814-UncMter Farming, Saturday, June 17, 1995
Amy Espenshade Writes About
Struggles And Successes Of American Farmers
Disasters, development,
adsence of a younger genration to
replace the old, sky-rocketing land
and equipment prices, hard-nosed
environmentalists, livestock dis
eases no wonder farmers have
so much trouble doing their jobs
today. As we see farmland acreage
dwindling, fear rises for our coun
try’s future. Where will our food
be grown without any land? We
can’t survive without food. Let us
examine some of the challenges
confronting farmers today and the
methods oy which they meet
them.
More frequently today we see
precious farmland being gobbled
up by big-time developers. As a
farmer from New Jersey once
stated, “...if I sold this land and put
the money in the bank, we’d make
more just on interest. As the value
of land grows, so does the pres
sure to sell.” Banks and investors
offer farmers “big-bucks” in
return for their land and, sadly, too
many farmers accept their
proposals.
I live on a dairy farm and I can
remember looking over the hill
beyond our property line to a
neighboring farm. Where rolling
hills once laid there now stands
two housing developments, while
construction on another develop
ment across the street fills the air
with the sounds of rumbling bull
dozers. Sometimes I feel isolated
on my small farm and wonder if
other families like mine will
decide to keep their farms. Our
farm has stayed in my family for
over 125 years and we intend to
keep it at least that many more!
Farmers also face the soring
costs of buildings, such as bams
and silos, and necessary equip
ment like computer software and
milking machinery. Jim Dickrell,
a journalist for the Dairy Today
magazine, published an article
titled “Sticker Shock”. In his arti
cle, Dickrell tallied up the cost of
building a dairy farm to house 400
cows. The results were staggering.
A 380 foot by 94 foot freestall
bam, where the cows are free to
walk around and feed as they
wish, reaches a value of $339,527.
Two bunker silos, each 144 feet
long, to hold haylage and silage
(finely chopped hay and com
respectively), to feed the animals,
costs $75,782. Three thousand
five hundred dollars ($3500) bare
ly covers the price of, computers
and software used to manage the
herd and keep track of expenses
and profit We haven’t even gotten
the milk out of the cow yet! The
milking machines along with a
milk cooling and storage tank
comes to about $218,655! Of
course, not everyone decides to
build a 400 cow dairy every day.
buta grand total of $1,631,029 can
empty a farmer’s pocket mighty
quickly.
Once a farmer has a bam, silos,
and machinery in order, there still
remains a problem of waste dis
posal. Phosphorus, a natural ele
Always an ally of the farmer, Lancaster County Dairy Princess Amy Espenshade
shares her thoughts on the struggles and successes farmers tece. Tonight she will
crown a new princess at the Lancaster Farm and Home Center.
Attention Central PA Farmers
Broiler
and
Hog
Finishing
contracts
available
for new houses
Northeast Agri Systems. Inc
RywovßuHnwiPafk
199AWMT AJrpOCtßoOd
UMIM 17543
BWWP Ph (717)569-2702
■fifiillfil 1-800-673-2580
ment happens to be found in
livestock manure. You wouldn’t
think such a simple substance
could cause so much controversy,
but it has. You see, phosphorous
flows along with eroded soil and
finds its way into bodies of surface
water such as lakes and streams
where it becomes highly toxic to
fish and other aquatic life. In
recent years the Surface Water
Improvement Act (SWIM) and the
Coastal Zone Management Act
have been harassing farmers to
limit the amount of nitrogen,
another byproduct in animal
waste, they spread on fields as fer-
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tilizcr. Now that fanners have
modified their farms to meet these
standards. SWIM and the Coastal
Act move in with even tougher
restrictions on phosphorous. To
comply with these reguations,
average sized dairy farms with
approximately 70 cows, will need
to spend between $73,000 and
$123,000 to limit erosion and
build larger capacity manure stor
age tanks. The average farmer just
doesn’t have that kind of money.
I haven’t even mentioned natur
al disasters, the lack of interest in
the younger generation, hard
(Turn to Page BIS)
For more information
call
1 -800-673-2580
ask for Jay Kreider