Alo—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 21,1981
Lancaster Farming says...
When the general manager of a
6000-member dairy co-op spends his
time stumping the countryside for
higher gram prices not higher milk
prices it’s a sure sign something is
amiss in the farm market
But that’s just what Douglas
Caruso of the Farmers Union Milk
Marketing Cooperative is doing
He blames much of the current
disruption in the milk market on
current gram prices These prices, he
argues, are low enough to encourage
marginal dairy producers to stay in
business They also make it
profitable for other dairy farmers to
over-produce
Dairy farmers, of course, have
good old Uncle Sam to protect them
against any disruption in the gram
market As gram prices increase,
Uncle provides an increase m the
dairy blend price
Cash gram farmers would have no
reason to object to higher gram
THE UNREPENTANT
AND OTHER
GENTILES
February 22,1981
Background Scripture:
Matthew 18.
Devotional Reading:
1 Corinthians 1 26
through 2.5
Funny, how often you can
iK
I NOW IS
THE TIME
By Max Smith,
Lancaster County
Agricultural Agent
Phone 717-394-6801
SS yJ- \s .-as'" - v
TO PREPARE FOR
DORMANT SPRAYS
Many types of trees are infested
with various kinds of scale insects
These creatures attach themselves
to the bark and twigs of trees and
shrubs and suck strength from the
plant One of the best treatments is
to apply a dormant spray (such as
oil or lime sulphur) before the buds
start to open The date of the spray
will vary with the weather
However, on many fruit trees and
shrubbery this will be late
February and early March. The
spray should be applied before the
buds open. In addition, a spray
during May or June while the in
sect is in the crawler stage is
strongly suggested; materials can
oe Malathion or Diazmon Scale
insects should be controlled and
the dormant spray is most im
portant.
TO TRANSFER SILAGE
If silage is to be transferred from
a horizontal silo into an upright
Call for higher grain prices
prices After all, they have
languished under an unwritten
cheap food policy which allows
consumers to save dollars which
ordinarily would be spent on
groceries and spend them instead on
manufactured goods or services
The crops producer, victim of
embargoes as well as Mother Nature,
would argue his time has come
There's little doubt the livestock
farmer, especially the ones m the
gram-deficit East, would suffer from
higher gram prices
Short term, the cattle, swine and
poultry markets would be in turmoil
until the system had a chance to
balance out
More than any one thing, com
modity divisiveness threatens the
future of family farms It is no good
when any one segment of the farm
economy benefits at the expense of
others
read a passage from the
Bible and assume it has said
all to you that it is going to
say. And then one day you
read it for the umpteenth
time and suddenly some new
meaning leaps out at you
from the page
That’s what happened to
me this week when I read
Matthew 18 I have
frequently preached and
taught on Matthew 18.21, 22
Jesus’s counsel to Peter
on forgiveness, and I sup
pose, in order to quickly get
to that text, I have skipped
over 18:15-17 because it
seemed rather irrelevant to
life in our tunes “If your
brother sins against you, go
and tell him bis fault, bet
- Vs'
' V> '
structure, it is best to be done
during cold weather Some
livestock and dairy producers may
want to do this in order to use
mechanical feeding equipment
When the material is moved during
freezing weather, there is less
danger of heating and spoiling
There is no need of any chemical or
preservative The quicker the
silage is moved and put into the
upright silo, the better When
horizontal silos are properly
managed the feeding value ot the
silage should be very similar to a
tower silo However, the feeding
quality coming out cannot be any
better than it was when put into the
silo
TO DEMAND HEALTH PAPERS
The objective of having a healthy
herd or flock should be very im
portant to all livestock and daily
producers Many farmers have
been very successful in developing
healthy annuals until they bought
a new addition Then the trouble
Nevertheless the livestock
ween you and him alone. If
he listens to you, you have
gained your brother.” There
may have been a tune when
people could do that, I
thought, but not today As a
pastor I knew how sensitive
people are to criticism (not
to mention my own sen
sitivity 1 )
Gaining A Brother
Yet, this week when I read
this passage, I suddenly
realized that here was the
Biblical confirmation of
something I had learned the
hard way the only way to
deal with serious conflict in
interpersonal relationships
is to deal with them openly
redemption and recon
cilliation are not likely to
producers should be able to survive
the crunch since supply-demand
would force auction prices to reflect
costly inputs in terms of higher beef
and pork prices
Internationally, higher gram prices
may be the only answer to getting the
U S out of its uncomfortable position
over the Arabs' oil barrel
Selling a bushel of wheat for $9
rather than $4 50, or soybeans at
$l5 instead of $7 50, effectively
would double the credit side of our
balance of ag trade
At present, farm products remain
the only bright spot in a trade
balance which goes deeper into the
red each year Selling gram at in
creasing and fair prices would help
offset the skyrocketing price of
imported petroleum
The American consumer must not
be forgotten in this whole picture
Remember the scare stories about
bread at a dollar a loaf 7 Wheat prices
tdKe place so long as we hide
our destructive feelings “go
and tell him his fault.”
