|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|
BEST MANAGED FARMFrom FARM FUTURES Magazine 12/1985 Meet the people who run some of the best-run farms in the country, and find out what makes them so special. We present our Best Managed Farm and the four runners up, including the farm of Paul and Gail McPherson, New Park PA. PHOTO by John Allen Paul McPherson has learned a few things in his 23 years of farming. One of the most valuable is that sometimes the best way to increase profits isn't to expand, but to squeeze more income out of each acre. It was a lesson learned of necessity. In the mid-1970's, McPherson's Maple Lawn Farms of New park, PA, was making money producing grain. But untimely frosts and rising costs for migrant labor resulted in losses for its orchards. "Our bankers weren't worried, because we were still riding up land values," McPherson said. "But unless you're a real estate speculator, that's not the way industry works" to maintain profits. To cope with changing times, McPherson made a business decision: Each crop enterprise had to generate a profit. In its field corn operation, Maple Lawn started testing the soil each year to better control nutrients. The farm also experimented with minimum tillage. The result: Corn yields increased 30 bushels an acre. Though planted acres dropped to 750 acres, from 1,000, production was maintained at 95,000 bushels. Maple Lawn scrapped its 80 acres of sweet corn entirely, "It took too much management time to harvest and market," McPherson said. "Protection comes from diversification and integration," advised McPherson, who besides farming nearly 1,000 acres also runs a country elevator and sells fertilizer. "Attention to those boring little details in each enterprise can add up to a lot of money." |
Copyright © 1999-2001 Maple Lawn Entertainment, Inc.
| ||||||||
