PFGC Recognizes Forage, Grassland Innovators
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thy, alfalfa, orchardgrass, and
mixed stands on the home farm
and nearby rented land.
The Finks maximize handling
efficiency by double-compressing
the hay into super-dense 35- and
80-pound bales which are sold to
local farmers and to dairy and
horse operations as far away as
Europe and the Carribean Is
lands.
In accepting the award, Fink
credited Dr. John Baylor, PFGC
founder and longtime forage spe
cialist at Penn State, for first in
teresting him in exporting hay
three decades ago. Fink began to
double-compress hay on Heidel
Hollow Farm in the mid-19705.
Fink quoted Freeman Dyson, a
physics professor at Princeton
University, to highlight the role
hay has played in the develop
ment of modern civilization.
Dyson was one of about 100
leading thinkers who several
years ago were asked, “What has
been the most important inven
tion in the past 2,000 years?”
Dyson’s answer was hay.
“In the classical world of
Greece and Rome and in all
earlier times, there was no hay,”
Dyson said. “Civilization conld
only exist in warm climates
where horses could stay alive
through the winter by grazing.
Without grass in winter, you
could not have horses, and with
out horses you could not have
urban civilization. Sometime dur
ing the Dark Ages,
some unknown genius invented
hay,, forests were turned into
Tom Roche of Ireland, left, compares grazing notes
with Paul Craig, Dauphin County extension agent.
meadows, hay was reaped and
stored, and civilization moved
north over the Alps. So hay gave
birth to Vienna and Paris and
London and Berlin, and later to
Moscow and New York.”
The quote was cited in a tech
nology column written by Mi
crosoft founder Bill Gates in
1999.
Dr. William Stout, USDA
ARS Pasture Systems and Wa
tershed Management Research
Unit, State College, received this
year’s Research/Extension
Award. Stout recently passed
away. PFGC leaders honored
him for his years of commitment
to grassland education.
Kathy Soder, USDA-Agricul
tural- Research Service (ARS)
pasture, pystepis, r«^?qrchep,' ac
cepted the award on Stout’s be
half. Soder had worked closely
with Stout over a three-year peri
od, during which he acted as an
invaluable mentor for her, Soder
said.
Stout was an adviser on the
Pennsylvania Project Grass coor
dinating committee, providing
technical advice and expertise
over the years. He was instru
mental in promoting the Project
Grass grazing stick and grazing
notebook, tools that help graziers
manage their pastures. Stout de
veloped two grazing notebooks,
one for dairy producers and one
for other livestock species.
Stout had also been active in efforts in conservation with for
the expansion of Project Grass , ages makes him highly deserving
across Pennsylvania, and assisted . of the PFGC’s Conversation
in organizing numerous fiel^ ( « A\vard,” , < ,
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 8, 2003-A23
days and the formation of graz
ing groups.
“Dr. Stout’s biggest contribu
tion has been in the area of edu
cation,” said Dr. Marvin Hall,
Penn State agronomy professor
and PFGC officer. “Because of
these contributions, he is truly
deserving of the PFGC
Research/Extension/T caching
Award.”
James Cropper, USDA-ARS
humid regions grassland special
ist, received the PFGC conserva
tion award.
Cropper works at the USDA
ARS Pasture Systems and Wa
tershed Management Research
Unit at Penn State. He has been
involved in conservation work in
Pennsylvania and the Northeast
since 1987, when he a became
Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) agronomist in
Chester, where he worked at dis
seminating information to help
start grazing programs. Cropper
also produced and edited Pasture
Prophet, a grazing newsletter
that has had national distribu
tion.
Since 1995, Cropper has
worked at the Pasture Lab Build
ing in State College. His contri
butions during that time include
developing pasture sections in the
USDA/NRCS National Range
land and Pasture handbook, pas
tureland ecology training sessions
at North Carolina State and
Penn State, and the NRCS pas
ture condition scoring system.
“Jim Cropper’s unsurpassed
The two-day conference fea
tured a number of presentations
on grazing and forage topics.
Irish brothers and dairymen
Tom and Dr. John Roche shared
their views on the potential of
grazing opportunities in the
Northeast.
“There is huge potential for
pasture-based grazing dairy
farms in the northeastern U. 5.,”
they concluded. “However, al
though you can learn from the
obvious mistakes that other coun
tries have made, you will not be
able to directly transfer their sys
tem into your region. Pick the
most appropriate management
practices and research them
within your system.”
Tom Roche manages a
100-cow dairy on the Roche fam
ily farm in southern Ireland.
John works as a dairy nutrition
scientist in New Zealand.
Dr. Steve Washburn of North
Carolina State University spoke
on his research into animal ge
netics for grazing systems.
Washburn focused on the po
tential of crossbreeding to im
prove survivability and reproduc
tive performance in dairy cattle.
“Given our historical decline in
dairy cow fertility and limitations
of solving the problem through
increasing energy intake, it is
time to gear the genetic selection
of dairy cattle to include fertility
indicators along with milk pro
duction,” Washburn noted.
Read the upcoming April 19
edition of Foraging Around, a
section of Lancaster Farming,
for more conference reports.,
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