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March 2, 2001

Forsyth honored for idea

The award for "most likely to improve a farmer's net income" at the recent American Farm Bureau Federation annual meeting went to Texas Farm Bureau member C.W. Forsyth of Omaha. He tied with Charles Lee of DeQueen, Ark. Forsyth's winning entry was the "Paper Poultry Placer," which saves time and money when preparing a poultry house for new chicks. Lee's innovation was called the "Slat Buddy," a time and labor-saving tool to greatly simplify the replacement of broken concrete slats in livestock buildings.

Forsyth originally built the paper placer about 11 years ago as a labor saving device. "Before we used plastic feeder lids and used some paper feeder lids," this poultry producer said. "But you have to pick both of them up. You've got to wash the plastic ones and you've got to dispose of the paper ones by burning them. And that doesn't help the environment. So we've gone to this biodegradable paper to ease under the feedlines to feed the chicks on."

According to Forsyth, the "paper placer" plows a trench and lays paper down. The feed, which drops out of the feedlines, is then placed on top of the paper. The chicks are fed five to seven days. When through feeding, the paper is left on the ground. "The chickens scratch it up and make little pieces out of. It's just mixed with the litter then," the poultry producer said.

Forsyth donated his $250 award to the John Denman scholarship fund.