Alo—Luccster Famine, Saturday, July 5,1980
Lancaster Farming says...
For six months sales of American
gram to the Russians have been
embargoed The United States made
the move in an effort to punish the
Russian government for its invasion
of Afghanistan.
While President Carter and all the
fine folks at USDA repeatedly have
said the embargo would not hurt
farmers, the facts to the contrary
speak for themselves.
Loss of markets means loss of
income. And right now the sales of
U.S. farm products are at an all-time
low compared to the prices for other
goods.
Most of the U S farmer’s feed
grains are selling for about 50
percent of parity wheat at 53 per
cent; corn, 52 percent; barley, 53
percent; soybeans, 49 percent.
While this may be thought to
reflect the general state of the farm
economy, it's not really so. Although
"MILLIONS
FOR DEFENSE!"
Lesson for July 6, 1980
Background Scriptures:
2 Kings 24; 18 through 25:30;
Devotional Reading:
Psalms 25:1-15.
Movie makers and TV
TO BE SURE WITH
PESTICIDES
Hie reckless use of any
pesticide can get a person in
plenty of trouble. As we have
stated many times, it’s not
the use of pesticides that
causes problems, it’s the
MIS-USE of them. We get all
kinds of reports about using
the wrong material, or
putting a weed killer on the
wrong field. If we would just
take the time to check every
application, we would do less
RURAL ROUTE
Let’s end this embargo nonsense
depressed somewhat, milk sales are
at about 75 percent of parity as are
beef cattle and sheep returns
Not so hard hit are the big gram
companies. The President has ap
proved a loophole for them which
allows sales of foreign gram to Russia
through the U S. companies while
the Administration continues to
maintain the embargo on domestic
gram m the face of attacks from all
sides.
It apparently sees the embargo as
the morally right thing to do—to use
our food supply as a weapon against
oppression—as long as the bigwigs
don’t lose money.
Meantime, it’s farmers who are
paying the price of teaching the
Soviets a lesson . if indeed one is
being taught
Senators Robert Dole, a con
servative republican, and George
producers seem to think that
the American public is still
enamored of catastrophe
stones. The Towering In
ferno, Airport, The Posedion
Adventure, Tidal Wave - all
are predicated on the “en
tertainment” value of
disasters real and imagined.
To date, the scnptwnters
have overlooked a good bet
for yet another story of
disaster - one that actually
happened: the final demise
of Israel at the hands of
Nebuchadnezzar. AH the
elements for a fascinating
catastrophe scnpt can be
found in 2 Kings:
Zedekiah, the 21 year old
who becomes king of
damage to good crops.
Custom sprayers should be
very careful that they are
spraying the proper field of
the customer The label, or
directions, should be ac
curately followed. Finally,
don’t feel that it is too much
trouble to keep accurate
records of all pesticide
applications. .It might save
your neck.
TO GET WINTER’S
WOODSUPPLY
It may be awful hot to be
thinking about burning
firewood this winter, but
wood supplies should be cut
soon, so they will have time
to dry out before they are
needed. Green wood does not
make very good fuel Many
Judah
The young king’s futile
efforts against the hated
enemy
The great army of Babylon
and its seige against
Jerusalem Famine
The great walls finally
breached
The flight of Zedekiah and
his capture
The cruel torture of the king
(scriptwriters will
especially like this)
The burning of Jerusalem
and the destruction of its
walls
The people of Judah led
away into captivity
What a magnifleant story!
That is, unless you lived it'
folks have turned to wood as
a source of fuel in order to
reduce costs and to use some
of our own natural,
replacement resources This
means that cured wood is in
strong demand and may not
reach Farmers with
woodlots could be in the
driver's seat, because most
of these areas need thinned
out frequently Don’t wait
until fall to cut your wood
from a green tree.
TO MANAGE ALFALFA
FIELDS
The second cutting of
alfalfa looks excellent in this
part of the country: these
later cuttings are the im
portant ones for top quality
forage. Some good growers
were vou
ABLE to
, &ET some:
McGovern, a liberal democrat, both
have introduced bills m the U S
Senate to end this embargo non
sense Representative Tom Harkm
has started a similar measure rolling
in the U.S. House
Harkm calls the decision to allow
U S. firms to sell foreign gram to
Russia at the expense of domestic
production “ridiculous ” It’s more
than that
Why is it all right for the big gram
companies to do business as usual,
but not the American farmer 7 Why
should we bear the financial burden
while the big companies continue to
roll in the cash?
Farmers lose twice once by the
embargo, twice by having foreign
gram replacing theirs m the
marketplace
Even representatives of giant gram
firms, like Continental’s Senior Vice
President Bernard Stemweg, object
Zedeldah’s “Tough” Stand
The only flaw in this whole
scenario, from the script
writer’s point of view, that
is, is that the usual “poetic
justice” seems to be missing
in this story. For the brave
young king did what any
leader must do when faced
by the threatening enemy:
he made military
preparations and refused to
appease the Babylonians. He
talked tough and he acted
tough. He even made an
alliance with powerful
Egypt, but none of this
seemed to do him or Judah
any good.
Zedekiah’s failure was
really two-fold: (1) “ ..he did
plan to harvest every 35 days
after taking the first cutting.
This should give four cut
tings per season. In addition,
it is still a good practice to
permit one of the later
cuttings to come into at least
75% bloom before cutting
This will strengthen the
roots for another season
Also, there is considerable
support for not cutting
alfalfa in this part of the
state during the early and
mid part of September; this
is the tune when the plants
are forming rhizomes for
next year’s growth. Cut
either early in September or
in late September.
Management is important to
get longevity to the stand
Tom Armstrong
By
BY CURT H ABLER, EDITOR
what was evil in the sight of
the Lord” (just as his
predecessor had done), and
(2) he trusted in military
might and alliances instead
of in God. Ah yes, we will
intone, we understand where
he went wrong.
Too Late For Remedy
But do we? Are we any
more faithful to the Lord
than he was? Are we any
more convinced that God is
the source of our salvation,
not mditaiy might and
alliances? Not if I read the
newspapers rightly. Not if I
hear what people all about
me are saying. It’s ah very
good to say these things in a
TO USE TOP SIRES
Many livestock producers
will be investing in new herd
sires during the summer
months This is a very im
portant step and one that is
not easy. We urge producers
to look around for the best
possible sires. Performance
Testing is done in many
areas and will provide a sire
Farm Calendar
Saturday, July 5
Mercer County 4-H open doe
show; 10 a.m.; Mercer 4-
Hpark.
N.E. Junior Angus Star
Spangled Classic;
Maryland State
Fairgrounds; Tunomum,
Maryland.
Sunday, July 6
All women’s horse show;
Susquehanna Valley
Corral; Route 11; Dan
ville.
Monday, July 7
Penn State Cereal Research
Day; Rock Springs
Farm; Route 45 West of
Pine Grove Mills; 10:30
a.m.-4 p.m.
Regional 4-H Horse Bowl; 10
am.; Montgomery
County.
Dauphin County Dairy
Meeting, Ray and Dale
to the two-level pricing system that
has resulted from the embargo’s
cutting through valid contracts
Not only that, but other nations
will be planting fencerow to fencerow
to take up the slack left by America
We need to determine whether
this embargo is a one-shot deal or
will be established as an acceptable
instrument of foreign policy.
Most of all, we need to be sure all
share in the price of maintaining the
embargo Big gram firms should not
be allowed to make an end run
around the embargo Neither should
the public be allowed to profit at
farmers’ expense
Let's celebrate July 4 In
dependence Day by declaring our
independence of burdens placed on
the farmer and farm industries by
Washington This embargo nonsense
would be a good place to start
Sunday School lesson about
the dun and ancient past, but
who among us believes today
that faith in God and
national righteousness are
more important than our
arms budget? We laugh and
smirk at those who preach
moral armorment.
And the Bible reminds us
that it has all happened
before:
“They kept mocking the
messengers of God,
despising his words, and
scoffing at his prophets, till
the wrath of the Lord rose
against the people, till there
was no remedy”. (2
Chronicles 36:16).
with some idea of his per
formance Since the sire
represents at least 50% of
the kind of a crop of off
spring, the future of the herd
or flock may depend upon
him. Don’t “pinch pennies”
when buying a new herd sire.
The good Mies are never
cheap and the cheap ones
are often very expensive.
Kennedy Farm;
p.m.; Middletown.
Delaware 5-week hor
semanship course
begins; 10 a.m.;
University of Delaware;
Ag Hall; Newark,
Delaware.
Tuesday, July 8
Adams County Dairy tour to
Huntingdon County;
depart 7:30 a.m. from
King’s Shopping Center,
Gettysburg.
Chester County Sheep Field
Day; 9 a.m.; Atglen farm
of Joan and Bill Mc-
Cauley.
Tn-State (Maryland,
Delaware, New Jersey)
Dairy Princess training
seminar; University of
Delaware; Newark,
(Turn to Page A4l)
7:30