A4B-lancaster Firming, Saiurffay, August' 15*, T 992
Water Study Impacts Farmers
(Continued from Pag* Al)
Reed.
As a result of this barrage, sedi
ment load at the dams which line
the Susquehanna will teach a peak
in 15-20 yean. Right now, at one
dam, there are about 23 million
tons of soil, 32million tons of coal,
49 million tons of silt, and 62 mil
lion tons of clay.
There may be upward of a bil
lion pounds of nitrogen shored up
at the dams, according to the
hydrologist.
Extensive surveys
In all, the RCWP conducted
extensive surveys with the 210
cooperating farms in the north
Lancaster County region, with
cooperation from 12 federal, state,
and local agencies, according to
Donald Unangst, U.S. Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation
Service.
The project, begun in 1981 and
ended in September 1991, was out
lined in the July 13,1991 issue of
Lancaster Farming. It encompas
ses 110,000 acres, of which 'A area
is cropland, acccording to Robert
Heidecker, U.S. Soil Conservation
Service (SCS). Approximately
63,000 acres are farmed, and
include6s,ooo cattle, 34,000h0g5,
and three million chickens, for a
total of 1.23 million tons of man
ure generated yearly.
Heidecker emphasized that the
study was “not trying to point the
fingers at farmers to say they are
the only ones causing the problems
in the area,” he said. “There are
other urban and suburban prob
lems out there” the study needs to
address, he said. - *
But Heidecker said that the
study, which linked high rates of
manure spreading and nitrates in
ground and surface water, indi
cated some farmers were
ing 25 tons or more per acre, and
Robert Heidecker, USCS,
spoke about the RCWP at a
meeting In Lancaster last
week.
some up to 40 tons per acre. Also,
higher animal densities around
bams and streams are causing a
great deal of stream and other
water pollution.
Problems ran into
Some of the problems the study
ran into involved many of the
farms that would not agree to long
term contracting with the agencies
for study, including Plain and
Alnish sects, which make up more
than half of the farms under study,
according to Jeff Sloltzfus, project
assistant However, many nutrient
management plans were ccventual
ly drawn up and put into effedt, he
said. Stoltzfus said that there was a
great deal of voluntary participa
tion by the farms surveyed, and
many of them paid for mpst of the
conservation practices put into
place.
Farmers should learn that a great
deal of the feed purchased for the
farm will end up as soil nutrients
about 70 percent of it Only 30
percent gets converted to farm pro
ducts, according to Leon Ressler,
Lancaster nutrient management
agent
One of the lessons learned by
the study is that farmers must
adjust the nutrient needs of the
crop with the amount of fertilizer
available as one way to promote
good nutrient management on the
farm. Ressler said that burgeoning
manure marketing attempts will
help some farmers defray the heed
less worries of “manure police”
punishing them for not following
good nutrient management
practices.
In all, 175,000 people use the
water in the study area, according
to Jeff Mahood, SCS. And, of the
1,250 farms contacted, many
“were not used to dealing with the
government, let alone entering in a
long-term contract with the gov
ernment,” said Mahood. But most
of the farms, although apprehen
sive about the study, made an
A LESSON
WELL
LEARNED...
LANCASTER
FARMING'S
CLASSIFIED
ADS
GET RESULTS!
Patricia Liatman, hydrolo
gist with USGS, who helped
set up the Morgantown
RCWP testing site, explained
that terracing, while prevent
ing soil erosion, did not help
increase the recharge of
groundwater.
effort use “word of mouth" to
spread information about the
study. “These farms have a strong
resource stewardship ethic.” he
said.
ATTACH-MATIC
. Hook-Up Your Wagon Tongue Automatically
Stay In The Drivers Seat With Attach-Matic v
See It Demonstrated At Ag Progress Days
East sth Street
QUIK-HITCHi
Not-sign agreement
Aaron Stauffer, Ephrata, a
cooperative farmer in the RCWP
said many of the Amish and Men’
nonite farmers in the study would
not sign a long-term agreement
with the agencies because they felt
fear of getting in trouble for prob
lems with possible runoff. Eventu
ally, however, according to Stauf
fer, with the help of the conserva
tion district, many of the farms
signed on and have since benefit
led from doing so.
Patricia Lietman, USGS hydro
logist tvho helped set up the Mor
gantown RCWP testing site,
explained that terracing, while pre
venting soil erosion, did not help
increase the recharge of ground
water. Also, nitrate levels in sur
face and groundwater actually
increased after terracing. The site
itself registered 12 to 17
milligrams/liter of nitrate well
above the DER permissible 10
milligrams/liter.
David Hall and Edward Koerk
-Ic, both with USGS. also spoke
about nutrient management of
ground and surface water at the
field sites. William Hunt, Pennsyl
vania deputy conservationist,
SCS, concluded the meeting by
emphasizing the importance of the
tests. According to Hunt, the
results should provide the means to
make all farmers and agency per
sonnel involved with the study
“educational ambassadors.’’