‘Zero Potential’ For Runoff Pollution From
Lancaster’s Award-Winning Conservation Farm
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster
Co.) It’s an almost unheard of
task for any conservation farmer
develop a bunch of methods so
there is no chance in other
words, zero potential for pol
luted runoff to enter streams bor
dering a property.
That daunting task fell success
fully on one such farm.
For their far-reaching efforts to
preserve soil, protect the environ
ment, and maintain a large-scale
Lancaster County dairy, Red Knob
Farm from Wakefield, Little Bri-
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Laceyville, PA 717-869-2407
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Cochranville, PA 19335
215-593-6731
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Home, PA 717-744-2371
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tain Township, was honored
Thursday night as the Lancaster
County Conservation District
Cooperator of the Year at Yoder’s
Restaurant in New Holland.
Attended by more than2socon
servation cooperators, agribu
sinesses, and friends of the district,
the district’s 48th annual dinner
meeting and banquet honored Red
Knob, composed of the Young
family, and others for environmen
tal stewardship and commitment to
conservation.
Gerald R. Whiteside, Chesa
peake Bay technician with the dis
trict, who helped present the
You
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Gap, PA 17527
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McVeytown, PA 17051
717-899-6386
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Loysville, PA
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award, noted that Red Knob Farm
“has taken on the enormous task of
developing and committing to a
goal of zero potential for polluted
runoff entering the streams that
border the property,” he said.
How did they do it?
Two large sediment control
basins lie on cither side of the
farm. The farm uses 2,500 feet of
grassed diversion and 1,200 feet of
gradient terrace. That combination
conveys any runoff leaving the
cropland to one of two control
basins.
Some think the setup compli
cated Simply put, during a rain
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Chambersburg, PA 17201
717-264-9588
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Somerset, PA 15501
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Myerstown, PA 17067
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event, any manure that may run off
carried through the pipe outlet ter
race system or that seeps into the
subsurface drainage will end up at
one control point in either of the
two basins. The basins are situated
in such a way to allow for the “cre
ation of a wetland environment as
an added benefit and filter.”
The dairy, a farm partnership
owned by Henry Young and two
sons Matthew and David, irrigate
the liquid manure. A combination
of primary and secondary dis
charges ensure that any runoff dur
ing irrigation goes through a series
of underground pipes, grassed
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 20, 1880-A2l
diversions, and waterways back to
one of two basins located below
the second-stage lagoon, at which
point it can be pumped back into
the lagoon, according to White
side. If there is a large rain or
mechanical failure during irriga
tion, any polluted runoff will be
controlled and directed back to the
storage facility.
According to Whiteside, the
Red Knob Dairy partnership began
in 1974 when the family estab
lished a new dairy operation on a
farm owned by Henry. The part
nership then leased the farm for 10
years until it was purchased by the
(Turn to Page A 24)