—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. March 24, 1973
34
Miss Dorothy Neel . . .
“Accident” Became Lifes Work For This Lady
By Sally Bair
Feature Writer
The person who has all the
answers about federal farm
programs in Lancaster County is
Dorothy Neel, County executive
director of the Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation
Service.
Dot Neel is an attractive,
outgoing woman who has been
unraveling the intricacies of
federal farm programs for
Lancaster County farmers for 35
years. She has the ability to make
all the programs and their en
dless variations sound un
derstandable.
She began working for the
agency “quite by accident” when
she learned about the job through
a family friend. She intended it to
be part time just after high school
graduation, but she is now in her
35th year. Her first job was
working with aerial photographs,
which she said got “boring after a
while.” After 15 years in the
office she was chosen to be
County Executive Director.
While it is not unusual to find a
woman in an executive capacity
in these days of women’s lib, 20
years ago it was not so common.
However, Dot said at least half of
the office managers, as they were
then known, were women. The
number is dwindling as the
original workers are retiring or
moving on, and applicants for the
position now must be graduates
of a college of agriculture.
Miss Neel said she has found
that farmers have “no
hesitancy” in dealing with a
woman.
Dot said, “The basic purpose of
the farm programs is to stabilize
and improve farm income and'
contribute to the overall
prosperity of the county.”
While some counties in the
state have well over 50 percent of
their farmers participating in
ASCS programs, only about 600 to
During sign-up periods, the ASCS office is busy with far
mers wanting to know details of programs. Here Miss Neel
(center) answers a questions while office employee Leona
Geist locates the farm on an aerial photograph.
800 Lancaster Countians are
involved annually, out of a total
of 6,000 farmers. Dot attributes
this both to religious beliefs and
to the general conservatism of
farmers in the county.
She stresses that “all programs
are voluntary,” so those who
participate do so willingly.
One of the most basic of the
ASCS-administered programs
has been in the news recently
because President Nixon cut off
all funds for it. It is the Rural
Environmental Assistance
Program (REAP), which, ac
cording to Miss Neel, has been in
operation under various names
since 1936 when it began as the
Agricultural Conservation
Program.
Dot describes the REAP
program as “our basic one for
farmers, with more lasting
benefits than any other program.
It has received the least criticism
of all programs.” She explained
it as an “incentive program
which will pay up to 50 percent of
the cost for farmers to build
animal waste storage facilities,
establish waterways, terraces
and other practices for the good
of the environment.”
In Lancaster County ap
proximately 300 to 400 farmers
have taken advantage of the
program annually. There is a
$2,500 limit on payments to any
one person, and technical
assistance for these conservation
practices is provided by the Soil
Conservation Service.
The future of the REAP
program is still up in the air, but
Dot says a measure is now before
Congress to reinstate it.
However, no more funds are
currently available.
The sign-up period has just
ended for another large ASCS
program, the wheat and feed
grain set-aside program. This
has been in existence under
different names since 1957, and it
Miss Dorothy Neei, County ASCS Gap RD, chairman; B. Snavely Garber,
Executive Director, confers with her county - Willow Street RD 2, vice-chairman; and
committee (I. to r): Fred G. Seldonridge, Paul Kline, 1400 Brunnerviile Road. Lititz.
There are many questions to be answered during a sign-up
period for ASCS programs. Miss Neel (center) assists office
worker Janet Schaefer in answering an applicant’s
questions.
is designed to increase the in
come of wheat, com, barley grain
and sorghum to participating
farmers. Dot says. In 1971, 612
farmers enrolled in the program
and set aside 1,839 acres to earn
payments of $193,313. In the feed
grain program (corn and grain
sorghum), 451 farmers set aside
1,744 acres to earn $116,055.
This program is being carried
out under the 1970 Agricultural
Act, and new enabling legislation
must be passed this year. Miss
Neel said, “Fanners must let
Congressmen know their feelings
(about farm programs), because
the farm vote itself doesn’t mean
anything anymore. Writing to
.Congressmen is the only way to
get favorable legislation
passed.”
It is the County ASC Committee
that “determines policies and
makes decisions,” according to
n
r
Dot. She simply works for them
in carrying out their wishes.
The County Committee is
elected by Community Com
mitteemen who in turn have been
elected by farmers. All county
farmers are eligible to vote in
their communities. In Lancaster
County there are sixteen com
munities established as voting
areas, and committeemen are
elected to three-year terms, Dot
explained.
The County Committee consists
of Fred G. Seldomridge, Gap,
chairman; B. Snavely Garber,
Willow Street, vice-chairman,
and Paul B. Kline, Lititz, regular
member. They are under the
general supervision of the State
ASC Committee which is ap
pointed by the U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture.
Dot talked about some of the
changes in programs over the 35
years she has been associated
with the agency. She said most
programs remain basically the
same, with _ variations. But she
said she would never want to live
through another year like 1954
when wheat marketing quotas
were in effect. “Every farmer
needed a card to sell wheat,” she
recalls, “And when it came time
to sell, impatient farmers waited
in long lines in the hottest
weather of the summer. We felt
guilty taking 15 minutes for
lunch.”
Another program that was
“never very popular,” Miss Neel
said was the soil bank, and its
successor, the cropland ad
justment program, in which soil
had to be taken out of production.
Neither program is in existence
today.
The office moved eight times in
her 35 years, but Dot says they’re
very pleased with their present
facilities at the Farm and Home
Center.
Dot just laughs when you ask
how in the world she remembers
all the details of the complicated
sounding programs. She says she
gets explanations from
Washington and the state office,
and even up to the day sign-up
begins, she sometimes gets phone
calls with last minute procedural
changes. She and her staff really
uncomplicate the process for the
farmers involved. To keep all
farmers up-to-date on programs
and policies, the office mails a
regular newsletter and holds
informational meetings on new
programs.
Dot says her work keeps her
mostly in the office, but she goes
“in the field for spot checking” of
participating farmers.
As part of her role as ASCS
(Continued On Page 46)
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