Alo—Lancaster Famine, Saturday, August 13,1983
T his
KCRI
Lessons in ring
BY OiCK ANGLESTEIN
it's a pleasure to sit along the sidelines and
watch a good judge at work.
By a good judge, I don't only mean one who
picks the animals in proper order.
I mean a judge who takes the time and puts
forth the effort to make the competition a real
learning experience for the competitors,
particularly if they are 4-H or FFA’ers.
At the Lebanon Fair this week I watched just
such a “teaching” judge at work - Clyde
.Myers, of Berks County Extension.
In the market steer competition, Myers
always took the extra time to talk with each of
the competitors after each class before an
nouncing the reasons for his placings to the
audience. Each of the competitors listened to
him intently as he privately explained his
decisions and offered tips on how they may
brush up on their showing and fitting
techniques.
And, this is how it should be.
Showing livestock is not primarily a com
petition to pick who has the best animal. After
all, if you have the money, anyone can go out
and buy a winner, just as the Yankees buy a
$2O million centerfielder.
Showing livestock is primarily a learning
experience for the competitors - just another
phase of hands-on education to prepare them
for that tough, long road in farming later on.
Farm Calendar
Saturday, Aug. 13
National Plowing Contest at the
York 4-H Center. Small plows at
9 a.m.; antique plows at noon;
and large plows at 2 p.m.
Sixth annual Sussex County, N.J.,
Open Sheep Show at 9 a.m.
Continues tomorrow.
Wayne County Jr. Livestock Sale
at 7 p.m. at the Wayne County
Fairgrounds.
Northeast Chianina Field Day
(judging contest) at the York
Fairgrounds.
Blueberry Festival of Bradford
County Jr. Holstein Club at Bob
Whipple’s of Hombrook.
Eastern Pa. Holstein Cham
pionship Show, Kutztown.
Southcentral Pa. Holstein Show,
Carlisle.
Sunday, Aug. 14
Manor Young Farmer and FFA
picnic at 4 p.m. at the Lampeter
Fairgrounds.
McKean County Fair opens at
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Smethport. Continues
throughout the week.
Monday, Aug. 15
Twilight beef field day at the
Greenridge Beef Farms of J.
Paul Espy, Tyrone.
Tuesday, Aug. 16
Vegetable Growers Tour through
Northampton and Lehigh
Counties. Continues through
Thursday.
Cumberland County 4-H Swine
Round-Up Sale, at the Carlisle
Livestock Market. Show is at
9:30 a.m. and sale is at 6:30
p.m.
PDA ag export seminar at the
regional office, Lansdale.
York Farmers Forum annual
picnic at the C.B. Musser farm.
Avian influenza meeting at 8 p.m.
at the Lancaster Farm and
Home Center.
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The showring experience should teach
values that can be applied later on, too. Values
like winning isn’t everything and if you know
you did your best that's all that's really im
portant. Other values like the realization that
caring for an animal involves the heart as
much as it involves the hands and head.
And, probably most important of all, the
values of keeping everything in perspective in
whatever you do and when it comes time to
make a tough decision to have the guts to
make that decision and then stick to it.
And these are just a few of the values that
can come out of the showring and a good
“teaching” judge helps formulate them.
When we speak of competitors recognizing
such values, we don’t only limit the scope of
the showring to youths.
Livestock competition began at fairs as
means of encouraging farmers to improve
their stock and afford a basis for them to
compare their animals with those of others.
But somehow I think this value has become
somewhat tarnished over the years.
How can we expect a youth not to enter the
ring with just the vision of a trophy and an
inflated grand champ price in mind, when he or
she sees adults go into the showring primarily
with bottom-line merchandising clouding their
perspective.
If this editorial sounds a bit moralistic and
unpractical, it’s intended to be. After all, a few
Pollyanna paragraphs now and then are
needed.
And if any group of people are Pollyanna --
blindly optimistic -- it’s farmers. They got to be.
Working daily with uncontrollable variables,
farmers must constantly look ahead to better
weather, better market prices or whatever.
But the trouble with being eternally op
timistic and expecting things to get better is
the personality trait of vacillation that
develops -- putting off hard and tough
decisions and even after making them not
sticking to them.
And, that brings us back to the showring. I
hope some of these words ring in the ears of
competitors as they lead their black and white
entries around the Farm Show Big Arena late
next month.
Thursday, Aug. 18
Friday, Aug. 19
WHY
NOT?
Saturday, Aug. 20
NE District 4-H Dairy Show,
Hartford.
Central Pa. Holstein Cham
pionship Show, Huntingdon.
Lancaster
Farming
Better read
than any other
ag publication
in the East
BECAUSE X DONT UKE TNE
IDEA OF (MY HAVING- 70
TOUCH A BUTTON, TO FIND
OUT HOW MUCH X OWE .
A DISCOVERY
TOO LATE
August 14,1983
Background Scripture:
1 Samuel 1:3;2:12-17,22-25;4.
Devotional Reading
Acts 5:1-12.
