—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 15,1977 38 Dairymen feel straw shortage HARRISBURG - Produc- J ” tion of com for grain in the commonwealth during 1977 is expected to total 101.2 million bushels, announced the Pennsylvania Crop Reporting Service. This forecast, unchanged from a month ago and two per cent below 1976, is based on conditions as of October 1. LANCASTER, Pa. - The low prices farmers are receiving for wheat may bring joy to consumers m coming months, but dairy farmers in the Northeast aren’t smiling much about it right now. Dairymen need straw for bedding for their cows and the low price for wheat has caused less gram to be planted m this area, area. Many farmers have switched usual grain acreage to corn for silage. An early winter and dry spring have meant a lighter crop on the acreage that was planted. In the heavily dairy onented areas, like Lan caster County, farmers are looking for alternatives to straw. In many cases corn stalks are being used for bedding “With straw bringing as much as $95 a ton, there’s no wonder farmers are looking for alternatives,” says Paul Martin, owner of a Leola auction where hay and straw are sold. Local farmers say buyers are coming from hundreds of miles searching for good straw. Many of the buyers represent race tracks in Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey, as well as local f roplrc “We can’t afford to compete with prices like the race track people pay,” said a young farmer watching the auctioneer and crowd moving from truck to truck in the huge lot. Max Smith, the county extension agent in Lancaster County, says the central Pennsylvania area has suffered from a straw shortage for the last several years and this year’s dry weather and reduced wheat tonnage has compounded the problem. He says in some cases straw for bedding is bringing a higher price than hay for feeding cows. Announcing the Winner of Door Prizes from the Open House of R. K. VOGT GRAIN & GENERAL HAULING Which was held October 8,1977 JOHN TODD LeROY MARTIN 3 Hour Airplane Ride Stoney Battery Road Lancaster, PA MRS. STANLEY METZLER Dinner For Two RD2 Mantieim, PA KEN SENSENIG Airplane Ride RD3 Ml Joy. PA CUSTOM STORAGE AND DRYING AVAILABLE BUYING AND SELLING GRAIN AND EAR CORN R. K. VOGT GRAIN & GENERAL HAULING RD #l, Marietta, PA “Chopped corn fodder makes a good substitute where the farmer doesn’t have a liquid manure system,” Smith said. Again, the self-sufficient Amish farmers may have an edge on their mechanized neighbors. The Amish still use old reapers and binders and thresh their gram with steam-powered threshing machines. They save vitually every piece of straw blown into a huge stack during the threshing process. But, this year’s lighter grain straw harvest will probably affect the Anush as well. They will be baling even more corn fodder for bedding. Horse-drawn balers, rigged with engines for powering the baler mechanism, are being readied for the difficult job of baling fodder. At the New Holland Sales Stable, a dairyman with 50 milking cows on his farm south of Blue Ball, was successful bidder on a 9,000 pound load of straw that had been shipped m from more than 90 miles away. Fall clean-up saves Spring flowers MEDIA - A thorough garden clean-up this Fall may save your flowers and vegetables from insect problems next Summer, reminds McKeehen. The iris borer, for example, is one of the most destructive msect pests of iris. Females lay their eggs on old ms leaves and other plant material in the Fall. These eggs spend the Winter on ins leaves and hatch in April or May. The ins borer has only a single brood each year, so cuttmg the iris leaves and other garden refuse during the fall may save your ins plants from serious damage next Summer. Another insect which can attack many vegetables and flowers in the home garden is the common stalk borer. Female moths lay their eggs in the late Summer and Fall on grass, weeds and nlant refuse. A smgle female moth may lay up to 2000 eggs, each of which will hatch into a borer the following Spring. A Fall clean-up of weeds and garden refuse will aid considerably in lessening the number of stalk borers present in your garden next Spring. Hammer RDI Elizabethtown, PA STEVE HERSHEY 15” Adjustable Wrench RD 1 Ml Joy, PA LLOYD LEED Vice Grip Landisville, PA “My brother in Ohio has all the straw I could ever use just going to waste. But it would cost me more than that to have it shipped m from his place. My straw mow looks pitiful. I just have to have it and I have to pay the price to get it,” he said. An Amish farmer, drawing a map to his farm near Intercourse, so the truck driver could deliver a load of straw, summed up the situation in a few words. “I need straw and these folks have it. I have to pay $1 more than what the man I’m bidding against thinks it’s worth to him.” Again, the old story of American agriculture’s dependency on weather is pomted up m what may happen to consumer prices. Wheat, in abundance m the Midwest, could bring lower consumer prices for wheat products. On the other hand, in the Northeast, the shor tage of straw from wheat is forcing dairy farmers to pay more for one of their im portant inputs. ATTENTION GRAIN FARMERS The Chesapeake and Delaware Grain Corporation, a grain business owned and operated by a group of farmers, is ready to handle your grain. Chesapeake and Delaware Gram Corporation’s facilities include a 500,000 bushel house, a 10,000 bushel receiving elevator, a 60 foot truck lift, a 60 foot scale, a 3000 bushel per hour dryer, and wet storage capacity of 52,000 bushels. Chesapeake & Delaware Grain Corporation Crops production forecast Potato production is forecast at 6.5 million hundredweight. A function of 27,000 acres for harvest and yield at 240 cwt., this production would be nine per cent below last year. Acres for harvest are down 1,000 with yield off 15 cwt. Pennsylvania tobacco production is now forecast at 23.5 million pounds as yield prospects fell during the last month. This is still less than one-half per cent below last year as yield as now forecast at 1,810 pounds is still 60 pounds higher than in 1976. Alfalfa hay production is estimated at 2.1 billion tons while other hay production should add another 1.8 billion. The alfalfa production would be nine per cent below 1976. Although acres for harvest are up 20,000 to 840,000, yield prospects are off nearly a third of a ton to 2.45. The other hay acres are un changed while yield is a fifth of a ton below 1976 at 1.6 tons per acre. These put the state’s all hay estimated production at 3.9 billion tons, ten per cent below 1976. Grape production in Pennsylvania is expected to have a nice weekend... Your business is cordially invited. Box 505, Mechanics Valley Road, off of Route 40 North East, Md. 20901 Phone 301-398-2111 total 30,000 tons based on October 1 conditions. This is 48 per cent below the 1976 record crop of 58,000 tons. Apple production is estimated at 430 million pounds, 19 per cent above the 1976 crop of 360 million pounds. U.S. corn production is forecast at a record 6,303 million bushels based on conditions as of October 1, up one per cent from the Sep tember 1 forecast and one per cent above 1976. Soybean production, forecast at a record 1,647 million bushels, is up fractionally (3 million bushels) from a month earlier and 30 per cent above last year. All tobacco production is forecast at 1,892 million pounds, 11 per cent below last year, but three per cent above last month. Fall potato production is estimated at 304 million cwt. in the 25 fall producing states, down one per cent from the record 1976 crop. U.S. production of all hay as forecast at 128.4 billion tons is six per cent above 1976. Both acres for harvest and prospective yield, at 61.7 million and 2.08 tons respectively, are above a year ago. (TS\
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers