A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 23, 2000 * Make Hay While The Sun Shines ... All Year (Continued from Page A 1) corn, soybeans, and rye for straw, according to landowners’ preferences. “Some don’t want corn be cause it spoils the view and some want corn for the privacy,” said Gail. Besides fields owned by re tired farmers, nonfarm land owners who no longer want to mow their acreage ask the Crookes to mow their fields. Lot size for the suburban houses varies from 3-10 acres. The couple has spent seven years in Dublin, “probably the most active area in agriculture,” said Gail, “the last of the fron tier in staving off developers.” Jim, who grew up on a dairy farm in Bucks County, started full time in the haying business in 1979 with custom baling. He began by working for a neighbor and later, after his neighbor passed away, took over the busi ness. “We’ve changed the busi ness,” said Gail. “For a while there, we did a lot of hay for landscapers for seeding.” The Crookes provided hay for the Blue Route bypass from the turnpike, an airport, prison, and housing developments. Now mushroom growers are main buyers of the hay. “We started out with small bales and it go to be so much volume, the weather would get bad and it would get wet,” said Jim. This hay then went to become mushroom hay. Ten years ago, when the Crookes purchased a large square baler, marketing swung from feed to mushroom hay. Now 80 percent of the hay acre age goes to mushroom hay buyers to 20 percent for feed hay. With the ability to make half ton square bales, the Crookes have doubled their acreage in seven years, a growth they at tribute to word-of-mouth adver tising. However with suppliers coming from northeastern states and Canada, there is now more competition for mushroom hay, according to Jim. Pennsylvania is a leading state in mushroom production, making it a. ready market. Mushroom growers require the large square bales which are easily loosed to spread for the mushrooms. They also test every load for moisture and subtract weight if the load is more than 20 percent moisture. The Crookes employ one full time employee from early spring to late fall. Hay equipment wheels begin Ken Stoop, New Hope, a longtime employee of the Crookes, pulls two rakes through the late-fall fields. to roll approximately the third week of May and continues until snowy or wet weather closes the season. “When the weather is good in June and July we make as much feed hay as possible,” said Jim, who gets almost double the price for feed hay than mushroom hay. The downside is that the smaller bales take more labor. The large bales are not wrapped but stacked 4-5 bales high and covered with plastic until spring. The large acreage the Crookes must cover means that many of the fields are only cut once. “We still have 200 acres where we haven’t been through the first cutting yet,” said Jim. Even though their schedule is busy, the Crookes still take off every Sunday plus take a summer vacation. Acreage comes from not only farmers but also suburban homeowners and housing devel opments. “We have a claim to fame with 400-500 acres in the county which we mowed before they went into development. Our equipment was the last to go over it in farming,” said Jim. “WeTe still cutting now,” said Gail. “With mushroom hay, it does not have to be as green as feeding hay. Jim has baled year-round.” Crooke has put chains on the tractor to bring in the hay. “We have more than we can handle, but we are losing farm ers all the time. There’s been quite a bit of an exodus about the last 15 years or so when people got fed up with the has sles of farming in the suburbs and moved elsewhere to farm,” said Gail. She pointed out that the agriculture preservation pro gram for the area, however, is growing. “This may be a short-term scenario,” said Gail, who said that it is difficult to plan for the future with the extent of devel opment in the area. “Our son wants to farm and we’re not sure if this area is where he should try to farm. There is no way a farmer can buy land here and pay for it farming.” Arsonists have posed a chal lenge to the Crooke’s business. The hay left outside is now stacked smaller to make it less obvious, said Gail. Gail, a former county 4-H ex tension agent in Illinois, is now a leader for the Danboro club. The Crooke children participate in 4-H with hogs and a few of the family’s 25 ewes. She