Page 8-Foraglng Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 7, 1998
Erie County Dairy Is Rooted In Orchardgrass
(Continued from Page 1)
ond cutting is ready so much quicker.
If you let it go too long, it matures
quick. If you wait until June to mow,
you might as well wait until July. The
quality is gone,’* he emphasized.
Because spring often means lots of
rain, Heintz tries to take advantage of
all the good drying days he can.
“I mow in the rain sometimes when
I know that it’s going to get nice. The
water will be shooting right out of the
mower, but I’ll have hay ready to
dry,” said Heintz. “Sometimes you’ll
get caught, but if you don’t get it cut,
you’ll get caught too.”
What do you do if there is a wet
hole in the field?” You mow around it,
said Heintz.
“You can catch the spot that didn’t
get mowed the next time,’’ said
Heintz. “What is left in the field is
really a small percentage of the whole
crop.”
Heintz’s jump-start on haying does
more than provide him with enough
forage to feed his 20-cow herd. It also
gives him average protein levels of 18
to 25 percent in his haylage.
To get the best results, Heintz says
you also have to feed the grass. Over
the course of a five-cutting summer,
he applies 150 pounds of actual nitro
gen to the crop.
“It responds well to the nitrogen.
We can control the protein content of
the grass by both maturity and ferti
lizer,” he said.
As a rule of thumb, Heintz esti
mates that about one acre of orchard
grass will provide the forage for one
cow for one year. To be on the safe
side, Heintz jumps that figure to 1.25
acres per cow per year.
Besides haylage and dry hay, he
also feeds high moisture com to his
herd and a purchased concentrate bal
ances out his total mixed ration.
His herd average rolls at 19,000
pounds of milk, but he’s working to
get that figure closer to 20,000 pounds
of milk.
One problem he frequently finds is
that many feeding programs are based
on legume forages.
“Grass does have a problem. It has a
high NDF. We don’t have a lot of ex
perience feeding this. Nobody really
knows much about it. There’s hardly
any woik done on feeding these high
quality grasses,” he said.
He’d like to see more research con
ducted on feeding high quality grasses
to lactating daily cows. On the all
grass program Heintz said he is mak
ing more money, but he’s not making
as much milk per cow.
“My goal is to get my milk produc
tion back by figuring out how to feed
these cows right.” he said.
As for intensive grazing, Heintz
notes that not all farmers could man
age that program.
“Grazing really takes good manage
ment.” said Heintz. “There are farms
here that could work with grazing, but
those are limited. What I’m doing
could fit anyone’s schedule.”
Little things are important when it
comes to managing his grasses, too.
“The biggest thing with orchard
grass is the harvesting schedule. You
have to knock it down. Everything
else is simple,” he said.
After his mid-May initial cutting,
Heintz noted that you have only three
weeks before the mower needs to be in
the field once again.
“If I cut the 2Sth of May, the or
chardgrass is ready to go on June
This orchardgrass stand is managed for high quality forage, Helntz noted.
15th,” he said.
About mid-July it’s time to once
again pull your mower to the fields to
take the third cutting off.
In a typical summer, a dormancy
period usually follows where the grass
slows its growth. Again, Heintz is
careful to watch the weather patterns.
If if is going to rain, he spreads some
more nitrogen on the fields and pre
pares to harvest a fourth and possibly
fifth cutting.
Heintz usually puts the first two
cutting in the silo and harvests the
third and fourth as diy hay and puts his
fifth cutting either in the silo or up as
baled hay.
The Heintz farm has been in total
grass for about seven years including
some ryegrass and reed canary grass.
Before that time he tried the more con
ventional forages, including timothy,
clover, and alfalfa.
“The legumes can’t compete with
the grass,” said Heintz. “We can plant
alfalfa and get a couple of cuttings the
first year and by the second year
we’ve lost half of it and the next year
it’s all gone. In March, the alfalfa
roots are thrown right up out of the
ground.”
Also you can’t cut a legume too ear
ly or it will stress the plant
“With grass, you can’t hurt it,” said
Heintz.
He finds that relying on grass is a
win-win situation for everyone. Man
ure supplies all the potash and phos
phorous that the grass needs, so the
only fertilizer he needs is the nitrogen.
He has also found that his crop rota
tion is a bit askew.
“Because of the persistence of the
orchardgrass, I don’t have a com rota
tion anymore. I have to plow down
good hay ground. It’s a win-win situa
tion. It just keeps going for you.”
Last year Heintz notified some or
chardgrass in sod that had been killed
with Roundup. “I used a grain drill
and bad a very good establishment,”
he said.
Heintz’s different approach to feed
ing his herd of cows has grown out of
his own experiences.
After receiving his degree in poul
try husbandry from the California
Poly Technical Institute, he did a
three-year stint in the Peace Corps in
the Republic of the Congo (formerly
Zaire) where he taught vocational
agriculture. His wife, Judy, also
served in the Peace Corps in the Re
public of the Congo.
He and his wife and their two chil
dren George, who is attending col
lege and Jill, who is employed off the
farm settled in Erie because that’s
the area that George grew up in.
He began dairying largely because
that was the agriculture that was
around him.
“When you’re in the Peace Corps,
you do what is around you. You don’t
come in to an area and change every
thing. There are no chickens here, so
you dairy.”
The profession must have agreed
with him because he has been working
at it for 20 years. “We don’t make a lot
of money, but we have a lot of fun,” he
said.
As the spokesperson for the Penn
sylvania Forage and Grassland Coun
cil, Heintz has had the opportunity to
address fellow farmers at various
PFGC Schedules
GRANTVILLE (Dauphin Co.)
The PFGC has set the evening of
March 4, during the Pennsylvania
Grazing & Forage Conference for its
annual meeting and awards reception
here at the Holiday Inn.
This year we are planning an eve
ning reception with hors d’oeuvres
and time to talk and mingle with
Van To AFGC Conference
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.)
The PFGC board has rented a van
to take members to the national meet
ing of the American Forage and
Grassland Council in Indianapolis on
March 8 - 10.
The AFGC Conference includes
And Awards
events. Recently he traveled to
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania to
participate in the Northeasdt Quality
Forages Conference.
With fanning and public speaking
experience under his belt, Heintz will
next be off to the National Forage and
Grassland Council Annual Meeting
where he will represent Pennsylvania
and compete for the national spokes
person title. The meeting is scheduled
for early March in Indianapolis, Ind.
Quick to point out that he is always
learning something new, Heintz noted
that he is open to questions or com
ments from fellow dairymen and any
one interested in growing high quality
grasses and feeding them to lactating
dairy cows.
I’m looking to leant all I can, and
I’m willing to share all that I know,”
said Heintz.
He can be contacted at (814)
438-246 S or you can write to him at
9009 Concord Rd., Union City, PA
16438.
Annual Meeting
Reception
others before a brief PFGC meeting
and the presentation of this year’s
PFGC awards.
You can register for the awards re
ception when you register for the
Grazing Conference. Note that it is not
required that you attend the Grazing
Conference to attend the evening re
ception.
“how to” presentations by torage
growers, presentations of current re
search findings, and farm tour.
If you are interested in taking the
PFGC van to Indianapolis, call Mar
vin Hall at (814) 863-1019 to reserve a
seat.
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