VOL. 29 No. 14
A seasonal sentinel welcomes anyone driving up the lane of
the dairy farm of the David A. Brandt family, located off Rt.
322 south of Campbelltown. While the scarf is real and the
buttons are reflectors, only the snowman’s headgear would
identify him as farm-youngster built. A feed pan becomes a
form-fitting bowler.
Avian funds okayed
BY LAURA ENGLAND
LANCASTER - Through added
precautions taken by poultrymen
and the containment of the disease,
the number of new cases of avian
influenza reported weekly has
dropped drastically since the
program to eradicate the infected
birds began mid-November.
During the week of Jan. 28, four
flocks were diagnosed with the
deadly avian flu virus. This was
the lowest number reported since
the USDA-sponsored task force
began eradicating the diseased
chickens
In the early stages of the
eradication progam, weekly
reports numbered in the upper 20’s
and low 30’s, according to task
force spokesman Wayne Baggett.
For the first three weeks of
January, the numbers were in the
teens, reaching the low of four last
week.
As of Thursday, a total of 265
flocks, representing 10.4 million
birds, had been diagnosed with
avian flu. The task force expected
to have all diagnosed flocks
depopulated by Thursday af
ternoon, Baggett said.
Included in this week’s
Markets report increase in cows
BY LAURA ENGLAND
I LANCASTER - With farmers
participating in the dairy com
promise program, livestock
auctions can expect to see an in
crease in dairy cow numbers, but
just how many will not be easy to
determine.
For the past two months,
livestock auctions have recorded
an increase in dairy cow numbers.
This increase, according to John
Zimmerman, chief of the livestock
division of the state Bureau of
Marketing, is due partly to last
summer’s drought, dairy bill
participation and simply farmers
culling for herd reasons.
“The drought caused short feed
supplies,” Zimmerman said, “and
Four Sections
depopulation schedule was the first
low flock, an 85,000
lay# flock Rear klanheim. Under a
decision passed oy the USD A last
week, all flocks infected with avian
flu - whether the low or high
pathogenic strain - are to be
slaughtered.
From this point on, Baggett said
that no distinction will be made
between low and high pathogenic
flocks. Birds testing positive for
avian flu will be destroyed.
At a press meeting Monday, task
force director Dr. Jerry Fichtner
said that the USDA decision gives
the task force the authority to
conduct surveillance programs in
all poultry populations within the
5,000 square-mile quarantine zone;
to diagnose avian influenza; and to
depopulate all flocks with the
disease
The decision, however, does not
place additional restrictions on
bird movement, does not change
the cleaning and disinfecting and
depopulating procedures, nor the
repopulation guidelines.
Fichtner said that flocks
previously diagnosed with the mild
strain must be reevaluated to see if
(Turn to Page A 36)
farmers culled for that reason.
They’re culling for the dairy bill,
also.”
Zimmerman, who covers the
Lebanon Valley auction in
Fredericksburg, said 149 dairy
cows were sold at that auction this
Sire summary found on Pages D 22-27
The January, 1984 Sire
Summary with the new
genetic base PDB2 begins on
Page D 22 and continues
through Page D 27.
The six pages of the latest
genetic dairy information
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 4,1984
Electronic monitors in tomatoes
show vegetable research progress
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
HERSHEY Grower-sponsored
vegetable research and promotion
in Pennsylvania may be less than
five percent of what it is in states
like California, but the fledgling
effort is already showing results in
the Commonwealth.
For example, it’s possible in the
not too distant future that tomato
growers will be able to walk out
into their fields and check a little
electronic “black box” that will
tell them instantly when it’s time
to spray for early blight.
The tomato field monitors are
just one example of results of
grower-sponsored research that
were among reports given at this
week’s Pa. Vegetable Conference
at the Hershey Convention Center
The Growers Research Program
funded a total of 10 projects last
year at a cost of $27,000, including
the early blight study. During the
coming year, approximately
$30,000 will be available.
In comparison, growers in
California contribute some sBoo,oo*’
a year with $250,000 going to
research and the remainder to
promotion.
The tomato early blight study is
being conducted by Alan A
Mac Nab, of Plant Pathology
Extension at Penn State.
“We expect to have two
prototypes this year of the boxes
that will automatically collect data
electronically in the fields and tell
us when it’s time to spray the
tomatoes,” Mac Nab reported at
the conference.
For the past couple of years
several tomato growers across the
state have been manually
collecting the data in the fields.
The data on environmental
weather conditions, such as
temperature, dew period, relative
humidity and amount of rain,
permits prediction of the times
that are most suitable for early
blight development.
The environmental data is then
used in a computer program to
determine when fungicide
spraying is needed to check the
disease.
(Turn to Page A3O)
Tuesday. Before Christmas, 200
head went through the ring. The
normal average for
Valley is 75 to 90 head, Zim
merman added.
An increase was also reported at
(Turn to Page A 39)
includes the most recent six
month update of active AI
sires as compiled by the USDA
and Dairy Herd Improvement
Association.
All transmitting abilities
are expressed for the first
time as deviations from the
Principals at this week’s Pa. vegetable conference at
Hershey include, from the left, Dale Whitenight, R 6 Danville,
retiring president; Ernest Bergman, Penn State, and Rudy
Grob, R 1 Millersville, program co-chairmen; and William
Troxell, executive secretary, Vegetable Growers Association.
Pa. Hort Assn, approves
vote on peach research
HERSHEY - The State Hor
ticulture Association will request
the Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture to conduct a
referendum vote among peach and
nectarine growers concerning a
proposed grower-sponsored
research program.
The action to request the vote
among growers was taken at
Wednesday’s business session of
the Hort Assn, at the annual
session at the Hershey Convention
Center, according to Joseph Strife,
of Dauphin County, retiring
president.
The proposed grower-sponsored
research fund, which could
initially total some $20,000 if ap
proved, would come from
assessments placed on peach and
Pa. eyes dairy promotion
LANCASTER - A state
program for milk promotion that
failed to gam the dairymens’
approval a few years ago, may
become a reality this spring. Of
ficials of the Pa. Department of
Agriculture plan to submit a
proposal for a state promotion
program to the USDA.
Under the new federal dairy
program, a mandatory 15 cents per
hundredweight will be paid to the
1982 genetic base and are
labeled PDB2.
Predicted Differences are
listed for both yield and
percentages for all three milk
components - fat, protein and
solids-not-fat
17.50 per Year
nectarine growers in the state.
The assessment would be $2.00
per acre on fruit-bearing peach
and nectarine orchards of trees of
at least four years of age. The
assessment would apply to
growers with 500 or more peach
and nectarine trees of all ages.
The proposed research would be
directed at the major increasing
problem of the reduced life span of
peach trees that appears to be
caused by a combination of
diseases, pests and winter
damage.
A tentative timetable for the
referendum, if it can be so set up,
would be a vote among growers by
July 1, assessments in the fall if
(Turn to Page A3O)
National Dairy Promotion
Program Up to 10 cents of this
deduction may be retained in
states where an advertising
program is in place.
“We are trying to establish an
alternative program for Penn
sylvania dairymen that don’t have
another promotion program on the
local level,” said James Sumner,
PDA marketing director. “We are
simply looking for a means for 10
cents to stay in Pennsylvania.”
Sumner said the department was
waiting for release of regulations
on the promotion program from
the USDA before writing the
proposal. Currently, state officials
are investigating ways of con
ducting a state milk promotion
program.
The program would probably be
run as an advisory board made up
of dairy farmers, said Sumner.