—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 10,1979 36 Editor’s Note: This is another letter from Christine Erb, a participant in the IFYE exchange program - presently living in Japan. Japanese agriculture is very different from American agriculture, but there are some similarities. Japan is a country where economy is based mainly on manufacturing, but I have been surprised at the number of farms in Japan. Farms and farmland are decreasing in Japan, and some of the younger generation is not interested in farming because they can go to a factory or another job and earn more money. Farming in Japan is usually a seven-day-a-week job, die same as in the United States. From what I have seen, many people work seven days a week, although government em ployees do not work on Sundays. The people are mainly Buddhist in religion, and visit many shrines, but do not worship every week with the exception of putting fresh food on the family’s home shrine every three or four days. The government is m the process of trying to get everything on a six-day work schedule, but this is difficult, since customs are hard to change. Farms are usually passed Ephrata farmers slate monthly EPHRATA - The Ephrata Area Young Adult Farmers will bold their monthly meeting this Tuesday evening, November 13, at the Ephrata Senior High School. The meeting will convene at 7:45 p.m. A DHIA workshop will be the featured program for the evening. These Young Adult Far mers have been busy organizating the tour for the Washington State Farmers ristine Erb experiences Japanese farm life Ch on from the father to the oldest son. Then it is the son’s responsibility to take care of his parents an 4 grandparents. The family will live in the same home as a unit. Each person has his own responsibility: grand parents take care of small children and help take care of the house; the parents and the son work in the fields; and the young wife will take care of the home and the cooking. If they are very busy at harvest tune, the son’s wife will help in the fields. The average farm consists of five to seven acres if the farmer works only on the farm. Many farmers have a second job to help sup plement their income, and those who do generally have only three acres. At the price of $37,000 an acre for upland farming ground, and $15,000 an acre for paddy ground, farm land is very expensive. So farm land must be handed down through the family. The average income of the Japanese farm family is between $20,000 and $35,000. Living expenses are very high in Japan. At this time rice is over produced in Japan, so the government is trying to get the farmers to mange their paddy fields to upland fields. The government will help meeting in recent weeks. Under the direction of Charles Ackley and Aaron Stauffer the group sponsored the recent tour of the Huyard farm near New Holland. the farmers financially with the changing of paddy fields to upland fields since it takes much time and much money to do this. The ground has to be completely rearranged to a higher level, since all paddy ground is low and floods very easily. Some of the crops produced on upland ground are soybeans, potatoes, carnations, tobacco, sugar cane and other vegetables. Another type of farming here is by “house method.” This is mainly used for vegetables, flowers and melons. They are either -grown in glass greenhouses or veneer greenhouses. This is done mainly on the western part of Japan because of its warmer climate. In the gla'ss greenhouses, they either grow the plants by soil or water propagation, but the veneer greenhouses always use soil propagation. At present there is much ex perimenting with solar heating, since oil has become so expensive. There are many moun tains in Japan and much farming is done on these. They will raise a lot of fruit trees and grapes in these areas. They also grow Japanese cedar trees for furniture here, but they are planted by one generation and harvested five or six generations later. There are four main islands which make up Japan, with Hokkaido being the second largest. Farming on Hokkaido is almost exactly like in America. The farmers here have large farms and many cattle. Most of the meat, butter and other dairy products in Japan come from Hokkaido Island. They raise most of the feed for their cattle there, which is very unusual since farms on the other islands are so small. of the Americans in Japan live m Hokkaido, since it is so similar to America. Almost all of the other farms with cattle on the mainland of Honshue Island and the other islands import their feed from America. This includes chicken and hog feed, and beet pulp and hay for cattle, although many of the farms do feed Christine Erb is busy picking potatoes with her host brother, Chikaku, right, and her host father, left, in the town of Aomori Ken, northern Japan. who needs them? Quality roughage alone can provide much of the protein and energy needed for milk production. But since roughages may lack both balance and quantity of minerals necessary for maximum milk production, bone and muscle development, and the most efficient utilization of other nutrients—many dairymen need a mineral supplement program. How can you tell if you need a mineral supplement program? Let us make a free analysis of your forage crops. We'll give you a report on the nutrient value of your hay, silage, or other roughages, along with recommendations for any supplements—if necessary. We won't try to sell you anything you don't need! Our three mineral mixes—Beacon Phos-Mm, Beacon Mineral Ade and Beacon Cal-Mtn—are formulated by highly respected dairy nutrition specialists. The supplement they recommend will contain the necessary minerals to make up deficiencies or imbalance in your roughages and to achieve the proper calcium-phosphorus ratio in your total feeding program. You can rest assured that you aren't paying extra for exotic ingredients, high transportation cost, and expensive promotion and sales cost. more mineral units per dollar invested. Mineral supplements, formulated especially for the cow at reasonable cost, are part of what we call "No nonsense feeding”. BEACON York, PA Phone 717-843-9033 nee straw as a roughage or hay substitute Some of the farmers raise sorghum for their cattle, but for the most part everything is pur chased. Seldom have I seen silos, except for agriculture ex periment stations or town pasture farms. Even these are generally small. Most of their barns are small because they do not have to store equipment for hay or feeds. YOU do! With BEACON, you get Beacon Milling Company, Inc. We’re employee owned. That’s why we shine, Available At Beacon Dealers Farmers buy from the “Nyo Gyo,” or farmer’s cooperative, once a week or when they run out. Each town has its own cooperative. For the most part, farming methods are different because there are so many farms. Everything is on a small scale because Japan is made up of many small islands. Your Japanese IFYE, Christine Erb
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