In fact, through long years
of counselling and more
lately working with people
and groups in learning to
manage stress, I have come
to realize how destructive
sudden anger, resentment
and jealousy can be Quite a
number of psychosomatic
diseases including
hypertension, heart disease,
stomach ulcers, cancer and
others are related to our
inadequate management of
hostility Dr Kenneth
Pelletier believes that there
is considerable evidence that
internalized anger”
produces more harmful
started This is so true in many
cases that we cannot stress strong
enough to be very careful when
buying animals. Too many bu
rners have bought disease” when
they brought new animals to
the farm THis is very easy to do,
especially when purchases aie
made several times each year
Attention to the source of the
animal, or animals, is very im
portant Our current swine in
fection situation is hard to control
and eliminate because of the large
number of feeder pigs coming into
the area each week More careful
buying and the insistence ot
authorized health papers needs
more attention
TO FERTILIZE
EFFICIENTLY
This year’s growing season is
just around the corner, fertilizer
and most other inputs will be at
higher costs Farmers will be
pressed to realize profits from
their crops as well as most of then
livestock enterprises The com
plete soil test should leveal the
actual needs of the soil and this will
be given along with the results
Farmers are urged to respect
these results and buy fertilizers
accordingly Many fields may need
little more than a good coating of
livestock or poultiy manuie When
we add extj a nun lenls, we do not
make good use of out doliais la
adoiuoii, excess niliogen ma>
icsull in excess niliates in crops
and walei supplies
by curt hauler, editor
stress than the short-term
strain that we undergo when
we express that anger im
mediately (See his book,
MIND AS HEALER, MIND
AS SLAYER, Delta books).
In other words, we think we
spare ourselves stress by
concealing our feelings, but
the long-range effects of that
concealment are much
worse to us physically and
psychically
If He Does Not Listen...
Jesus also knew that
burying feelings of hostility
is just as harmful to the
relationship and the other
person Although, on the
surface, peace and calm
might seem to have been
served, the hidden hostility
HAV HAWS
mUL"-£
FE HO e- SEEP X
Yes Bob, I know I quoted that price to you over
the phone but that was this morning.”
did rise, but it’s still possible to buy
two loaves of bread for about a buck
A 25 percent increase in prices
received by farmers would mean an
increase in food costs of less than
one percent to the consumer
Better yet, a realistic and rational
price would smooth out a lot of the
hills and valleys in the gram market,
benefiting both consumers and
farmers although perhaps killing
speculators
On the farm, gross income would
increase about 26 percent and
20,000 new jobs would be created
nationwide, Economist L A Davidson
of Mississippi figures
The sickly Gross National Product
would jump by about $1 4 billion
All that if the government would
revise its cheap food policy and not
meddle with the market
In the long run, higher gram prices
may turn out to be the best thing for
our ailing economy
poisons the relationship. So,
said Jesus, don’t let that
happen. take your
grievance to the other
person and face it openly
And, if that does not do it,
then take along several
others and confront your
toirientor again If, at last,
you can work out the
disagreement, both of you
have gamed a brother!
And if the other person still
will not reason with you,
what then 9 Treat him ‘as a
Gentile and a tax collector,"
said Jesus Of course, we all
know how Jesus treated
Gentiles and tax collectors
he continued to pursue them
forgiving them, until at last
they were redeemed 1