Alo—Lancaster Fararing, Saturday, January 15,19t3 An unforgettable Farm Show It's been quite a week. Farm Show crowds, commotion and competition enough to last until next year this time. And it will probably take most of us that long to recover from the 67th Pennsylvania Farm Show and regenerate the stamina needed for the next one. But none of us can complain about the proverbial Farm Show weather which failed to blanket our southeastern Pennsylvania under at least six inches of snow. Maybe the Farm Show weatherman failed to “see his shadow" on Saturday and, like the Punxsutawney groundhog, stayed out to enjoy the mild weather that made Farm Show week a pleasure for anyone driving to Harrisburg. While the weather may have been a blessing, it also caused record crowds to flock to the largest indoor agricultural event on the East Coast. Negotiating at a snail’s pace on the roads leading to Farm Show was a trial of patience and perseverance for many Penn sylvanians. At one point, traffic was backed up, bumper to bumper, a distance of roughly four miles as people waited in line to visit the sights and smells of Farm Show. Once inside the concrete complex, the traffic situation wasn't much better. Shoulder to shoulder masses of people inched their ways past exits and entrances through the maze of buildings that make Farm Show a nightmare for folks unfamiliar with its layout. Strollers with slumbering children and heavyweight steers and bulls were about the only things that could make the wall-to-wall crowds part like the Red Sea and allow passage. With all the people “reaching out to touch" the miraculously well-behaved livestock (that back home on the farm let feet fly at the slightest poke), it’s amazing that few mishaps occur at Farm Show. Although one older man did suffer a broken leg at this year's show after stumbling through a congested area in the dairy barn, the number of accidents compared to the staggering possibilities are gratefully few. For those of us who enjoy or endure the Farm Show experience, there’s no doubt about the fact that it is a farm-city family reunion. People who have never seen farm animals before cheer just as loudly as family and friends when junior beef, sheep, and market hog showmen receive the judges' nods. There’s a pride in these successful, hardworking young people that is contagious, and strangers also can enjoy watching these youths floating on "cloud nine" and realize they are watching a small bit of Pennsylvania’s history being written in the annals of Farm Show champions. The interest and enthusiasm which most Farm Show visitors express as they stroll through the barns is felt and overheard by the hundreds of exhibitors who spend all week talking about and explaining agriculture to the crowds. Curiosity attributed to cats could have been easily transferred to Farm Show visitors, young and old, who stared wide-eyed at mammoth machinery, danced and conversed with a robot, and stuffed mouth-watering. OTIS 'A' *'• Off the Sounding By Sheila Miller, Editor "4 .• > Bo&fd diet-destroying food into eager mouths hungry for deep-fried mushrooms, foamy milkshakes, and piping hot potatoes dripping with butter. The milking parlor was another focal-point of fascination for Farm Show visitors beginning at about four o’clock each afternoon that’s when some people learned for the first time that brown cows don't produce chocolate milk, and that milk isn’t pumped out of a cow by cranking her tail up and down. All this interest in agriculture is a mixed blessing, however, for some Farm Show exhibitors who devote a week’s worth of washing and grooming livestock, and con sequently make their animals "too adorable and tempting to touch.” Since all their scrubbing, clipping and combing is supposed to be appreciated primarily by the show judge, the coiffures created by people patting and petting meticulously groomed livestock with hands that stilt harbor evidence of leaking ice cream cones and cotton candy are tolerated with grimaces and strained good will. Each Farm Show brings its own special memories, like champion ribbons and warm, happy feelings. Or a taste of tanbark and embarassment after a show animal tumbles its exhibitor in a brief escape attempt. One Farm Show exhibitor probably will remember, for years to come, the stowaway farm cat who hitched a ride in the cattle trailer, but then decided to hightail it back home after getting a taste of trampling hooves. As the trailer came to a stop at the first traffic light, the farmer heard a call come over his CB radio fronvhis wife who was following the load of show cattle. Amidst static and crackling, he heard his wife say something came out the back of the trailer. The cat, called Precious, owes one of its nine lives to the fact that one of the cow's name was Princess. Thinking that one of his bovines was busting out the backdoor, the farmer kept the truck in park lucky thing for Precious who had darted out of the trailer and sought refuge on top of the pickup’s back wheel. In a matter of minutes the cat was wisked safely into the wife's pickup and back to the farm. For me, this year’s Farm Show was a con tinuation of my post-classroom education. But I contend that learning the latest tricks of the cattle showing trade is almost as difficult as trying to teach an 80-year-old farmer to ski. It’s hard to teach an “old cattle fitter new tricks” but with the willpower in these “old bones" and the volumes of help and advice that were shared by other exhibitors, the show road rudiments will be all downhill from here at least until i meet up with another obtacle and challenge. Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture has a challenge, too how to make the 68th Farm Show even better. Many of last year's problems were overcome thanks to con structive criticisms and action by people who acre about Farm Show and want to see the perennial, crowd-pleasing agstravaganza go on and on. / THE HEhJ I HOUSE [ DOOR, > NEEDS A t NEW LATCH B: IAWHfN'U '.V AltHOi -t ‘ffilUßlUS DEADLINE: TONIGHT! January 16,1983 Background Scripture: Luke 12:18-40 Devotional Reading: Luke 6:46-49 The deadline is not in question: tonight before a new day begins some of ns will no longer be numbered among the living. I have no idea how many people will die this evening, but the statistic, I’m sure, will be staggering. The only thing we do not know is which of us will be numbered among that statistic. As we awoke this mor ning probably none of us en tertained the thought that today might be our very last, although that is certainly not a remote possibility. All of us arose and have progressed through this day as if we had a considerable amount of time left in our lives. DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE Consequently, tbe things that have likely occupied our minds this day have not been questions of death, life eternal heaven, eter nity, the Judgement of God, etc. Much nvjre likely we have been preoccupied with more pressing matters. Like tbe one, for exam ple, that was brought before Jesus one day: “Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me." It was a reasonable request, was it not? Isn’t that the way most ns NOW IS THE TIME By Jay Irwin Loneaotar County AfricuKur* Afoot Ptiono 717-394-6851 To Separate Farm Show Animate The Pennsylvania Farm Show is a big event in our state this week. And, in spite of the winter month, the show attracts a large number of animals. Show regulations do a pretty good job of protecting these show animals and in building up resistance to a number of in fections. However, the animals in the home -herd or flock may not have the same treatment and resistance. Therefore, it is very important to keep these two groups of animals separate for at least 30 days after the show. Segregation and aanitatinn are still very important practices in the livestock world. We have known of Farm Show animals that were returned to the farm and remained in good health; however, the rest of the animals in the barn came down with shipping fever or some other infection. Don’t take chances by mixing the home animals with Farm Show animals, or with newly-purchased animals. Give them a 30-day period without this dangerous exposure. To Transfer Silage Livestock and dairy producers who have had silage stored in temporary structures might be planning to move this feed into upright silos in the next month or so. Many producers use the temporary storage until some of the material is fed out of the upright silo. By transferring into the upright silo, mechanical feeders can be used. The objective is to move the silage during cold weather. The months of January