CG-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 13, 1996 C.B. Hoober & Son Promotes Four INTERCOURSE (Lancaster Co.) C.B. Hoober & Son, Inc. recently announced the following promotions at its Intercourse and McAlisterville locations: Calvin R. Eby, assistant service manager for the combine/machine shop at Intercourse; Bradley A. Hershey, warranty manager at Intercourse; Robert J. Ratvasky, service mana ger for the combine/machine shop at McAlisterville; and Larry D. Kirkland, sales manager at Intercourse. Eby, a graduate of Lancaster Mennonite High School, resides in Lancaster. He joined Hoobcrs in 1993 as a shipping and receiv ing cleric. In his new duties, Eby will be responsible for completing shop bills and warranty requests and assisting the service manager with the management of the combine/machine shop. Hershey was first employed by Hoobcrs as a stock order clerk in the shipping and receiving depart ment in 1992-1993. He rejoined Hoobcrs in 1994 as a service clerk in the parts department A gradu ate of Lancaster Mennonite High School, Hershey will be responsi ble for assisting servicemen with the retrieval of parts and ensuring that warranty requests are com pleted ir. a timely fashion. Ratvasky is a graduate of Wil mington Area High School and furthered his education at Penn State, where he received a bache lor’s degree in agricultural mecha nization. Ratvasky joined Hoobers as an assistant service manager for the combine/machine shop at Intercourse in 1990. A resident of Cocolamus, Ratvasky will use his extensive experience with yield monitoring systems and uptime service programs to manage the combine/machine shop at McAlisterville. Kirkland will use his 25 years of sales and marketing manage ment experience to oversee the sales operations for all three Increase Profits, Decrease Costs With System MADISON, Wis.—lt is becom ing more and more apparent that succeeding at dairy farming in the future requires producers to deve lop better management skills. Though this can take many forms, one of the best ways is with the new Bou-Matic Pro Vantage™ Integrated Management System, according to Ron Curran, product manager. “With the Pro Vantage system, operators now have access to vast amounts of information. They can track the amount of milk each cow is producing at each milking; mea sure milk conductivity; evaluate herd health trends, the effects of feed and environmental changes; and calculate profit over feed cost to spot unprofitable cows,” Curran said. Dubbed the “Five Levels of Pro Vantage,” he explains that each level represents a different management strategy. As the pro ducer ascends through the levels, the amount of automation increases, as well as the amount of information the operator can get Calvin R. Eby Hoober locations. A native of Lebanon, Ky., Kirkland spent IS years in die sales and marketing of International Harvester equip ment Later he served as national sales manager for the Steiger Tractor Company, and as vice president of sales for Grumman Newtown Square Farmer Overcomes NEWTOWN SQUARE (Delaware Co.) “Farming in southeastern Pennsylvania is a lot more challenging than farming in many areas of die country,” said Rick Schlos berg, who farms nearly 2,000 acres surrounding Newtown Square. “I’ve fanned here on my own for IS years and sur vived because I had to be progressive in thinking, meti culous in practice, and always trying new and better ways to get things done.” Some of those challenges come from the land itself erosion, rocks, weeds. Others arise from the population land prices, taxes, traffic, fears of crop protection chem icals, damaging deer popula tions. Like other southeastern Pennsylvania farmers, Schlosberg has fought to overcome these challenges. Here’s how. “Most of the ground around here is classified as highly erodible. If fanners want to stay in the program, whatever that is right now, they must maintain residue levels,” Schlosberg said. “What easier way is there than no-dll?” Schlosberg began no-tilling in 1981 to reduce labor inputs in his one-man operation. Additional benefits soon fol lowed. With less tillage, he found that he pulled fewer rocks up to tire soil surface, leaving them too deep to dam age equipment or slow down fieldwork. Soil quality improved. Erosion lessened. He reports that no-till yields remain equal with con ventional fields in normal years, and even higher in dry years. According to Schlosberg, no-till requires more intensive management than conven tional tilalge. “You have to be willing to work with no-till and at no-till Larry D. Kirkland Olson, a truck manufacturer. Most recently he served as general man ager for a Case Power & Equip ment store in the Dallas/Ford Worth, Texas area. Kirkland is a graduate of Western Kentucky University with a degree in business. until you get it tight Many farmers don’t no-till don’t no dll because of bud first-year experiences.” he said. Selection of seed and herbi cide inputs are critical. Schlosberg exclusively uses Pioneer com hybrids, but not only the most “popular” num bers. Nearly SO percent of his com acres are second-year com fields, which affects his hybrid selection. “I tend to use a short season com variety on what or soybean fields, maybe a Pion eer 3S2S or 3394,” Schlosberg said. “It seems that the longer season varieties Pioneer 3346 or 3217 have better disease