Waste Water Rich
(Continued from Page 1)
driver spray the right field?
With good communication and a
“Plan", farmers and processing plants
both can win. In this situation, Fair
mont Foods in Belleville does produce
sludge on a regular basis. To prevent
hydrologic loading, or excess water on
the soil for an extended period of time,
Rodgers allows Fairmont to store
sludge in his liquid manure tanks at
Plum Bottom.
Fairmount Foods buys raw milk
from 183 dairy farmers 100 in Mif
flin County, 65 in Huntingdon Coun
ty, and 18 in western Centre County.
The Belleville plant makes ice cream
mix, cottage cheese, French onion dip,
sour cream and other daily products.
After creating these dairy delights,
Fairmont scrubs down the equipment.
11l
jfc.
Sonny Golden, a nutritionist at
Golden and Associates In Sus
quehanna County, talks about
seeing pastures as a multiple
source of nutrients for animals.
The clearest water goes to the Water
Authority. Hog farmers pick up the
whey. What’s left is sludge - a water
and sediment mixture.
“We needed an outlet for the
sludge,” said Susan Geringer, plant
manager at Fairmont Foods. “It’s nice
that the farmers who produce the raw
milk can benefit from the sludge."
As for nutrients, Geringer said the
sludge is high in phosphorus, has
medium levels of potassium, low
levels of nitrogen, and is neutral (pH
of 7.4). Yes it has minute amounts of
detergent detergent that is distilled,
regulated, and neutralized.
Rodgers spreads approximately one
to three loads of sludge a year or a rate
from the truck of 15,000 gallons per
acre. In practical terms, that’s about a
half inch of rain. The sludge truck fol
lows Rodgers’ Ayrshire herd through
the rotation as the cattle are moved
out of a pasture, the truck pulls in. The
cattle enter that same pasture five
weeks later.
In one pasture, John Rodgers
seeded the European legume
bird’s-foot trefoil and timothy 40
years ago. Over time, the pasture mix
has slowly disappeared as bluegrass
has taken over. The 40-acre pasture, in
rotational grazing for the past five
years, has received minimal off-farm
inputs except for the sludge, and sup
ports 17 to 19 heifers at a time.
“The nice thing about rotational
Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 1, 1997—Page
\k
Penn State’s Forage Specialist Marvin Hall lei into the
pastures to see first-hand each pasture’s health and the various
«of iant species.
grazing,” said Rodgers, “is the tre
mendous contribution to feed and
there’s no cost in harvesting!”
In a field walk, Penn State Forage
Specialist Marvin Hall reveiwed each
of six rotational pastures. He dis
cussed the health of each pasture and
plant species such as white clover,
bluegrass, and bird’s-foot/timolhy
mix.
In the last pasture. Sonny Golden, a
grazing consultant and nutritionist
from Springville, Susquehanna Coun
ty, encouraged farmers to see pastures
as a multiple source of nutrients for
animal, including protein, fat, car
bohydrates, minerals and vitamins.
Golden said the nutritional make-up
of each pasture varies spring through
fall.
11,I 1 , THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL
20' Rear-Unload
Forage Box
15 Ton Gear
0% financin
And Spcciol Pricing
Until November 15.
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