It was an old story.
Two men, Hophni and Phinehas
were brought up in one of the best
if not the best families in all
Israel. Their father was none other
than the esteemed priest and judge
Eh. By virture of their birth, they
themselves became priests and, as
Eli became too old to handle the
work, took over the priestly
responsibilities of the sanctuary at
Shiloh. Thus, they were men of
exceeding power and privilege.
Yet, as parents have sorrowfully
learned since the beginning of
time, despite all these advantages
there is no guarantee, for it is not
so much a matter of what we give
our children as it is what they do
with what they are given. The sons
of Eli had been given the best that
Israel had to offer, but still they
lacked the most important element
of all: integrity.
NO REGARD
The problem with Hophm and
Phinehas was not that they didn’t
believe in God, but that, believing
in him, "they had no regard for the
Lord.” In a sense, their sin was
even greater than that of atheism.
They believed in God but they did
not let their belief effect the way
NOW IS THE TIME
By Jay Irwin
Uocnter County Agriculture Acer*
Phone 717-394-6551
To Plan For Fall Wheat Seeding
The time is fast approaching for
our wheat growers to be making
plans for their fall seeding. Some
of the local wheat may not be
satisfactory due to the wheat scab
found in some fields this year. If
you use local wheat, be sure you
know the source and have it
cleaned and treated for disease.
Also, if you had a scab problem
this year, do not plant seed in the
same field this fall; the fungus can
remain in the soil.
Certified seed would be the best
route to take if you experienced
any problem with scab or powdery
mildew this year. This extra cost
for certified seed is well worth it to
help insure a good crop next
summer.
Plan your seed needs now so you
are ready to plant when the con
ditions are right.
To Ensile Drouth-Stricken Com
Com fields are drying out very
rapidly, and one way to salvage
drouth-stricken com is to ensile it.
For good packing and good fer
mentation, ensile the crop at about
60-65% moisture. Moisture content
is going to be difficult to estimate
accurately. Stunted plants with
good ear development may be
drier than usual. However, plants
with little or no ear development
may be higher than‘normal in
moisture content. Once most of the
leaves below the ear dry up and
die, moisture content can drop
quickly; observe fields frequently.
In deciding when to cut, consider
the whole field. The moisture in
greener com will partially offset
the lack of moisture in drier com.
they lived.
Perhaps that should make each
of us uncomfortable, for almost
everyone who reads these words
believe in the existence of God.
Like Hophni and Phinehas, we
would probably not think of
declaring that God does not exist.
At the same time, it may very well
be that many of us live lives that
are not more affected by our belief
than tlwc ~ved by Eli’s two sons.
Let’s give these two men the
benefit of the doubt: let’s assum_
that they were not bom scoundrels,
that it was somewhere along the
way that they began to be
corrupted by their temptations.
For that’s the way it works with
most of us. Our start in life is at
least adequate and perhaps con
siderably more than that. Our
parents aren’t perfect—just as we
are not perfect parents—but they
give us a good enough start so that
we can live lives pleasing to God
and in accordance with his plan
and purpose for us. No, where most
of us go “wrong” is somewhere
along the way when we failed to
live up to the best that we know.
CONTEMPT FOR GOD
With Hophni and Phinehas it
seems that, as their power and
privilege increased, their respect
for God decreased. They made the
old mistake of believing that their
temporal power placed them in a
position where their lives were
beyond the power or jurisdiction of
God. Perhaps they had assumed
that God was very much like their
aging father, Eli: weak, impotent,
and irrelevant. They pursued their
evil deeds with no fear of divine
consequences.
In time—too late— they came to
realize that they had been as
wrong as human beings can be. Let
each of us beware that we do not
make the same belated and tragic
discovery.
Drier material may need to be
chopped finer for good packing;
keep the knives sharp and properly
set. If you are forced to chop com
finer, be sure you have enough
other good, longer-stemmed
turage available to maintain near
normal rumen activity and fat
tests. If the com is too dry, add
water or consider using a
preservative. To raise the
moisture level of 1 ton of silage
from 55% up to 60% will require
about 30 gallons of water; that’s
300 gallons to a 10 ton load!
If pollination and ear develop
ment are poor, and the stalks
remain fairly green, don't panic;
let the crop stand and cut it at the
usual 45-55 days after silking. This
will permit the plant to accumulate
more nutrients, particularly
energy, and it provides more time
for nitrate levels if present, to
decline. To further reduce the risk
of nitrates in drouthy com, wait
until 3-5 days after a “recovery”
rain and cut the crop higher; ac
cumulation of nitrates generally
are greater in the stalk, following
periods of rapid growth.
Off-quality silages should be
stored separately from good
quality forages, so it can be
managed accordingly. Put only
good quality forage in the silo.
Don’t let a layer of poor quality
feed block your access to the good
quality feed you need for your top
producers. If necessary, consider
stacks, silo bags and other silos as
alternative storages.
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