10
—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. October 16,1971
USDA Subsidizes Bees, DDT Ban
The U.S. Department of Agriculture re
cently announced a bee indemnity payment
program. Although the program itself is
quite complex and not easily summarized,
the basic intent is to reimburse beekeepers
for bees killed by pesticides.
What the USDA did not say in an
nouncing the program is that it stems pri
marily from the growing ban on DDT. DDT
was not lethal to bees, but many of the
widel used chemicals which have replaced
DDT are causing massive kill-offs of bees
(It should also be noted that many of the
DDT substitutes have caused some human
State Develops Export Tools
New tools to aid in the development of
export sales have been made available to
state food processors and packers by the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
One is known as Trade Opportunity Re
ferral System (TORS). This computerized
service is operated by the Foreign Agricul
tural Service, USDA, in cooperation with
the various states. Names of more than 100
Pennsylvania firms are listed in TORS and
are made available on request to foreign
buyers in search of U. S. food products. The
names of the importers seeking items are in
turn relayed to listed companies.
Each of the Pennsylvania firms listed
in TORS also is supplied each month with
an Export Market Newsletter issued by the
Pennsylvania Division of Market Develop
ment, Bureau of Markets. The newsletter
reports on export developments concerning
the types of products Pennsylvania has to
sell and also lists sales leads made avail
able from various sources, including the
FAS and the U. S. Department of Com
merce.
We note this increasing interest by
Pennsylvania officials in the export market
because of its important potential as a
Observe Calving Schedules
As dairy cows become more expensive
and produce larger quantities of milk,
dairymen must increasingly be concerned
about getting maximum possible produc
tion from each animal.
This includes developing animals which
maintain high production levels for greater
numbers of years.
It also includes keeping the animals
bred on the proper schedule. With high
built-in costs, failure to breed on schedule is
increasingly costly.
A Missouri study shows that on milk
loss alone, any calving interval longer than
12 months is very costly to the dairyman.
While decreased income per cow is only $6
for a 13 month calving interval, it jumps to
$39 per cow on a 14 month interval, then
doubles to $7B per cow on a 15 month inter
val.
LANCASTER FARMING
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weeklj
P. 0. Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. 17543
Office; 22 E. Main St., Lititz, Pa. 17543
Phone: Lancaster 394*3047 or Lititz 626-2191
Robert G. Campbell, Advertising Directoi
Zane Wilson, Managing Editor
Subscription price: $2 per year in Lancastei
County: S 3 elsewhere
Established November 4, 1955
Published every Saturday by Lancastei
Farming, Lititz, Pa.
Second Class Postage paid at Lititz, Pa
17543.
Member of Newspaper Farm Editors Assn.
Pa. Newspaper Publishers Association, and
National Newspaper Association
deaths and many serious injuries; DDT has
never been seriously charged with being
lethal to humans).
Those who are aware of the vital role
that bees play in pollination of plants and
crops readily recognize the threat posed by
the bee-killing, pesticides, as well as the
concern of the USDA for keeping beekeep
ers in business.
Add the destruction of bees to the
current outbreak of the gypsy moth and
growing incidence of malaria in this coun
try and abroad to the increasing price
which is being paid for the ban on DDT.
means of expanding markets for Pennsyl
vania farm products.
While export of U. S. farm products is ■
now a multi-billion dollar operation annual
ly, total processed agricultural exports
from Pennsylvania averaged less than $5O
million a year in 1966 through 1968. While
$5O million may seem large, it is very small
in terms of what other states are doing and
in terms of the vast potential.
Pennsylvania is increasing its farm ex
ports. In 1961-62, the figure was only about
$2B million a year, compared to about $45
million by 1968.
Major Pennsylvania food exports in
clude processed fruits and vegetables, poul
try, meats, bakery products, specialty
foods, confectionery, and cereal products.
This list is only a guide. It can be en
larged upon.
With the national administration great
ly concerned about the balance of payments
and interested in increasing farm exports
as a means of helping the situation, and
with state officials also increasingly urg
ing farm exports, we think the export mar
ket is a market which the local farm com
munity cannot afford to ignore.
Thfese kind of figures multiplied out
over several animals obviously indicate
that a large per cent of the dairy farmer’s
potential yearly income can be lost from
this one factor alone.
But there are also other losses from
longer qalving intervals. For instance,
there’s a loss resulting from loss of annual
number of calves produced. The study
notes, for instance, that if only a $6O value is
assigned to each calf, the loss is 16 cents for
each day a cow remains open beyond 86
days. This loss figure is obviously much too
low for the better cows which are relied on
to produce replacement stock.
There’s also costs involved, such as
veterinary fees, in solving breeding prob
lems.
Altogether, the study indicates that long
calving intervals can be a. critical profit
drain for the dairyman.
Maintaining proper balanced rations
and culling difficult breeders are among
management practices needed to solve the
problem. Keeping good records is also
critical.
