A3O-L*nc**t*r Farming, Saturday, September 5, 1992
Stewardship Winner
ST. JOSEPH. Mo.—Ralph and
Henis Vecncma, owners of Shi-
RaLoKen Farm, Deposit. New
York, woe named the Eastern
regional winner of the 1992 Land
Stewardship Award presented by
the Angus Journal, official publi
cation of the American Angus
Association.
ShißaLoKen Farm is a
250-head Angus operation utiliz
ing 1,165 acres of hillside land on
the western fringe of the Catskill
Mountains. The farm consists of
110 acres of cropland, 690 acres
of pasture and 365 acres of
woodland.
The Veenemas pur
chased the farm in
1969, after the land had
been neglected for five
years. Their Erst step
was to reclaim and
renovate the land of an
abandoned farm. With
help from the Soil and
Water Conservation
District, Ralph planned
the crop and pasture
fields.
By 1977, all the
potential pastures had
been fenced in, and he
decided to concentrate
on improving the crop
land. The first step was
drainage, both surface
and subsurface.
To utilize his resour
ces, he used some of his
drainage projects to
supply a better defined
water source for cattle
in pastures far from
streams.
The farm’s wise use
of fencing makes work
ing and moving cattle
easy. Cattle can easily
be moved to different
pastures, separated for
veterinarian work or
loaded on trailers for
transport.
After much research
on pasture rotation and
attending seminars on
conservation, a decision
was made to divide 318
acres of pasture into
seven paddocks for
short-duration grazing.
This change fits in
well with the Vecne
mas’ strive for efficien
cy. It eliminates much
of the lime formerly
spent brushhogging the
pastures and lets the
cattle do that work. By
restricting the range of
the cattle, they make
more efficient use of all
available forage in the
paddock. When the
grass is grazed down to
2 or 3 inches in height,
the cattle are moved to
another paddock. This
allows the previous one
to recuperate.
Over the past 15
years, ShißaLoKen
Farm has installed
many conservation
practices from barnyard
water management to
conservation tillage.
But Ralph feels that
rotational grazing will
pay the most dividends.
They have also
implemented 14 acres
of striperopping, 74
acres of conservation
tillage and 26 acres of
permanent vegetative
cover.
The Veenemas and manager
John Butler received the 1990
Delaware County Conservation
Farm Award for their extensive
conservation management
practices.
Ralph and Henis Veenema were
featured in the 1992 Herd Refer
ence Edition of the Angus Journal.
Other recognized winners
included: (West) Tom Elliott, N-
Bar Land and Cattle Co., Grass
Range, Montana; (Central) Bruce
and Scott Foster, Seldom Rest
Farms, Niles, Michigan; and
(South) W.B. Herrington, Bilmar
Angus Farms, Ml. Calm, Texas.
The Angus Journal presents the
Land Stewardship Award annual
ly to four regional winners who
have demonstrated wise use of
resources and conservation
practices.
Dairy,
WASHINGTON, D.C. The
National Cattlemen’s Association
recently hosted an unprecedented,
producer-to-producer meeting
between dairy and beef producers
during its midyear meeting to
initiate better communications on
issues of mutual interest.
“The meeting was very success
ful,” said NCA Agriculture Policy
Committee Chairman Bob Drake,
Davis Okla. “Both dairy and beef
producers understand they repre
sent different constituencies with
sometimes different philosophies
towards policy solution. However,
we agreed that it is important to
discuss these issues in some forum
so that we can continue the com
munications to better work on
those issues together.”
Drake said that the meeting
served to break the ice on a lack of
communication that had deve
loped in recent years. After sever-
Beef Producers Meet
al meetings between the NCA and
National Milk Producers Federa
tion officers, the idea of a round
table evolved through the desire of
NCA producer leaders to organize
a meeting to develop a better
understanding of dairymen’s
concerns.
The unstructured meeting
spurred discussion on upcoming
issues such as wetlands, endan
gered species, .clean water, food
safety and animal health regula
tions. It was unanimous that agri
culture must work together and
speak with one voice in Washing
ton, D.C. The group identified
producer-to-producer meetings as
the best way to improve
communications.
“The group decided that despite
differences between the two
industries, we would meet in the
future to try and understand the
other’s point of view,” Drake said.
“We also agreed that we would
not use differences of philosophy
as issues to generate
membership.”
Dairymen at the meeting said
they agreed that it was a good first
step. “We hit a home run on the
first ptich,” commented one parti
cipant. Other dairy producers said
they hoped that cattlemen heard
and understood that dairymen
want to work with beef producers.
There was also discussion on
ways to spur communications
between the two industries at the
local level.
KOKIN
SOME EXTRA .ft 15*
CASHI /W 9k
Attartha WHhA < ( 0 tBZ
Uncaitar Farming fi/|
CLASSIFIED A 0... ' JjM
Film: 717-394-3047 '
0r717-C2t-IIM