incaster Farming, Saturday, March 16,1
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NOW IS THE TIME
To Prevent Water
Pollution
The quality of our water supplies
is very important, and in most
cases it should receive more at
tention. Many people have wells
with high bacteria count and/or
with high nitrates, both of which
are undesirable for domestic and
livestock consumption.
When feedlots and barns are
cleaned out this spring, every
effort should be made to in
corporate this manure into the
topsoil as quickly as possible. With
liquid manure, the soil injection
type of applicator does an ex
cellent job. With other types of
surface spreaders, the manure
should be disced or plowed into the
topsoil soon after application. This
is especially true on slopes above
water supplies.
The application of fertilizers
warrants the same attention; mix
it with the topsoil very soon after
application. Also surface water
should be directed away from
wells or any other water supply.
To Check Ventilation
Systems
We are into the season of the
year that ventilation is very im
portant. The fans in our poultry
houses and dairy barns have been
working hard through the winter
months. They have accumulated
dust on the louvers and screens
and developed loose belts, so they
are less efficient in other words
they are not moving as much air as
they are rated.
TTiis is a good time to go through
your buildings and clean the fan
blades, the louvers and screens.
Tighten the fan belts, and be sure
to check the inlet screens. Many
times, in our poultry houses in
particular, 'we’re not getting air
circulation because the air can not
get into the building. Clean these
inlet screens so they are not
restricting air.
Also, be sure to check the
thermostats to make certain they
are working properly.
Poor ventilation can cause
health problems in poultry houses
and “off” flavored milk in dairy
barns. This is a good time to take
care of some of these inside jobs.
To Control Wild Garlic
We may like onions on our
hamburgers and in other foods, but
very few of us like onion-flavored
milk. This can easily happen on
dairy farms where wild garlic
plants are allowed to grow.
Many pastures are infested with
wild garlic. One of the best times to
start control measures on this
weed is early in the spring when
the young plants are four to eight
inches high.
An application of 2,4-D will
knock them down. Follow the label
for directions. When this is applied
around the middle to latter part of
March, little damage is done to any
legume in the area. If garlic plants
are allowed to mature each year,
the pasture area will become so
V OUR GARDEN SEEDS
CATALOGUE NAS
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
contaminated that dairy
cannot utilize the grass.
Now that the winter weather is
almost gone, our fruit growers
should take a look at the newly
exposed grass sod in their or
chards. If there are runways at the
suface of the grass, it is a good sign
that there are plenty of mice in the
1
Dairy
Business
Newton Bair
MORE HAY THIS YEAR, A ROSY
TALE
A few years back, my closest
neighbor was Roy. Everyone
called him “Rosy” because of his
pleasant disposition. He was a
great guy, a fellow who would give
you the shirt off his back if you
needed it. He also had a quick
smile for everyone, a smile punc
tuated by little dribbles of tobacco
juice on each side. Rosy seemed to
fit him better than Roy.
“Rosy” leaned over the fence to
talk while his team rested under
the row of locust trees that shaded
the lane between our farms. He
was plowing under last year’s hay
field, which was mostly ragweed
and sorrel, with a smattering of
timothy and alsike clover still
showing. On this balmy spring
morning, Rosy was in a somber
mood as he swabbed his blue
bandana around his crinkled neck.
“I can’t quite figure out why my
hay field petered out so bad last
year,” he mumbled between
{ squirts aimed at a No Hunting sign
on my side of the fence. “I’m just
about ready to give up on spendin’
money on clover seed. Can’t get
the Red’s to catch at all, and even
the Alsike is too thin to count. Sure
wish I could get a stand of alfalfa
like you got there.”
Well, Rosy being a lot older than
I was, I wasn’t about to give him
advice unless he asked me first. I
had bought the farm next to his
only two years before, and the first
thing I did was test the soil. That is
nothing new in this day of
enlightened farming, but was an
innovation in the early 1940’5. The
soil tests on my farm were ex
tremely high in potash and
phosphorus, but showed a pH of 5.0
I HEAR THAT YOU
GROW ONE OF THE
BEST GARDENS
IN THE
COON 7V
u|
cows
To Control Mice
in Orchards
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V BEST: J
orchard, even though a mouse
baiting program may have been
followed last fall.
The mice have used up their
stock piles of stored food and are
now looking for a fresh supply. At
this time of the year they will move
quickly onto bark and roots of fruit
trees
Fruit growers should rebait their
orchards as soon as possible if
there are fresh mouse signs.
to 5.6. All I needed was lime, and
lots of it. And I was pretty sure that
that was about all that Rosy’s hay
field needed too. But he didn’t
believe in ‘spending money’ on
lime. After all, he had to spend too
much time hauling limestone rocks
off the fields. Limestone soil
shouldn’t need lime anyway,
should it?
His curiosity got the better of
him when he saw the lime spreader
pull into the next field. After he
asked what the big idea was, I was
finally able to explain that it was
the lime that was unlocking the
excess potash and phosphorus and
making it available to the alfalfa
and corn. The previous owner had
been a heavy user of fertilizer, but
didn’t believe in lime either. I was
reaping the benefit of years of
heavy fertilizer applications on my
farm, at a minimal cost of a few
loads of lime. And alfalfa was now
growing profusely on land that
barely supported a thin stand of
clover before.
Poor old Rosy was somewhat
impressed by the think stand of
alfalfa on my side of the lane, but
not totally convinced that it could
be duplicated on his land. A couple
of years later he decided to throw
in the towel and quit farming. He
moved to town, and lived out his
days working for a large dairy
plant as a dock hand.
