Heidel Hollow Farms has been a family owned farm since 1852 and is currently an 18,000-acre operation in Germansville, PA on April 20, 2011.
Led by President David Fink they mainly produce and compact hay for export; additionally they grow produce on 300 acres for local sale within a 40-mile radius. With the financial help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) an 896 panel solar array was recently installed on undeveloped diversion ditches. Rated at 200 kilowatts, they project 240 megawatts of electricity to be produced each year, providing up to 70% of the farms electrical needs. Additionally, USDA financial assistance made it possible to replace the hay compactor’s diesel engines with clean low-maintenance, low operating cost electric motors to power the compactor's hydraulic system. The compactor increases the density of baled hay by two and half times for more efficient shipping to overseas customers. USDA photo by Lance Cheung.
. Original public domain image from Flickr