AlD—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, January 16,1982
“You can’t keep a good man down” is a
slogan most of us have grown up with and
have come to take for granted.
Of course nowadays that slogan would have
to read: "You can’t keep a good ‘person’
down” but the meaning still is the same. A
well-qualified individual who performs well on
the job will assuredly succeed in moving up the
career ladder.
(n most cases, this achievement by em
ployees serves as an asset to the company,
creating a competant .foundation for carrying
on the business. But such is not the case with
veterinarians who find employment with the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
In this bureaucratic maze, as a veterinarian
becomes trained and proficient in the job,
outside forces lurk on the perifery, ready to
lure these highly skilled servants-of-th'e-state
into the civilian market by dangling a ‘golden
carrot’ in front of their noses.
• It’s a fact of life that most people’s goals in
life are to operate at a higher standard of
living. And with veterinarian school loans to
repay and the temptation of a lucrative private
practice or position with a financially sound
industry constantly confronting them, many
civil service veterinarians leave the state after
only a short stay, taking with them the ex
periences and expertise acquired on the job.
Filling these vacant posts is double-trouble
for the Agriculture Department. Civil service
regulations only allow new employees to be
hired at a specified salary level usually far
below what a veterinarian could earn in
private practice. Because of this salary
limitation, finding highly qualified, ex
perienced veterinarians to fill the job is
generally a fruitless task.
Take for instance the ongoing plight of PDA
to find a replacement for Dr. Edward
Mallinson, former Chief of Avian Health.
Mallinson left the Department in October
1980 to assume a position at the University of
Maryland in poultry extension.
According to Chief Veterinarian Max Van-
Buskirk there is "very little interest among
poultry-oriented veterinarians for the position
because PDA cannot be competitive salary
wise for a competent, qualified person.”
In order to fill the vacant post, Van Buskirk
stated a task force has been established to.
locate “reasonably qualified” veterinarians
who can be trained in avian health while on
the job. Working on ■ this committee are.
representatives of industry, the University of
Pennsylvania veterinary school, and Penn
State.
Finding that person unquestionably has
been hampered because of the salary
limitations set up by civil service. A starting
salary for this administrative job would fall in
NOW IS THE TIME
To Service Farm Machinery
This is the time of the year to be
preparing your farm equipment
for spring work. In the first place,
this machinery should not be out in
the weather. I still see too much
machinery left out in the fields and
barnyards. This is not good
management and will shorten the
life of the equipment. Repairing
farm machinery is necessary
every year, and now would be a
good time to make use of the off
season labor supplies. Machinery
Off the
Somdmg Board
By Sheila Miller, Editor
How you gonna keep ’em?
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
Phone 717-394-6851
is a huge investment and should be
kept in good condition at all times.
Rain and snow will soon develop
rust on equipment; this will
shorten the life span and is a
primary cause of many un
necessary breakdowns.
To Be Aware of Child Labor Laws
If you have boys or girls between
the ages of 14 and 16 that plan to
operate a farm tractor or
machinery on a farm, other than
your own farm, be sure they have
the proper certificate. Under the
the range of $21,555 to $28,108. Then after
six months, the Secretary of Agriculture could
promote the veterinarian to a salary of
$28,000 up to a maximum of $32,000.
‘The problem is not whether the person is
worth it,” stated Van Buskirk. ‘‘lt’s that in
dustry is paying much more.”
What's needed here is a change in the rules.
An adjustment of the salary ranges so that the
state can compete in the job market for
qualified veterinarians.
But even if these black-and-white rules are
modified on paper, they won’t have much
effect unless the dollars are there to back
them up. And with budget cuts being the in
thing in all administrations these days, it
seems doubtful there will be much financial
incentive to entice qualifed personnel into the
bureaucratic ranks^
“You can't be furloughing some employees
and giving raises to others,” Van Buskirk
acknowledged.
And so the problem continues.
As a result, Pennsylvania farmers are being
short-changed.
The Pennsylvania Poultry Federation
recently met with Secretary of Agriculture
Penrose Hallowed, Deputy Secretary Luther
Snyder, Van Buskirk, and Dr. Charles Clark,
head of the Laboratories Division. The
Federation pointed out the current limitations
of poultry diagnostic laboratories due to
restricted funding and pinpointed a “com
munications breakdown in disease control due
to the absence of a central coordinator” the
Avian Health chief.