resistance to grey leafspot, which is a greater problem in my com-on-com.” Weed control is a matter of timely scouting and proper selection. He scouts his field regularly during the season, at least twice prior to post herbi cide applications and once more before harvest He car ries an Infielder computer in his combine to record weed escapes. Schlosbeig said he makes next season’s herbicide deci sions from the combine dur ing harvest. “For example, I had always been a big Bicep* user in com, but began seeing fre quent mid-season escapes of giant foxtail. Even spiking the Bicep with extra Dual* didn’t work,” Schlosberg said. “I rent 100 percent of my land. These weed escapes weren’t acceptable to me or my landlords. “So in 1995,1 tried Harness* Xtra herbicide on 90 percent of my acres. And, I’ll be doing it again this season.” Scouting allowed Schlos berg to identify giant foxtail, fall panicum, and triazine resistant lambsquarters Round Baler Makes Four-Foot Bales NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster Co.) The new New Holland Model 634 round baler forms dense 4x4-foot 650-pound bales in dry hay. A 40 HP tractor is ample power for die new machine, said New Holland product management The Model 634 is a compact unit that shares features of huger New Holland round balers, according to the company. The pickup has closely spaced curved tines and is nearly a foot wider than the bale chamber to gather short, fine materials, even in bunchy windrows. The additional pickup width crowds materials into the sides of the bale chamber for tight firmer bale ends. The new “634” forms bales by a combination of rolls and heavy duty 3-ply belts that minimize leaf loss. In operation, most of the bale weight is carried by the floor roll. Pivoting front rolls provide a large core-forming area for quicker core formation even in short dry slip- escapes through the Bicep. Knowing the specific weeds and pressure spots, he could then identify a different herbi cide that would provide the control he needed. “With Harness Xtra, I had excellent long-season control of grasses and triazine resistant broadleaves,” said Schlosberg. “I saw no escape at all for the first time in six years.” In addition, by accurately identifying and reacting to the problems, he saved money because he didn’t have to spike the new product with added chemical or come back with resprays. The suburban sprawl from Philadelphia poses unique problems. Something as simple as moving equipment from field to field or taking grain into the elevator can mean major delays if required during rush hours. To deal with congestion, Schlosberg owns a Peterbilt tractor-trailer in which he can haul 1,000 bushels of com per load. During the height of harvest, Schlosberg hires a second tractor-trailer to reduce the amount of time spent on congested roads. “The traffic will actually influence my decisions as far as moving equipment,” he said. “If I finish up at one farm at 4:30 p.m. or S p.m„ we may. just take a two-hour break or wait until morning.” Increased urban population brings with it a fear of crop protection chemicals. It is common today for farm leases in the area to include chemical use clauses. “Most of what the non farm community sees about crop protection chemicals, or ‘pesticides,’ is coming from a negative bias to start with,” Schlosberg said. “That nega tive bias can make things mis- The new New Holland Mod el 634 round baler forms 4x4-foot, 650 pound bales. It requires a 40 HP tractor. The new baler shares design fea tures of larger machines. Bales are formed by a combi nation of roils and heavy duty belts to minimize leaf loss. pery materials. Pressure increases as the bale forms to increase bale density. The electric twine system applies two strands of twine at the same time to minimize wrapping time. Challenges erable for farmers.” A severe side-effect of the suburban sprawl is increased deer populations. Hunting in the area has decreased due to liability concerns and lack of interest among urban resi dents. This can mean real problems for farmers, going so far as to restrict crop rota tion options. “Even on my farms where deer are not a major problem, I will still lose five to 10 per cent of my soybean yields to deer,” Schlosberg said. “I can’t even grow soybeans on half of my farms.” Thus, Schlosberg is forced to farm com-on-com, increas ing weed and disease pressure and reducing yield potential. As more people move out of the city, land values and taxes increase, making it increasingly difficult for new farmers to own their own land. “I would love to own 2,000 acres of land, don’t get me wrong. But for now, renting is my best option,” Schlosberg said. “My rent is reasonable now, and I don’t have to wor ry with land taxes.” Schlosberg lives on one of the farms he rents in New town Square with his wife, Alicia, and their 16-mont old son. Sam. Would he like to nass the farm down to Sam someday? “I would love to.” he said. ‘But by the time he’s old mought to do any farming, it will be amazing if there is any farm ground left in this area. “I’ve learned to overcome iie challenges of farming in in urban setting,” he said. “It will serve me well even if we lave to buy some ground iomewhcrc else someday. I {till want to farm, even if it’s 101 in southeastern Pennsylvania.”
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