Farm Bureau Announces Achievement Award Finalists
(Continued from Page A 1)
by a panel of judges on a combi
nation of factors, including farm
operation growth and financial
progress, plus leadership within
and outside of Farm Bureau.
The winner of the YF&R
Achievement Award, to be an
nounced Tuesday, Nov. 18, will
receive a $5OO cash prize from
the Dodge division of Daim
ler Chrysler, 400 hours use of a
Kubota tractor, $5OO worth of
crop protection products from
Syngenta, and lodging and regis
tration at the 2004 Pennsylvania
Farm Bureau Leadership Confer
ence. The winner will also travel
to the American Farm Bureau
convention in Honolulu, Hawaii
in January to take part in nation
al competition.
This year’s finalists are Mat
thew and Barbara Balliet of
Drums, Luzerne County; Forrest
and Jessica Wessner of Ger
mansville, Lehigh County; and
Dennis Whitney of Harborcreek,
Erie County.
Starting in 1998 with the pur
chase of a rundown farm in a
neighboring county, Matthew
Balliet single-handedly operates a
500-acre cash grain enterprise.
He grows com and soybeans,
plus some hay and oats for a
small herd of custom-raised beef
cattle. Having no equipment
when he started, over the years
Balliet has purchased or custom
ized a complete line of planters,
drills, tillage equipment, and
trucks. Cropping on the farm is
100 percent no-till.
He converted a potato storage
building into a maintenance and
equipment repair shed, and
added an on-farm grain storage
and dryer system. Following last
HERNLEY’S FARM
EQUIP., INC.
Elizabethtown, Pa.
717-367-8867
B.H.M. FARM
EQUIP. INC.
Annville, Pa.
717-867-2211
B. EQUIP.; INC.
Waynesboro, Pa.
717-762-3193
year’s drought, Balliet installed
two center-pivot irrigation sys
tems which can cover about one
third of the com acreage at the
home farm.
An active Farm Bureau mem
ber, Balliet has served on the Lu
zerne County Farm Bureau
board of directors. He chairs the
County Farm Bureau’s State
Legislative Committee and serves
as its National Legislative
Spokesman. He and his wife Bar
bara have served on Pennsylva
nia Farm Bureau’s YF&R State
Committee. Balliet also served on
a county task force on farmland
preservation and is now a mem
ber of the county’s Agricultural
Land Preservation Board. He is a
dedicated member and Fire Chief
of the Butler Township Fire De
partment.
Forrest and Jessica Wessner
operate a 450-acre potato and
hay farm in Lehigh County. They
have undertaken many changes
during the eight years they’ve
been farming to improve the
marketability of their products.
Labor-saving changes have also
been a major focus in an opera
tion which involves handling
40,000 fifty-pound bags of pota
toes and 30,000 bales of hay and
straw.
A German-built potato har
vester was purchased to improve
quality of their tablestock pota
toes. Their packing line was ex
panded and updated and an in-
dustrial-size humidifier was
' installed in their storage facility
to maintain potato quality. A
traveling irrigation system was
purchased following the 1999
drought so the farm’s entire pota
to acreage could be covered.
For their hay business, a hay
drying bam was constructed to
FARMERS
EQUIPMENT &
SUPPLY
Airville, Pa.
717-862-3967
WERTZ
FARM & POWER
EQUIPMENT, INC.
PARt. 516,
Glen Rock, Pa.
717-235-0111
cure the hay with warm air, pro
ducing a differentiated, quality
product which has proven to be
popular with their horse-owner
customers. A second baler was
added and a large 80-foot X
40-foot building was constructed
to provide quality hay storage.
Wessner is a member of the
Lehigh County Farm Bureau
Board of Directors and serves on
its State Legislative Committee.
He is also active in the Lehigh
County Potato Growers Associa
tion. Jessica has served on the
Lehigh County Cooperative Ex
tension board and the county 4-H
board.
