Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas
Vol. 21 No. 1& 3*s ' Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 7,1976 $4.00 Per Year
Lancaster Fatmii* Photo by Dieter Itief
Beef and soybean prices drop
By DIETER KRIEG
LANCASTER
Agricultural markets con
tinue to puzzle economists
and fanners. This week, for
example, the local price for
soybeans dropped to below
$6 per bushel, after having
been above $7 per bushel just
a month ago. And beef
prices, for months already
an agonizing situation,
Tobacco crop varies in county
By JOANNE SPAHR
LANCASTER —Various
and sundry weather con
ditions around the county
have given rise to an
assortment of tobacco
reports. In the Millersville -
Manor area, cutting has
been going on as long as a
week and a half now, while in
the northwestern portion of
the county around Mt Joy,
tobacco farmers still have
Farmers advised to be informed
By DIETER KRIEG
MECHANICS GROVE
It isn’t at every dairy
cattle judging contest that
someone registers a perfect
score, but it happened
Thursday at the Maurice
Welk farm, near here, where
Lancaster County Holstein
breeders were gathered to
hold their annual field day.
Ken Groff, Leola, did the
deed, amassing a total of 300
points. He thereby bested
200 attend Holstein field day
By JOANNE SPAHR
ELVERSON - A balmy,
breezy day settled on
Chester County last Tuesday
and made a perfect setting
for the Chester County
Holstein Field Day held on
Rocky Side Holsteins farm
owned and "operated by
Jefferson Yoder, here.
The morning’s activities
included judging two classes
of Holsteins, 3-year-olds and
aged cows, and “nosing
around” the dairy operation
Science seeks superior species
By DIETER KRIEG
LANDISVILLE It
takes 10 to 12 years to come
up with a new plant variety
one which might be
resistant to anthracnose,
corn blight, potato leaf
hopper, or black shank
disease. In fact, it may take
longer than that. This is what
visitors to Penn State’s
research farm, near here,
were told on Wednesday as
they carefully inspected the
University’s experimental
continue to slump after
hitting new lows for 1976
within the past 10 days.
Things have picked up just a
bit, but cattlemen still don’t
have much to smile about.
A 1 Landis, Pennfield
Corporation, told Lancaster
Fanning on Friday that he
believed the price of
soybeans went up too high a
few weeks ago, and the
topping to do because of
having to replant hail
damaged crops during the
second and third weeks of
June. The largest per
centage of growers,
however, are in the midst of
topping and spraying for
suckers, awaiting their first
cutting.
Wilmer Rohrer, Lancaster
R 2, is one grower who has
bad excellent conditions and
runner-up Bob Kauffman of
Elizabethtown, and winners
in both youth and ladies
divisions and received an
appropriate trophy for the
accomplishment. Placing
third in the men’s division of
the contest was Richard
Hess, followed by Gerald
Kreider and Ellis Denlinger.
All received prizes donated
by John Kreider, Holstein
breeder and equipment
manufacturer.
which consists of a 55 cow
milking bam and 60 heifers.
All told, Yoder farms ap
proximately 1200 acres with
85 on the home farm, and has
about 800 of the acres in
com. He also grows wheat
and hay.
While dairy judging was
the main event of the day,
socializing was just as im
portant, as friends, neigh
bors, and interested Holstein
breeders got together to
have a good time. Ap-
plots and asked a variety of
questions.
The occasion was the
annual field day, when the
facilities are formally
opened up to interested
fanners, extension agents,
and agribusiness people.
Unlike in previous years,
this year’s tours were
conducted in a way which
allowed visitors to spend as
much time as they wished at
any one stop. A tractor and
wagon made the rounds;
various economic pressures
are now coming into effect to
bring about more realistic
relationships between the
price of feed and finished
beef and dairy products, etc.
Prices rose dramatically
several weeks ago when the
Soviets announced their
grain purchases and U.S.
stocks are low anyway.
is running ahead of schedule.
He began cutting on July 28,
and in a week’s time had
harvested five out of his 22
acres.
This first cutting, he said,
was about the same as last
year’s in some cases and
“above average” in others.
When Rohrer says “as
good as last year’s,” it must
be noted that his crop was of
good weight then, also,
Mrs. Richard Hess of
Strasburg scooped up the
ladies’ first place for at least
the second time, but she’s
reluctant to attach any
significance to it. “It’s just
luck,” she commented
matter-of-factly. Ruth Clark,
Mim Kauffman, Averill
Royer, and Cindy Bollinger
followed in that order to
complete the “top five” in
ladies’ judging. Frizes were
proximately 200 people
showed up to share in the
fun.
After a noontime lunch of
chicken barbeque, four
speakers took the podium to
individually enlighten the
contented, relaxed crowd on
key aspects of dairying.
Carol Yeager, Chester
County dairy princess, was
the first to lead off with a
very brief speech on
promoting milk.
“I’ve noticed when I go
visitors hopped aboard and
jumped off at any point they
wished. There were no 10-
minute speeches, just a lot of
answers to questions.
As every year, resear
chers from the University
experiment here and at 13
other locations across the
state. The crops featured at
Landisville include tobacco,
flowers, forage crops, com,
potatoes, grapes, and
soybeans. Trials take seed,
fertilizer, insecticides and
Acreage of soybeans are low
too.
The price of beans on the
Chicago market was $5.85 on
Monday (a low) and bounced
back up to $6.20 by Thur
sday. According to Landis,
not even officials at Central
Soya, a major soybean
concern, know exactly
[Continued on Page 22]
whereas some fanners in the
county did not have a big
crop because of too many
extremes in weather con
ditions.
“Once and a while, you run
into some spots that aren’t as
big as others,” he said.
However, he went on to
acknowledge that this is a
normal occurrence for any
crop.
[Continued on Page 15] -
given by Penn-Jersey
Harvestore.
In the youth division, it
was Leonard Stoltzfus
capturing first place,
followed by Mervin Minnich,
Cheryl Bollinger, Bruce
Kreider, and Phil Crouse.
Leonard is the son of Mr. and
Mrs. Nathan Stoltzfus, Gap
R 2, who just a week earlier
captured the premiere
[Continued on Page 16]
places, that some farmers
don’t even drink milk,” said
the blonde-haired princess.
She went on to say that
farmers have the respon
sibility of pulling together
and setting an example to
promote their product.
Next, Peter Blodgett, who
was also the official for the
day, spoke on bull proving,
saying that Holstein
breeders constantly need to
[Continued on Page 14)
herbicides into con
sideration, with the ultimate
goal being better plants for
the farmer.
John Yocum, superin
tendent of the Landisville
facility, led visitors through
the tobacco research plots,
where primary efforts are
being concentrated on fin
ding plant varieties which
are less susceptible to the
etch virus and black shank
| Continued on Page 17)