QUALITY USED EQUIPMENT FOR SALE • IH 584 Tractor >MF 520 12 ft. Disc Harrow > Century 200 Gal. 3 Pt. Sprayer • NH 791 Manure Spreader HARVESTING EOUIPMENI NH 900 Harvester W/919N3 3 Row Com Head & Hay Pickup NH 770 Harvester NH 890 Harvester Dion Forage Box on 10 Ton Gear NH 27 Blower NH 28 Blower There aren’t many things in life that are perfect. Except, of course, a New Holland Roll-Belt™ round bale. Come see the Model 654 round baler and you’ll understand why. The “654” consistently makes bales that have the density, capacity and quality appearance that you demand. And it’s loaded with features that will make your job easier. So stop by today and see why the “654” is a superior baler. • NH 499 Haybine w/New Rolls • NH 499 Haybine • (2) NH 492 Haybine • (2) NH 489 Haybines •NH4l2Discbine • JD 1219 Mower Conditioner • NH 256 Rake • JD 894 A Hay Rake • Zimmenpan I'A Ft. Hay Tedder • IH 430 tialer w/thrower • NH 310 Baler w/Thrower • Hesston 555 T Round Baler • JD 27 14 ft. Flail Chopper • Bush Hog 6’ Flail Mower Get perfect 4x6 bales every time DUANE E. PYSHER Grassland Management Specialist Natural Resources Conservation Service One of my Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) board members recently sent me a magazine article and he covered up the date. He told me to read it and then uncover the date. Except for a few references to pro duction levels of the cows, it would pass for an article that could be written today. I will try and provide you with a few quotes from the article and then you be the judge of the dateline on this story. The story, entitled “Can you outproduce this all-grass farm?” was written by Harry R. O’Brien about a dairy fanner by the name of Jim McGee. • “Jim McGee makes more milk on his 75-acre all-grass farm than most folks produce on 300. He spends his time raising high quality hay or taking care of the cows and he lets others fanners raise his grain and bedding.” • “Rotational grazing on fertilized grass-legume mixtures keeps produc tion high during the summer.” • “An upright silo stands empty ‘I quit making silage when my last hired man left to work in a factory, ’ McGee says.” • “McGee has developed a fanning system that uses a minimum amount of labor. He figures its the only way he could handle 75 animals on 75 acres and do all the work himself. An all grass operation cuts down on the in vestment in machinery and deprecia tion. But best of all, it leaves McGee with enough time to get the most out of his cows.” • “The profit above feed cost is so high he doesn’t want me to give the figures here. But I’ll say this much For All Your Round Bale Handling Needs See Binkley & Hurst With A Wide Selection Of Handling & Transport and Wrapping Equipment Ag Wrap Bale Wrapper Degelman Heavy Duty Dozer In Stock - Complete With Mounting For Case IH Maxxum Tractors jJJum Built For Excavating And Silage Pile Building. Call And Aak For Rick Todayl BiwaJEWNRST ,33R^ s c s o?r nd - m m BKOS.IMw- —' Lltltz, PA 17543-0395 Fax 717-626-0996 (717)626-47051-800-414-4705 SHSS&SS2- Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 11, 199&—Page 30 Foot Long Round Bale Transport Carrier Designed For All Size Round Bales, Check One Out Today at Binkley & Hurst it’s the highest I have come across in 35 years of farm reporting.” Does this sound like something you have just read in Lancaster Farming or some other popular farm publica tion? I think so. It speaks very highly of grass-based or a forage-based dairy operation and the reduction in feed costs that can come about from such a system. In fact, this is the same type of story you hear told at grazing confer ences, pasture walks, and the like. McGee typifies many modem-day dairy farmers who have turned to grasses and a forage-based system as a way of reducing feed costs to make and keep their dairy operation eco nomically viable in today’s agricultur al scene. However. McGee was doing this in 19SS and this story was printed in Better Farming in June 1955. So what happened in U.S. agricul ture that caused most fanners to do just the opposite of McGee and con fine their animals and bring the feed to them? The ability of the farmer to pur chase machinery to do what hired la bor was doing caused much of this. Just as McGee’s hired man went to work in a factory, so did many others. Labor costs were high after WWII and advances in farm mechanization were happening rapidly. Research in the maldng and use of stored feeds also helped pave the way for dairy producers to be able to better feed their herds and produce more milk. However, these things all come with a cost. McGee, in 1955, found those costs to be high, so he opted for a grass-based dairy operation to keep his operation economically viable. It is these same high feed costs that many of today’s dairy farmers are still facing. They are now realizing what McGee concluded more than 40 years ago. That conclusion was that adopt- (Turn to Pago 25) 193
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers