Herrs’ Nottingham Pasture Project Saves Fence, Improves Stream
(Continued from Page A 24)
This year Herr-Hope Farms
was recognized with the Octoraro
Riverkeeper Award presented at
the association's banquet at the
end of April.
The award is part of two or
three given each year at the ban
quet. A variety of projects are
usually recognized, such as an el
ementary school’s Wildlife habi
tat, according to Fasano.
The recognition is “long over
due” said Fasano. Herr Sr. is one
of the founders and past presi
dent of the Octoraro Watershed
Association.
Being conservation-minded
began years ago, when A. Dale
Sr. and did a lot of custom work.
“I’d get around and see how
other farms were being contoured
and how things were being
plowed,” he said. “When I got
home and had to plow over gut
ters, I said to my father that we
had to do something about this.”
Contours, however, were only
a first step in changes on the
farm. In 1970 Herr put first ter
race in, a practice that is contin
ued today, as Herr is working on
installing more terraces on the
farm.
“I think conservation has come
a long way in the last 25 years,”
he said. “Farmers in the area are
really doing a great job. There
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are a lot of farms around where
they’re doing a beautiful job
doing conservation terraces and
no-till fields.”
To combat the hilly fields of
their area, the Herrs “do as much
no-till as we can,” said Herr Sr.
Herr Jr., who speaks of “being
conscious of our own practices,”
and “showing the way,” is enthu
siastic about the management
practices put in place on the
farm.
Other farm management prac
tices at Herr-Hope Farms include
no-till corn and grain fields, plus
many pipe outlet terraces, which
direct the water into a pipe that
trickles underground.
The farm includes almost 300
acres of tillable ground and 50
acres of woods. The Herrs plant
more than 100 acres of corn, al
most 100 acres of beans, with the
balance in wheat, timothy hay,
and tobacco, besides 20 acres of
pastures that includes a stream.
The Herrs pasture bred heifers
for their neighbors.
The Herrs have not regretted
fencing the heifers out of the
stream. “I can’t understand why
every little stream in Lancaster
isn’t fenced in,” said Herr Jr.
“The money is available.”
“I knew the time was coming
when we would have to keep the
cows out of there,” said Herr Sr.
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Since money was not available,
the Herrs put the fence in them
selves.
“A lot of people that have done
it (fenced the cows out) realize
that their cows do much better
when they’re not in the steam,”
he said.
Fencing animals out, said Scott
Reinhart, program biologist for
Ducks Unlimited Inc., provides
not only better habitat for wildlife
but also health benefits to the
herd, decreasing mastitis and
hoof problems, among other ill
nesses.
Besides decreasing herd health
problems, the plants that begin to
grow between the fences are ben
eficial. “The vegetation serves as
a huge grass waterway that slows
flooding and helps take out nutri
ents such as nitrogen and phos
phorus,” said Reinhart.
Since 1937 Ducks Unlimited
Inc. has worked to protect and
restore wetland areas. The organ
ization can provide money to as
sist landowners to restore wet
lands.
For example Ducks Unlimited
will pay the full cost of fencing
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The west branch of the Octoraro River no longer
curves toward the fence, thanks to several stream bank
management practices put in place in recent years at
Herr-Hope Farms.
and plantings. The landowner is yard roofing, or diversions, they
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