Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, June 23, 1984, Image 1
PERIODICALS DIVISION W 209 PATTEE LIBRARY PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY PARK PA 16802 _ VOL 29 No. 34 Pa. FFA goes West for leader BY DICK ANGLESTEIN UNIVERSITY PARK - Following the heavy weekend and Monday rains, sparkling blue skies spread an appropriately colored canopy over the Penn State campus this week. For beneath those blue skies was a sea of blue jackets on campus as Pa. FFA members participated in their annual Activities Week competition at the 56th Summer Convention. Chapters from throughout the state sent their best to compete and “go for the gold” in more than two dozen different contests. And out of the 1700 or so com petitors emerged an approximate elite 10 percent who attained that gold - some of whom will now move on to regional and national competition. While traditional FFA power areas made strong showings in the contests, there was evidence too that youthful ag expertise is moving west. Contest highlights showed: -Lancaster County clearly emerged as the top winners, capturing some 10 of the 27 first place golds in the team and in dividual contests. -The only other counties with multiple first-place golds were Berks and Beaver (there’s the west) with two each. -Single first-place golds were recorded by competitors from the Part IV - Merchandising (Editor’s note: Ask a farmer why he decided to dairy farm, and the reasons will be as varied as the breeds of dairy cattle. Some will answer “for the way of life,” while others will respond “to work with cattle.” Today, Laura England, dairy editor of Lancaster Far ming, visits with Dennis Wolff of Millville, Columbia County, who went into dairying with goals to establish a quality Holstein herd for merchandising purposes. While Wolff relies on the merchandising potential of his herd to make his A solid dairy operation and a strong embryo transfer program form the basis for Dennis Wolff's merchandising enterprise. Four Sections counties of Somerset, Union, Lebanon, Washington, Cum berland, Centre, Fayette, Blair, Erie, Perry, York, Dauphin and Chester. As the list shows, a good representation of Western Penn sylvania winners were crowned and top laurels in the West must go to the H. G. Parkinson Chapter at Fort Cherry High School in Washington Courtly with both the new state president and the winner of the Creed competition. -And when the Pa. FFA finally decided to break with tradition and elect a female president last year, they stuck with it this year and Lancaster crowns dairy princess living, the success of his operation, as all dairy operations, depends on the current dairy situation). Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 23,1984 elected a second female FFA’er as leader for 1984-85. She’s 17-year-old Laurie J. Duran, daughter of Michael G. and JoAnn Duran, R 1 Bulger, Washington County. Ac tive in parliamentary procedure and public speaking, she has served her chapter as secretary and president and her county as reporter, secretary and president. Her projects have included poultry meats and home gardening. The remaining slate of new FFA officers includes: Vice President - Tim Pfautz, Cloister Chapter, Ephrata. He follows older brother Mike who (Turn to Page A 26) Lancaster County's new Dairy Princess is 18-year-old Judy Miller, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Miller, R 2 Manheim. Miss Miller was crowned 1984 Dairy Princess last Friday night during ceremonies at the Farm and Home Center, Lancaster. Her story appears on Page 814 with many other county pageant results also listed throughout Section B. BY LAURA ENGLAND MILLVILLE At the young age of 16 years, when most high school students are undecided about their futures, one Columbia County farm boy was fairly certain about his future plans. It took one year away from home and in college to convince this optimistic young man to return to the family farm and begin his dairy career. All this took place 14 years ago when Dennis Wolff, Millville, decided he liked working with cattle enough to make it a career. “I felt that I always had that advantage over a lot of the kids I went to school with,” Dennis said, "in that (dairying) is what I wanted to do.” Dennis explained that as a teenager, his parents gave him plenty of responsibilities on the farm. They allowed him to make decisions on the work to be done, breeding and purchasing. “They let me have plenty of responsibility,” Dennis explained, ROCK SPRINGS Dairy cows and other livestock in Penn sylvania may soon have anew salad in their daily diet - alfalfa mixed with rye grass. The alfalfa - ryegrass mixture, replacing the more traditional orchard grass mix, was among the Penn State research featured in the forage portion of the Agronomy Field Day on Tuesday at Rock Springs. Sid Bosworth, newly arrived from Alabama to replace John Baylor as the Nittany Lion forage i mmm Whatever it holds, it’s in your hands “and I guess I must have handled it pretty well or either accepted responsibility very well. I guess I always enjoyed cattle and that was my only interest.” All this responsibility helped to mold his future plans, Dennis said. From the time he was in high school, he said he had "no other plans or intentions than to come back to the farm and take care of the cattle.” After spending a year as a dairy production major at Delaware Valley College, Dennis returned home and formed a partnership with his parents. This partnership was dissolved a little over a year ago, Dennis said, when he and his wife, Lois, bought the partnership out. Laurie J. Duran, 1984-85 Pa. FFA President. Alfalfa salad features more rye BY DICK ANGLESTEIN Up until 1974, the Wolff’s Pen-Col “The future of merchandising looks good, both domestically and internationally/'' $7.50 per Year expert, lists a number of ad vantages to mixing the perennial ryegrass with the alfalfa: “Ryegrass is a high quality forage,” he explained. “A recent Pennsylvania study has shown it to be higher in crude protein and in vitro dry matter digestibility than the alfalfa- orchardgrass mix tures.” Other advantages: Alfalfa persists better with ryegrass than with orchardgrass “In the same study, ryegrass (Turn to Page Al 6) Farm housed a herd of Guernseys. The breed was replaced with Holsteins, however, when Dennis decided to capitalize on cattle merchandising. Merchandising The switch from Guernseys to Holsteins, which was completed in 1977, was done because Dennis said he found more potential in mer chandising Holsteins. To establish a herd worthy of merchandising, the Wolff’s looked for top pedigreed animals. The first herd of Holsteins purchased was from the Tom Nichlos farm, Clinton County, and consisted of 20 animals. Other cattle were purchased at con signment sales such as the Pa All- (Turn to Page A 32)