We suggest that farmers who have this
problem with any significant number of
their animals should contact their veteri
narian, the Extension service, their feed
company nutritionist or others for advice.
The important thing is that the problem
not be allowed to drag on.
The cost of solution' will almost cer
tainly be many times less" than the problem
itself.
NOW IS
THE TIME..
By Max Smith
Lancaster County Agent
To Be Careful With Heat Lamps
A portable heat lamp is very
useful about the home and the
farm during the cold winter
months. On the farm they are
often used to provide comfort as
brooders for young animals, to
warm water, dry wet areas, to
warm crankcases of motors so
they’ll start easier, and to
provide heat at a work bench.
However, they may be a fire
hazard if improperly handled;
they have been blamed for
starting some bam fires. In the
barn and expecially when being
used as a brooder, be sure the
lamp is securely hung from the
ceiling and out of the reach of all
animals. If they are knocked or
pulled down into straw or bed
ding, a fire will soon Tie started.
To Practice Good Management
Every farmer should recognize
that good farm management is
more important now than ever
before; getting the jobs done on
time and according to the best
known methods are important
parts of proper management.
The correct handling of labor and
money is also part of good farm
management. In many cases the
difference between success and
failure in a farm business is the
management. Farmers
urged to accept every op-'
portunity of learning more about
the correct management of their
enterprise in order to realize
greater profits.
To Inspect Extinguishers
The winter season is ap-
PRAY BOLDLY!
Lesson for October 17,1971
ledcjreund Scripture: Matthew 7:7-12;
Romans 1.24-27; 2 Corinthians 12-
MO; Hebrews II 4
Oevelienal Headline Psalms 42.
One summer while I was in
college the only job I could get
was selling household goods door
to-door. Usually, my summers
were spent in construction proj
ects, but this summer saw a’build
lum- id the sales position
M 'as the only thing
tilable to me.
was a timid
.esman. I ap
oached each
>r with mixed
lings: afraid no
; would answer
' knock, and
jn more afraid
_ someone would! I
Rev. Althouse wan t e d to make
sales but I dreaded the process of
selling. When someone did open
the door, I was apologetic and
dubious in my approach. I had
steeled myself to accept their re
fusal. Needless to say, it was a
lean summer!
Beginning with belief
Many people attempt to pray in
much the same manner that I
tried to make door-to-door sales.
Their prayers are timid, apolo
getic. and prepared to accept the
worst. They seem not only afraid
that God will not answer, but
even more fearful that he will!
They are not terribly disappoint-
preaching when many heating
units will go into operation. Also,
earns are full of livestock, feed
supplies, and in too many cases
expensive farm machinery. All of
these point to the fact that every
farmer should be prepared to
prevent fires and try and keep
them under control until the local
fire company can assist. Several
fire extinguishers about the home
and barn is very important. In
addition, be sure each
unit is in good condition, and also
that every member of the family
knows how to operate the ex
tinguisher. Make sure that water
supplies are accessible with a
minimum of time and effort. The
prevention of fires is always in
order, but to be prepared to keep
them under control for the first
few minutes will surely reduce
losses.
Ky Neighbors
c.
I/?--'
“I wonder if you shouldn’t
stop payment on the check
for this cruise.-”
cd that nothing seems to happen,
because they didn't expect any
thing to happen in the first place.
Failure in prayer can often be
traced to timidity. We do not re
ceive anything in prayer, not be
cause God is reluctant to give,
but because we have rendered
ourselves unable to receive. It is
interesting that the Greek word
for Receiving and taking is the
same. As Andrew Murray once
pointed out, when Jesus says,
“Every one that asketh receiveth,’
he used the same verb as at the
Supper, ‘Take, eat’... Receiving
not only implies God’s bestow
ment, but our acceptance.” Thus,
the problem is not at the giving
end but at the receiving end of
the transaction.
Continuing with vigor
This is why Jesus uses three
action verbs in one of his well
known discourses on prayer;
“Ask . . . seek . . . knock . .
(Matthew 7:7), There is nothing
timid about these verbs. They are
vigorous approaches to prayer.
Yet neither are they brash: they
are aggressive and assured only
because they presume to know
that God is even more willing to
give and answer than they are to
seek and ask. We may dare to
pray boldly because we have
caught a vision of the boldness of
God’s grace.
Emily Gardner Neale has said:
“Our besetting sin, and I think it
is a sin, is that we habitually ex
pect so pitifully little, daring to
impose upon His mercy and His
power the limits of our own hu
manity.” To pray timidly is to
demean God, to indicate that we
have grave doubts about his
grace. In a sense, this is insult
ing to him for he has so clearly
demonstrated to us the depths of
his Fatherly love.
To pray boldly is an act of
affirmation and praise.
(Baud on outlines copyrighted by the
Division «f Christian Education, National
Council of the Churches of Christ in tha U.S.A.
Released by Community Press Service.)