A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 9,2002 Conference Honors Successful Producers (Continued from Page, A 1) and the manure can be applied right in the pastures. The farm uses a combination of bale wagons, ring feeders, and unwrapped bales for supple mental feeding. “Lanes and fencing are the most important things you can do in grazing,” he said. But you only have a 2-3 day “window of opportunity.” And timing the fertilization and “interrelationships with the species your choose” can be crit ical, Opitz noted. Opitz noted that producers Ray Smith, scientist, VPI, and producer Charlie Opitz spoke Wednesday morning at the Pennsylvania Grazing and Forage Conference. Dairy Herd , A Health Meeting Wednesday, March 13th Country Garden Farm Store, Mifflinburg invites you to a special preventative care program for dairymen. 9:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Meeting Schedule • Registration, Coffee, Donuts • Timely Vaccination Programs • Deworming Strategies: Dr. Jon Rosenberg, Fort Dodge Animal • Lunch Served • Effectively Using Nutritional Supplements: Jeff Bogus, Bovine One, Nu-Health Special Meeting Discounts! Call 570/966-3944. Be sure to reserve your seat! •*■*■*■*■*■**•*•*•*■*•*•**■*•»■*■»• must be completely committed loosing pasture in their opera tions or it simply won’t work. “If you don’t want to, don’t do it you’ll fail,” he said. “If you commit to it and do your home work, it will work.” Some of the challenges Opitz has faced include farming on shallow, shale soils; the labor and mental intensity of manag ing the grazing operation; sea sonal calving program challenges; and working as a partnership. Opitz noted that he works on the enterprise with the family. He mentioned 'hi* son, Mark, and said, “I’m .pretty-good at buying" the cow' and he’s pretty good at keeping the wheels on.” Producers who want to adopt Award winners at the banquet included, from left, Robert Stout, research technician at Penn State, accepting for James and Barbara Warburton, Outstanding Pasture Pro ducer Award; Robert Oswald, Forage/Conservation Farmer Award; and John Comer ford, Research/Extension/Teaching Award. grazing can apply it to any size herd. The keys are: • Ensure the grass is grazed at the correct height, and ensure root reserves are good and main tained until winter dormancy. • Ensure there is a clover component in the grass mix tures. • Nitrogen must be applied to the pastures annually, in the late summer or early fall, at mini mum. Opitz uses about 40-60 units per acre of mostly urea, along with some ammonium sul fate. Caring for cattle during times of drought and iAtense summer time heat is critical. Opitz (Turn to Page A2l)
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