Alo—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 14,1981
Lancaster Farming says...
A change of mind or heart?
President Ronald Reagan had
either a change of mind or heart last
week when he declined to lift the
gram embargo against the Soviet
Union
Despite repeated pledges during
the campaign to end the embargo,
and pleas from Ag Secretary John
Block to keep his promise, Reagan
bowed to the wishes of the State
Department The embargo will
continue for the forseeable future,
the President said
Two groups will benefit, and
neither includes farmers
First is the consumer bloc Keeping
gram from going overseas keeps
domestic supplies heavy That, in
turn, keeps consumer prices down
Indeed, there is strong evidence
that without the gram embargo
domestic supplies would be depleted
before the new corn crop hits the
market this fall Last year’s poor crop
coupled with already low reserves
means the system might not be able
to withstand another short crop
without severe price pressure on
domestic markets
The second group to benefit will be
speculators who play the gram
IN THYL REAL
WORLD
February 15,1981
Background Scripture:
Matthew 16 through 17
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 58:6-12
We've never really known
what to do with some of
NOW IS
I THE TIME
By Max Smith,
Lancaster County
Agricultural Agent
Phone 717-394-6801
TO EVALUATE CORN
growing Practices
In recent years many farmers
have been growing com on the
same ground year after year. This
has been a common practice m the
mid-west for many years. Now,
there is some research being done
that could raise a some question
about this practice. One piece of
work showed that by changing the
variety of hybrid com from year to
year will increase yields Some
other work reflects the use of crop
rotations and the greater use of
legumes in the rotation This might
not meet the desire of some com
growers to inject another crop in
the rotation, but might be the best
thing to do in the long run. Fer
tilizer prices are soarmg and the
market Many speculators have
pulled their heads into their shells
fearing Russia will invade Poland
That certainly would end any hope of
resumed gram sales
Reagan’s move takes a lot of the
guesswork out of speculators’
moves Without any hope of resumed
sales, they stay safely out of the
market and farm prices remain low
The Pennsylvania Milk Security
Fund is m trouble Only 31 of 120
dealers are m the Fund The others
have opted out
Co-ops, responsible for many
recent assessments on dairy
producers, all voted themselves out
of the Fund
At present the kitty is only a few
dollars over $73,000, barely enough
to cover the $50,000 annual
operating costs
A meeting last Wednesday brought
forth loads of suggestions ranging
from increased funding to all bonding
and no funding
Lancaster Farming once again
Jesus’ teachings. They are
easy for us to recite, but
many of them just don’t fit
into what you and I think of
as “the real world.” For
some people, these conflicts
are troubling. Others explain
them away, suggesting that
they were not meant to be
applied in this life Others of
us avoid the problem by
never thinking about it
A case in point is Jesus’
concept of success. The
conflict is a very sharp
disagreement as to what
constitutes success and
failure After Peter con
fessed him as the Christ of
Caesarea Philippi, Matthew
tells us- “From that tune
Jesus began to show his
disciples that he must go to
iSxV-" v
presence of a legume sod prior to
corn will add 125 pounds of
nitrogen per acre from a good
alfalfa sod, and 40 pounds from a
red clover sod This could reduce
the fertilizer bill and still give
increased yields. Even though corn
will be in strong demand m the
next few years, some of these
findings might make it more
profitable
TO INVEST IN A RESPIRATOR
No doubt you have noticed ting,
suggestion in various pieces of'
farm press However, it is still a
good gesture to reduce health
hazards. Under modern farming
practices the fanner is exposed to
more dusts, gases, and chemicals
than a generation ago In order to
(I urn to Page A«;8'
Reconsider prompt milk payment
Jerusalem and suffer many
things from the elders and
chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and on the
third day be raised”
(Matthew 16 21) Peter
responded the way most of
us would have “Peter
began to rebuke him, saying
‘God forbid, Lord! This shall
never happen to you’”
(16:22)
Saving and Losing
Who would quarrel with
Simon Peter 9 After all, he
was telling it like it really is
What Jesus was describing
was nothing less than a
losing game-plan Think
what it would do to the
Master’s image everyone
would mark him as a
“loser,” and you can’t
I H
John Block should be
congratulated on his stand against
his boss No national group favors
continuation of the embargo Except
for the initial shock, the embargo has
had little effect on Russia—its troops
still are m Afghanistan
American farmers, meantime,
have lost markets to other nations
Farmers under low prices
would like to push for prompt
payment by buyers for all milk sold m
Pennsylvania
The intent of the lawmakers, as
voiced last year, was eventually to
work toward prompt payment by
dealers and co-ops for milk
No longer would farmers wait
three to six weeks for checks, giving
the dealer free interest for that
period and exposing farmers to
financial ruin They'd be paid in 10
days and their potential risk in case
of failure would be cut by four-fifths
If a bank or bonding firm won’t
handle a dairy, surely the farmer
can’t afford to lend interest-free
mone. against noor security
achieve anything in this
world that is worthwhile
unless you’re a “winner.”
We may not always know
what “winning” is, but
suffering at the hands of
one’s enemies and being
killed by them is definitely
not ‘winning ” Not in the
real world anyway
And so, Christianity has
often chosen the world’s
standards of “winning” and
“losing” because it has had
to live in the real world,
instead of the world of 'pie
m-the-sky-sometunel ” For
example, a “successful”
man in our congregation is
the one who has achieved a
certain degree of material
and/or professional
W 6
Beautiful surroundings, good feed, vitamins, top vet care...ever
occur to you there might be a catch?”
by curt harlcr, editor
position The un
successful” person is one
who may never get
anywhere economically of
socially “Success” in the
ministry is to become a
bishop or serve a very large
and influential church. The
“unsuccessful” pastor is a
clergyperson who has spent
his or her whole life with
small rural churches
Real And Unreal
Yet, this is so different
from Jesus’ own statement
of values ‘For whoever
would save his life will lose
it, and whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it”
(16 25) What Jesus is
saying to us is that in the
real world, the world where
values are determined by
r h
while high-technology firms still sell
to Russia Should Russia invade
Poland, far more drastic steps than a
gram embargo will be required, since
there already is an embargo
Is Reagan’s decision a change of
mind influenced by the State
Department, or a change of heart
against farmers 7
The problems of milk price can be
worked out by paying the past
month’s blend plus a correction
when the Order figures final blend
Interest is too high, farmers too far
out on financial limbs, to expect
anything less than prompt payment
for services or goods
Prompt payment will cut the
bureaucracy needed to get dairy
producers’ security, end farmers’
roles as unpaid bankers, treat
dealers and co-ops equally, and slash
the cost of bonds
It reaches to the heart of farmers’
needs for security rather than
treating 55-day old symptoms •
God mstead of his creatures,
what appears to be "win
ning” may actually be
“losing,” and what smells of
defeat may, in fact, be
victory. The apparent
“loser” may be the real
“winner” as God judges
The fact is, that which we
think of as the real world
may be only a distorted
reflection and our ideas of
“success” and “failure”
may be equally out of focus
And the key to real suc
cess” may be nothing less
than the largely untried
concept of our Lord. “If any
man would come after me,
let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow
me ”
y
k
' J
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