V 01.45 No. 23
Beef Awards Highlighted
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) From the barn to the
banquet hall, cattlemen and
women from all over Pennsylva
nia converged on Celebration
Hall in State College last week
to do just that celebrate. The
banquet kicked off the Pennsyl
vania Beef Exposition March
30-April 2 at Penn State’s Ag
Arena.
Awards highlighted the 26th
annual Cattlemen’s Banquet
during a program emceed by
Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Asso
ciation (PCA) president Bill
McCoy of Lancaster. The ban
quet program featured a legisla
tive update by representative
Sheila Miller, PCA awards, Cat
tlemen’s Queen coronation, and
scholarship winners.
First-Place Soybean Grower Blessed With Good Season
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
WATSONTOWN
(Northumberland Co.) Re
garding his first*plae»«wawN» *
the recent Pennsylvania Soy
bean Yield Contest, Gary
Truckenmiller sums it up best.
“We were blessed with a good
growing season,” he said. De
spite the state’s catastrophic
Health And Housing Booklet
The 88-page booklet published by Lancaster Farming enti
tled Animal Health And Housing comes to you as an insert in this
issue. You will And topics from mastitis prevention to ventilation
considerations. Many professional articles as well as on-farm fea
tures are included in this special edition. Look for it.
Four Sections
PCA director Larry Bullis
presented the PCA awards. The
Seedstock Producer Award went
to Dennis Stockdale of Stock
dale Farms, Dayton, for his ac
complishments with Angus and
Hereford national champion
bulls and success in the export
market.
Commercial Cattlemen of the
Year went to Kevin Diehl and
his wife, Debbie, of Fairfield.
They own Springbrook Farms.
Jim Eisenhour and his wife,
Brenda, of Cedar Hill Farms,
accepted the Cattle Feeder of
the Year Award. They use
homegrown feeds to keep their
Wellsville, York County, Y
healthy. Bob Weikert of Weikert
Livestock, Inc., in Fairview,
Adams County, accepted the In
dustry Service Award on behalf
(Turn to Page A 26)
drought, “it was our best year
overall,” he said.
Truckenmiller achieved a
yield of 73.34 bushels per acre
using a Roundup Ready variety
of bean, Pioneer 93853, a mid
group 3.
Truckenmiller manages about
450 acres of tillable land, includ
ing 105 acres in soybeans.
Truckenmiller uses the RR
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 8, 2000
The Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association awarded scholarships at its annual meet
ing last week to Travis Reid, William Grant Coleman, and Kevin Harvatine. Photo by Gail
Strock, Mifflin County correspondent.
variety simply for the effective
weed control. Chickweed and
pokeweed provide real chal
lenges to a good yield.
Soybean fields on Trucken
miller’s dairy follow different
rotations. Some are rotated corn
to soybeans and some corn to al
falfa.
“We no-till almost every
thing,” he said, including some
processed vegetable crops from
corn and soybeans. In all, about
55 acres of the farm are devoted
to peas and string beans grown
for Furman Foods.
The dairyman’s soil type is an
Allenwood-Washington clay
loam. All fields are soil tested
every three years.
When soil test calls for it, he
applies a 5-26-26 before plant
ing.
Soybean planting takes place
from April 28 to about May 8
using a no-till drill at a 7.5-inch
row size. No starter nitrogen is
used the fertilization pro
gram follows soil recommenda
tions.
An inoculant is used per the
standard labeled rate, he noted.
No cultivation after plant emer
gence is necessary. Herbicide is
Pennsylvania Dairy Stakeholders Aim To
One-Source Risk Management Information
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Editor
At a meeting of the Pennsyl
vania Dairy Stakeholders eco
nomic education task force,
Monday, agreement was
reached to move forward on the
project to develop an integrated
compilation of management and
marketing information so dairy
farmers have a faster and more
accurate source of information.
The group has been meeting to
help improve the economics of
dairy farming in Pennsylvania
by bringing together all seg
ments of the industry around
the table for a united effort.
$31.00 Per Year
applied before the crop cano
pies.
Some weeds such as
chickweed and
“really troublesome,” Trucken
Gary Truckenmiller won first place in the recent Penn
sylvania Soybean Yield Contest. “We were blessed with a
good growing season,” he said. Despite the state’s cata
strophic drought, he said, “it was our best year overall.”
Gary stands with wife Kelly in the field with the award
winning crop.
According to Alan Bair, the
present efforts to encourage and
stimulate development of indi
vidual farm dairy business plans
has been successful. Working
with dairy producers or want-to
be dairy producers has resulted
in 11 finished projects with
dairymen since the program
began just over a year ago. Thir
teen • dairy plans are waiting
completion, and 23 more appli
cations are in hand. Funding has
increased including a new grant
from PDA. Other financial sup
porters include banks and insur
ance companies, The
Dairymen’s Association, Penn
600 Per Copy
miller said, until the Trucken
millers began to use no-till.
Important to Truckenmillcr is
improving standability and
(Turn to Page A 34)
sylvania Dairy Stakeholders,
and Penn State. The idea is to
help dairy farmers to develop
budgets and plans so they have
workable goals for the future.
Dave Wolfgang reported on
the dairy production veterinar
ian certificate program that
aims to help practitioners look
at total herd care, from environ
ment to nutrition, in addition to
the sick cow. From polls taken
from farmers, the veterinarian is
the most respected professional
who comes to the farm. There
fore, the veterinarian has a great
opportunity to help with con-
(Turn to Page A4l)