A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 29,1986
Farm vacations could bring
BY
DR. GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN
University of Delaware
These are tough days! The
government tells us there are too
many dairy farmers in the
country. There is too much milk
produced, too much corn grown,
beef, prices are down, red meat is
in surplus. Even gasoline prices
are coming down, which means
burning manure into biogas and
corn into ethanol is not
economically attractive. What can
a farmer do besides shoot himself?
Plenty!
Many of our farmers are sitting
on choice land like the scenic
Susquehanna shores around
Nottingham and Wrightsville,
along tiie Bohemia River and the
inlets of the Delaware and
Chesapeake Bays. Many of our
farms have old, historically in
teresting farm houses. In many
cases all it would take is a paint
brush to get these delapidated
clapboards spruced up, and a few
flowers planted around the house.
In other cases it would take a
little more carpentry repair and
landscaping to become attractive.
However, the historical societies in
this area and on the federal level
have programs of financial sup
port for historically {interesting
houses to preserve them and to get
them back into shape.
Many of our farm houses are at
least 100 years old, (I know, I live
in one, and am surrounded by
several) and then qualify for
support from historical registry.
Of course, this is not a panacea
for everybody. It requires an
outgoing attitude of wanting to
work with people and not being
angry at trivial details and im
patient. However, being a dairy
farmer is an excellent opportunity
of acquiring patience with can
takerous cows, stubborn calves
and other tempermental animal
behavior challenges during
milking, feeding and breeding.
Also, Eastern Milk Producers
Cooperative has award programs
for “Farm Beautification”, a good
Superhopper
Got Grain? Then get the trailer that is Timpte
tough... the Super Hopper. It’s not only built to
take it...it’s also built to cut fuel costs. The Super
Hopper is lightweight and aerodynamically
designed to reduce wind drag. When there’s
grain to be hauled, Timpte does the haulin’ best
,and pulls a lot easier than the rest.
M.H. EBY, INC.
P.O. Box 127
step in this direction of enabling
side income from vacation on the
farm or similar ideas. In
Wisconsin, along a major highway
I saw an attractive farmstead
converted to a petting zoo with
young farm animals and a big sign
visible from fary saying “Old
McDonald Had a Farm”!
Some of our farms could look
just as attractive as those in
Switzerland, Austria and Germany
that everybody raves about and
spends thousands of dollars an
nually to see. Why don’t we copy
their ideas old ideas, I’ll admit
and have a pretty looking farm
house outside and inside with at
tractive, well-kept pastures
around the house.
With clean, well-tended cows,
sheep, horses, goats, ducks, geese
and the like, and a horse team
working some fields around the
house, wouldn’t that get the
cameras clicking!
Our brothers and sisters from
the city would love to see that and
come from far, as they already do
in Lancaster County, Penn
sylvania. It is possible to introduce
some of this nostalgia throughout
the region especially along its
many scenic shores?
On my farm tours of Europe we
see such scenes every year. Why
not here too? Why not promote
vacations on the farm as an old
idea for new farm income?
Such enterprises could bring
direct sales income to the farm
from bed and breakfast ac
comodations, pony rides, perhaps
dude ranching for reducing diets,
and simple soul recharge from
plain country living and fresh
country air.
One of my silent and last wishes
is to be invited back to an old
fashioned farm for a vacation
where I can work again with horse
teams like I did when I grew up on
a small farm in Germany, walking
barefooted behind a single plow in
the furrow when hilling potatoes.
Work down by the stress of
modern society and fast
BUY A 1986
TIMPTE
LIGHTWEIGHT
GRAIN HOPPER
NOW
(717) 354-4971,
I *
Blue Ball, PA 17506
needed income
technology, today many of us
yearn to go back to nature, to the
plain and simple life. Why can’t
some of our hard-pressed farms
provide this opportunity, turning it
into a new source of income?
See The Best
in the Field
Introducing the 10-foot wide
Ehh
Distributed By
HAMILTON EQUIPMENT, INC.
567 South Reading Road P.O. Box 478
Ephrata, PA 17522
Telephone (717) 733-7951
Please Contact Us For Your Nearest Dealer
gr—REDUCED PRICE
gfSJT OVATEC
5[ Check Our Prices
Crider’s Dairy Equipment, Shippensburg, PA, 717-532-2196
Dennis W. Silvers, Troy, PA, 717-297-4279
Neil P. Stewart, Marion Center, PA, 412-397-4920
Ray Miller. Oakland. MD. 301-339-9612
HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME KNOWING WHEN YOUR COWS
ARE COMING IN HEAT - OR KNOWING IF SHE'S IN A
TRUE HEAT?
■ Mail to: Oregon Sales I 3/29/86 |
J Oregon Pike !
| R.D. #l, Leola, PA 17540 i
i Or Call i
I (717) 656-3380 ■
I I
i I I Yes, send me information about
I Ovatec for cows
I Name
I Address
j City
■ Zip
Our farms aren’t just here to
produce food! They offer a way of
life as well. Put some fields back
into pasture, convert some trac
tors back to horse teams, let some
cows graze out there again
maybe with some other livestock,
too instead of keeping them
standing in those muddy bam
At Oregon Sales, 717-656-8380
or Melvin J. Lesher, Jr. Halifax, PA, 717-362-9168
Gerald Martin, Saeli Rd., RD 2, Savannak, N.Y.
ON'T
USE AN OVATEC
State
Phone( )
yards.
It will be attractive and the
economics of reduced cash outlays
plus new tourist income from
renting rooms might just make
economic sense. It does in Swit
zerland and Austria, why not here?
Perhaps the time is right to bring
back some good old ideas.
S ■ TEST
- Tells You When To Breed -
OVATEC is an ovulation detec
tion instrument that will assure
you of shorter calving intervals,
decreased services and higher
conception.
Indication of reproduction health
problems such as:
Cystic Ovaries
Late Ovulating Cows
"Silent Heat” Cows
Post Partum Infections
T^j