Page 4-Com Talk,. Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 7, 1998
Soil. Organic Contents High
On Chester County Corn
(Condnuwl from Pago 2)
crop is rotated to soybeans.
For many of his Chester
County fields, there was also
some shattercane, but below
economic threshold levels.
Most growers saw their sea
son saved by a mid-July rain
storm, which provided wel
come relief from a persistent
drought most of the summer.
“That was a million-dollar rain,
with some additional numbers
in front of it,” Mitchell said.
The rain came at the time of
com pollination, saving the
com harvest season for lots of
growers.
Com in the Reinholds area
was helped along dramatically,
according to Mitchell, by a
3.5-inch rainfall on June 19.
Machine harvest was con
ducted late in October at a grain
moisture of 28 percent. Much
MHS Student Takes
Top Honors
In Corn-Growing Contest
HERS HEY (Dauphin Co.)
Milton Hershey School
(MHS) Student Solomon Mel
son received first place honors
in a corn-growing contest spon
sored by The Pennsylvania
Master Com Growers Associa
tion.
Solomon, a senior, yielded
the most com per acre in Dau
phin County, totaling 188.42
bushels. His yield ranked 10th
for the state of Pennsylvania.
Each contestant registered
five acres of com. During har
vest, judges observed and mea
sured the yield of each parcel.
Solomon, who competed
largely with professional farm
ers, maintained 10 MHS acres
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of the grain went to Lancaster
County mills.
Mitchell attributes the high
organic matter in the soil to the
use of high levels of a cover
crop that was tilled into the soil
as green manure. That was a
practice followed by Jeffs
father, Walter Mitchell, who
farmed in Chester County in the
early 1950 s until retirement
Walter was a “real believer
in cover crops,” and would
chew up the cover crops and
incorporate the “green man
ure,” adding more moisture
retention ability to the soil.
The award-winning plot,
once a pasture for a number of
years, gradually saw an
increase in organic matter,
essential for high com yields.
What is amazing, according
to Mitchell, is bow two similar
fields can yield different
of com as part of a summer in
ternship in the School's Agri
cultural and Environmental
Education Program. In addition
to caring for the field, Solomon
researched ways in which he
could produce optimal growth,
including pest management and
use of fertilizers.
Solomon will receive a
plaque for his efforts.
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results.
Mitchell pointed out, accord
ing to the lab soil test, how field
7 compares to the award
winning field 2. Field 7 has
similar readings, except for the
oiganic content. And that field
only yielded 90 bushels per
acre, compared to 206 for the
winning plot.
A challenge Mitchell faces is
taking the “red clay” soils of
northeastern Lancaster County,
that can often turn bardpan eas
ily in a hot, dry summer, and
make them top producers.
The key is to continue to use
cover crops and building the
soil’s organic matter content,
which goes a long way toward
water absorption. Using no-till
on the red clay soils is a chal
lenge, also —Mitchell believes
that they turn easily to hardpan
and may require some tillage to
break them up to allow mois
ture penetration and avoid
runoff.
On the red clay soils of Rein
holds, Mitchell harvests an
average of 158 bushels per acre
of com.
“I was pleased with the
yield,” said Mitchell. He plans
to use chicken manure and cov
er crops in the rotation to raise
the production level of the com
crops. He also uses a lot of dif
ferent com varieties with var
ying maturity dates to spread
the risk during unpredictable
growing years.
Increasingly, Mitchell is
slowly watching challenges for
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So Are Yields
Grower’s Farm
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Susie Mitchell and son Matt Inspect the steers at the
Reinholds home farm.
growing good crops in Chester
County slip away. A great deal
of prime farmland has been lost
to development.
Now, he is content to meet
the same challenges of farming
in northeastern Lancaster
County.
Of note is the attention to
detail he has noticed growers
use on reading the results of the
S-Acre Com Club contest, of
which the results are included
in this issue of Com Talk.
“Some growers take it very
seriously,” he noted. “I look at
it and leam some things.”
Mitchell pointed out one inter
esting item the trips across
the field.
Some growers had six.
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seven, even eight trips across
the field. With even a few trips,
Mitchell worries about com
paction. and uses deep tillage
equipment. He noted one chart
which indicated a couple of
growers took 14 trips across the
field.
“What can they possibly be
doing, taking 14 trips across the
field?” Mitchell said with a
laugh.
Jeff farms with his wife
Susie, a registered nurse who
left the profession to care full
time for their son. Matt, 3. A
son, Ben, 13, helps Jeff main
tain the fields in Chester Coun
ty. A daughter, Becky, 17, is a
junior at Downingtown High
School.
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