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
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November 18 & 19,1997
Lebanon Fairgrounds
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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
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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)
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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