RANDY WELLS
Indiana Co. Correspondent
< DAYTON (Armstrong Co.)
Despite the relatively dry
•weather this summer in
Armstrong County, George
Rumbaugh was able to walk
into one of his com fields
near here on the first day of
September and gaze up at the
green stalks stretching well
above his head. The ears had
filled out nicely, too, he noted,
and he predicted his crop
would probably yield 80 or
more bushels per acre.
Rumbaugh probably
knows as much about grow
ing com as any farmer in his
tcounty and perhaps the state,
f He had not only been growing
Lcorn but studying it for years
nwhen he was asked in the
r early 1970 s to serve as the
h first president of the newly
formed Pennsylvania Master
Corn Growers Association
(PMCGA).
“George was a student of
corn. He not only grew it, but
30,000 Could Be Corn’s
Optimum Population Rate
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
PEACH BOTTOM (Lancas
ter Co.) —Producers often seek
In several planting demonstrations involving grain
and silage corn, the optimum population rate could be
30,000 seeds per acre. The best stands were planted
this year at that rate, according to Ed Herrmann, advis
er to the Solanco Young Farmer Association.
PMCGA’s First President A ‘Student of Corn ’
he watched it to see how it
reacted to weather and soil
conditions,” said Bill King a
retired Armstrong Penn
State Extension Service
Lush, alternating contour strips of corn and hay swirl across much of the
360-acre Rumbaugh farm in eastern Armstrong County.
that “optimum population
rate.” That rate is the amount of
com seeds to put down per acre
(Turn to Pago 6)
ORNIUK
NSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC.
k, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 10, 1998
agent.
Rumbaugh lives on the
Wayne Township, Armstrong
County farm his great-grand
father bought in 1857, and he
Another growing season is
coming to an end and it’s
been a very active spring and
summer for the PMCGA and
the NCGA.
The ethanol battle was
won once again. Special
thanks to all of you who took
time to send a seed com tag,
with your “Save Ethanol”
ACOBNTMK
™ Farni Calendar
lurs(l;n, (Klolht 13
Corn Silage Management
meeting, Solanco Young
F Associ. Sola*"
(Turn to Pago 11)
lives in a 131-year-old brick
farm house along with a two
lane blacktop that winds
through the rolling farmland.
Eventually the farm was
PENNSYLVANIA MASTER
N GROWERS ASSOCIATION
President’s Message
Chris Krimmel
President, PMCGA
message to your congression
al leaders.
Because of our combined
efforts, ethanol production
A harvester demonstrated to the crowd At Ag Prog
ress uses a rotating blade. See story page 14.
divided between his grandfa
ther and his great-uncles
“In those days you could raise
a family on 50 acres,”
Rumbaugh said and today
at age 76 Rumbaugh operates
part of the original farm with
his son David. Their 360-acre
spread has about 260 acres of
tillable land.
Rumbaugh was taking a
critical look at his com crops
even before PMCGA was
started. Rumbaugh, along
with extension agent King
and Willard Kimmel, another
Armstrong County farmer,
conducted some of the first
interval com planting tests
in the state.
Despite the conventional
wisdom of that time that com
should not be planted before
mid-May, the three men
started planting com as early
as mid-April six rows each
of the same seed variety in
the same field and contin
ued the weekly plantings
through May. The results
(Turn to Pago 15)
will use more than 600 mil
lion bushels of corn each year,
adding 43 cents per bushel or
(Turn to Pago 13)