition with grasses or weeds. The aeration affords better plant utilization of topdress potash fertilizers found in the top three inches of soil which normally are quite compacted. The aeration also provides ad ditional atmospheric nitrogen for rhizobia and azotobacter and oxygen for the aerobic strains of bacteria. These beneficial strains of bacteria then are available to metabolize harmful compounds in the soil. Results in this area go beyond higher yields and better stand survival, Maryindale said. Research in Canada and Ger many has indicated that harmful pathogenic bacteria such as pseudomonas find their way into feed stuffs grown on poorly aerated soils. This, its possible that aeration could change the populations of such organisms making their way into the feed of ruminants. Aeration penetrates up to six inches in the tightly compacted shallow layers of silt and clay particles. This permits better percolation of water into root zones and helps prevent perched water tables, waterlogging and anaerobic soil conditions. It can also possibly help improve frost-heave problems. nt gets award iry .. jgory, to aerate alfalfa. Crop was seed in late July and aerated in mid-September to loosen compaction caused by planting and fertilizing equipment. Practice also broke stems of red-root pegweed plants. ly g ly opv vertically to help improved compaction without massive injury to roots of plants. The rooting environment of the alfalfa or other hay plants, ac cording to Martmdale, appeals to be a major factor in establishing and maintaining proper stands. This rooting environment is at its best at planting time and steadily deteriorates due to compaction, unless changed by aeration. And improved soil health depends directly on continued growth of plant root systems, he said. The plant root growth im proves soil tilth, organic activity and enhances the soil. Aeration through the use of an Aerway piece of machinery opens and moves soil laterally not ver tically and small amounts of air are admitted without massive destruction of root systems.