Now this corny little tale has a
moral, as you might suspect. My
respect for a good neighbor is not
diminished by his lack of foresight
in farming. Rather, it was my good
fortune to buy that farm of his,
remove the locust tree lined fen-’
cerow, and lay out contour strips
across the lane that separated the
(Turn to Page Al 2)
COMPLETING
THE TASK
March 17,1985
Background Scripture
John 17
Devotional Reading:
John 16:17-24,
Jesus uttered a phrase of ten
words that I too would like to be
able to say before my life’s end
here on earth: “...having ac
complished the work which thou
gavest me to do” (17:4). Can you
think of any other words with
which you would want to meet your
Maker?
Jesus began life, his parents
knowing that God had sent him for
a purpose. His ministry com
menced several decades later
when he dedicated himself to fulfill
that purpose for which he was sent.
His brief ministry was dominated
by his resolve to fulfill his reason
for being and it was also his
dedication to it that eventually
took him to the cross, leading him
at the very end to declare, “It is
finished!”
A MAN OF PURPOSE
Jesus was a man with a mission
in life and in John 17 he spells out
some of the particulars of his
mission. “I have manifested thy
name to the men whom thou gavest
me...” (17:6), he says. “I have
given them the words which thou
gavest me”. (17:8) Furthermore,
he has “kept them in thy name.”
And also: “The glory which thou
hq<;t aitror, rr. e r have given thee”
Farm Calendar'
Saturday, March 16
York County Swine Association
Banquet.
Annual Meeting, Pa. Ayrshire
Breeder’s Assoc., Embers
Convention Center, Carlisle.
Blue and Gold Show and Sale, Pa.
Polled Hereford Assoc., Ag
Arena at Penn State.
Fruit tree and bramble pruning
demonstration and lecture,
Holly House, Cook College, New
Brunswick; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (3
fee. Call 201-788-1338 for
registration form.
Monday, March 18
I>ancaster County Woolies 4-H Club
Meeting, 7:30 p.m., Lancaster
Farm and Home Center.
Tuesday, March 19
Penn State Forest Resources
Conference, University Park
Phone: 814-863-0401.
N.J. State Board of Agriculture,
open meeting, Hunterdon
Extension Center. Flemington;
10 a.m.
Mercer Co. Sheep and Wool annual
outing, New Vernon Grange,
Clarks Mills, 6.30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 20
Atlantic Breeder’s Co-op Annual
Meeting, Host Town Resort,
Lancaster, 10 a m
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(17:22). It had been a “tall order”
but he had accomplished all that
God had given him.
These were not just a few idle
ideas that came to him in a brief
moment. Jesus had spent much
time in thought and prayer con
sidering just what it was that God
desired of him and how he might
accomplish it. It was the one thing
above all else that dominated his
life; more than pleasing the
crowds, much more than winning
titles and popularity, he deeply
desired to please the Father who
sent him.
BEING SENT
Jesus, however, was not the only
one brought into the world to fulfill
a specific purpose. Jesus taught
his disciples that they also were to
seek diligently to accomplish
whatever God gave them to do. As
Jesus prayed, “As thou didst send
me into the world, so I have sent
them into the world’ ’(17:18).
During the Christmas holidays,
we watched on TV that old Jimmy
Stewart film classic, “It’s A
Wonderful Life.” If you have seen
it, you will remember that the man
played by Stewart, frustrated,
depressed and defeated, expresses
out loud the wish that he had never
been born. Hearing these words,
his guardian angel arranges to
show him all the things that never
would have happened, all the lives
that would not have been touched
and enriched if he had never been
bom.
I couldn’t help but think of my
own life. Each one of us has a God
given opportunity to accomplish
something worthwhile while we
• are on this earth. We too are people
with a purpose and can never
really be content until we can say
with Jesus, “... having ac
complished the work which thou
gavestmetodo.”
Thursday, March 22
Farm Credit Co-op Meeting,
Historic Strasburg Inn at noon.
Friday, March 22
Lehigh Valley Dairy Annual
Meeting, Hershey.
Lancaster County Farmer’s
Association Spring Banquet, 7
p.m. Harvest Drive Restaurant,
Intercourse. Guest Speaker,
Congressman Bob Walker.
Saturday, March 23
Elizabethtown Young Farmers
Awards Banquet, Hostetter’s
Banquet Hall, Mt. Joy. For
tickets call 653-1567 or 367-1521.
High Tensile Fence Workshop, K
and B Fence Co., Route 741
Lampeter, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For
more information call 717-464-
4193.
Tuesday, March 26
Eastern Peach Pruning Con
ference. Leesport, 8:30 a m to 5
p.m.
Penn Ag Industries ’credit
management" seminar, 10 a.m
to 2 p.m , General -Sutter Inn,
Lititz.
Annual Meeting, Pa Ag Safet)
Council, Penn State Sheraton
Thursday, March 28
Lancaster Progressive Pork
Producers Seminar, ' In
creasing profits through
genetics,” Lancaster Farm and
Home Center, 9 a.m to 4 p.m.
Pa Holstein Association Show and
Sale, Farm Show Complex,
Harrisburg.
Friday, March 29
Performance Tested Bull Sale,
Meat Animal Evaluation
Center, State College, noon
Annual Meeting, Pa. Simmental
Association, Autoport
Restaurant, State College
Saturday, March 30
Lancaster Farm Toy Show, Sale
and Auction at Lancaster
Treadway Inn