Bl4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 29,1980
Dairyman teams that farming is no easy game
BELOIT,OH. Dairyman
Dwight Santee has learned
that farming is no easy game
to play.
This lesson did not come
from helping to operate the
family’s 200-acre, 60-Jersey
dairy farm in eastern Ohio,
not too far from the Penn
sylvania border.
It applies to a farming
game that the young
dairyman is finally
USDA
announces 1981
feed
gram program
LEESPORT - For the
second year in a row, U.S.
feed gram producers will not
need to set aside acreage to
be eligible for the farmer
owned reserve, commodity
loans and target price
protection, according to
Mark Balthaser, chairman
of the Berks County
Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Com
mittee.
“Feed gram producers
need only to be sure they
plant within their normal
crop acreage on all farms in
which they have an interest
to be eligible for program
benefits in 1981,” Balthaser
said.
The normal crop acreages
are currently under review
and may be adjusted in
cases where appropriate to
more adequately reflect
farmers’ current cropping
programs and the ap
plication of best farming
practices he added.
Jim Williams, Deputy
Secretary of Agriculture,
said, “With world coarse
gram production likely to be
down slightly from last year,
domestic 1980 crop
production estimated to be
18 percent lower than last
year’s crop and the demand
for grams continuing to rise,
the U S Department of
Agriculture expects a
drawdown m stocks and
higher prices
“The provisions of the 1981
feed gram programs will
allow U.S. farmers to
respond to domestic and
world market requirements
but still provide them with
price and income protec
tion,” Williams said
Chairman Balthaser
requests that producers
should remember the im
portance of good farming
practices as they plan for
1981; and he recommends
against bringing fragile
lands into production
Farmers who plant these
lands in 1981 will not have
this acreage added to their
I'M NOT
L10N...
The Classified
Livestock
Section
Has Beastly
Selections!
marketing after some four
years of frustrations and
hassles.
It’s likely safe to say that
Santee now realizes that
there’s only thing more
frustrating than farming
itself and that’s making a
game out of it.
Back in 1976, Santee put
together a board game he
called “Sodbuster.” Players
farms’ normal crop acreage
in subsequent years.
Price support loan will be
at least $2.25 for com and
other feed gram loan prices
would be based upon a feed
value relationship to com.
Feed gram target prices
for 1981 crops will be an
nounced next spring but will
be at least equal to the 1980
levels of $2.35 per bushel for
com; $2 50 per bushel for
sorghum and $2.55 per
bushel for barley.
To qualify for full target
price protection, farmers
cannot plant more com,
sorghum or barley in 1981
than was considered planted
m these crops this year.
Farmers who exceed this
acreage will be subject to an
allocation factor that can
reduce their target price
payment, if any, by up to 20
percent.
National program
acreages of 90.1 million
acres for com, 15.4 million
acres for sorghum and 9.7
million acres for barley have
been announced. The
national program acreage is
the number of acres for each
crop needed to be planted to
meet projected domestic and
export requirements, as well
as provide for an adequate
carryover.
tnasmrn
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move around a board buying
the necessary ingredients of
farming, such as land,
equipment, seed and
livestock.
Object of the game is to
plant and harvest three
adjacent fields of crops and
still have $50,000 in cash in
the bank.
Well, Santee found out that
getting the game on the
market was about as easy as
harvesting three adjacent
fields of 156-bushel com this
year.
Santee first tried to get one
of the large game companies
to produce the game. He
contacted 16 of them.
AH of them, including
Parker Brothers, declined,
in essence saying: “’Go
directly to jail; do not collect
$200.”
So, Santee decided to go it
alone.
To go along with the name
of his game,“Sodbuster,” he
tried to get a photograph of a
tractor and plow from the
large machinery companies.
He thought it would be good
advertising for the company.
But the companies thought
otherwise; none would give
permission to use a photo.
That is all but one. Ford
sent a photo, but it was a
discing scene. (Likely, they
didn’t know the difference
between a disc and a plow.)
Therefore, Santee decided
to go with original artwork
drawings of a tractor and
other farm scenes
When Santee started his
patent search and other
proceedings, there were no
farm games on the market.
Then, suddenly they began
to appear, including some by
large equipment
manufacturers.
But Santee still plodded
on. tackling his “Sodbuster”
problems with the same
determination that early
pioneers attacked that tough
virgin prairie sod
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Sod Buster game is played by dairyman Dwight Santee and wife, Karen, wi
help from their children Samantha and Ben.
Next, Santee got m touch
with Parker Brothers to see
if he could buy some extra
little red hotels used in
“Monopoly.”
“I though they’d make
great little red bams for my
game,” Santee said.
But Parker immediately
enforced strict “zoning”
regulations.
The company essentially
told Santee that it was all
right for its little red
buildings to be on places like
the Boardwalk or Park
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Place, which now really are
gambling casinos, but in no
way could they be located on
Illinois or lowa farmland.
Chalk up another one for
the city slickers.
So, Santee went to his local
high school shop class and
the students built the little
red bams.
After a few more hassles,
such as learning the “ms and
outs” of the printing trade,
Santee finally got his game
altogether earlier this year
and is now assembling and
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marketing it through his
home.
So, if you’re interested
further in the game and want
to become a part of the saga
of the little Ohio dairyman
vs. the big game and
equipment companies, write
to.
Dwight R. Santee, 16488
South Range Road, Beloit,
Ohio, 44609.
The games sell for $l2
each, including $lO for the
game and $2 for state sales
tax and UPS —DA
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Manheim, PA 17545
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