VOL 29 No. 7 Flooding in fields and along roada- —i»ed> more than 30 roads to be closed in Lancaster Co. Rain late, but welcomed BY KIMBERLY HERR Where was it when we needed it? That question echoed across the state earlier this week as the rain, missing from this summer’s weather, pelted across the Com monweath. After the soaking rains of Monday and Tuesday, Lancaster County, which suffered from the severe drought over the summer, recorded a total rainfall of five inches. According to Jay Irwin, Lancaster County Extension agent, that rain helped more than it hurt. “You always need good soil and subsoil moisture going into win- Avian flu total reaches 6 million BY LAURA ENGLAND LANCASTER Despite efforts by USDA task force personnel sent to eradicate the deadly avian flu virus, the disease continued to spread within the quarantine zone this week, leaving behind over six million “depopulated” chickens. As of Thursday, 151 flocks had been cqnfirmed with the highly pathogenic strain. Of these flocks, 126 had been depopulated by task force members, bringing the number of birds destroyed to 6,760,950. The overall outlook of the avian epidemic continues to be the same, said Pennsylvania Poultry Federation director John Hoff man. “The overall outlook is the same," Hoffman said. ‘.‘We continue to contain the disease within the quarantine zone, but Four Sections by Trtth WiMaim ter,” Irwin explained. “This will certainly help that. Since the ground is not frozen, the water is going down into the ground. “This should help the water table considerably,” he said. The problems that the rain caused for farmers were few. “There were some high streams, but no major problems that I’ve heard of,” Irwin said. Another county suffering from this summer’s drought conditions was Schuylkill. Allen Shoener, county Extension agent, was glad to see the rain. (Turn to Page A 34) we’ve made no progress in con trolling the virus.” Currently, the disease is moving eastward with northern and southern movement infrequent. The trend eastward, Hoffman said, is a result from the lack of birds in the western end of the quarantine zone. In this area, roost birds have been depopulated. The spread eastward has caused concern among avian flu personnel because the hot strain is hitting areas where no previous cases had been reported. The easternmost outbreak in Lancaster County occured in Gap,'while Reinholds is the furthest north the disease has gone and Quarryville the furthest south. The quarantine zone covers 2,800 square miles, including all of Lancaster County and parts of Berks, Dr.uphfn. I.phan''” Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, December 17,1993 Dairy Computer conference keys in on management BY TRIBH WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY PARK - Com puters... the {arm management tool of the 80’s, was the subject of the Penn State Dairy Computer Conference held Wednesday and Thursday at Penn State’s main campus. Approximately 170 dairymen, agribusinessmen and dairy Extension agents came to leam the state of art in this rapidly changing technology. “The computer is the mmt recent development that allows dairy farmers to be more efficient managers of their varied resources,” said Jud Heinrichs, program chairman for the con ference. “The fast pace and change of this computer technology creates the need for this computer.” (Turn to Pago A2O) 1200 attend Mid-Atlantic no-till meeting BY LAURA ENGLAND TIMONIUM, MD. - Con servation tillage is becoming more important and is eno of the fastest growing agricultural practice* in the country, said the chief of the USDASoiI Conservation Service. In speaking to a crowd of 1200 attending the Mid-Atlantic No-Till Conference in Timonium, Md., Peter C. Myers said that an estimated 100 million acres of cropland were farmed under some form of conservation tillage this year. Leading the states in con servation tillage practices were Delaware and Maryland, each with over 69 percent of cropland involved. Myers said that the USDA stresses conservation tillage and no-till practices because of its cost effective approach to con servation. “Conservation tillage results in good crop yields and at the same time keeps the soil in place,” he said, “thus reducing soil erosion and sedimentation.” and Chester counties. The quarantine went into effect mid- October when the highly pathogenic strain of avian flu had been diagnosed in area chicken flocks. Lancaster County, which represents 40 percent of the state’s $4OO million poultry industry, has been hardest hit. Over 130 of the hot flocks have been in the county. In other developments, Hoffman said a task force committee met Thursday morning to discuss the problem of cleaning and disin fecting poultry houses after depopulation. Poultrymen had said at a recent meeting that requirements were too strict, and they couldn’t meet the “hospital clean” specifications. While cleaning requirements will remain strict, some changes in (Turn to Page A2l) State of the art computers were on display for farmers to view and purchase at the Penn State Dairy Computer Conference. Through no-till practical Myers said soil erosion can be Mmfaiaied, but the key to this is manjgsmsnt "The bottom line lit management,” he saidr u «nHfpaa. don’t want to make it (con servation tillage) work, it wont.” Successful no-till fanners have taken soil problems and through conservation tillage have eliminated these problems, Myers said. At the same time, the far mers have seen increased crop yields. Although conservation tillage has proved beneficial in reducing soil erosion, Myers said tbit some people are copcdrhM) with water pollution due to the increased use of insecticides and herbicides Keynote speaker, Peter C. Myers, chief of the USDA Soil Conservation Service, says conservation tillage is one of the fastest growing agricultural practices in the country. 17.50 per Year need to at 36 conservation tillage and no-till. Nine other speakers also ad dressed tbe group and spoke on topics including the economics of no-till, no-till forage establish ment, selection and operation of no-till equipment, and crop protection with integrated pest management. The speakers and highlights of their topics follow. V. Man Bandel, extension soils specialist at the University of (Turn to Page A3l)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers