BUFFALO 4620 CULTIVATOR real For Conventional And Minimum Tillage. Traditional Rugged nffalo Design At An Economical Price. Featuring A Depth-Control atting Disk To Slice Through Residue And A Sweep To Eliminate r eeds. BUFFALO 4640 CULTIVATOR savy-Duty Adjustable Disk Hillers Move Soil As Desired, Adjustable abilizing Disks Cut Through Heavy Residue, Spring Loaded Sweep tanks Plus Adjustable Sweep Pitch For Your Conditions. BUFFALO GUIDANCE SYSTEM Unique In Its Accuracy And Simplicity It Takes The Chore Out Of iltivating. Eliminate Cultivator Blight, Reduce Herbicide Costs, And crease Cultivation Speeds. Great For Contours And Sidehills. -By STOP IN AND SEE RYDER SUPPLY U AT THE NO-TILL CONFERENCE SS FARM EQUIPMENT N E W N E W Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Dacambar 12, IM7-C5 -** > ” *v * As Lancaster County’s livestock numbers continue to increase, nutrlem management practices combined with no-tlll farming becomes vital to every farming operation. No-Till And Nutrient Management May Increase Yields, Decrease Costs HARRISBURG “Last year my com yields averaged 180 to 240 bushels per acre. With less manure and only trace minerals, my goal is to increase yields.” added Aaron Stauffer of Ephrata. “We are only putting on what the com plant needs.” Soil erosion control is given equal credit by Stauffer for the outstanding pro tection that he is achieving. In addition to the terrace system, com is planted no-till into a 10-inch high ryegrass cover crop. “They use to tell me how many tons per acre of soil was eroding,” remarked Aaron. “Now they tell me in pounds per acre.” Staufferis farm is part of a Lan caster County multi-agency pro ject to provide information on the effects of excessive manure and fertilizer application on surface and groundwater quality. This pro ject will show how nutrients move through the soil profile. And it will determine if proper use of manure and other nutrients along with soil conservation practices can improve water quality. It may also show that good yields can be obtained with more 'efficient use of manure and fertil izer. The result would be increased profits for the farmer. As one farmer put it, “Soil, man ure, and fertilizer washing into a stream doesn’t do any good.” Concern has been increasing in Lancaster County about the grow ing livestock population. What happens when the number of farm animals in an area becomes too high? What are the effects and who looks out for the public’s health? What are the farmers’ responsibili ties? The answers to these ques tions have never been clearly defined. A study by the Lancaster Area Land and Water Resources found that from 1960 to 1980, total ani mal units in the county had increased from 200,000 to 600,000. Greatest increases were in poultry and swine. The study, conducted by the USDA Soil Con servation Service in cooperation with the Lancaster County Com missioners and the Lancaster Con servation District, found that annu al manure production amounted to \ V „ ♦ 4 m 4.1 million tons. This equals 11.2 tons of manure for every acre of cropland in the county. As a result, the multiagency water quality monitoring effort began in the headwaters of the Conestoga River in 1982. The pur pose of the monitoring was to determine the effects of agricultur al best management practices (BMPs) on surface and ground water quality. BMPs included both soil conservation utilizing no till practices and nutrient management practices. Less Manure, Same Yields Stauffer is the farmer at site #2 and he is enthused about the bene fits from the project “For my own consideration, I’ve taken a portion of a field and only applied manure. I wanted to see what happened to yields.” said Aaron. “There was no difference.” Aaron added another thought" If I had it my way, every soil test report would have written across the top front in big red letters, ‘INCLUDE NUTRIENTS APPLIED IN MANURE AS A PART OF YOUR CROP NUTRI ENT NEEDS.’ Too many farmers are throwing away a valuable resource and causing water quality problems to the water that he and his family drink.” Testing Drinking Water In the early part of this study, many domestic wells were sampled to determine water qual ity. A total of 67 peicent of the wells in the limestone area com-' pared to 27 percent in the non limestone areas. In addition, 33 percent of the wells tested con tained some type of farm chemical such as atrazine. A small S.B square mile watershed was selected for inten sive monitoring of the effects of nutrient management on surface and ground water quality. This watershed is a portion of the Little Conestoga Creek. How The Tests Were Conducted Two farms were selected for high intensity water quality moni toring. Site #1 is a 22-acrs field which was farmed predominantly in com up and down slope. Erosion (Turn to Rago C 8)
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