Dennis Whitney operates a
120-acre grape vineyard and
apple orchard on the shores of
Lake Erie. A member of the Na
tional Grape Cooperative Associ
ation, Dennis grows Concord and
Niagara grapes for processing
into juice and jams at a nearby
GENEVA, N.Y. The New
York State Agricultural Experi
ment Station has added the
75-acre Gates Farm to the 730
acres of available research land
being used by the station for field
trials. The additional land will
allow the implementation of a
new crop rotation schedule and
insure the integrity of field trials
at the station.
“It is vital that we continue our leadership of Professor Susan
efforts to provide high-quality re- Brown, while 15 acres are part of
search facilities for our faculty a study run by Professor George
and staff, thus allowing them to * Abawi on soil health.
C.J. WONSIDLER
BROS.
Quakertown, Pa.
215-536-7523
New Tripoli, Pa.
215-767-7611
Oley, Pa.
215-987-6257
GRUMELLI
FARM SERVICE
Quarryville, Pa.
717-786-7318
Geneva Experiment Station Increases
Its Capacity For Field Research
Lancaster County Hires Dairy Agent
(Continued from Page A 1)
farm. He’s very interested in
getting back on farms (after his
wold was selected out of about 15 teaching stint in Illinois).”
applicants for the position. Beth Grove will continue to
“He has a very strong science serve as Lancaster County
and teaching background,” dairy agent for smaller farms,
Ressler said. “Most important- while Griswold will focus on
ly, he has a strong farm back- larger operations,
ground, having grown up on a Griswold said his first priori-
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Welch’s plant. He also grows
some Catawba grapes and
French hybrid varieties for area
winemakers. A few acres of the
farm have been converted to trel
lised apple trees for pick-your
own sales.
Since taking over from his fa
ther in 1993, Dennis has under
taken an extensive overhaul of
the entire operation. He rejuve
nated existing vineyards, planted
20 more acres of grapes on his
property and leased additional
acreage from other farms. He has
also renovated aging equipment
and buildings. A 40-foot X
60-foot structure was constructed
for off-season equipment storage
and to centralize harvest opera
tions. A custom harvesting busi
ness has been established with
neighboring grape farmers.
Dennis has been active in the
Erie County Farm Bureau, serv
ing as Governmental Relations
continue to provide the best in
formation on fruit and vegetable
crop production and protection,”
said Bob Seem, associate director
of the experiment station.
The Gates Farm will be divid
ed between fruit and vegetable re
search. Some of the fruit field
space will allow the station’s
highly successful apple breeding
program to expand under the
CAM
"Unique Farm Services"
RON! CLARK • Licensed £r Insured
Phone: 717.361.6065 • fax: 717.367.0867
email: cnoflies@paonline.com
• FREE delivery within a 50 mile area •
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 8, 2003-A3l
Farm Services ■».
Elizabethtown • Pennsylvania
45 lb. pail
Director and membership co
chairman. He is also a member of
the PFB YF&R State Committee.
He has served as an alternate del
egate for his grape cooperative
and serves on the County Horti
culture Board. He has also held
leadership roles with the Boy
Scouts and Civil Air Patrol.
Farmers from across the state
will take part in the PFB Annual
Meeting at the Hershey Lodge
and Convention Center, Nov. 17
- 19. Voting Delegates from 54
county Farm Bureaus will elect
leaders and chart policy positions
for the statewide organization for
the coming year. PFB represents
about 34,000 farm and rural fam
ilies in 54 county organizations.
It is part of the world’s largest or
ganization of farmers and ranch
ers, the 5.3-million member
American Farm Bureau Federa
tion.
The farm was purchased from
Rosalie Kneut in 2001, and is lo
cated on Gates Road in Geneva,
NY, contiguous with the Station’s
Robbins and Lucey Farms. The
Station’s Field Research Unit,
managed by Mark Scott, more
than 2,000 man-hours improving
the farm’s infrastructure to meet
the needs of station scientists. Im
provements include access roads,
a surface water management sys
tem, underground irrigation lines,
deer fence and subsurface drain
age, bringing the cost of the farm
to $400,000.
ty will be to “meet as many
people as possible” to leam
about the Lancaster County
dairy industry.
He said he is looking forward
to settling down in the area
with his wife Beth (originally
from Philadelphia), and daugh
ter Julie, 10 months.
$lOO
Coifl lor pricing
$145