Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Oct. 2. 1976
96
Prime farmland mapped\ explained
HARRISBURG - The first
of hundreds of county maps
to show locations of the
nation's "prime farmland”
has been published by the
Soil Conservation Service, U.
S. Department of
Agriculture The map is of
Peach County, Georgia, one
of 122 counties in 48 states
being inventoried this year
for a nationwide "important
farmlands inventory.” In
Pennsylvania, prime and
unique lands have been
identified in three counties -
Adams, Columbia and Erie.
Maps are now being
prepared for these counties.
Support urged
HARRISBURG - Secretary
of Agriculture Raymond J.
Kerstetter last week urged
Pennsylvania dairymen
shipping milk to the Federal
Order 4 (Middle Atlantic)
marketing area to support a
referendum calling for a
seven-cent per hun
dredweight checkoff to
support milk advertising and
promotion.
“Such an increase for the
present five-cent rate is
necessary to maintain the
level of present milk
promotion activities at the
national and local level,”
Kerstetter said. “Like
everything else, the cost of
advertising and promotion is
going up. Failure to keep in
step will mean that vitally
important milk promotion
will slide backward from
want of funds. Only by
maintaining a high level of
fluid milk consumption can
dairymen hope to obtain a
favorable blend price.”
Kerstetter made the
recommendation at the
urging of the Pennsylvania
Milk Marketing Advisory
Council, made up of
representatives of the
leading farmer
organizations and milk
cooperatives.
The Council pointed out
that the U. S. Department of
Agriculture has recom
mended amending the rate
of deduction from five to
seven cents as the result of a
public hearing requested by
four cooperative members of
the Penmarva Dairymen’s
Federation, Inc.
The advertising and
promotion program con
ducted with the deducted
funds is voluntary in that
each producer, on a quar
terly basis, may request a
refund of the money withheld
from his pool proceeds.
If this referendum fails,
there will be no checkoff for
milk promotion. Another
referendum must be held to
revert to the five-cent
Three Pennsylvania counties ready
Most of these counties have
been under intense pressure
from urban development. An
additional 154 counties have
been selected for inventory
in 1977.
Pennsylvania counties to
be mapped in 1977 include
Bucks, Philadelphia,
Chester, Delaware, Mon
tgomery, Berks and Lan
caster.
The agency hopes to
complete inventories and
publish colored maps for
each of the 1200 counties, or
more than one-third of the
nation, by 1980.
Prime farmland, for
purposes of the SCS in
ventory, is that land best
suited for producing food,
feed, forage, fiber and oil
seed crops. Farmland
already converted to urban
uses or highways is not
considered prime farmland,
even though it may have
been at some earlier time.
THE SENTINEL
Technical criteria for
identification of prime
farmland arc based on soil
characteristics
The county by county
survey will provide the
detailed information needed
to support new department
policy to help keep the
nation’s best farmland,
range and forest lands from
going into nonagncultural
uses.
USDA has urged all
federal agencies to adopt the
pobcy that federal activities
that take prune farmland
should be earned out only
wh£h there are no suitable
alternative sites and when
the activities meet an
overriding public need
Many state, county and
municipal officials and
planning agencies share
USDA’s concern for
preservation of prune far
mlands and are expected to
find the maps useful in
making their own land use
decisions
SCS estimates that 250
million acres of U. S. lands
presently in croplands arc
prime farmland. That is
about two-thirds of the
present cropland acreage.
Some 24 million additional
acres of prime farmland not
now being used for crops
could be converted to
cropland simply by begin
ning tillage. Other prime
farmland already has been
committed to such use as
high density forest, wildlife
areas, farmsteads, and farm
roads.
Of prune farmlands still
available for future cropland
use, a sizeable bite is taken
each year by urban ex
pansion. Another bite goes
under water for lakes and
reservoirs. Still more acres
are “leap-frogged” by
suburbs that build some
distance from urban centers.
See pour dealer about the Sentinel—or drop us a line
PO. Box 433
Elizabethtown, PA 17022
Leap-frogged acres seem
destined eventually to be
urbanized unless legislative
action is taken to keep them
in farming, according to the
conservation agency.
Each county map
published by SCS will show
the location of prime far
mland, additional farmland
of statewide or local im
portance and unique far-
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I IPARTLOW
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mland The latter arc those
acres particularly well
suited for growing a specific
crop of high value, such as
grapes in Ene County and
fruit in Adams County.
Each inventory is being
conducted by SCS field
personnel and appropriate
state officials using com
pleted soil surveys as the
basis of the inventory.