Grass Is In At Plum Bottom Farm
(Continued from Pago A 36)
Ayrshires was started in 1986 with
the purchase of open heifers. Since
Rodgers likes to use his avocation
as an instructor for the Dale Carne
gie course in his farm pursuits, the
Ayrshire herd became the focus of
promotional efforts. From nothing
to the current DHIA year-end
record of nearly 18,000 pounds of
milk and nearly 700 pounds of fat,
Rodgers has been promoting his
herd. Consignments to state and
national sales has been one method
used. In addition, Plum Bottom
had the grand champion Ayrshire
at the 1993 State Farm Show and
the reserve grand champion and the
junior champion at the recent 1994
Stale Farm Show. Recently Atlan
tic Breeders purchased the January
bull calf from Alfadale Gem Stone
out of Plum Bottom Legends No
(VG, 2Y). The granddam is the
Madge’s Bay daughter that made
4y 31,475 m 3.7 f 1121 f in the Plum
Bottom herd.
The dairy operation built around
zero grazing carried into the pre
sent herd until 1990. But research
now shows that rotational grazing
is a more viable method to handle
the dairy herd because of the pre
sent day high input costs. Once
again Rodgers used the recommen
dations gathered from Penn State
research for the basis of change.
With three years experience on a
rotational grazing program, the
Plum Bottom dairy herd is living
proof the system works.
Before the pasture system was
adopted, production on 27.7 Ayr
shire cows was 14,506 m 482 p
584 f. In the current program with
pasture, 38.2 cows averaged
17,239 m 606 p 674 f. But the real
story is in reduced inputs. Total
feed cost per cow dropped from
$1132.00 to $988.00. The feed
cost/wt milk went down from
$7.94 to $5.73. The capacity
needed for manure storage went
down from 600,000 gallons to
400,000 gallons.
‘The big difference is in inputs,”
Rodgers said. ‘‘We have a 60 hp
tractor now. We did have a 120 hp
tractor. And we got rid of a forage
harvester and a number of forage
wagons. To me, growing crops on
CONTROL MORE GRASSES ANDWEEDS
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Plum Bottom Legends No Is the VG 2-year-old dam of the January bull calf pur
chased by Atlantic Breeders. The next dam is the EX Madge’s Boy daughter that made
a 4-1 ly 31,000 m record in the Plum Bottom herd.
the land is one thing, but now 1
need to do it at least cost. The graz
ing aspect as demonstrated to me
has great potential.”
The belief in this potential has
even changed the career direction
of son Jim. For eight years after
college. Jim pursued his interest in
professional baseball. The sports
adminstration graduate program at
Penn State introduced him to an
internship with the Chicago White
Sox. Later he managed a minor
league affiliate of the Kansas City
Royals in Appleton, WI, and by
early 1993 he had moved to work
for the Marlins expansion team in
Florida.
“In our family we were taught,
and my father emphasized, that
you should get done what you want
to get done,” Jim said. “This alti
tude left me free to go into base
ball, which 1 enjoyed. I wasn’t
good enough to play professional
ly, but I went about getting a mas
ter’s degree and became a baseball
coach. But in the back of my mind.
H
I always knew the farm was here. I
am the ninth generation hoe, and I
see a lot of merit in keeping the
farm productive.”
A big event happened in Jim’s
life m 1993. He became engaged
and was married in November.
“When I got engaged, 1 began to
realize that in baseball it was tough
to put down roots. 1 knew 1 didn’t
want to live in Florida. So we made
the decision to come back to the
farm in Pennsylvania and start
married life here.
“We considered many different
enterprises that could be done here,
but the more we investigated the
possibilities of raising heifers the
more we liked it Our plans are to
buy yearling heifers, breed them,
and offer them for sale just before
they freshen.
“We have our work cut out for
us, but we believe the freestall
bam, the acreage, and the commit
ment to intensive grazing has a lot
of merit The way our minds are
directed we are very excited about
and fits any tillage program.
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Plans at Plum Bottom call for a
26 acre Held out from the bam to be
divided into acre pasture lots with
permanent fence around the out
side and electric fence to divide the
center area into acre sections. Rod
gers believes 120 heifers can be
pastured together in the program
by allowing the herd to graze one
lot for only 24 hours at a time.
More than three weeks will have
passed before the heifer herd is
back in the same pasture lot
In spring the excess forage will
be stockpiled for winter in the form
of haylage and large round bales of
hay.
“When I first came back, I didn’t
realize the farm would make such
an impacton me,” Jim said. “Butas
we worked through what can be
done on this farm, I got charged up.
It’s like coming lack to my roots. I
really never thought of making this
career change until I got back here
and got my hands, my feet, and my
back into working on the farm
- 1
< i
<1 I>r
again. Then it began to formulate,
and with this heifer project, I think
we have a sound financial plan. So
everything came together.”
In the fall, the dairy herd of Ayr
shircs, which is housed on a neigh
boring farm, will be sold at what
the elder Rodgers calls an accom
plishment sharing sale. This is all
part of the plan to promote and
merchandise the herd.
“1 like dairy cows,” John said. “1
have had two Ayrshire herds and
one Holstein herd. But 1 don’t think
a dairy cow is an end in itself. They
are part of our effort to promote.
“When I started this herd of Ayr
shires, part of my interest was mer
chandising and marketing. So we
are going to sell 73 head and keep
IS or 20. Eight pairs will be sold
with the buyer to take choice.
However, five older cows and five
younger heifers will be kept. We
will have a much smaller herd then,
but Charles Pent from Connecticut
is coming to run the dairy and will
bring his small herd of Ayrshires
along to join our smaller herd.”
Rodgers sees his participation in
both the state and national forage
and grassland councils as part of
his efforts to obtain information,
meet people, and give back to
others some of the things he has
received. He is a charter member of
the Pennsylvania group and is a
past president When he started to
attend national council meetings,
only university and industry peo
ple were represented on the board
of directors. Through input from
Rodgers, that has not changed, and
producers are represented in equal
numbers with the other two seg
ments of the council.
As it happens. Rodgers is the
first producer president of the
National Forage and Grassland
Council in the year when the coun
cil celebrates its SOth anniversary.
This happens at the Host Resort
cast of Lancaster on Route 30
beginning Sunday evening through
Wednesday night.
This “Golden Opportunity” will
feature a lot of things you want to
loiow about forages. And you can
be sure every attempt will be made
to get the word out that grass is in.
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