, ’-.'i 'jJdj'.ona. i <• ™n)}l i 4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 207*1963 - a From Where We Stand... Is Type Judging Obsolete? Have you seen any of the livestock shows in the county this summer and fall? We have been particularly pleased with the bigh quality animals exhibit ed by Lancaster County youth, livestock men and dairymen. We believe the ani mals on exhibit have more type and breed characteristics than any group ot exhibits we have seen in many years But is type a good indicator of pro ductive ability the only true worth of farm livestock ? We believe it is. We know that farm livestock is much more efficient than it was a few years ago. Cows produce more milk; hens lay more eggs; steers put on weight faster and on less feed, and hogs reach market sooner and leaner with more of the red meat wanted by the consumer. What accounts for this tremendous gain in efficiency? The feed manufac turers say it is better nutrition. The equipment manufacturers say it is better housing and care. The farm management experts say it is a change in farming practices. The pharmaceutical compan ies say it is better animal health, and the breeders say it is greater inherited abilities. To an extent, they are all correct, Feed is better; housing and man agement are better; drugs bring about better health; and the animals do have more inherited ability than did their ancestors. But we believe that all these would be of little value if the type of our livestock had not changed along with the other advances. Not long ago a writer for one of the dairy breed association magazines wrote an article charging (in effect) that the classification program is a hoax. He maintained that dairymen should fofget type and breed for production only. We do not agree with this philoso phy. Let’s take a couple of examples. Look at the pictures of the “Ex cellent” cows of a few decades ago. Many of them had pendulous udders. Many had weak legs or crooked backs, but they were the best of that genera tion. They probably had good production records for that day, too, but we know now that pendulous udders and weak legs tend to put a cow out of-the milk ing string much too soon. Or suppose you took an old Texas Longhorn and fed and cared for him in the most modern fashion. Maybe he would produce meat faster than any thing else in the pen, but where could you sell all that bone and gristle and horn? We believe improvement in type has had as much as anything else to do with improved efficiency of farm livestock, but this point is hard to prove. We have yardsticks with which to test rate of gain, rate of milk production and per cent of butterfat, eggs per hen per year, and units of production per unit of feed, but we have never had a reliable measure of type. Unfortunately, type is, somewhat subject to the whims of the consuming public and the individual show judges, but just because type is not an infail able guide to efficiency, we should not • Formers Urged (Continued trout Page 1) ‘Fred G. Seldomridge, Chair man, Agricultural Stabiliza- „ OltCOSfer k tion and Conservation County Robert G Camnbell Committee, has been informed liiancaater County’s Own Farm • P » - that the meeting is one of 13 -Weekly . , . . - ~f , J Adjertißing Director the Secretary will hold this p. q. Box 1524' '' ■> ifcafaßl&hod November 4, fall with farmers and others Lancaster, Fenna. 1956. Published every Satur m rural America in nearly P . 0 . Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. lJty by Lancaater-Farmtng, Ut every major agricultural area r J in the Nation. The meetings ®® ces ‘ will be geared toward “dirt St. farmer”,, participation, witlr Lit tz, Pa. t _ plenty of •'time! provided for agSPhone - Lancaster^ question - and - answer period,^^^C^reM^^^^^or pitch the baby out with the bath. We have added newer and more accurate measurements to this nebulous thing called type, and with every innovation, the evaluations become more valuable. We are not for less emphasis on type, but more. Of course we must continue to use production as a guide in breeding better livestock, but we must not re legate stock shows to limbo just be cause they are not perfect measurements of ability. - At least that’s how it looks from where we stand. ★ ★ ★ ★ Farm Leaders What’s a farm leader worth? - Community leaders often don’t realize what a vo-ag instructor, county agent or some other agricultural leader may be contributing to the local eco nomy. John Zwiebel, adult vo-ag instruc tor at Owatonna, Minn., has some in teresting figures on this. His adult pro gram serves about 200 families annual ly and he does a complete record analy sis on about 50 farms. Zwiebel recently summarized accounts of 14 families that have been in the program the last 14 years. Their average gross income in creased from $13,398 to $24,002. Each year that Zwiebel worked with these families they increased their purchases in the community by better than $2,000 per farm. When you consider that each dollar spent by a farmer may be turned over three to five times in the local eco nomy, these 14 farmers added $112,000 per year to local business. If the 50 families with which Zwiebel works in tensively do as well, he generates $1 million to local business in three to four years. Get-Up-And-Go-Power Milk was recommended to athletes for more “get up-and-go power” as a result of recent physical efficiency studies. Reporting on tests held at the University of Connecti cut, Dr. Hollis F. Fait said there is also no reason to exclude milk from the pre game meals of athletes. Tests revealed that milk does not cause stomach upset, sluggishness, loss agility, lack of en durance, or decreased- speed of move ment, Dr. Fait reported. Also ruled out were supposed effects of laziness or “cotton mouth” ' — a dryness and dis comfort found to arise from the indivi dual’s emotional state. Not the Bite But Fear Snakes bite about 1,500 people a year, says the American Medical Association, of whom only about 20 die. One authority main tains that of those who die, intense fear probably is responsible - for more fatalities than actual poison. ★ ★ ★ ★ Must Be So, Then Khrushchev says Soviet farmers are using 7 times as much labor to produce grain as in the U. S., 5 times more to grow potatoes, 6 times more to grow beets, 14 times as much to raise cattle, over 16 times as much to raise pigs. Lancaster Farming Jlck ° wen * Mltor il! - John Strohm in HIGH DOLLAR FARMING Entered as 2nd class matter ait liititz Pa. under Act of Mar. - *. 