Reeds Canarygrass ‘Saves’
Grazier From Drought
(Continued from Page A 26)
were two stabilized ■ stream
crossings and a spring develop
ment.
Bracken’s concern about the
damage beef cattle were causing
to feeding areas during the
winter led to his developing a
feeding area stabilized with
stone. A water diversion was in
stalled above this feeding area to
channel runoff around the site.
A buffer area was established
between the feeding area and a
stream. Limited grazing buffer
areas were established along
both sides of the entire length of
the stream in the pasture.
Bracken had a nutrient man
agement plan developed for this
grazing system and submitted
the plan for approval under the
Nutrient Management Act. He
hosted a tour of his farm and the
grazing system for Project
Grass.
Hall noted, “Bracken’s efforts
in teaching others about conser
vation by example and imple
menting the many conservation
practices on his farm makes him
deserving of the PFGC’s Con
servation farmer Award.”
Outstanding Pasture Pro
ducer awards:
• Don Bothell, Indiana
County, has worked with the In
diana County Conservation Dis
trict and the USD A Natural
Resources Conservation Service
to establish a rotational grazing
system for dairy heifers and beef
feeders. In the pasture system,
41 acres are included, and addi
tional cropland is used for graz
ing in the fall after crops are
harvested. High-tensile perime
ter fence (9,590 feet) and 8,900
feet of interior fence have been
installed in the system. Two sta
bilized stream crossings have
been installed to allow animals
access to drinking water and
pasture areas. Stream bank buff
ers have been established with
the installation of stream bank
fencing.
Bothell has worked with the
Indiana County Conservation
District to conduct a pasture
management field day at his
farm. This field day allowed
others to see how the system
worked and to ask Bothell about
pasture management.
Bothell also allowed the con
servation district to conduct an
agricultural conservation prac
tice tour for legislators at his
farm. He participated by leading
the group on the tour and ex
plaining his pasture system op
eration.
• Glenn and Robin Gorrell,
Bradford County, milk 185 Hol
steins on 195 acres of pasture
near Milan. They strive to pro
vide all roughages from the pas
ture during the grazing season
by timely use of nitrogen and
reseeding of pastures. Glenn was
the initiating force behind the
Bradford County Grazing Net
work and continues to facilitate
the 11 or so meetings they hold
during the grazing season. He
has served as a speaker at sev
eral local, regional, and state
wide grazing/forage-related
events.
More information from the
conference is scheduled in the
next issue of Foraging Around, a
newsletter set to appear in Lan
caster Farming April 22.
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 4, 2000-A3l
PA DHIA President’s Speech
nars with farmers explaining
American-style dairy herd man
agement and the concept of
farmer owned and controlled co
operatives. I mentioned earlier
our new management
software-Barn Owl-is the best
in the world. There is a market
in Eastern Europe as well as
other areas of the world waiting
to be filled by this product. Both
the data processing and the on
farm software sales are possibili
ties. I will leave it to Dave to ex
plain more details.
I’d like to turn my attention to
a related issue. Last month the
Board of PA DHIA and Dairy
One agreed to create a for profit
service company focused on
dairy herd management on an
international scale. This global
venture is called AgStar Tech
nologies and will be owned 50/50
by the two organizations. There
remains a lot of details still to be
worked out, but it should be up
and running in early Spring.
There are four directors from
each organization, which form
the new board for AgStar Tech-
nologies. The AgStar Directors
from Pennsylvania, along with
myself, are Bill Itle, Dale
Hoover, and Adam Derr. I per
sonally am very excited about
not only the formation of AgStar
which holds great potential, but
also about the prospect of work
ing in this business more closely
with Dairy One. I see a relation
ship developing where a sharing
of resources would greatly bene
fit dairymen-members of both
organizations, hopefully in all
facts of the business. The AgStar
creation brings together the
foresight and energies of our
General Manager, the size and
scope of Dairy One, the market
ing power of Dairylea through
their involvement with Dairy
One and the vision of CEO, Rick
Smith, along with the absolute
creative genius of our DRPC
programming department.
AgStar, I believe, is excitement
waiting to happen. And yet
having expressed all my excite
ment about the international
possibilities, it still may well be
that long term, the greatest suc
cess of this organizational coop
eration will be right here at
home.
A LESSON
WELL
LEARNED...
LANCASTER
FARMING’S
CLASSIFIED
ADS
GET RESULTS!
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