A36-Uncastef Fanning, Saturday, May 20, 2000
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
NEWMANSTOWN (Leba
non Co.) Drought and heavy
rains couid have taken their toll
on the “Home of the Rainbow.”
Fortunately, the water flowed
cool, the trout didn’t escape, and
for those who operate the 24-
hour-a-day, seven-day-per-week
job in caring for Arrowhead
Springs Trout Hatchery near
Newmanstown, the past year
was business as usual.
“We’re a fish and water busi
ness,” said Mike Ludwig, son of
the founder, Ed. “We rely on
both of them.”
Mike spoke to more than a
dozen Berks County teachers
Tuesday afternoon at the Berks
County Ag In The Classroom
Teacher Seminar.
The teachers toured the 400-
acre fresh water spring that
houses a rainbow trout hatchery.
Mike was quick to inform the
group that Arrowhead boasts a
“bona fide spring.” Excess
water from the spring is used in
rearing pools to grow trout.
There are six major springs at
the hatchery. The water sold, ac
cording to Ed Ludwig, is under
contract with Crystal Springs,
with a plant in Lancaster.
Flow from the springs is be
tween 1,800-2,000 gallons per
minute. The flow is at ground
temperature of 51 degrees year
round.
The main spring, circular and
measuring 25 feet across and
about three feet deep, supplies
water to two four-inch pipelines
that fill the pools. The spring
supplies water at a rate of 600
gallons per minute.
The main spring is enclosed in
a stainless steel roof, and the
water is “tested every day,” said
Ludwig. The surface flow during
a good year is about 550 gallons
per minute. During last sum
mer’s drought, flow was main
tained at 400 gallons.
The spring, noted Mike
Ludwig, is the “main thrust of
the east branch of the Mill
Creek, which feeds to the Tul
pehocken.”
Ludwig said that, despite
Hurricane Floyd in the fall, the
hatchery didn’t suffer.
“We had nine inches of rain
in 36 hours,” he said. The rain
fall amount was “welcome,” he
said. “The way we’re set up, we
can handle it all.”
The bona fide sandstone
spring is always monitored, he
said, providing perfectly clear
water for Crystal Springs.
At the hatchery (last profiled
in Lancaster Farming on Dec.
11, 1982), Ludwig raises some
fingerlings. The site maintains a
hatch house and nursery and
they can strip eggs. However,
the work is labor-intensive,
noted Mike, with an average of
70 hours per person work week.
To feed the trout, they have to
“teach” the fish to eat.
Many fingerlings are pur
chased from local hatcheries.
Ludwig pointed to some
recent news about PCB contam
ination of fish out of two state
hatcheries. The news “hurt our
business,” said Mike. He han
dled many phone calls.
But the water is tested by fed
eral and state agencies at the
hatcheries “all the time.” There
are no PCBs in the water or the
trout, he said.
Trout ranging in size from 8-
11 inches are started in the
headwaters. At 11 inches, they
Berks Teachers Tour Trout Farm, Quarry
are moved into the fee-fishing
lake.
Full-time help on the farm is
provided by Ed and Darlene
Ludwig and their son Mike with
his wife, Tammy. Full-time help
is also provided by David
Dennis.
The farm’s history dates back
to the 1700 s, as a commercial
gun barrel factory. The farm
became a ladle and grist mill.
Though it was a dairy farm in
the past, in 1941, with help from
Ed’s friend, Lee Eck, it became a
trout hatchery, noted Mike.
Prescott Quarry
“If you can’t grow it, you
have to mine it,” said Russ
Witmer, eastern area manager
for Pennsy Supply, Harrisburg.
Pennsy is a construction ag
gregate provider that operates
the Prescott quarry near Leba
non.
Witmer manages quarries and
other operations east of the Sus
quehanna, including four stone
quarries and three asphalt and
two concrete providers.
Witmer provided a tour of the
plant at Prescott to the Berks
teachers.
