Page B—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 4, 2000 Catastrophic Crop Insurance (Continued from Page 1) costs, however. Insurance pays 50 percent of yield at 55 percent of price. There is no basis the price is taken right off the Chicago prices at, most likely, when the price hits bottom. This year, the payment is $1.16 per bushel for corn and $2.89 per bushel for soy beans. Wagner has owned the operation for about a decade. He farms with wife Linda and their daughter, Mary, 7 and Guy’s stepson Bill, 16. Guy moved into the lo cation where grain elevators and a shop now stand north of Bethlehem. The 5,000 square foot building itself was actually moved to the current location in October 1995. The past year was easily the worst drought Guy and the “old guys” he spoke to, he noted have ever Ever since Guy purchased the farm business from his father, Walter, in 1990, he has bought crop insurance for his 880 acres of corn and 400 acres of soybeans, for a total of $l2O. dag) do§> GSI Grain Bins Grain Dryers Elevators Augers Westfield @) AFFORDABLE QUALITY and From Hutchison soNES GRAIN SYSTEMS Muncy, PA (570) 584-2282 seen. Rain stayed 10 inches behind normal near the end of the growing season. Then the rains came as a result of Hurricane Floyd, which didn’t help the corn at all. Normally, soybeans bring about 52.5 bushels to the acre. This year, Wagner harvested only 20 bushels per acre. Five-year proven aver age is 154 bushels of corn per acre. The past year he har vested only 47.1 bushels of corn per acre Though Wagner calls himself a Pioneer hybrid grower, he actually plants tests plots all over his opera tion of all kinds of varieties, he noted. He said he’ll be “100 percent Pioneer” in 2000. Altogether Wagner grows about 300-400 acres of strip plots using a 12-row corn planter. He has used a GPS satellite system for dag) dag) (Hg) @> do§) @> dag) AW \ / > SS| m ssi mapping harvests and runs a yield monitor. But for the past year, the data collected could be use less. “We might just take ev erything we collected this year and throw it away,” he said. Ssl ssl ssi Some varieties that didn’t do anything in extreme drought don’t stand a chance. In dust bowl years such as last summer, Wagner noted, varieties have to show drought tolerance or he won’t plant them. Wagner recalls that 1996, a year with adequate rainfall, was the best growing year he ever had. Yields for 1997 were average, 1998 yields were about 10 percent under the average, and 1999 was a disaster. In 1996, the best year, Wagner harvested 168.1 bushels per acre of corn and 61 bushels per acre of beans. Beans endure droughts a Bucket Elevators ,«=}. From < «Si ) Lampion <m> (@) <ng) <IE) (@) Machines <HD Grain <@> Cleaners from Sukup 'lsi' and DMC (GBI) (@) m little better and Wagner is in creasing his bean plantings in 2000. Wagner farms 1,200 acres. But each year acres are being continuously lost to de velopment. Wagner lost an other 33 acres the past year. The constant development seems “almost unsustain able,” Wagner said. Because of the drought and, later in the season, high winds from the hurricane, some ears dropped off. Those that lay on the ground will cause volunteer corn to be a problem. For Wagner, soybeans are also a better crop to grow because nutrients have been built up in the soil with corn crops sufficiently that grow ing soybeans will require no fertilizer or other soil inputs. Wagner has used 100 percent no-till many years. He’s had to use some light discing to deal with slug problems in soybeans, which can cause huge crop losses. When slugs emerge, they eat the foliage off of whole plants. Rj <HD m> Available in sizes from 3 foot to 40 foot. Available with 15 inch sprocket wheels, 18 inch crowfoot wheels, 15 inch ductile wheels, or 20 inch ductile wheels. Flat fold wing packers feature a narrow 10 foot 4 inch transport width with a center bearing on the center section. HAMILTON EQUIPMENT, Inc. 567 South Reading Road, Ephrata, Pa 17522 717-733-7951 MARYLAND Chestertown- Kingstown Tractor Churchville - Walter G. Coale, Inc Frederick - H.B. Duvall, Inc Hagerstown - Antietam Ford Tractor Kennedyville - Starkey Farm Equipment. Whiteford - Deer Creek Equipment PENNSYLVANIA Altoona - Hines Equipment Bloomsburg - Nichols Farm Equipment Carlisle - R & W Equipment Co Cresson - Hines Equipment Easton - Forks Equipment Glen Rock - Wertz Farm & Power Eq. Klingerstown - Stanley's Farm Service. Lititz - Binkley & Hurst Bros New Ringgold - Eckroth Bros. Farm Equipment, Orefield - Eckroth Equipment Oxford - Deer Creek Equipment Quarryville - A.L. Herr & Brothers Richland - Lebanon Valley Implement (DdDB&BJ TAM NEWS PENNSYLVANIA MASTER CORN GROWERS ASSOC., INC. | Pulverizers Wholesale Distributor AUTHORIZED DEALERS They also deep till to break up compaction a problem at the farm since Wagner purchased it from the former owner. “I’m a firm believer in no-till,” noted Wagner. Wagner prefers growing corn, he said. “I prefer watching corn grow,” he said, and was devastated by what he had to witness last summer. “It hurts your feel ings.” He thinks a large per centage of work, because of drought, is completely wasted. As for insect controls, corn borer is not a big prob lem for the farm, Wagner noted. Though he has been planting Roundup Ready soybeans for three years, the farm, because of the biogenic crops controversy, is switch ing back to conventional soy beans. “If we can’t sell them,” he said, because of the biogenic scare, “we’ll be in real trouble.” Until the in dustry comes up with strate- (Turn to Pago 9) 410-778-1640 800-286-8292 301-662-1125 301-791-1200 .410-348-2470 .410-452-5252 814-742-8171 570-784-7731 717-243-2686 .814-886-4183 610-252-8828 .717-235-0111 570-648-2088 .717-626-4705 .570-943-2131 .610-366-2095 610-932-8858 .717-786-3521 .717-866-7518
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers