Garden Spot Living Up to Name Garden Spot Living Up to Name

By Ryan Robinson

Fields of healthy yellow tobacco brighten the horizon. That’s if you can see it beyond the cornfields, with plants soaring to 11 feet in height. Wagons full of vegetables line up at produce auctions and farmers are working overtime to fill silos. “They don’t call us the Garden Spot for nothing,” said Ann Risser of Risser Grain in Holtwood. Harvest is in full swing and it’s clear that despite drought problems in much of Pennsylvania, county farmers have been spared. “We’re in real good shape, especially compared to the rest of the state,” said Jeff Stoltzfus, a farmer and an adult agriculture instructor with the Eastern Lancaster County School District. In August, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a drought watch for 58 counties in Pennsylvania, excluding nine counties in the southeast, including Lancaster. Crops suffered and yields are expected to be down in many parts of the state. Not in Lancaster. The Millersville University Weather Information Center has measured 271/2 inches of rain so far this year, just 11/2 inches below average. Some county farmers got more timely rains than others here, said Geoff Finch, chief operating officer of Rheems-based Wenger’s Feed Mill Inc. “It was spotty, rather than a blanket,” he said. But most got enough rain to produce good crops. Risser said farmers are yielding a “very good” 130 to 150 bushels from short- season corn, which matures quicker and can be harvested earlier than full-season corn. Full-season corn will also yield an average or above-average crop, she predicted. The period of extreme heat in early August really helped the corn to grow, she added. “Overall, it’s going to be an above-average corn crop,” Stoltzfus said. In Lancaster, that means a lot of corn. Last year, farmers here produced 13.7 million bushels of corn for grain, 5.7 million more than York County, the second highest Pennsylvania county. Lancaster farmers also harvested 1.8 million tons of corn silage, dwarfing second-place Franklin County’s 467,000 tons. Prices of corn remain high – good news for crop farmers, bad news for others who buy it to feed dairy cows and livestock. The county placed third last year with nearly 1.2 million bushels of soybeans, another important feed ingredient for livestock. Risser said this year’s soybeans are growing tall and they have good pods, so farmers expect an average yield. The soybeans would benefit from more rain before their harvest in three or four weeks, she added. Tobacco and vegetables also enjoyed good growing seasons, according to Stoltzfus. He said pumpkins are ripening a little earlier than normal and fewer are rotting in the fields than in past years. Tree fruit farmers had a bad year, Stoltzfus said. Late peaches, for example, are in short supply. Recently, representatives of Mennonite Disaster Service, based in Akron, visited farms in Pennsylvania’s drought-affected areas and decided to support a harvest-sharing relief effort. Farmers in Lancaster County are being asked to donate silage, grain or a load of hay to farmers in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. Anyone willing to donate should call a hotline at the Gordonville fire hall, 768-4670. “The Amish are spreading the word through their own network and are collecting funds,” said Kevin King, MDS’s executive director. “This is a joint effort.” MDS mainly focuses on clean-up, repair and rebuilding of homes, but its Lancaster unit has helped farmers before. In 1999 and 2000, MDS and other agencies in the Family Drought Response Coalition distributed 6,900 tons of hay from Mennonite farmers in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas and Ontario, Canada, to drought areas in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. n CONTACT US: rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032 Harvest time is upon us and many local farmers have bushels of reasons to be thankful.

Fields of healthy yellow tobacco brighten the horizon. That’s if you can see it beyond the cornfields, with plants soaring to 11 feet in height. Wagons full of vegetables line up at produce auctions and farmers are working overtime to fill silos. “They don’t call us the Garden Spot for nothing,” said Ann Risser of Risser Grain in Holtwood. Harvest is in full swing and it’s clear that despite drought problems in much of Pennsylvania, county farmers have been spared. “We’re in real good shape, especially compared to the rest of the state,” said Jeff Stoltzfus, a farmer and an adult agriculture instructor with the Eastern Lancaster County School District. In August, the Department of Environmental Protection issued a drought watch for 58 counties in Pennsylvania, excluding nine counties in the southeast, including Lancaster. Crops suffered and yields are expected to be down in many parts of the state. Not in Lancaster. The Millersville University Weather Information Center has measured 271/2 inches of rain so far this year, just 11/2 inches below average. Some county farmers got more timely rains than others here, said Geoff Finch, chief operating officer of Rheems-based Wenger’s Feed Mill Inc. “It was spotty, rather than a blanket,” he said. But most got enough rain to produce good crops. Risser said farmers are yielding a “very good” 130 to 150 bushels from short- season corn, which matures quicker and can be harvested earlier than full-season corn. Full-season corn will also yield an average or above-average crop, she predicted. The period of extreme heat in early August really helped the corn to grow, she added. “Overall, it’s going to be an above-average corn crop,” Stoltzfus said. In Lancaster, that means a lot of corn. Last year, farmers here produced 13.7 million bushels of corn for grain, 5.7 million more than York County, the second highest Pennsylvania county. Lancaster farmers also harvested 1.8 million tons of corn silage, dwarfing second-place Franklin County’s 467,000 tons. Prices of corn remain high – good news for crop farmers, bad news for others who buy it to feed dairy cows and livestock. The county placed third last year with nearly 1.2 million bushels of soybeans, another important feed ingredient for livestock. Risser said this year’s soybeans are growing tall and they have good pods, so farmers expect an average yield. The soybeans would benefit from more rain before their harvest in three or four weeks, she added. Tobacco and vegetables also enjoyed good growing seasons, according to Stoltzfus. He said pumpkins are ripening a little earlier than normal and fewer are rotting in the fields than in past years. Tree fruit farmers had a bad year, Stoltzfus said. Late peaches, for example, are in short supply. Recently, representatives of Mennonite Disaster Service, based in Akron, visited farms in Pennsylvania’s drought-affected areas and decided to support a harvest-sharing relief effort. Farmers in Lancaster County are being asked to donate silage, grain or a load of hay to farmers in Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. Anyone willing to donate should call a hotline at the Gordonville fire hall, 768-4670. “The Amish are spreading the word through their own network and are collecting funds,” said Kevin King, MDS’s executive director. “This is a joint effort.” MDS mainly focuses on clean-up, repair and rebuilding of homes, but its Lancaster unit has helped farmers before. In 1999 and 2000, MDS and other agencies in the Family Drought Response Coalition distributed 6,900 tons of hay from Mennonite farmers in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas and Ontario, Canada, to drought areas in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. n CONTACT US: rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032 Please see HARVEST page B2

Originally published by Ryan Robinson New Era Staff Writer.

(c) 2007 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.