A long while ago, Prescott
used to sell much ag lime, but
most of its business now is con
struction-related, including
products such as crushed stone,
kiln feed, asphalt, blacktop, and
other products.
Some of their material, he told
the group, goes to the state acid
mine creeks to neutralize the
water.
The company produces under
a million tons of crushed stone,
200.000 tons of blacktop, and
60.000 yards of concrete.
The Prescott facility employs
35 full-time. They own their own
fleet of 10 mixer trucks and six
dump trucks, and do truck con
tracting.
The Prescott mine, permitted
at 456 acres, was founded in the
early 1900 s. Recently a plant
constructed in 1926 was tom
down and replaced.
Witmer told the group, which
toured the Prescott mine pit,
that in everything they do, every
day, “your lives are touched by
agriculture or mining.” He
pointed out the vast array of
products that use limestone,
from paints, pigments, and plas
tics to floor products and the
many aggregate materials in all
sorts of road and building con
struction.
“Limestone is used in every
thing we do, every day,” Witmer
said.
Crop managers and field crop
suppliers often buy by-product
material from the asphalt plant
bag house operated by Pennsy
Supply to create their own ag
lime.
The mine allows tours regu
larly at the facility.
Clyde Myers, Berks County
extension agent, noted that the
Berks teacher tour is provided
by financial support from the
Berks county Farm Bureau, the
Ag In The Classroom Teacher
Seminar Program, and through
Penn State Berks County Exten
sion. In addition, support is pro
vided by the Berks County
Farm-City Council and Berks
County Agribusiness Commit
tee.
Myers said the program edu
cates teachers about the agribu
siness system and the system’s
environmental and supply in
dustries.
of
Berks teachers toured Arrowhead Hatchery. From left, Tom Mcllhenny, Northeast;
Ruth Karper, Daniel Boone; Bob Adam, Hamburg; Charles Harley, Boyertown; Linnette
Harley, Antietam; Mike Sova, Boyertown; Priscilla Laeben, Boyertown; Bob Allison,
Brandywine Heights; Neil Fisher, Schuylkill Valley; Kathy Fisher, Antietam; Ron Haag,
Tulpehocken; Mike Boltz, Tulpehocken; and Mike Ludwig, Arrowhead.
Photo by Andy Andrews
There are six major springs at the hatchery. The water sold, according to Ed Ludwig, is
under contract with Crystal Springs, with a plant in Lancaster. Here, Berks teachers
tour the enclosed spring at Arrowhead.
Meeting To Focus On Pork Cooperative
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) Pork producers are in
vited to attend a board of direc
tors meeting of the Pennsylvania
Pork Producers Council
Monday, May 22, at 7 p,m. in
room 202 here at the Depart
ment of Ag Building (near the
Farm Show Complex).
The purpose of the meeting is
to explore possible participation
in the newly formed Pork Amer
ica Cooperative. John Adams
from Pork America will be at the
meeting to make a brief presen
tation and to answer questions.
Many Pennsylvania produc
ers have been following the ac
tivities of the Pork America
closely, but are unsure how this
organization might benefit pro
ducers in the Northeast. The co
operative was formed recently
with assistance from the Na-
tional Pork Producers Council
in response to the low hog prices
of 1997-1998.
Membership fees are $5OO per
person, plus 10 cents per head
for registering hogs. Registering
hogs does not commit a pro
ducer to selling those hogs
through the cooperative, but it
does give the producer first pri
ority in participating in any
Pork America projects.
According to information
from the Pork America office,
potential opportunities for
members vary from facilitating
marketing arrangements with
existing packing plants to de
livering hogs to a packing plant
to generate specialty products
for a retail grocery chain.
This still leaves open the ques
tion about the possibility for
producers in the Northeast to
participate. Producers are en
couraged to attend and take
part in the discussion.
For more information, con
tact Ken Kephart, (814) 863-
3671.