Part 1 Of A Series Editor’s Note: Farmers are running out of patience. Every day without a Pennsylvania Bottle Bill means another day of picking up hazardous trash in the field, watching cows die from consuming the trash dumped on the acres farmers need to make Beer caqs are a real culprit They can destroy knives on the forage harvesters . Like pieces of glass, they cut tires. Pieces of aluminum cans end up in the feed, killing cattle . their living, and worrying how much destruction of their equip ment they can afford. Part one of the Bottle Bill Series will look at the frustra tions farmers have faced while lobbying for the statewide pas sage of a Bottle Bill. The bill is under consideration by the state legislature to place a deposit on aluminum and glass containers *— the same containers that end up in fields, destroying equip ment and livestock. ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff (Berks Co.) Dairyman Roland Feeg reaches down to pick up an old fruit juice He remembers a 4-year-old pregnant cow, Pam, milking 29,000 pounds, one of his * best producers. One day, he turned his head to look at her. She coughed, fell to the ' ground, and died in seconds. bottle covered with dirt, filled with some rain water, lying in the grass. “I wish it would bounce back and hit them,” he said, as he motions with the bottle to the cars that pass by his farm, often throw ing trash directly into his hay field along Rt. 419 north of Womelsdorf. Sharp edges of the smashed bottle could have ended up in the forage if Feeg didn’t take precious time away from work to pick it up. Beer cans are a real culprit They can destroy knives on the for age harvesters. Like pieces of glass, they cut tires. Pieces of alu minum cans end up in the feed, killing cattle. Chester County dairy farmer Tim Barlow knows what it is like to lose cattle to trash in the forage. He remembers a 4-year-old pre gnant cow. Pam, milking 29,000 pounds, one of his best producers. One day, he turned his head to look at her. She coughed, fell to the ground, and died in seconds. “That was a $2,000 cow,” he said. “Now it’s gone.” Cause of death? Pam had no health problems. She was a healthy cow. Barlow strongly suspects it On average , Barlow estimates that two cows per year come down with some mys- diseases that are almost impossible was a sharp piece of aluminum from a can. “Our society has become such a throwaway society,” said Ronald Kopp, who operates a 100-milking-cow, 800-acre dairy with his brother Jay and family near Middletown. “(Our society doesn’t) want to take responsibili ty to dispose of any of our litter.” Kopp said one day he was work ing in the field and saw a pickup truck coming down the road. A man was leaning out of the passen ger side window. Kopp saw an arm dangling out the window and a bottle went flying—the passenger was trying to hit a road sign as he rode by. A lot of underage drinkers also drive the miles of road frontage and have to get rid of the “evi dence.” Kopp noted. He’s seen whole cases of beer dropped out of die window and land on his field. “It seems like weekends are our biggest time for litter. People are out partying and probably a lot of that is underage drinking.” The day before, Kopp said he found “cans, not even bottles, not even open yet, lying alongside the road ... beer, mostly.” George Moyer, who helps man age Mor-Dale Farms in Myer stown, has spent many weekends walking along road frontage, pick ing up can and bottle trash that could wreak havoc with his farm equipment and end up in the forage. He has been waiting patiently, along with thousands of fanners, while state legislators are consid ering the passage of House Bill 922. The bill would mandate a minimum S cent deposit on glass and aluminum containers, which the state General Assembly finds “are a major source of litter and solid waste within this Common wealth and a direct threat to the health and safety of the citizens of Pennsylvania.” as outlined in the bill. ‘There are absolutely no legisla tors that would get up early on a Sunday or Monday morning and pick up cans or bottles in their yard before they go to work,” said Moy er. “Many (legislators) are well-to do, secluded, off the road.” Moyer, like many farmers who have been lobbying along with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau to push passage of the bill, are showing obvious signs of frustration. They are fed up with taking valuable time away from chores and mark eting their product to pick up other people’s trash. They are out of patience. Ronald Kopp, Middletown dairy farmer, said. “Bottles are the culprits of a lot of cut tires on our farm machinery.” He held up a sharp piece of a brown beer bottle that could slice through a tractor tire, resulting in a repair job costing between SSO-$lOO, he said. It costs $BOO to replace a tractor tire. Tim Barlow, a dairy farmer in Cochranville, has found slivers of bottle and other can trash in the forage. He cuts hay at his farm, which has a couple miles of fron *There are absolutely no legislators that would get up early on a Sunday or Monday morning and pick up cans or bottles in their yard before they go to work,* tags along Rts. 10 and 896 near Cochranville. He operates another farm with frontage along Bald more Pike. His wife, Phyllis, held up the bottom of a heavy glass bottle found alongside the road. In mid- April this year, more than 30 far mers and members of the Pennsyl vania Farm Bureau helped Barlow Even though die harvester is pick up trash along some of the equipped with magnets that can frontage. In 10 minutes of work, a capture iron and steel the magnets SS-gallon container was filled with have no effect on aluminum. The hroh. alumitpn skndy oasses into the Tun Barlow has found caser oF feed, undetecte3£lna consumed by beer, emptied, lying on the fields, livestock. Barlow knows what it costs Barlow, Moyer, and Kopp all when a tire runs over the sharp wonder are some of the mystcri- George Moyer, who helpe menage Mor-Dale Farms in Myerstown, hat spent many weekends walking along road frontage, picking up trash th«t could wreak havoc with his farm equipment and end up In the forage. glass or aluminum. A shredded ous illnesses they see in cattle attri back tire costs $5OO-$6OO to butable to trash in the field? It is replace. If repairable, the tire costs possible to find out. Autopsies of between $lOO-SISO, in addition to dead cattle are expensive and are ‘Our society has become such a throwa way society,* downtime. A flat front tire can run from $BO-$9O a piece. A forage chopper knife was bro ken by a can in the field, costing $lOO to repair, Barlow said. At a press conference early this year at his Middletown farm, Ronald Kopp also pointed out a dire threat to the livestock pieces of aluminum cans. Cans which are thrown haphazardly into hay fields get caught up in forage harvesters, and shredded, mixing with feed. Kopp showed those who attended the conference pieces of the shredded cans that have ended up in the feed bunk. It’s hard to put a dollar estimate on the kind of financial losses as a result of cows eating the litter contaminated forage. Kopp admit ted. But it could run easily into thousands of dollars. only performed, according to Kopp, when a chronic health prob lem is suspected. Barlow said it costs $7O for a cow autopsy. But what about a few downed animals that die of mysterious causes? Kopp said, “I have to won der —is some of (the trash) getting into (cows’) stomachs and cutting holes in their stomachs and caus ing complications?” Barlow also wonders whether some of the sore feet on cows, such as hoof cracks and whatnot, could be caused by stepping on broken glass and cans in fields. Like Moyer (whose son Ralph won a Dairy of Distinction Honor TlmJMHow.ad ties and cam In hi ken base of a b Dairyman Roe fruit juice bottli water, lying IntM ting cleaning
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers