PFB Selects Finalists For Young Farmer, Rancher Award (Continued from Pago A 1) portable mixer and begun forage testing. Extra bunk space has also been added and improvements made in bam ventilation. Other changes on the farm include a new high moisture com silo, a second 1,250-gallon milk tank, a 96-foot by 44-foot addition to the firee-stall bam, and an office and a calf-bucket wash room were built adjacent to the milk house. They also purchased a new forage wagon and manure spreader. The new office contains a PFA FACCTS computer for bookkeep ing and a microwave oven for for age testing. The PFA FACCTS computer is a business service available to PFB members. Animal Housing Expo ifli November 18 & 19,1997 Lebanon Fairgrounds AZAMS' mzki 3 •TMR Mixers ' Jljfifct Cedar Crest Equipment fICUr Two Convenient Locations A second farm with 152 acres has been purchased and provides an extra silo and buildings for equipment storage and a place to raise heifers. The partnership holds regular planning meetings and uses two way radios for on-farm communications. Diamond has been active in his community, as well. He was instrumental in convinc ing the Fayette County commis sioners to start a farmland preser vation program, and he is chair man of the county agricultural land preservation board. The board anticipates it will soon have concluded its first purchase of development rights. Myron Bonzo family '■> '? - w , V «r * "’A i * > * > : - v > 'i i-'.fetf;: '■ ? t■" a > f Further, Diamond is a local affairs director for the county Farm Bureau. In the past, he headed up a local Operation Haylift to help drought-stricken farmers in the South. He is a Sunday School teacher and licensed minister. Together with his wife Gail who is an elementary school music teacher they help operate a per forming arts church camp each summer. They are the parents of three children. Patrick Greaser Finalist Patrick Greaser oper ates Franklin Nursery, a wholesale/retail landscape nursery with 185 acres of plants, ranging from die smallest seedlings to large shade trees. He also sells mulch products and operates a hydro-seeding operation. The nursery employs 25-30 col lege students during the summer. In the 11 years that he has oper ated the nursery, he built a 64-foot by 104-foot shipping and receiving building, and two maintenance sheds for customizing equipment for nursery work. They also installed a driveway, an irrigation system that supplies 1 million gallons of water every three months, and an asphalted area for mulch preparation. He has purchased a 100-acre farm in Beaver County for grow ing trees, and he owns another 85-acre farm with his father. As the nursery business grew. Greaser began a hydro-seeding operation for parks and highways. That end of the business started with one tractor and one flat-bed truck and grew to where he now requires 14 pieces of equipment for the mowing, cultivation and loading of plant and mulch pro ducts, as well as a fleet of seven z' v. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 8, 1997-A2S multi-purpose trucks. He has customized a lot of the equipment used at the nursery, and by designing his own tree planters, he increased efficiency significantly. He went from havitig a crew of five men using a one-row tree planter to plant at a rate of 100 trees per day, to his current three man crew able to plant at a rate of 250 trees per hour. Assuming that the rate of 100 trees per day is based on an 8-hour day. he went from 12.5 trees per hour to 250. In terms of a day’s work, that is 100 per day to 2,000 per day. Myron Bonzo is a fourth- Not only that, but with a generation dairy farmer. He milks variable-width two-row planter, he (Turn to Pag* A2O) » s RD 2 Box 271, East Earl, PA 17519 (717) 354-0584 A Louis Diamond family has been able to plant 1,000 trees per hour with a five-man crew. Greaser attended the PFB Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference earlier this year and spoke about his experi ences there at a county farm bureau meeting. He is also involved in communi ty events. He heldped install a football field and last year donated trees for a local football team. He also participates in the town ship’s community days event and has donated trees and shrubs for the township park. Myron Bonzo