A3B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 5, 2002 "Basically" Farming .' ~T Helpful hints for new / V 4 ' anct exfStm 9 f^mers PtNNSIATh fi® C ollege of Agricultural Sciences HP Cooperative Extension - Southeast Region SO YOU WANT TO FARM? WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE STARTING OUT Patricia A. Westenbroek Penn State Farm Management Agent Thank you for your submis sions to the “Basically Farming” column. They will help us better serve you in learning the basics of farming. An opportunity presents itself, and you have the option of get ting into farming. You’re a young person who is driven to lead a farm life, or you are a person who once lived on a farm, think ing of returning, or you are a per son who has property, wanting to make it more productive. You could also be a person who has always been interested in farm life and come to a point where you are wondering if you can make it a way of your life. What should you know before starting out? “Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the com field,” as Dwight D. Eisenhower said in 1956. Farming takes a time com mitment, a breadth of knowledge, and physical strength to make it work. Starting in fanning is difficult, at best. But where do you start? To decide whether fanning is right for you, you should ask yourself some basic questions and begin to develop a plan. You need to identify what you are in terested in pursuing. Are you going into dairy or livestock busi ness? Vegetables? Fruit? Diversi fied Farming? Full time? Part time? The more specific you are about what you want to do, the easier it becomes to be able to fig ure out if it’s possible. Talking with local experts, such as USDA representatives, extension, indus try sales people, bankers, farming associations, and other farmers can help you make decisions be fore committing to your choice of operation. Visiting farms you ad mire and going to educational events are activities you should consider. Planning is essential to your success determining the who, what, where, when and how of your idea. Is the farm going to be a recreational activity or provide income? Will it provide enough income to meet your require ments? The action plan, financial plan, and marketing plan are all apart of your decision-making process. It’s important to work through a planning process be fore a major action is made, such as buying land or building a structure. Developing a business plan can help you and your advisers de termine if your choice of opera tion is right for you. Location, location, location! Do you need to buy land or is renting a better option while get ting your feet wet? Does your municipality permit you to farm in that area? Do have right amount of land to meet your op eration’s requirements? Is the land suitable for the operation? Do improvements have to be made? Are the neighbors tolerant of farming? Choosing the right place can make all the difference, particularly if you are marketing products. You may want to make a checklist of the equipment, sup plies, inventory, and facilities you’ll need to fully operate. Are there low-cost alternatives? Would leasing equipment or cus tom hiring be suitable? Are the facilities adequate? Get estimates on the costs of improvements and operational costs to begin to cre ate a budget. If you’re making a product for sale, you will want a marketing plan to discover your pricing structure, distribution, product lines, advertising, etc. As your making your plan, think of the personal investment and financial investment that you are making. How much time and physical effort are you willing to put into the operation? Do you have the experience to start with or do you need training? Are you willing to work for someone else to gain that experience? You may find that you will need to put your plans on hold or modify them. Also, you could find that you saved yourself a costly in vestment! If you would like more inform ation on “So You Want to Farm in Pennsylvania?”, please contact the Chester County Extension Office for a Fact Sheet at (610) 696-3500 or via post 601 West town Rd, West Chester, PA 19380. Adapted from University of Maine Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet, “So You Want to Farm in Maine?” Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please contact Dwane Miller, Schuylkill County Cooperative Extension, 1202 Ag Center Drive, Pottsville, PA 17901. (570) 622-4225. w S 3 PLANNING, PLANTING A TOP WHEAT CROP John Rowehl Regional Extension Agent-Grain Crops A very good wheat crop this year and improvement in price has gotten the attention of grain growers this summer. While we cannot accurately predict what will happen in the coming year, we can brush up on the cultural practices we do this fall. To end up with a good wheat crop, plan ning and planting management this fall is critical. Good quality seed of the best varieties is the place to start. Quality seed has good test weight, is clean of weed seeds, Swine Popular 4-H Project In Carbon County DEANNA CUNFER Carbon Co. Correspondent PALMERTON (Carbon Co.) In the past few years the mem bership of the Carbon County 4-H Livestock Club has grown tremendously. One of the most popular projects, especially for beginners, is the market swine project. This year the club membership totals 33 19 of those completed the market swine project, bring ing 66 entries to the Carbon County Fair for competition. The event was judged by James Parlett, Airville, who raises Yorkshire, Duroc, and Berkshire hogs. The Parlett farm consists of 350 acres and also raises 80 Hampshire and natural colored ewes. Starting the morning show with the fitting and showmanship competition, Parlett selected Christiana Graver, 12, as his grand champion fitter with re serve fitter honors going to Ash ley Barry, 16, daughter of Guy and Priscilla Barry. Graver first topped the intermediate class with Barry being the first place winner of the senior fitting class. In the showmanship competi tion, first-year member Angela Maleski, 14, Weatherly was se lected as the grand champion showman with the reserve show man rosette going to Shawn Le nahan, 10, Franklin Township, another first-year member. Male ski and Lenahan first received the top and second place spots in one of the two beginner/first-year member