Vol. 17 No. 39
Earl Stauffer, Ephrata, has been named to receive the
American Farmer Degree at the national FFA convention in
October.
Earl C. Stauffer
To Get American
Farmer Degree
The Future Farmers of
America will confer their highest
degree on Earl Stauffer,
Ephrata, during the FFA
national convention this October
in Kansas City.
Only one in a thousand FFA
members can receive the annual
award. This year, Stauffer is one
of ten Pennsylvanians so
honored.
To be eligible for the award, a
young man must have proven
leadership abilities, he must have
a record of community service
Jannell Conrad, left, and Nancy Yunginger were named
junior and senior 4-H Queens, respectively, during Thur
sday’s 4-H Achievement Days at the Farm and Home Center.
and he must have an outstanding
farm program He must also
have graduated from high school
at least 12 months prior to the
national convention and he must
have participated for at least
three years in a school vo-ag
program.
Earl’s farming program
revolves around a partnership
agreement with his father,
Clarence Stauffer. He points out
that the agreement is a legally
binding document, prepared by a
(Continued On Page 21 )
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 19, 1972
DES Ban to Have
Little Local Effect
A check with area farmers and
animal nutrition experts
revealed that the recent ban on
DES (diethylstibestrol) in animal
feeds should have little
noticeable effect on Lancaster
County beef producers.
The Food and Drug Ad
ministration on Wednesday or
dered an immediate halt to
production of the growth hor
mone, and an end to feeding by
January 1.
The FDA said it was acting on
the basis of new scientific
evidence demonstrating that
there is no feasible way to
prevent DES residues from
showing up in beef liver, as
required by law. (See editorial,
page 10.)
DES is a known carcinogen. In
laboratory tests, it has been
shown that the drug can produce
cancer in animals, if ad
ministered in sufficient doses.
Under the Delaney amendment
to the Food and Drug Act, no
detectable residue of any known
carcinogen is allowed in any
animal tissue used for human
food.
Dr. Lester Burdett, Extension
Animal Scientist at Penn State,
told LANCASTER FARMING
that DES had been shown to
increase daily gains in beef
animals by 17 percent, and to
reduce by 12 percent the amount
of feed needed for a pound of
gam
“The FDA has stopped the use
of DES only in feed,” Burdett
said. “DES pills, though, can still
be implanted under the skin of
the animals’ ears. The pills are
good for about 120 days, and after
that, a farmer will have to im
plant again if he wants to keep on
getting the weight advantage of
DES.”
“DES is metabolised in the
animals’s liver, and that’s where
the drug is being detected. We
can’t find it in the meat, but with
improved detection techniques, it
4-H Achievement Day Winners
Miss Nancy Yunginger,
representing the Mount Joy
Sewing 4-H Club, was selected the
Senior 4-H Queen at the annual
Lancaster County Achievement
Day activities Thursday evening
at the Farm and Home Center.
In the Junior competition Miss
Janell Conrad, a member of the
Guernsey Dairy 4-H Club, was
crowned Quenn.
Miss Yunginger daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Richard C.
Yunginger, Marietta Ri, was
graduated from Lancaster
Mennonite School. She plans to
further her education in practical
nursing at the Willow Street Vo
Tech School.
Miss Conrad is the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs T. D. Conrad, Bird
in-Hand, and will be in the ninth
grade at Conestoga Valley Junior
High School.
The crowning of the queens
climaxed an entire day of ac-
might yet turn up there.”
Improved detection techniques
are, according to Burdett, a big
part of the problem “Back when
the Delaney Amendment was
passed we were able to detect one
or two parts per million of foreign
substance in foodstuffs. Now
we’re counting parts per billion,
and soon we’ll be counting parts
per trillion. Some of the car
casses rejected have had as little
as one-half part per billion DES
residue ”
Asked what he’s going to
recommend to farmers who’ve
been feeding DES, Burdett said,
“I’ll tell them to implant DES
unless or until we get a ban on
implants. They can also feed
MGA, but that only works for
heifers. They can also implant
Ral-Gro or Synovex if DES is
forbidden altogether. These are
hormone-like compounds that
haven’t been found yet to cause
cancer.”
