poriodioals Division
Vol. 19 No. 15
The world’s fastest swimmer will
never win any awards for milking
cows, according to Lancaster County
Dairy Princess Ralene Harbold.
Ratene’s look says alf that needs to be
said about the attempt by Olympic
gold-medalist Mark Spitz to milk Miss
Labor Day, a champion in her own
right althojjgh not at swimming.
Vocalist Jaye P. Morgan, right was in
charge of comforting the Jersey.
FARM
TRENDS
Last year, the Nation’s farmers achieved record
levels for cash receipts, gross and net farm income,
and income per farm from farming. Furthermore, the
total income of farm people, including their nonfarm
earnings, reached a new high last year.
Some of last year’s records included cash receipts
from marketings of $83.4 billion, realized gross of
$90.5 billion, and realized net farm income of $26.1
(Continued On Page 9)
Mark Nestieroth, Manheim, was in Indianapolis this
week, along with 99 other young farmers from
throughout the nation. The select group of 100 was
convened to explain the special credit needs of young
farmers to institutional lenders.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. March 2, 1974
Looking on are Virginia Graham, left,
and Suzy Spitz, Mark’s wife. Spitz got
his introduction to milking last week
in Philadelphia on the Mike Douglas
Show. The show was taped and will be
telecast on March 5, Dairy Day, at
9:00 a.m. over WGAL-TV, Channel 8.
For folks attending Dairy Day, there’ll
.he a TV-set in the Farm and Home
Center lobby so they can watch.
by Dick
Wanner
A hand-picked group bit 100 young farmers, including
Lancaster County’s own Mark F. Nestleroth, a swine breeder
from Manheim, gave the Farm Credit Systems some solid
advice this week on the financial needs of young farmers.
And the major need is credit... credit to buy land and
equipment, credit to operate.
It all came out at a three-day conference in Indianapolis,
Ind., ending Wednesday, called by the nationwide Farm
Credit System. Nestleroth and the other young farmers at
tending were invited to the conference by the Farm Credit
banks and by major farm organizations.
Governor E. A. Jaenke, Farm Credit Administration,
called it a “listening conference,” and that is what it was -
the young farmers talked and the lenders listened. .
There were three major discussion topics during the
conference:
1. The financial and related needs of young fanners.
2. Concerns of young fanners about fanning, and
Conservation
Banquet Set
Lancaster County Con
servation bold
their Annual Banquet un
March 14th at 6:30 P.M., at
the Good and Plenty
Restaurant at Smoketown.
Guest speaker will be
Congressman Edwin D.
Eshleman.
Reservations can be made
by calling any of the
directors, or Mrs. Nancy J.
Burkhart at the District
office at 299-5361 or by
stopping at the Conservation
Office in the Farm and Home
'Center.
Deadline for reservations
will be March sth.
Nestlerotfa Helps Examine ...
Young Farmer Credit Needs
Special to Lancaster Fanning
by
Frank Salzarolo
Indianapolis News
Hearing Held in Harrisburg . . .
Land Use Assessment
Bill In Second Draft
Last May, Pennsylvania
voters approved by an
overwhelming majority a
constitutional amendent
which allows farmland to be
taxed on the basis of its use
rather than on the basis of its
potential value as a real
estate development. Since
passage of the so-called
“Clean and Green” amend
ment, the House Agriculture
Committee, chaired by
Representative Francis
Kennedy, has been working
on a bill to implement that
mandate from the voters.
House Bill 1056 was
presented at three public
meetings across the state
last year. It ran into many
objections, caused mainly by
a ten-year roll-back clause.
Under the provisions of the
first draft, farmers -would
have been required to sign a
contract to keep their lands
in farm use for a period of
ten years. In return for
signing the contract, far
mers were to be given a
break from local property
taxes. If, however, a farmer
were to sell his land during
the contract period, he’d
have been liable to a penalty
equal to the amount of the
taxes saved, plus interest, or
a roll-back.
The new bill calls for a
five-year roll-back. It also
allows farmers to split-off
small parcels of land for
family building lots without
endangering the tax
sheltered status of their
other lands.
Testimony given at the
hearing on Wednesday
centered mostly around the
split-off provision and the
roll-back clause. Curtin
Winsor, president of the
Pennsylvania En-
vironmental Council, echoed provision would encourage
the feelings of many when he the development of strips
said that the five-year roll- along highways, as farmers
back provision was simply sought to profit from their
not long enough to road frontage by selling lots
discourage land speculation, to commercial establish-
Winsor also said tire split-off (Continued On Page 24)'
250 At Clean
Streams Meet
close to 250 farmers
crowded into the Hinkeltown
Elementary School on
Wednesday night to hear
about the Pennsylvania
Clean Stream Law and its
impact on fanners. Orval
Bass, the district con
servationist for Lancaster
County, told the group that
all farms in Pennsylvania
would be required to have
conservation plans for their
farms by July 1, 1977. He
said of the 6000 farms in the
county, only 1500 have plans,
and of those at least half
should be rewritten due to
changing farm operations.
Bass asked for a show of
hands to see how many of
those present had plans for
their farms. There were only
about 15. “To get started on a
plan,” Bass told the group,
“tell us what you’re doing,
tell us what kind of farm
operation you’ve got. We’ll
determine your soil loss
figures, then we’ll tell you
what we think can be done to
control your losses. Our
recommendations will
consist of several alter
natives, and you can choose
the one that best suits the
way you want to farm.”
Farmers who have plani
preferred solutions.
3. How lenders can help young farmers build successful
farming operations.
The 100 conferees were divided into 10 discussion groups
and each group held talk sessions on each of the three
discussion topics.
Later, the conclusions reached by each group were sum
marized at a general session involving the young fanners
and the money lenders.
Secretary of Agriculture Earl L. Butz told the young far
mers that fanning today calls for the highest degree of
dedication, the highest level of business management, and
the widest range of technical capacity of any single job
category in the economy.
“A generation ago, it was said that, if you cannot do
anything else, you can farm. Today, if you cannot farm, you
had better do something else,” Butz said.
He said the biggest limiting factor for the young farmer
today is capital - enough to assemble the land required to use
his labor efficiently, plus enough machinery and livestock to
utilize his productivity and management ability.
(Continued On Page 24)
$2.00 Per Year
and are working to im
plement them, will be
exempt from the Clean
Streams Law in 1977, Bass
noted. He also said that it
takes anywhere from two to
ten years to implement a
plan. “Right now,” the
conservationist said, “our
office has a backlog of about
300 plans. We used to get five
requests a month for
assistance. Now we get
anywhere from 15 to 40,”
To get a plan, farmers
must contact the con
servation district at the
Farm and Home Center.
Bass said that all requests
(Continued On Page 19)
In This Issue
Farm Calendar 10
Markets 2-4
Sale Register 53
Farmers Almanac 6
Classified Ads 26
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 34
Home on the Range 37
RECP Guidelines 50
Organic Living 12
Dairy Day Program 13
Thoughts in Passing 8
Letters to Editor 11
Red Rose DHIA 19
Inter-State Meet 14