1879. ; • I i, 'i 4 11 ‘.V m Lesson for September 29, 1963 Bible Material: Genesis; Psalm 105: 1-24; Galatians 3; Hebrews 11:1-22. Devotional Reading; Psalm 105:1-11. ttTJ'AITH” is despised by peo * pie who don’t have it and don’t understand it. Faith is cari catured as an attitude of ignor ance. It is compared to taking a chance or going on an errrand that is bound to fail. Faith is said (by people who have none) to be like a man buy ing medicines and swallowing them with outlooking at the labels or read ing the directions. Faith has been compared to a blind man going down into the cel lar at midnight, without a light, looking for a black cat that isn’t there. Faith’s uncertainties Nobody who has long lived the life of faith is bothered by such misunderstandings. For one thing, he knows very well that the man who tells you he believes only what he can test with his own five senses does not really mean it, because if you believe only what you can personally test, you will have an unhappy time of it. Sup pose you try eating breakfast without faith some morning. The label on the cereal box says it has riboflavin and vitamin B and a lot of other things. Do you know that' none of these is poisonous? Do you know they’re all there? You know nothing of the sort; you be lieve it.'You go to the hospital for an operation; do you know the surgeon’s hand won’t slip? No, but you trust yourself to him all the same. There can’t be any more certainty than the certainty of faith, in most circumstances of life. The men whose lives have been 'briefly before us m these past few weeks, Abraham, Jacob and Jo seph, knew what the uncertainties of faith can be. Abraham went “not knowing whither he went.” Jacob had no assurance that his God would prosper him. He hoped so, to be sure; but to the end of his days there were question Now Is The will start dropping the acorns early in the fall; many- cows will fill up on the acorns if they get started to eat them. A few acorns each day will -reduce milk flow hut not make the animal sick; larger quantities will put the animal off feed and dry up the milk flow; once the flow is lost from acorns it may not return to normal until the following lacta tion. Reserye the acorns for the squirrels not the cows. _ ' „ „ allows time for the lime ..to To Soil Test This Fall sweeten the soil. { Land owners who do their To Beware of Lead Poisoning soil testing this fall before the j ground freezes, will be one , .Many animals are lost each jump'ahfead for next spring’s 'year due to lead* poisoning; [in i work; 'they will have time to many leases jthetrouble ,is Ira nian their lime and fertilizer ced to freshly painted buiid needs and avoid any delay ings or fences, or to empty, next spring. In the case of discarded- paint cans. Some wheat ground that is to be spray materials include araen seeded down to legumes next ates that may drift or he spring or summer, and is in washed into streams'/ need of lime, it is better to -grazing-areagi'iyi' paintera.Sid put it on the fall and work are urgAEto it into the ground before tlm be extremely careful withS»d trigpiri/jo- '■> /ii: p) < > Life off Faith BY MAX SMITH To Ensile Frosted Forage Crops With fields of sudan grass or the sudax hybrids that have considerable growth when frosted, it is suggested that the crop be put into the silo When grazed or ted green there is danger ot prussic acid poisoning after a killing trost, however, by putting it into the silo and allow it to ferment fqr at least three weeks the danger"" will'be" Eliminated, Some grass silage preservative or feed addi tive should be put with the mixture in ord er to have higher quality silage. To Keep Cattle From Acorns Cows that are in. milk production should not be allowed to eat acorns. Many oak trees future, Jo. ieph; for long years, though, th< word iirift ‘Written large ih'itha stories of him, the his faith is thexefSf Joseph had yielded to the tyranny of the obvious, he 'would have stayed a slave. Ha lived by what he did not see. The certainties of faith Did you ever fly, as a passen ger, in a little plane just big enough for two? Just for a joke, while you were fastening; your seat belt, you may have sung a verse or two of “Dig my grave with a silver spade.” But you buckled that belt and up you rose into the scary sky. Now you be lieved in a lot of things. You be lieved the engine would not “conk out,” you believed the wings were fastened with something stronger than glue, you believed the tail assembly would hang together, that the direction-finder and the altimeter and the dozen or so other gadgets on the instrument board were accurate, you believed in all the radio control towers and beacons you overflew; but when you come right down to it, what you really put faith in was not a what, it was a who. Ton trusted the pilot. You (not being a pilot, and not used to flying per haps) could not predict what he would do next. If you never stud ied aerodynamics, the chances are that you didn’t even know ex actly how the plane stays aloft. You certainly could not read the inside of the pilot’s mind. But you trusted him all the same. Qod is the pilot You see there are a lot of thing* to trust in even a small airplane. But you don’t really trust the things, but the pilot, a person. You trust him (among other things) to check everything about the plane, you put your faith in his knowledge and in his skills. If you couldn’t trust- him, you couldn’t very well trust the plane. The life of faith in God is like that. There are many things we have to believe in, on our flight through this life. But essentially, religious faith is faith in a person, our Father in heaven. We can’t see what He is doing, we can’t understand all He does even when we see Him, do it, we don’t know why this or that happens. There’s a great deal more that we don’t know than we do know. But we trust Him. The great difference between God and any airline pilot is that even the boldest and most skilful pilots know there are kinds of clouds they dare not enter, weather conditions they cannot control. The best of them can be grounded. But the true God is never grounded, for no cloud is too dark and storm-swept for Him. (Based on outlines copyrighted by the Division ot Christian Education. National Council ot the Churches of Christ In the TJ. S. A. Released by Community Frsss Servlcs.) Time . . .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers