BY BARBARA MILLER grooming their animals in
Lycoming Co. Correspondent preparation for the 116th annual
HUGHESVILLE - Members of Lycoming County Fair to be held
Lycoming County 4-H Clubs are here July 10 through 19.
Doug Marquardt, a member of the 118 4-H Ag Club, is
preparing his steer Shadow for the upcoming Lycoming
Chris Snyder, a member of the 118 4-H Ag Club, poses with
his gilt Lily.
Adams Dairymen Learn Manure
BY GINGER SECRIST MYERS
Adams County Correspondent
NEW OXFORD - A manure
spreader calibration demon
stration may seem like a different
topic for a Holstein Twilight
Meeting, but the Adams County
Holstein Club featured just such a
program for its summer meeting
held Thursday evening, June 26, at
Zeppdale Farm, Norman and Alan
Zepp, New Oxford. This father and
son operation includes a 100 cow
Holstein milking herd and 475
acres of crops.
Featured speaker for the
evening was Mitch Woodward,
manure management project
associate with the Penn State
Cooperative Extension Service.
Based in Lancaster County,
Woodward’s responsibilities ex
tend to a six-county area in which
he is involved in animal waste
management programs and
research under the direction of the
Pennsylvania Chesapeake Bay
Water Quality Project. This
project is a cooperative effort
; unded by the Department of
Environmental Resources and
'elated State and Federal agencies
md organizations.
Woodward told the dairymen
that proper manure management
has dual benefits for both their
wallet and their farms. Since
manure is the cheapest fertilizer
on the farm, proper application
can save the farmer cash on his
commercial fertilizer purchases.
Determining the manure’s worth
depends on the individual needs of
your land. The average dairy
manure contains 10 pounds of
available nitrogen per ton, three
pounds of phosphorus, and five
pounds of potassium. If these in
puts are valued at 23, 24, and 12
cents, respectively, then that
Lycoming County Youth Prepare Entries As Fair Approaches
manure is worth $3.62 per ton. If all
the nutrients are not needed by a
particular plot of ground, then the
value of the manure will be less.
Woodward notes that poultry
manure has three to five times the
nutrients available in cow manure.
Moisture levels should also be
taken into account since the more
moisture, the lower the nutrient
content of the manure.
A second goal of a manure
management program should be to
help maintain a farm’s water
quality. Woodward cited Lan
caster County as a prime example
of a location where they have more
nutrients than they know what to
do with. He notes that it is a unique
situation due to the lack of existing
research in this field. The water
quality project hopes to attain
some feasible control measures on
rate of application and run-off.
Woodward noted that 30 percent of
the farm wells in Lancaster County
are now polluted with nitrates and
coliform bacteria to the extent that
they are unfit for consumption.
Before actually calibrating your
spreader Woodward recommends
first determining the rate of ap
plication needed. This should be
determined by testing your soil for
nutrients already present, testing
your manure for its nutrient
content, and then projecting your
crops’ needs based on yield goals.
You also need a plastic sheet, a set
of scales, and a bucket. Detailed
information sheets on the
procedure and rate of calibration
for calibrating either solid and
semi-solid manure spreaders or
liquid spreaders are available
from your county extension office
or your county soil conservation
office.
Solid Manure Calibration
Woodward proceeded with a
Raising lambs as projects are
two members of the Little Muncy
Creek 4-H Club, Krissy Girven,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jim
Girven, Muncy; and Mariah
Peterman, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Stephen Peterman,
Hughesville.
Eleven-year-old Krissy, a
veteran 4-H’er with a previous
lamb project and several garden
projects to her credit, said she
chose a lamb “because a lamb’s
the cutest animal.”
“I don’t like to pull weeds,”
Krissy continued, weighing the
pros and cons of her projects, “but
I don’t have to give my garden a
bath or clean it.” She concluded
that she prefers raising a lamb to
tending a garden.
Does Krissy, who won first prize
with her lamb last year think she
will win a prize at the fair this
year? “Yes,” she replied con
fidently.
For Mariah Peterman, 8, this is
her second lamb project. Con
cerning the training of Ivory, her
lamb, Mariah reports, “I am
trying to train her so when she
steps she puts her feet where they
belong.”
And is Ivory able to do this yet?
“Every now and then she does,”
Mariah admits honestly.
Mariah won a prize last year at
the fair and hopes to do the same
this year.
This is the fourth year that Chris
Snyder, the 13-year-old son of Mr.
and Mrs. Keith Snyder, Laird
sville, has entered a swine project.
As a member of the 118 Ag Club,
Chris won the reserve grand
champion prize for showing his hog
two years ago.
One might say Chris began his
current project on a cold January
day when for the first time he
helped deliver a litter of pigs on his
parents’ farm. Out of a litter of
eight he chose two gilts to raise as
his 4-H project.
He chose Flo and Lily, the gilts,
field demonstration for calibrating
a spreader for solid or semi-solid
manure. The following is an outline
of the recommended procedure:
1. Weigh the sheet with the
bucket.
2. Spread the sheet in the field
and drive directly over it with the
spreader in gear and the tractor up
to speed.
