Marsteller Easement Largest In State (Continued from Pago At) acres are Class I. 11, and 111 soils, much of it some of York County’s most productive ground; an esti mated 145 .acres are woodlands. Acreage is all contiguous. ‘This was a joint family deci sion to do this; we’ve been renting these farms anyway,” says John Marsteller, Sr., who with his wife, Mary, owns the 550-acrc largest section of the 1063-acre signup. Another 340 acres is owned by Marsteller’s sister, Ruth Trout. Additional acreage of Green Val ley Farm, owned by John Jr. and his wife. Chris, and the farm of Mary Marsteller, mother of John Sr., are also included in the ease ment package. Easement purchase proceeds will be shared by the family owners, according to their portions of acreage in the total block. Easement purchase is actually on 1020 acres, with the remaining 43 donated to the county. Those 43 additional acres were “extra” land found by surveyors fine-tun ing deed boundaries on the vari ous properties after the original application and acceptance pro cess had gone through the county/ state preservation program. The Marstellers plan to reinvest their easement proceeds into pur chasing more of the acres owned by John Sr.’s mother and sister - and to keep farming as they have for the past 33 years. Corn, soy beans, wheat and barley arc plant ed in rotation, following conserva tion measures the Marstellers adopted many years ago. Until phased out last year, fattening cat tle was also part of the family en terprises. John Sr. and Mary purchased their 115-acre original farm a month before their marriage, in March 1960. Additional land ac quisitions were made as neighbor ing land became available over the past three decades. Like most “farm boys,” John, Jr., “Johnny has been involved al most since he could walk and be gan helping with simple machin ery operations at the tender age of seven. Fay Diesel Specialists Parts & Service 07m! • Diesel Fuel Injection Pumps & Injectors • Drive-In Service • Turbo Chargers * WE GUARANTEE ALL OUR WORK Farm Equipment • Industrial Equipment * Trucks • Cars 808 E. Main St., New Holland, PA 17557 • (717) 354-2016 ♦ World Famous Spices & Extracts ♦ Gourmet Cooking Ingredients ♦ Quality Home Care Products ♦ Nutritional/Health Care Products ♦ Skin Care & Hair Care Products ♦ Laundry & Bathroom Products ♦ Pet Care, Car Care & Lots More Watkins Business Opportunities Available! “We had a neighbor who was down on the golf course near here one day who saw what he thought was a tractor without a driver go past on the road,” laughs John, Sr. As this favorite family tale goes, the driverless equipment was actu ally being maneuvered by Johnny, who just wasn’t very visible in the seat behind the big steering wheel. After graduation from the vo-ag program of Kennard-Dale High School, John Jr. studied automo tive mechanics. In addition to his work with the field crops, he is in charge of equipment maintenance. His son, Jeromey, has enjoyed spending time around the farm’s shop since his early childhood years and already displays an af finity for farming. This several-generation interest in large part prompted the Mar stellers to pursue enrolling their acreage in the easement-purchase program. John Sr. became inter ested after attending a meeting se veral years ago which explained the program’s plans and goals. “This is a very solid farm, soil wise, a very productive farm with a history of crop yields exceeding the county averages,” notes Patri cia McCandless. program coor dinator for the York County Agri cultural Land Preservation Pro gram. “Their soil conservation practices have been exemplary. A priority of our program is toward preservation of farms that have and implement soil conservation plans at 75% or better.” According to McCandless, York County to date has 3870 acres enrolled in the agland pre servation program, primarily in the southern portion with the re cent inclusion of a Dover-area farm, nine townships now have farmland set aside for perpetuity. The Marsteller farm spans four of those townships, Hopewell, North Hopewell, East Hopewell and Fawn Township. “By the end of summer, we ex pect to have a little over 4500 acres enrolled in York County,” she adds. Some 1800 acres on eight farms have been selected for further consideration and apprai All those famous Watkins products you remember vanilla, cinnamon, liniment and salves, plus hundreds more are now available from a convenient shop-at-home mail order catalog! Order by mail or toll-free phone number. J" 3Yesil>iease7ush me youi-Tree