classes. There were 13 exhibitors falling into this fitting and showmanship division pro ving to be a strong foundation for future competitions. In reviewing the 10 weight classes, Parlett said he found a lot of good hogs at the show something he didn’t expect be cause Carbon County is not gen erally known to be a large agri cultural or livestock area. For his grand champion market swine, Parlett selected the 236-pound Blue Butt gilt of Luke Graver. In making his selection, the judge described the champion as being a long-bodied hog, very clean over the top and the leanest of its class. and does not cany seedbome dis eases. Certified seed is always the safest bet to ensure this. If home grown seed is used, seed treat ment to take care of diseases that may have formed on the grains this year is very important to pre vent a problem in the crop. After the year we had, I would use seed treatment effective on loose smuts, seedborne scab, and seed bome glume blotch. Variety test reports are avail able to help you choose the best ones. If you haven’t selected them yet and can access the Web, you can go to this site to find re ports from Penn State, Ohio State, and the University of Mar yland; http;//cumber- Shown are grand champion and reserve champion mar ket swine from Carbon County Fair. From left, Luke Graver, 10, with his 236-pound grand champion; judge James Parlett, Airville; and Christiana Graver, 12, with her 238-pound reserve. Christiana was also awarded the champion fitter honors in the show. Staying with the top placers from the medium weight class, Parlett then selected the 238 Blue Butt barrow entry of Christiana Graver as the reserve grand champion market swine of the show. Luke, 10, is a fifth-grade stu dent at Lehighton Middle School and shows swine, market, and breeding sheep and dairy beef at the fair and will be again exhibi ting swine at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Christiana, 12, a seventh grade student at the same school also completed the market swine, market and breed ing sheep and dairy beef projects. Like her younger brother, Christi will also be returning to Harris burg this January to compete at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. They are the children of Paul and Diane Graver, Franklin Town ship. The Graver children are both members of the National Junior Swine Association and quickly admit they prefer swine over all the project animals they raise. Pairs competition saw the entry of Colt Seltzer rising above the 17 entries to capture the blue ribbon. The fair posted the following results: CARBON COUNTY FAIR 4-H MARKET SWINE FITTING AND SHOWMANSHIP RESULTS land.extension.psu.edu/ Agriculture/grainCrops.htm. If you need a paper copy, call your local Extension office (or me at 717-240-6500) to get one. Use the multiple year test averages in these reports for the most reliable information. Com and soybean crops are coming off earlier than normal this fall but you should still wait until the optimum period of Oct. 1-15 to plant wheat. Planting wheat too early increases the risk of powdery mildew and barley yellow dwarf virus infections. We don’t think about the Hessian fly much, but you do avoid that in sect by planting after that date as well. And winter annual weed pressure should be lower. Re search in Oklahoma indicates that test weight will be lower if planted earlier than the optimum date there. I don’t think much wheat is planted back to back, but some times it is. This invites diseases such as Septoria, take-all and powdery mildew, particularly when old straw and chaff remain on the surface. Most wheat is planted following com and soy beans. The red zone I would Senior fitting; 1. Ashley Barry. 2. Jarrod Smith. 3. Andrew Miller. Intermediate fitting: 1. Chnstiana Graver. 2. Sarah Miller. 3. Jessica Smith. Junior A fitting; 1. Luke Graver. 2. Jona than Kuehner. 3. Sarah Kuehner. Junior B fitting: 1. Kaylee Seltzer. 2. Colt Seltzer. 3. Stevi Lenahan. Senior showmanship: 1. Jarrod Smith. 2. Andrew Miller. 3. Ashley Barry. Intermediate showmanship; 1. Christiana Graver. 2. Jessica Smith. 3. Sarah Miller. Junior A showmanship: 1. Kevin Bond. 2. Stephen Bond. 3. Kathie Bond. Junior B showmanship: 1. Angela Male ski. 2. Shawn Lenahan. 3. Colt Seltzer. Champion fitter Chnstiana Graver. Reserve champion fitter Ashley Barry. Champion showman; Angela Maleski. Reserve champion showman; Shawn Le nahan. WEIGHT CLASSES Underweight; 1. Kathie Bond. 2. Ashley Barry. 3. Sarah Kuehner. Extra light; 1. Kevin Bond. 2. Sarah Kuehner. 3. Taylor Patterson. Light: 1. Christiana Graver. 2. Kathie Bond. 3. Stephen Bond. Heavylight: 1. Andrew Miller. 2. Jonathan Kuehner. 3. Stephen Bond. Light medium: 1. Colt Seltzer. 2. Luke Graver. 3. Shawn Lenahan. Medium: 1. Luke Graver. 2. Christiana Graver. 3. Luke Graver. Heavy medium: 1. Luke Graver. 2. Colt Seltzer. 3. Sarah Miller. Light heavy; 1. Luke Graver. 2. Kaylee Seltzer. 3. Christiana Graver. Heavy: 1. Sarah Kuehner. 2. Jonathan Kuehner. 3. Andrew Miller. Heavy heavy: 1. Sarah Miller. 2. Andrew Miller. 3. Jarrod Smith. GRAND CHAMPION MARKET SWINE Luke Graver RESERVE GRAND CHAMPION MARKET SWINE Christiana Graver Pairs: 1. Colt Seltzer. 2. Shawn Lenahan. 3. Luke Graver. watch out for is wheat is planted no-till in com fields with a lot of stalks on the surface. This results in more potential for head scab next year than if it were soybean ground or even com ground with more of the stalks tilled in or under. Fields testing low in phospho rus are not as scarce as some peo ple think. To have a good wheat crop, make sure that you fertilize accordingly if any of yours are in that category. The pH is more critical for barley than wheat but don’t take that as an excuse to let it drop down too low. When seeding during the opti mum time, 20 seeds per foot, in seven-inch rows is adequate. This is about 100 pounds per acre of seed with 15,000 seeds per pound. Uniform depth of plant ing resulting in even emergence is very important. If planting later than the end of the optimum pe riod, increase the seeding rate to compensate. Ohio State recom mends increasing the seeding rate by one pound per day starting eight days after the Hessian fly free date. If planting earlier, re read this article.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers