VI Uw/lv Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council
W FOR AGING AROUNdW
‘lndustry, Farmer, Scientist Working Together Toward A Sounder Grassland Program 9
Producer:
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
GERMANS VILLE (Lehigh Co.)
Great baleage starts with getting hay
bales off the field and wrapping them
at appropriate moisture levels as soon
as possible, according to a large-scale
hay producer.
David Fink, owner of Heidel Hol
low Farm in Germansville, often goes
to great lengths to ensure bale quality
and consistency factors vital to
marketing any agricultural product,
especially haylage, crucial to many
feed suppliers and users.
Fink recently spoke to Lancaster
Farming about some of the new tech
niques he uses on his farm to manage
and bale hay.
Fink has been a member of the Pen
nsylvania Forage and Grasslands
Council for more than 20 years. He is a
1973 graduate of Delaware Valley
College in animal husbandry.
Fink, who also serves on the Interna
tional Market Development Commit-
Waste Water
Growing
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
BELLEVILLE (Mifflin Co.)
Participants at a rotational pasture
management field day learned about a
win-win situation at Plum Bottom
Farm near Belleville and momentarily
forgot about low milk prices and less
than optimal com yields.
The event featured long-term sus
tainable pasture production in an
intensive grazing system and was
sponsored by the Pennsylvania Asso
ciation for Sustainable Agriculture
(PASA), Fairmont Foods, Mifflin
County Cooperative Extension, the
Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland
Council, Golden and Associates and
Plum Bottom Farm, an Ayrshire farm
owned by John Rodgers.
The win-win situation? Irrigating
pastures with biologically-friendly
waste water, or sludge, from Fairmont
Foods, a nearby food processing plant.
“The challenge for Fairmont Foods
is how to dispose of its manufacturing
by-products. The challenge for far
mers is how to provide extrra water to
Pennsylvania Forage & Grassland Council
Rich In Com-
Nutrients
Newsletter Section Nov. 1,1997
Get Hay Off
tee for the National Hay Association,
manages 900 acres, all tillable, on the
Lehigh Valley farm. Of the 900, 600
acres are in hay, including some alfal
fa, mixed hay, and timothy.
Each year, Fink noted, the farm can
achieve about three cuttings of mixed
hay and about four cuttings of alfalfa.
Per year, Heidel Hollow harvests
1,900 acres of hay.
Although Fink makes use of several
brands of alfalfa seed, 40 percent of
what he plants is Dekalb. New this year
to the farm is about 30 acres of oatlage
interseeded with alfalfa.
After about five years, Fink noted
that alfalfa fields arc rotated into
Roundup Ready soybeans, double
cropped. The remaining 200 acres are
in com, all of which is fed to the hens.
Heidel Hollow is home to 20,000
hens, producing about five million
eggs per year. Those table eggs are
packaged on site and are marketed
directly to area stores and restaurants.
(Turn to Pago 2)
crops when liquid from the sky is lim
ited,” said Dave Filson, Miffliin
County’s extension director, as he
addressed the crowd. “These chal
lenges become opportunities when
environmentally sound waste water
becomes a nutrient utilized by plants
for growth.”
Filson said the same opportunity
exists with other food manufacturers.
For example, farmers can work potato
peels from a Mifflin County potato
chip manufacturer into soil deficient
in organic matter. The fully organic,
nontoxic potato by-product can help
build the tilth of the soil, once again
providing an opportunity for both the
manufacturer and land owner.
But the system needs one more
ingredient to make it work good
management. Can the manufacturer
generate the by-product on a regular
basis? What if it rains continuously for
a period of time? What about tire com
paction on pastures? Will the farmer
know the analysis per load? Will the
(Turn to Pag* 5)
Field, Wrapped Quickly
David Fink, owner of Heldel Hollow Farm in Germansville, often
goes to great lengths to ensure bale quality and consistency—fac
tors vital to marketing any agricultural product, especially haylage,
crucial to many feed suppliers and users. Fink has been a member of
the Pennsylvania Forage and Grasslands Council for more than 20
years.
Irish Scientist To Speak
At Grazing Conference
GRANTVILLE (Dauphin Co.) Ireland, will be the keynote speaker at
Sinclair Mayne, a scientist at the Agri- the Pennsylvania Grazing Conference
cultural Research Institute of Northern at the Grantvillc Holiday Inn, March
(Turn to Pag* 6)
Friday, Nommulht 14
Preserving Crop Biodiversity and Sav
ing Seeds in the Northeast, Toftrces
Resort and Conference Center,
S;ilurcl;i\, ,|:inu;ir\ 10
Pennsylvania State Farm Show, Farm
Show Complex, Harrisburg, thru
* Farm Calendar ❖
thru Feb. 7., contact PASA, (814)
349-9856.
Wednesday March 4
Pennsylvania Grazing and Forage
Conference, Grantville Holiday
Inn, Grantville, thru March 5.
PFGC Annual Meeting and Awards
d ' G
ference, Indianapolis, Ind., thru
March 10.