Watkins'] Products are delivered right to your door, ' full-color mall order catalog I understand I | I'm under no obligation to buy anything | | Nunc | | Address | cny _ j Sure I Phone | Mail To: im -t-i I russco m LI l I Dept LF PO Box 106 I i New Holland, PA 17557 since mee j sal in the current annual selection cycle, to which landowners could apply in January. Since institution of the program in August 1990. McCandless ex pects the county and state combin ed monies invested in purchase of York County farmland to total more than 52.6 million by the end of the 1993 cycle. Pennsylvania now ranks second in the nation for acres enrolled in conservation easement purchase programs, some 32,000 acres on 264 farms. Maryland is first in acreage enrollment with more than 98.000 acres set aside for per manent agriculture use. “Ag friendly communities” are a key factor in selecting farms to be considered in the York County ag land preservation effort, notes coordinator McCandless. “We are really trying to priori tize preservation efforts in town ships where they have agriculture zoning, ag security areas,” she re lates. “It is so important to keep this effort going; we like to see townships that are committed to ag preservation.” In addition to soil capabilities and township commitment to ag land preservation, farms applying for easement purchase considera tion are also scored on their proxi mity to other land already in the program, parcel size, economic viability, proximity to sewer and water, road frontage. Through constant fine tuning of the selection processes, more em phasis is also being placed on farms owned and operated by families, rather than on rented acreage. "There seems to be a bigj LOCE «9C WEIGHT! AND EXCESS FATI with an All r so o«y “I Natural y°°^"° n *> A Safa r Product T^T l6S£ Up to 30 lbs. IN 30 DAYS! $32.95 • 1 MONTH SUPPLY SLENDER YOU OF LEOLA 93 W. Main SI., Lml«. PA 17540 1-800-292-4000 Toll-Fraa « 717-656-6408 Fraa Delivery! 3C commitment to soil conservation on land that is family owned and operated,” McCandless says of that emphasis in the selection pro cess. The Marsteilcrs recently visited a daughter and son-in-law in Colorado, stopping along the way to chat with farmers in Kansas and Nebraska. “We hear the same thing there - no young farmers going into the business because it’s too costly and there’s not enough return. And their land in the Mid-West is a lot cheaper than it is around here.” Marsteller laments. “And when land is appraised at farm owner’s death, it should not be appraised at the potential sales value, but at the farmland value. By selling the easements, children inheriting farmland won’t have as big a tax bite to face,” he adds. 7~i" Farm Calendar (Continued from Page AID) Catawissa Valley Fair, Catawissa, Western Dubuque Inn, thru June 12. Dubuque, lowa, thru June 14. Ag Issues Forum, Leola Family bridge, Md., thru June 12. National Guernsey Convention, !ger Call Northeast Agri Systems For information, on new contracts being offered by other local feed and livestock companies Contracts available for • Tom & hen turkeys: 7,200-15,000 birds Two 50’x620’ tom turkey houses Contracts available for • Hog finishing: 1,000-3,000 head • Sow units: 200-1,800 sows Tii 101’x245' 3000 head tunnel ventilated hog finishing house Contracts available for • Layer houses: 90,000-126,000 birds 108,864 bird layer house with ULTRAFLO® feeding Northeast Agri Systems, Inc. FLYWAY BUSINESS PARK . TST HWK 139 A West Airport Rd. Lithz, PA 17543 aiBIB (717) 569-2702 1-800-673-2580 SB [Northeast Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 15,1M3-A3l In addition to son John Jr., the Marstellers also have three daughters. Susan lives in York and works in the fashion-design indus try. Martha, recently married, makes her home in Minnesota. Helen, her husband Donald Rineholt and their two sons live nearby. Donald lends a hand with field work as needed. Grandsons Jason, 11, and Matthew, 9, Rine holt keep in close touch with the farm activities and think they might want to farm because “it’s fun.” If, at some time in the future, Jason , Matthew, Jeromey or per haps his sister Heather, 7, do choose to become farmers, they will have assurance that the land their family has farmed will not be converted to townhouses, shop ping malls or parking lots but will remain in agriculture forever. S.ilui d.n , June 1 - Sund.n . luiii' I ( 88th American Dairy Science Association, University of Maryland, College Park, thru June 16/- Ijpl‘
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