The poultry farmers are not alone in feeling
the effects of budget cuts. With fewer dollars
to cover costs, PDA’s diagnostic labs are
operating short-handed. Skilled technicians
and veterinarians are exiting for more
remunerative jobs. As a result, expanded
diagnostic programs are nipped in the bud
since personnel are already up to their ears in
old programs, such as brucellosis and rabies
testing. Penn State’s and U. of Penn’s
laboratories are helping out but how long
they can continue to pinch-hit for PDA is
uncertain due to the schools’ own budgetary
problems.
It all boils down to money can Penn
sylvania afford to keep training ‘green’
veterinarians at the expense of its farmers.
And, even if PDA manages to find reasonably
qualified people to fill the job vacancies, the
question is “For how long?"
We’d all be better off if top-notch, ex
perienced veterinarians could be kept
financially satisfied and retained on the state’s
payroll so that farmers wouldn’t have to keep
paying the price of in-house education.
child labor regulations, the law
requires that those boys or girls
between 14 and 16 years of age, be
certified and carry a certification
card before they are permitted to
operate hazardous equipment.
Some equipment listed under the
law as hazardous are, a tractor
with over 20 PTO horsepower, corn
picker, hay baler, feed grinder,
fork lift and many more. Again, on
your own farm, your children can
(Turn to Page Al 2)
AFRAID OF
THE LIGHT?
January 17,1982
Background Scripture:
John 1:1-13; 12:44-50
Devotional Reading:
1 John 1:1-10.
Surely the title above must be
incorrect!
I meant to say “afraid of the
dark,” didn’t I?
No, I meant to question whether
some of us are afraid, not of
darkness, but of the light. For it
has seemed to me that although
many of us—perhaps all of us—as
children fear the darkness, as we
grow older some of us grow in
creasingly more fond of the
darkness.
Men Loved Darkness
In Morton Kelsey’s book, The
Other Side of Silence (Paulist
Press, 1976), there is a story about
a man who wanted to grow in
spiritual depth. Under the
guidance of a teacher, lie made
great progress. Then, however, the
teacher had to be away for. six
months and it was a half-year later
that he once again encountered his
former pupil. Asked how he was
doing in his spiritual life, the
former pupil replied that he
stopped all religious practices and
did'not intend to resume. To the
astonished teacher’s “Why?" he
replied, “I saw a little light and 1
didn’t like it.” Concludes Kelsey,
“The light made too many
demands on him."
That is precisely what it means
when we speak of Jesus as “The
Light of the world.” That light
came into our world, as John puts
OUR READERS WRITE,
AND OTHER OPINIONS
Farm bill shows
political nearsightedness
The new tour-year Omnibus our opinion, is a disappointing
Farm Bill, passed by Congress last example ot budgetary capitulation
month in the House by a margin and political nearsightedness,
vote of 205-203, and signed by Loan rales on major com-
President Reagan in a closed modules such as corn and wheat,
ceremony at the White House, in (Turn to Page Al 2)
HAV HAWS
“I’ve got to let three of you go Whoever wants to do the work
of four can be the one who stays ”
It, to "enlighten” all of us, to help
us to see things as they really are
arid are meant to be. But the light
is more than a comfort, it is also a
challenge. As Kelsey put it, it
makes demands upon us. And if we
are not willing to give it, we begin fl
to prefer the darkness where we ™
can hide. As- John says, “For
everyone who does evil, hates the
light, and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be
exposed” (3:20).
No it is not far-fetched for me to
suggest that some of us prefer the
darkness to light. “And this is the
judgement,” wrote John, “that the
light has come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds are evil”
(3:19).
I Come As Light
All of us are glad that there are
some aspects of our lives that are
not out in the open for everyone to
see. There are some thoughts,
actions, and attitudes we are glad
to keep a secret within us. At the
same time, we realize |hat with
God there is nothing that is hidden.
He knows our most detestable
thoughts, our deepst temptations,
and our actions that never come to
the attention of others.
Therefore, some will regard the
Light of the World as an un
welcome intrusion in their lives. _
Yet, fearful as it is to be so com-t
pletely known by God, isn’t it also
confronting and reassuring? God
knows both the worst and best
about us and he loves us
nonetheless. There is nothing in
our lives that is truly hidden from
him. But isn’t it good to have at
least someone from whom we do
not have to hide the truth? Instead
of fearing and trying to escape the
Light into our lives, we can
welcome it, knowing that it is by
the power of that Light that we are
freed of darkness, that we no
longer have to carry secret bur
dens. Jesus himself promised, “1
have come as light into the world,
that whoever believes in me may
not remain in darkness.” .
Sty