Grob Memorial Scholarship Recipient 2016, 2014
Carville Mace Jr, Littlestown son of Carville and Mary Anne Mace
I want to thank the PVGA for awarding me the scholarship for 2016-2017. I am going into my 5th semester of college at Penn State in the fall. I am continuing towards the ultimate goal of achieving my college degree from the Pennsylvania State University. I am still pursuing my degree in Business Management. After completion of the spring semester I am currently in I will be accepted into my major and move to Penn State Harrisburg in the fall to finish my degree there.
Outside of college I continued my role on the farm. I worked with my father in the planning of how we were going to run the farm. I worked on making sure the crops grew and were taking care of. We expanded production on the farm by about 30 percent in order to sell more crops through the Cumberland Valley Produce Auction. The Auction now plays an important part in our operation. We now grow crops to sell directly through the auction. What was new for this year was I started to farm on my own. I acquired about 40 acres of rented land from my neighbor down the road who retired. I decided to plant the ground in soybeans. The soybeans yielded very successfully. My average for the entire crop was 52 bu./ac. Because I did not own any equipment I rented equipment from my father to plant and spray the beans, and I had my neighbor custom harvest the beans with his combine. I then planted the ground in wheat which I plan to harvest this summer and bale the straw with my new, New Holland baler I bought this winter along with my new John Deere 4020 tractor. I hope to continue to be successful with my own farming operations so when the time comes I can go back into growing vegetables for myself which is my true passion. And as we get ready for this season I hope to have a successful year working on the family farm growing produce.
Also for this year I continued to plow snow as I have been doing for a number of years now. This year I kept the same contract I had last year through US Lawns. It was not a great snow season. I did upgrade my plowing equipment by purchasing a 12ft pusher box for our loader tractor. But with all the excitement about plowing snow, there wasn’t much snow to plow. The only snow that was really good came in the middle of March which was good because it covered the equipment expenses and insurance costs. But that is how it goes when relying on the weather. I seem to have developed a good relationship with US Lawns and they plan to have us back next winter to plow snow if need be.
This year was full of new projects and endeavors as well as continuing ones from years past. I had to really set priorities and manage my time more than ever before. This year I hope to continue my success in school, on the farm, and in whatever else I do. Once again I want to thank the PVGA for awarding me the 2016 scholarship. Thank you.
Carville Mace