Burdett fells that most of the
bigger beef producers will go to
ear implants. “There’s no dif
ference in the rate of gain bet-
Farm Calendar
Saturday, August 19
7pm Lancaster County
Pomona Grange annual
picnic, Holtwood Athletic
Field.
1 - 5 p.m. Folk Music festival,
Schaefferstown.
Sunday, August 20
National Hay Convention, August
20 - 22.
Thursday, August 24
Lancaster County Swine
Producers board of directors
meeting. Farm and Home
Center
Saturday, August 26
11 a m Octarora Young
Farmers picnic, Nickel Mines
Swimming Pool
1-5 p.m Second annual
Plowing Contest, Schaef
ferstown.
tivities at the Farm and Home
Center The Day was filled with
demonstrations, exhibits, en
tertainment, a talent contest and
a chicken barbecue. Other
candidates in the Senior Queen
contest were Robin Fellenbaum,
Nifty Needles Sewing 4-H Club,
Debbie Haberstroh, Mountville
Sewing Club; Sandy Kreider, Red
Rose Baby Beef 4-H Club, and
Donna Rohrer, Boots and Saddles
4-H Club.
In the Junior competition, the
following also entered: Doris
Hershey, Lititz-Manheim
Community Club; Kelly Landis,
Bnckerville Clay Club; Joanne
Metzger, Millersville Sewing
Club, and Deb Wiest, Lincoln
Sewing Club
In other competitions during
the day, Carl Thomas, Miller
sville, won first prize for his
vegetable display, Keith
Wolgemuth, Mount Joy, was the
52.00 Per Year
ween implants and feed ad
ditives. Implants do present
more of a management problem
though ”
Big mid-western feedlots with
1000 head or more will almost
certainly go to implants, Burdett
feels. And these operations
produce over 57 percent of the
beef consumed m this country
Most smaller operators will
also use implants, although
Burdett agrees that this might
not be as generally true in
Lancaster County as in the rest of
the state and country
Lancaster County farmers,
some feel, are more apt to
discard a practice if there is the
least bit of controvery about its
use. There’s some basis in fact
for this feeling
For example, one of the area’s
larger feed dealers reported that
in one four-week period during
1971, their beef feed sales were
100 percent DES fortified This
year, m that same four-week
period, only 40 percent of feed
sold contained DES.
One of the largest beef
producers stopped using DES
over a year ago, and he doesn’t
plan to use implants.
Another grower, Harold Frey
of Marietta, said he will implant
the yearlings he buys for fat
tening. He feels the drug does
help his production, but under
actual farming conditions, it’s
difficult to say just how much it
helps
Clarence Keener, Manheim Rl,
says that he will definitely use the
ear implants He finishes off
about 580 cattle a year, and last
year figures that his farm
produced slightly over 11 tons of
beef. He produced that beef with
the help of DES, and figures
conservatively that the drug
increased his rate of gain by
about ten percent.
Keener has two objection s to
the implants. First, they’re only
(Continued On Page 18)
champion rabbit grower and
Melissa Grube, Elm, took top
honors in flower arranging
Alan Mays, Nissley Road,
Lancaster, again took top honors
in the entomology exhibits His
collection of mounted and
preserved insects also won him
top honors at the State Farm
Show in January.
Champions in each of the other
categories were as follows: Dale
Ulrich, Ephrata Rl, forestry,
Philip Risser, Leola, geology;
Gregory Shell, Lititz R 2, han
dyman; Karen Greider,
Conestoga R 2, photography
Judy Risser, Leola, foods
grand champion; Patsy Mengle,
foods reserve grand champion
and Beth Good, Ephrata, also
reserve grand champion in foods
In clothing, Kim Harsh, of the
Garden Spot Sewing Club, had
the champion cotton.skirt and
(Continued On Page 18)