Page 6—Foraging Around, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 12, 2000
Beginning Grazier’s School Focuses On Grass Selection, Herd Health
(Continued from Pago 1)
tended from all over the country, in
cluding West Virginia, Indiana,
Tennessee, New York, and states in
the Northeast. Petrucci urged those
who attended to “consider adapting
a grazing-based system as an alter
native to high-capital farming,” he
said at the start of the school.
AFT, based in Washington,
D.C., owns the grazing-based dairy,
bequeathed to the AFT in 1996 by
the estate of Anthony and Anya
Smith, Sylvan. The farm was a dairy
years ago when it switched to pri
marily a hay-production operation.
In late 1997, the farm brought in the
“first animals on the farm in 30
years,” Petrucci said.
The AFT farm uses a concrete
feed pad measuring 100 feet long by
22 feet wide, with an additional area
measuring 65 feet by 12 feet. The
area can accommodate 108 cows
with two feet of room per cow,
Moyer noted. The pad can accom
modate up to about 130 cows.
Manure from the pad is
scraped into a concrete holding
basin, measuring 40 feet long by 24
feet wide at eight foot deep, enough
storage for about 60 days, Petrucci
said. A pump removes the liquid
manure, which is field-applied. Sim
ilar to New Zealand-type storage
systems, a challenge is coming up
with a way in the future to separate
the solids.
The seasonal dairy uses a slid
ing panel, open-sided milking
parlor. The holding area uses a cus
tom-made electrified crowd gate.
(Turn to Png* t)
Thirty-two cows can be milked at a time, Moyer, right, noted. It
takes about 50 minutes to milk 107 cows. The total cost of the
Grade A sliding door parlor system, including the feed pad,
manure management system, equipment, and parlor was
$213,000, Moyer said.
Milk is moved to a 1,500-gallon tank. Moyer sells milk to the Maryland-Virginia Milk Producers
Cooperative.
In October, Bryan T. Petrucci, director of farms division for AFT,
center, introduced the graziers who attended from all over the
country, including West Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee, New York,
and states in the Northeast.
This stream fencing system can be moved so cows can graze as
near to the creek as the producer chooses. Moyer inspects the
system.