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The Newberry Sun, Newberry, S. C., Thursday, Sept. 25, 1969—PAGE 5 Automation is the key to keeping down man* power requirements in the Greenslade poul try operation. Dave works the panel of switches which controls automatic feeding, watering, and egg collection. All members of the family help out in the poultry operations, with this young daughter doing a man-sized job in picking up eggs. Mr. and Mrs. Dave Greenslade, operators of a modern laying hen operation here, check one of their producers. The young couple teams up to take care of the 35,000 flock. Greenslades operate modern poultry farm When young Dave Greenslade and his wife talk about a family poultry operation, they mean it. In any given day, they will pack 25,000 to 30,000 eggs and tend to the 35,000 flock of hens without the aid of outside la bor. A five-year-old daughter and 8-year-old-son do their share. The five-year-old has been at it since she was three and “she can pick up more eggs in an hour than most men,” says her father. It’s an unusual operation in many respects. Dave is a native of Bermuda who came to Presbyterian Coll- Jabs article is published An article exploring reason and the religious faith of college students by A. E. Jabs, dean of students at Newberry College, appears in the current issue of the “South Carolina United Methodist Advocate”. “There is a proper and nec essary role of each in the Lib eral Arts institution of today,” Jabs declares. “This dialogue of reason and faith should per meate all of the disciplines. Let him see that the best dialogue of faith and reason takes place when student and professor both approach reason and faith with an honest commitment and a sense of discovery. “In this way,” he concludes, “student, professor, educational institution, and society itself can grow and flourisl in the way they should.” Jabs joined the Newberry College staff in 1968 as an assi ant professor of history am director of student teach- he assumed his present osition September 1. Prior to coming to Newberry, he was on the faculty at the Univer sity of Akron, Akron, Ohio. ege on a tennis scholarship and after graduation spent three years as an industrial engineer. His wife is the former Mary- beth Regnery of Newberry and attended Converse College. They started their operation three years ago. “I wanted to get outside, get into some kind of business,” Dave says. “This appealed to us. And I spent a lot of time studying the field, visiting other poultry farms, trying to get the total picture before we got into it.” Influencing the decision was a 300-plus acre farm they al ready occupied with a modern lake-side home. They started with 17,000 lay ers in five houses. Now, the original operation has been nearly doubled to the 35,000 layers in 10 houses. All are narrow, cage-type, five of them 280 feet long and the new est five running 300 feet - -the length of a football field. The White Leghorn hens are housed two to a cage, eight by 18 inches each. It’s a contract business. The Greenslades supply housing, eq uipment, and labor. A commer cial firm puts in chicks, fur nishes feod, and handles the egg marketing. Along the expansion route there have been some changes as the former engineer and his wife worked to make the oper ation as mechanized and auto mated as possible. Feeding and watering are now completely automated. A flick of switches does it. Eggs roll down to a conveyor belt where a flick of another switch brings them to a central pick-up point in each housing complex. Only manure disposal is man ual, and it’s the one function requiring outside labor. “We saved at least four hours a day by mechanizing egg col lection and feeding,” Dave es timates. The young couple find them selves in the houses every morn ing about 8:30, usually with their two youngest children, five-year-old Shelly and 10-month old Stephanie. Dave, Jr., 8, is in school but helps out in after noons. They take a dinner break a- round noon and come back a- bout 1:30 to stay until 4:30 or five. This is seven days a week, unless special preparations are made for a time when they want to be off. Three egg pickups a day take a total of about four hours. The rest of the time is re quired for general housekeep ing and flock maintenance. “It’s the things you don’t see around a poultry operation that take the time,” says Dave. A big chore is culling-checking to see which hens are laying and which aren’t-and pulling out the non-layers. Cleaning water and feed troughs and maintenance of equipment also are time-con suming. Here, Mrs. Greenslade gets a word of praise. The couple worked together all the way to get the operation off the ground and going. They also install ed all the equipment. “She does everything I do, sometimes more,” says Green slade. “She does the work of two men, packing .eggs, cull ing birds, even handling ad justments on the machinery or anything else about the place.” In addition, she does the home making with only part-time cleaning help. It all adds up to a lot of work, but so far they’re satis fied with the row they’ve picked to hoe. “We’re still young at it, and learning,” says Dave, “but we looked into it carefully before taking the plunge. So far it’s been just about what we ex pected.” You’ll have a hard time finding a wagon as easy to get into as a 1970 Chevrolet. Try it sometime. Climb into any other wagon, then climb into one of ours. Chevrolet wins in a walk: With a dual-action door that swings open without any jutting hinges. With a rubbered stair built right into the bumper. With a roof that slants thoughtfully forward so . you won’t hit your head. Look into a walk-in at your Chevrolet dealer's. Putting you first, keeps us first. Ofl TTl6 MOVG.