Page 16—Corn Talk, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 14, 2000
Scott Harkcom Is New Manager
Of Agronomy Research Farm
UNIVERSITY PARK
(Centre Co.) When Lynn
Hoffman announced his re
tirement in 1999 as manager
of the agronomy research
farm, Steve Pales, depart
ment head, said “I was pray
ing this wouldn’t happen on
my watch.”
Now it seems that the de
partment has a worthy suc
cessor to manage the farm.
Scott Harkcom worked for
seven years as assistant man
ager of the farm under Hoff
man. “With all his
experience over the years,
Lynn always had an answer,”
said Harkcom. “I have to rely
on a lot more people for an
swers now that Lynn’s not
around.”
In his role as manager,
Harkcom supervises three
full-time employees and sev
eral hourly employees. To
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gether, the team oversees the
operation of the 600-acre
farm, about one-third of
which is used for small plot
research. The remainder is
used for production agricul
ture and precision agricul
ture research.
Asked about the differ
ences between managing a
farm for research rather than
for production agriculture,
Harkcom said that a research
farm requires more time for
field preparation because
more tasks must be done with
smaller, specialized equip
ment. He and his crew spend
a fair amount of time modify
ing equipment for use in re
search.
Harkcom sees three major
research paths in the farm’s
future: exploration of new
technologies related to preci
sion agriculture, evaluation
of biotechnologically altered
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crops in comparison to tradi
tional varieties, and contin
ued exploration of tillage
methods. Performance tests
of new varieties will continue
because this is one of the
most direct ways the depart
ment’s research helps Penn
sylvania farmers. Harkcom
expects that research on the
farm will become more inte
grated between the college’s
various departments as inter
disciplinary cooperation
grows.
Harkcom is part of a de
partment-wide effort to in
crease opportunities for
public education at the farm.
“Our primary goal on the
farm is to educate the public,
and when we get a good
crowd of people here and it
seems like they’re really in
terested, that’s very gratify
ing. We can do all the
research in the world here,
but if we don’t get that infor-
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doing anybody any good. So I
look forward to the opportu
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public.
A committee is exploring
the idea of a field day in the
fall at which the public could
come and learn, for instance,
what goes into growing and
harvesting a corn crop, how
herbicides affect crop yield,
and how different methods of
tillage affect the population
of microorganisms living in
the soil.
When Hoffman retired, the
department decided to assign
his research responsibilities
to a new full-time faculty
member. Sjoerd Duiker, as
sistant professor of soil man
agement and applied soil
physics, is taking over Hoff
man’s long-term research on
tillage and crop rotation at
the farm and also developed
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his own research program,
Harkcom believes that
Hoffman’s research into no
till crop production has made
the most impact of any re
search done in the depart
ment over the last few
decades, because it drasti
cally changed the way many
farmers manage their lands,
not only in Pennsylvania, but
also in nearby states.
Harkcom has a master’s
degree in agronomy from
Penn State. His prior work
experience includes crop
scout, extension agent, and
forage variety testing. “I
enjoy my job because I love
working outside and I hope
that some of the research I’m
involved with helps to pro
vide answers to farmers’
problems.”
Harkcom can be reached at
wshl@psu.edu or (814) 692-
7955.