A244JMMIW Farming, Saturday, April 29, 1995
Conservation A Way Of
(ConUnuad from Pag* A 1)
"Tiz,” and son Sam. Williams
farms 200 acres of owned cropland
and 100 acres of rented property to
support a 280-cow Jersey herd.
The family has been a Dauphin
County Conservation District
cooperates since 1953.
hi all, Williams dlls about 250
acres, including ISO acres of com.
100 acres of alfalfa, and 80 acres of
pasture land (split between the use
of pastured Bared Fescue and
orchard grass). The cows are
placed on pasture through the use
of rotational grazing.
Williams employs many labor
conserving practices on the dairy
farm. He uses a three-wheel vehi-
When he began using newspaper as bedding, Williams
would put a sign out in front of his farm. Through passers
by and eventual word-of-mouth, residents of the area
dropped off bags of paper. Whenever he needs to Increase
his supply, the sign goes back up.
cle to travel to work areas. With the
use of the three-wheeler, he can
open and lock pasture gates "from
the seat,” he said.
Williams uses simple containers
fashioned from 250-gallon drums
equipped with inexpensive floats
for the watering system. The dairy
farmer has purchased a system that
uses 2'/i -gallon plastic containers
equipped with nipples to feed six
calves at one time.
For feeding grata to
the older stock, he usa
S-gallon containen
fastened with handles so
that, at one time, he can
pour more grain a lot
easier.
“You don’t need two
hands on the bucket to
feed the material,’’ he
said. “You only need
one hand.’’
In addition, the
Virginia-style heifer
facility and the main
feedlot are equipped
with slatted floors so the
manure flows readily to
the pit. The only work
involved is pumping the
slurry to a tank for Held
application.
Also, the use of newspaper bed
ding on the farm provides an inex
pensive and ready flow of mater
ials to the stalls. When he began
using newspaper as bedding, Wil
liams would put a sign out in front
of his farm. Through passers-by
and eventual word-of-mouth, area
residents dropped off bags.
Whenever he needs to increase his
supply, the sign goes back up.
The use of newspaper bedding,
according to Williams, goes hand
in hand with conservation prac
tices because it absorbs moisture
readily and contributes carbon to
the manure system conserving
nitrogen in the fields.
In light of possible droughts.
Williams insists on the importance
of contour farming and manure
injection.
“If ydu inject your manure.
you’ve got that organic matter
down in the soil in a nice groove
that’s going to retain moisture.
And if you inject it on the contour,
then any Tain you get will be
absorbed by this organic matter.”
Williams said he converted to
the pasture system and employed
Life On Dauphin County Dairy Farm
other labor-saving practices on the
farm because he’s “lazy.
“I say that everybody that’s
efficient is lazy,” he said. “The
only reason they’re efficient is
because they’re lazy. And the only
difference between a lazy person
and an efficient person is the lazy
person doesn’t want to work. The
efficient person wants to get the
work done and doesn’t want to
work. And there are people in the
‘We Are Citizens Of One World’
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
MIDDLETOWN (Dauphin
Co.) Dairyman Tom Williams
folds his business card so that the
top one-thud is immediately prom
inent It reads: “We Are Citizens
Of One World.”
Williams said, ‘‘Everybody in
the world eats and sleeps, so we’re
all the same.”
In his kitchen, a map of the
world is attached to the wall above
the kitchen table. On the map, the
United States appears merely as a
nonchalant part of the world, much
like the other countries, not centr
ally located, just a part of one big
planet.
On a kitchen cupboard are
attached the flags to about IS
countries. Tom’s wife, Tiz, steps
onto a stool and points to one that
was handed to her by a mother and
daughter from Brazil.
Below the cupboard, on a cork
board, are more than a hundred
pictures of family guests of the
Williams during more than 33
years of serving as host family for
the Friendship Force Exchange
and many other hosting programs.
And outside the house, next to
the porch, an American flag flies.
When guests from other countries
come to visit the Dauphin County
middle, between lazy and efficient, phy” works on all aspects of his
that don’t mind if they work and farm and contributes to
work and work.” profitability.
Williams installed simple bunk- Williams said, “Conservation is
ers for his silagesystem. using ply- o„ ly so you don . t need somc .
wpod and telephone poles. He thing later. If rain falls on this
recently purchased two used grain farm, and it goes away and I get a
bins so he can get more of the min- drought, then it’s my fault If rain
oral concentrate he feeds in his falls on this farm and it stops here
TMR in bulk “so I don’t have to and I have a drought then it’s not
lift bags,” he said. my fault It’s the fault of the
This “conservation philoso- drought”
Tiz Williams holds onto a Brazilian flag, from the collec
tion of flags provided by the guest families through many
exchange programs.
Conservation Farmers of the Year,
“we try to get the flag for their
country and fly it,” said Tom
Williams.
Tom and Theresa “Tiz” Wil
liams have served as a host under
the programs since 1962. In that
time, they have hosted a teenager
from Germany for a year and a
half, a Japanese family at Christ
mastime, a mother and daughter
from Kenya (this past Christmas),
and people from India, Australia,
Poland, Mexico. Africa, and other
parts of the world.
Tiz, who services as the charge
nurse on critical care at Dauphin
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Manor, helps the visitors plant a
tree. The tree is cared for. A picture
is sent to the guest families as a
way of keeping in touch with them
after they return. It serves as a
memento and a symbol of
goodwill.
Tiz said that they stay Jn touch
regularly with the families they
hosted through the years. Tom said
he wants to remain a host family
for quite some time.
Tiz pointed to a Star Magnolia
tree planted recently by a family
from Kenya.
“To welcome people from other
countries that is our recrea
tion,” said Tom.
g g