A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 1, 1991
Way-Win Farm: Ecologically Sound, Financially Efficient
BY RANDY WELLS
Indiana Co. Correspondent
NORTH FREEDOM (Jefferson
Co.)— At the Way-Win Valley
Farm in eastern Jefferson County
during the first week of May,
brothers Dave and Charles Bod
dorf began spreading eight months
worth of manure.
But the brothers were actually a
little excited about the onerous
sounding chore.
Changes made at Way-Win last
summer were about to become
time-savers. The farm was about
to become ecologically responsi
From the left, Dave and Charles Boddorf stand along the
edge of a manure system they installed last year to store
and take advantage of the waste from their Holstein herd.
Located In Jefferson County, Way-Win Valley Farm is a Dairy of Distinction, an hon
or earned in 1989. The landscaping, attention to detail and efforts to make the opera
tion as efficient and responsible as possible.
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The PTO from the tractor runs a 12-foot vertical pump that also agitates the slurry
Into a pumpable mixture. The level rings along the side of the 74-foot dlamter pit
shows the different levels of manure. One Inch In change In level represents a change
of 2,300 gallons. The entire poured concrete pit has a capacity of 386,000 gallons,
enough to allow the brothers to expand the herd and still be able to maintain the effec
tiveness of the nutrient management system.
ble. And the Boddorfs were about
to make better use of one of the
farm’s most valuable by-products:
248,000 gallons of semi-liquid
manure.
Last August the Boddorfs com
pleted construction of a poured
concrete manure storage tank, the
only concrete facility and one of
only about ten manure storage
systems of any description - in
their county.
Twelve feet deep and 74 feet in
diameter, the tank has a capacity
of 386,000 gallons - more than
Way-Win needs now, but big
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enough to allow for future growth.
Situated in an area of rolling
green pastures and scenic country
homes near the villages of North
Freedom on the Jefferson-
Armstrong county border, Way-
Win is a Dairy of Distinction, and
is not only technology-conscious
but esthetically pleasing. The
brothers Boddorf believe their
new storage tank will enhance
both of those attributes.
The actual tank construction
was performed by Sollenberger
Silo of Chambersburg, but hours
of additional work before and
after was done by the Boddorfs.
The brothers excavated the site
before construction and back
Tilled afterward. They also poured
concrete and installed much of the
peripheral equipment.
For younger brother Dave, 34, a
Penn State degree in civil engi
neering has been helpful not only
in building the new system, but in
day-to-day farming operations.
After working on the family
farm during his high school years,
Dave said he was ready for some
thing different. With his Penn
State degree in hand he moved
east, and spent the next five years
helping build hydraulic cranes at
Grove Manufacturing in Shady
Grove.
After returning to the farm he
and older brother Chuck, 51,
entered their herd in the DHIA
program in March 1985. Their
first rolling herd average in March
1986 was 17,645 pounds of pro
duction, 629 pounds of fat and 540
pounds of protein.
Their most recent DHIA figures
from April of this year show sig
nificant improvement: 20,963 pro
duction, 771 of fat and 663 of
protein.
Another of the Boddorfs’ goals
was herd improvement, and today
72 of the farm’s 77 Holsteins are
registered.
That same drive for improve
ment was behind the new manure
storage system.
“We wanted to save those nutri
ents (in the manure). There’s no
sense hauling it in winter and let
ting it leach away,” Dave said.
According to a waste manage
ment plan provided the Boddorfs
programs on the farm comupter to help the Boddorfs man
age their farm.
Pi
spreading program at the Boddorf farm, Way-Win Valley
Farm. Here, from left, Dave and Charles Boddorf stand by
the front of the truck while the PTO from the tractor runs a
12-foot vertical pump. The pump also acts as an agitator to
smooth out of the slurry before it Is pumped into the truck
for hauling to fields several miles away from the main farm.
by the Jefferson County ASCS
office, SO percent of the nitrogen
in manure evaporates into the
atmosphere within three days after
it is, spread on top of the ground.
And in winter when the ground is
frozen, valuable nutrients are
often washed away into streams,
contaminating groundwater.
With the storage tank, the Bod
dorfs are able to accumulate the
manure and its nutrients through
out the year, then spread it at the
most advantageous time to benefit
crops.
For 12 to IS minutes twice a
day, a gutter cleaner removes
manure from the barn and empties
it into a reception pit just outside.
A 7.5 hp J-Star ram pump then
forces the manure about 60 feet
underground through a 12-inch
pvc pipe and into the bottom of the
storage tank.
For about 50 weeks a year the
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