helps raking and tedding in the fields, plus “maneuvering and logistics,” said Jim. With Crooke moves the half-ton bales, probably destined for a mushroom grower, to a flatbed trailer. “With these big bales they’re actually packed so tight they don’t soak up water,’’ said Crooke. Thirty-bale loads may equal 15-19 tons of hay moving down the road. more than 2,000 acres, 10 differ ent townships, two states and 50 different landowners with fields to cut, the Crookes must plan strategically to have the proper equipment in the right fields, plus fuel and transportation. “It’s a difficult task that he has, determining who is working where, fuel, what trucks to leave in, and how to move equip ment,’’ said Gail. “A lot of it is planned around the weather,” said Jim, who tunes in to the weather station every morning. “We always have to be thinking ahead to the next day. “We work in a circuit. We move step-by-step down the county from township to town ship,” said Jim. Walkie-talkies have gratly aided the Crookes. “It mams a big difference to be able to call with a change of plans,” he said. The United Parcel Service has Because of the Christmas and New Years holidays and the promos for the Pennsylvania State Farm Show and the Keystone Farm Show, the Dec. 30 and Jan. 6 issues of Lancaster Farming will need to be published with different advertising deadlines. They are as follows: Dec. 30 Issue Public Sale Ads - Tuesday, Dec. 26, noon Mailbox Markets’ Friday, Dec. 22, noon Section D Classifieds: Tuesday, Dec. 26, 3 p.m. Farm Equipment Ads; Wednesday, Dec. 27, 9am All Othei Display Ads’ Friday, Dec. 22, 5 pm. COMING NEXT WEEK An insert as part of your regular subscription issue The 2001 Lancaster Farming Ag Directory A comprehensive listing of contact people with addresses, e-mail, and phone numbers for all segments of agncultuic. Included m this first-ever, one-of-a-kind directory are farm organizations, state and federal agencies, extension personnel, and ag-related educational and promotional institutions. REGIONAL IN COVERAGE The coverage area follows the Mid-Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. You will also want to review the advertising messages of the major agribusinesses in the region that are included in the very large, 160-page booklet. The 2001 Lancaster Farming Ag Directory is published by: Lancaster Farming Box 609, 1 E. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 Phone: 717-626-1164 Fax; 717-733-6058 E-mail; larmmg@lancastcrfarmina.com Internet Homepage; www.lancasterfarming.com —— - ■ also been a big help to hay pro duction as the Crookes can forego long trips to get parts to receive them in the mail the next day. “I keep everything in my pickup - like baling twine, fuel, grease, oil, or tools. I try to guess ahead as to which part I’m going to need and keep those in stock. “I also need to know where my support systems are,” said Jim, who takes his flat tires or hardware needs to different lo cations as necessary. In the fall the Crooks provide for several hay mazes. Custom ers design their own maze by gluing blocks on plywood. The template is placed on the fender of the loader tractor .and the maze is built on the pattern. They have dealt with six or seven fires over the years. Not only smaller piles of hay but also dispersing the piles onto several Special Deadlines For Dec. 30 and Jan. 6 Issues farms helps keep arson risk lower. During the winter Jim will be busy hauling the piles of hay. Transporting equipment from area to area is also a challenge. A sicklebar-type mower folds up to the width of the tractor. The Crookes also have carefully scoped the bridges in the area that can handle the height and weight of the equipment. Jim pulls the hay rakes and tedder with a pickup and a low bed transports the tractor. “It’s never more than a couple of miles to the next field,” he said. Traveling around the sur rounding area to various hay fields has given Jim a thorough knowledge of the area in per haps an unusual way. “I actu ally think of the county in terms of the ridges, hills, creeks, the lay of the land, almost more than roads,” he said. Jan. t> Issue Public Sale Ads: Friday, Dec. 29, 5 p.m. Mailbox Markets: Friday, Dec. 29, 5 p.m. Section D Classifieds: Tue. Jan. 2, 5 p m. Farni Equipment Ads: Wed. Jan. 3, 9 a.m. All Other Display Ads: Fn. Dec. 29, spm
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers