o deposit, no return: no good for Pa. farmers
BY JACK HURLEY
QUARRYVILLE - Bill
Heidelbaugh is tired. Tired of flat
tires and damaged equipment,
tired of wasting precious time
picking up after careless
motorists, and tired of worrying
about what a few members of his
40-cow dairy herd might have had
for lunch.
The problem is roadside litter,
and on Monday morning
Heidelbaugh and the Lancaster
County Farmers’ Association took
action to alert the public to the
gravity of the situation.
After bagging litter along a half
mile stretch of Route 372 just west
of Quarryville, more than 20
farmers congregated at the
Heidelbaugh farm to consolidate
the spoils and voice their disgust to
the media.
What the farmers had ac
cumulated in this short stretch of
rural road was' an incredible
assortment of junk filling 10 100-
pound feed sacks, and capable of
doing cohsiderable damage to
farm vehicles and livestock.
Some of the worst offenders are
the glass bottles that are soon
transformed to broken glass when
hurled from a car window. In 1983
Heidelbaugh’s vehicles suffered
three flat tires due to broken
bottles in his fields, one of which
necessitated the replacement of an
expensive tire. Even when the
glass is plowed under, it tends to
work back to the surface, once
again ready to ambush a tractor
tire.
Robert Kreider, another
Quarryville area dairy farmer,
reports similar problems during
1983, experiencing one flat tire
each, on a tractor, wagon and
mower.
Though not as hazardous to tires,
discarded aluminum cans can
cause serious problems for
livestock.
“Just this past week I picked
both of these out of a bale of hay,”
Heidelbaugh said, holding out a
pair of flattened beverage cans.
Although most animals won’t eat
the entire cans, aluminum
fragments and pull-tabs often find
their way into hay bales and silage,
and later into a cow’s digestive
system where they can puncture
the stomach.
Magnets placed in a cow’s
stomach to collect hardware have
no effect on aluminum or glass,
leaving these materials free to do
damage. The result is often loss of
appetite and steady deterioration,
and ultimately a trip to the
slaughterhouse.
With good dairy cattle costing
$lOOO and up, the farmer takes a
considerable loss when a once
productive cow brings $5OO for
slaughter. Heidelbaugh lost one
cqjv in 1982 due to ingested hard
ware.
Other complications can arise
from livestock stepping on sharp
edged objects. Virginia Hess
reports fighting a never-ending
battle with foot injuries. Assisting
her husband Jim in the operation
of their Quarryville dairy farm,
she finds an occasional cow with a
cut foot, despite her best cleanup
efforts.
If a dairy cow is treated for an
infection with antibiotics for three
days, the cow’s milk must be
discarded for at least six days.
Based on a yield of 80 pounds per
day, the total loss would be 480
pounds, translating to a cost of at
least $65.
Farmers, of course, aren’t the
only ones inconvenienced by
roadside trash.
“This litter situation is really
uncalled for,” said East Drumore
Township supervisor Albert
Stoner, complaining of the
financial burden created through
damage to tires, mower blades and
the cost of cleanup.
What would these disgruntled
citizens recommend as a solution?
High on their list of remedies is the
passage of the proposed Retur
nable Beverage Container Act.
Better known as the “bottle
bill”, this legislation would
establish a minimum refund of $.05
on all glass, metal and plastic
beverage containers sold in the
state. Since about half of all
roadside litter is composed of
beverage containers, the farmers
maintain that passage of the bill
could result in significant
reductions in roadside litter.
Opponents of the bill contend
that such a law would be bad
economics, resulting in a severe
blow to the disposable container
industry.
Advocates of the “bottle bill”
counter by saying that the action
will generate enough employment
opportunities in the form of
transporting and washing retur
nables, to more than offset losses
elsewhere. They also maintain that
since beverage containers are the
fastest growing component of solid
waste, the act would result in
considerable savings for municipal
solid waste disposal programs.
Avian flu cleanup payments made
HARRISBURG Checks were the first to receive full receive full payment upon ap
totaling $279,126.42 have been payment for costs of cleaning and plication.
mailed to the first 60 poultry disinfection of their operations. “Other farmers who plan C& D
farmers reimbursed, for ex- “Applications for these reim- operations as a result of
traordmary costs associated with tmrsements are being processed as depopulation by the task force will
the outbreak of avian influenza, we receive them.” he said. “These receive one-half payment when the
according to state Agriculture an d other poultry farmers who application is processed and the
Secretary Penrose Hallowell. have had their C& D approved by balance when C&D is approved,”
Hallowell said the 60 farmers the state-federal task force, will he added.
If you raise rabbits for a living (or are think
ing of getting started), you know it takes
effort And you can’t do it alone
At Safeguard, we re ready to lend a hand
With reasonably-priced equipment and acces
sories for any size operation
Choose from numerous models of inexpen
sive, all-metal enclosures 100 ft lengths of
welded wire mesh for do-it yourself hutch
construction or repair Even a complete three
tiered cantilevered modular enclosure system
with sophisticated automated cleanout Or
riolding a pair of flattened beverage cans found in one of his
hay bales last week, William Heidelbaugh displays trash
collected from a 500-foot stretch of road frontage on his
Quarryville farm.
EVERY SERIOUS RABBIT RAISER
NEEDS AN ABLE ASSISTANT.
ir Safeguard
Small animal gamebird and poultry equipment
something as simple as a drinking bottle
Safeguard equipment is science-engineered
for years of protection and performance More
importantly, the Safeguard staff is made up
of seasoned professionals who can answer
your questions based on years of experience
Page through the 1984 Safeguard catalog
(it's FREE) or drop by the Safeguard
showroom You II see how we can make your
job a whole lot easier Safeguard Products,
Inc , 114-116 Earland Drive New Holland, PA
17557 Telephone (717) 354-4586