3. Fold the sheet so as not to spill
any of the manure and weigh the
sheet in the bucket on your scales.
4. Subtract the weight of the
sheet and the bucket as pre
determined and this number is the
weight of the manure caught on the
sheet.
5. Repeat this procedure two or
three times to determine an
average weight.
6. Check the spreader calibration
chart (Table I) under the size of
sheet you used and the pounds of
manure collected to determine
your tons of manure applied per
acre.
7. If the size of sheet you used is
not on Table I, use the following
formula to get the tons per acre.
lbs. of manure x 21.8
size of sheet, sq. ft. per acre
Liquid Manure Calibrating
A different method is used when
calibrating a liquid manure
spreader. Items needed for this
include a tape measurer or yard
stick and a string or rope.
1. Determine your spreader
capacity by using Table 11.
2. Tie a string around your
tractor tire at the top of the tire.
Mark the ground directly below the
string and pull the tractor forward
until the string is again at the top of
Krissy Girven, left, and Mariah Peterman, right, pose with
their lambs Ivory and Gabby. Members of the Little Muncy
Creek 4-H Club, the girls are preparing their lambs for the
Lycoming County Fair.
Chris says, “because they were
bigger and had wider backs than
the barrows.” But now, according
to Chris’s mother, Chris is having
second thoughts about his choice
because the barrows are looking a
little better than the gilts.
In addition to his pigs Chris is
raising two steers this year and
says he prefers raising steers in
some ways.
“But pigs are easier to raise and
to win money with because they
don’t require all the care of a
steer,” he observed.
Chris says he likes the rewards
of showing pigs at the fair, “The
money and fun,” as he terms it, but
he could do without other aspects
of hog raising such as cleaning
pens.
Doug Marquardt, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Robert Marquardt,
Hughesville, is raising Shadow, a
Chianina-cross steer as his 4-H
project. Doug, 12, is a member of
Spreader Calibration
the tire. Measure the distance
from the first mark to where the
string now hangs to determine the
distance travelled by one
revolution of your tractor tire.
3. Spread the load and count the
number of times the rope comes to
the top of the tire. Multiply the
number of revolutions the tire
made to spread the load by the
number of feet the tractor moved
in one revolution. This gives you
the distance traveled to spread the
load.
6. To determine the rate of ap
plication per acre, divide the
gallons or tons of manure applied
in the load by the number of acres
covered.
Following Woodward’s
presentation, Adams County
Holstein Club President Dave Kehr
concluded the meeting with
several announcements. The Club
Tour this year will be to six dairy
operations in Franklin County. The
tour will be held Tuesday, July 15,
with the bus leaving the North
Gettysburg Shopping Center at 8
a.m. The cost is $l7 per person
which covers the cost of tran
sportation and the noon meal.
Junior members may attend for
half price. Reservations should be
made immediately with any of the
Adams County Holstein Club
Directors.
State Ag Secretary Appoints
Export Marketing Specialist
4. Measure the spreader’s ap
plication width in feet.
5. Multiply the distance to spread
the load times the width the
spreader covers. Divide that
number by 43,560 (sq. ft. in an
acre) to obtain the area in acres
you covered.
HARRISBURG - State
Agriculture Secretary Richard E.
Grubb today announced the ap
pointment of Raymond D. Plumb
as chief of the Bureau of Marketing
Development’s Export Division.
“Ray’s knowledge and expertise
will help us build upon Penn
sylvania’s international reputation
for quality agriculture products,”
said Secretary Grubb.
tons of
manure
Prior to his involvement with the
Department, Plumb served as an
agricultural export marketing
specialist with the Virginia
Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Services for three
years. He helped plan, develop and
implement international
agricultural marketing activities
for the Commonwealth of Virginia,
the 118 Ag Club and took reserve
grand champion with his steer last
year.
The hardest part of training a
steer, according to Doug, is halter
breaking him. Setting them up or
getting them to stand properly, is
about the easiest thing to teach, he
added. Since Shadow arrived last
mid-October, Doug has been
working with him in a vacant
barnyard.
Although Doug feeds Shadow
“special ingredients” in addition
to com, oats, and hay, Doug says,
shadow isn’t as heavy as he’d like
him to be. Doug notes he would be
more optimistic about his chances
to win a prize if Shadow puts on a
little weight.
What is it Doug enjoys most
about raising animals for 4-H?
“Winning prizes,” he states
unequivocably. “And meeting new
friends,” his mother, who is sitting
nearby, reminds him.
specializing in raw agricultural
products and processed foods.
From 1981 to 1983, he served as
domestic agricultural marketing
agent for the Commonwealth of
Virginia, coordinating activities in
its $l5 million direct marketing
industry. He has also worked as a
facilities manager for Southern
States Cooperatives Inc. in
Richmond, VA.
A native of Umontown, Penn
sylvania, Plumb received a
bachelor of science degree in
animal science from The Penn
sylvania State University in 1975,
and has continuing education
credits in business management
and export development from
Virginia Commonwealth
University and Northern Virginia
Community College.