—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15, 1962 % 18 David Lapp Describes Life In New Zealand Ed. Note: This is the sec ond in * scries of excerpts from in letter written by Dav id Lapp, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Lapp, Bareville Rl. Dav id is spending six-months in New Zealand as an exchange in tlie 4-H Interna tional Farm Youth-Exchange program. He is writing about the dairy farm of lus host iamily. They have quite good pas ture, a mixture of meadow grasses which they call rye and clover. The clover causes quite a problem in wet weath er, It isn’t uncommon to lose two or three cows a year with bloat. Until recently they did not know how to control the bloat. Then they discovered they could do so by spraying each pasture with peanut oil 55^53^- For Christmas! • All New design • All New performance • All New paper handling system • All New fingertip control panel • Ail New exclusive features • All New ruggedness • All New decorator colors • All New deluxe, high-fashion carrying case Plus famous Royal touch and full size office keyboard ASK ABOUT OUR EASV PAYMENT PLAN. L. B. Herr & Son The Portable Typewriter Store before they pasture it. This becomes rather expensive, so they usually just shut this 'pasture off to the cows until the bloait scare is over. On this farm of 240 acres they had 140 milking cows which were Jerseys, and 60 yearlings which they were David Lapp breeding at the time. On the milking cows, they use arti ficial insemination. They are all bred during a period of six weeks. This makes it possible for the farmer to have them all calve about the Lancaster Automobile Club PACKAGED IN A COLORFUL HOLIDAY BOX Over 50,000 Members in Lancaster County enjoy these services . . , s "r IMM !At ItarttTml PERSONAL - EMERGENCY . “ ACCIDENT INSURANCE ROAD SERVICE AND MANY OTHERS COAS T rQ CQAST BAIL BOND SERVICE LANCASTER AUTOMOBILE CLUB fSfSoSfl iHUJUJUJI 12 S PRINCE ST.. LANCASTER MAPs Please tend a CHRISTMAS GIFT membership * TRAVEL SERVICE Tft LICENSE SERVICE This WJlC*llir> t* k* uMtf fsr NEW MEMBERS ONLY *** MUST * BSIDE IN LANCASTER COUNTY ’ -X^ll) j_ pi* • INDICATE (X) HOW YOU WANT DELIVERY MADE LEGAL lend itfl packets direct □ Send te me □ ' fcs%=sfeqf ADVISORY SERVICE Send*'. Name ' MONTHLY MAGAZINE Entrance Fa." " «i so No ,n,r,nc * ,e » for » rtr ' e trance Fee » 2 - 50 Address ion residlne with e present TOTAL Sto.oo member. FEE *7.50 same time, giving him two months out of the year whec they are all 'dry. This Is us ually during their winter. They also had 60 calves which they are feeding on grass afone. They are very healthy, in spite <jf .the fact that I was told in Lancaster County we have to feed our calves on hay and gram until they are at least 10 months old. Each farmer tries to work for a cow and a half to the acre, and as much butter fat as he can get. Milk goes for cheese and butter, which are second only to wool In ex ports. Soi they try to get as much fat off each acre as.pos sible. On the farm I stayed, they got the average of 29 pounds of milk per cow per day in the two weeks I stayed itheie. This gave them a total of 4,000 pounds”'per day. This is the spring of their year, and they thought they were, doing fairly good. For all you Holstein Breeders in the county, I sure' tried my best to sell them the breed, but they just laughed at me. I told them that we get 400 to 600 pounds of fat per cow, compared to their 300 pound average. They told me that they used to have some Hol steins but found they can only pasture three per acre, where as they could pasture four or five Jerseys. They are, how- For Christmas 9 give a membership in the 365 days of driving pleasure THE IDEAL GIFT EASY TO BUY-SURE TO PLEASE ever, doing quite a bit of cross breeding between Hol stems and Jerseys. Another thing I though was quite interesting was the price they get for milk. They just get $1.25 to $1.50 a hundred. They also l get paid by butter fat content; so they would complain when they got their check from the fac tory saying they just got a 4 2 test. I asked them, since they are a co-op, and each farmer has a vote in their factory, why they don’t do something about it. They didn’t know. Since their milk goes for cheese, they don’t have such a stiff inspection, but if they are found to be shipping milk with mastitis they get stopped. They cool their milk only hy running it over cold water pipes, then into a milk can. They are starting to get stainless steel tanks, but the milk is still cooled the same way, then pumped into the tank. When I told them what we get for our milk, they said it sounds all right, but wondered why we have so much surplus. Another thing 'he said was why we have such a high overhead and need the money to run our expensive equipment. Here I talked up and said that I ithmk they could have twice as many cows if they would 'put them on a dry lot and chop all the grass and bring it to the cows. To this he said, “We already produce more butter and cheese than we can sell on the world mar ket ‘for a good price,” They ipay the equivalent ol 2a pound for butter and for a loaf of bread in the stores. He said -until they get more markets and the Com mon Market gets started, it wouldn’t pay them to buy the heavy machinery. I had to appreciate my 'host father very much, be cause together I believe we learned quite a bit, even though we can’t do much about solving the many prob lems the world has. Some times we thought we came up with some good ideas. Buying Avocados You may find avocados dis played in stores in two way» —■ firm, and soft, ready-to eat, explains Harold Neigh, Penn State extension consum er economics specialist. Firm fruit must be left at room temperature until it it soft, and this may take two to four days. Ready-to-eat fruit is conditioned ahead of time to use at once. The flesh of this fruit is delicate. To tes.t for softness-, hold the-fruit in the palm of your hand, atjd if it feels soft to the touch it is ready to eit.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers