**4—Uncjsttr Farming, Saturday, July 5,1980 Improved soil test for lime starts July 31 at UNIVERSITY PARK - The Penn State Soil Testing Service will switch to a new lime requirement analysis as of July 31. The new method, known as SMP, was described July 1 during a regional meeting of crop scientists at the State Bumgardner addresses Penn Ag LANCASTER - Gerald Bumgardner, vice-president for the gram division of Ralston Purina, was key note speaker at Penn Ag Industries’ annual gram meeting Monday night. To an audience of ap proximately 100 diners, he challenged the audience to make markets their business. According to Don Part, executive vice-president of Penn Ag, Bumgardner termed a market “what people think is going to happen.” Park said the speech was “not a typical outlook presentation, but one presenting thought processes.” Park said Bumgardner stated new factors with bearings on the markets are edging out the old chartist way of making market predictions Worldwide money funds and a global interest in commodities investment are making a computer analyst prediction more necessary. Park said Bumgardner gave an interesting concept on the gram carryover Rather than comparing with alarm the gram today to that of 1960, Bumgardner gave facts to support the theory University. The revamped soil analysis was discussed by Richard H. Fox, Penn State soil scientist, addressing the joint meeting of the Nor theastern Branch, American Society of Agronomy, and that the population and consumption have increased at approximately the same rate as the gram carryover or possibly a bit more. Park said the charts tended to show a disparity in prices between what far mers got for their gram and what it cost to produce it. Park said that while historically the costs have risen in a parallel pattern, the separation now indicates that the fanner is due an adjustment. Costs are, he said, apparently rising at a faster rate than the prices the farmer receives. As for the government getting out of the gram business and the end to the embargo, Park said Bumgardner stated it is a political year and the answer would depend on who you ask. Park said the speaker indicated about 58.7 percent of the world’s coarse grains are owned by the U.S. and of that, a substantial portion is under government programs Approximately 70 percent of the U.S. stocks are isolated by government control from the free market. This Bumgardner said means that 43 percent of the world coarse gram the Eastern Division of the Canadian Societj of Agronomy The SMP soil analysis method was adopted when comparison tests found that the Woodruff lime requirement method - the stocks are under U.S. con- Wheat stocks, Park said, 28.8 percent are in the U.S. with 56 percent of that under loan or reserve. 16 percent of world stock and available supplies of wheat are under U.S. government programs. Park said the figure the government indicated it would purchase at the start of the embargo has now been reached. He said Bumgardner questioned whether that would be a sign the government would discontinue purchases. For yields to equal last year’s grain harvest, Bumgardner said weather would have to be absolutely perfect m North America, Europe and China during the next few months. Also during the evening’s program, Penn Ag showed a slide presentation on careers m agribusiness which is available to members at no cost for display at meetings. TUF SYSTHK WAPS poultry, grain iik o laicino and livestock equipment H A GSI ON-FARM STORAGE SYSTEM ’•*"* GfeAW -J f FEATURING: ■ All galvanized steel with G-90 galvanized coating, including galvanized doors. ■ Our steel is A 446 Quality or a min imum yield of 40,000 pounds per square inch. E4IHERR EQUIPMENT, INC. EARM A HOME SUWtY *». i *nm tovtu. nmenutm wtuo^itnm.ni Phatmi (717) AM-3321 test formerly used - was underestimating, by half, the amount of lime needed to raise the level of acid soils to pH 7.0. “If a farmer was trying to grow a crop sensitive to acid soil, such as alfalfa, he would undoubtedly have obtained less than optimum yield,” Fox stated. The SMP method was the best of six tests. SMP is an acronym using the developers names - Shoemaker, McLean, and Pratt. The amount of lime predicted by the SMP method was close to the actual amount required over the whole range of lime needs. Changing to the SMP method had little significant effect on potassium or magnesium fertilizer recommendations, it was noted. This was verified with a randomly selected sam pling of 48 soils with pH values less than 7.0. Fox said the average amount of lime recom mended for the 48 soils was 2.5 tons per acre with the SMP method, as compared to an average 1.8 tons per acre with ine Woodruff method. This is an average increase of 39 per cent Recommendations for soils with pH less than 5.5 may be as much as 100 per cent higher than earlier. For soils with pH values above 6.3, the new recom mendations will be similar to the old. To determine the most accurate lime testing mmm - fe ■ Walk around steps on top of roof. ■ Equipped with safety rings. ■No welding any where on roof, pre vents rust. ■ Slotted holes to raise & lower roof for air movement for drying method for Pennsylvania, 20 agricultural soils were selected from throughout the state as typical of those most frequently analyzed. The average pH level of these soils was 5.7 with a range from 4.7 to 6.4. The soils were more acid than most well-managed agricultural soils, Fox pointed out, but were in the soil acidity range where the lime recommendation is most critical. In testing the 20 soils, they were treated with different lime rates, moistened, and PTO TRACTOR DRIVEN ALTERNATORS ' fS DISTRIBUTOR OPENINGS! We have distributor openings in selected areas of some eastern states. Excellent business for the right farm oriented individual. For details write or call p o B 441 PIMfHP Lebanon, Ind. 46052 317-482-4776 r-Puni r . .. _ SERVING THE INDUSTRY OVER 20 YEARS FULL LINE PARTS DEPARTMENT WE SELL, SERVICE AND INSTALL PSU stored with alternate wetting and drying cycles for six months. Then the soil pH levels were measured. Fox said this is the most accurate laboratory method available to predict the amount of lime needed to raise the soil pH to 7.0 in the field. The Penn State agronomists then compared these precise lime requirement values with estimates from the Woodruff and five other quick test methods. The SMP method was the best of the six. NEW 4" WIDE FARM BIN WITH CORREGATED ROOF DIRECTION! FARM A HOi S HERE< WE , ARE T MILE SOUTH Ol { < TO EM HERR IE SUPPLY WILLOW STREET
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