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VOL. 29 No. 48
All-American rosette - Pa’s top dairy prize
Crop Association goes statewide
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
BELLEFONTE Melvin A.
Brown, who helped pioneer the
.Uea of county crop associations
five years ago in Centre County,
begins his duties on Monday as
coordinator of a statewide Crop
Management Association.
Brown begins his duties in Penn
State’s Agronomy Extension
section with seven associations
covering 10 counties including
some 235 farmers and about 35,000
acres already in place.
It will be his task to not only
coordinate and improve services
for the existing associations but to
aid in establishing units in other
counties in the state.
“One of the first areas of im
proving services will be finishing
up development of a computer
program summarizing crop
production cash costs,” Brown
said.
Lampeter, Ephrata fairs name champs
After winning top honors in the FFA Baby Beef Show,
Michelle Dean’s Angus calf went on to be named grand
champion of the Lampeter Fair. This was Dean's third beef
grand championship in 10 years of Lampeter competition.
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“We started three years ago
doing this by hand on farms here in
Centre County and last year went
comptenzed program. It will
siirtupaj'ize crop production cash
costs on each participating farm
and also summarize costs for each
particular crop on all of the
farms.”
Cash costs include such things as
seed, fertilizer, lime, herbicides,
insecticides and even plugs m
some yield data.
Brown will also be working
closely with the field technicians in
the various county associations.
He will help to find technicians for
new associations, coordinate their
training, as well as the continued
updating of existing personnel.
The hired eyes and expertise of
the technicians during their
regular field scouting has been
found to be one of the chief im
mediate agronomic and economic
Ephrata on A2O; Lampeter on A 26
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 29.1984
advantages discovered by fanners
participating in the crop
associations.
“The onct a-week field scouting
surveys by the technicians help
operators keep abreast of insects
and disease and help them become
better farmers,” explains Alton
Homan, Bradford County agent,
where a crop association has been
in operation with Sullivan County
for the past two years.
He cites these examples of
savings experienced by farmers in
his area:
-Sid Lewis, of Standing Stone,
reports a savings of 10 tons of
fertilizer from the technician’s
advice.
-Tom McCarty, of Sugar Run,
reported a savings of $l,OOO in
herbicides.
--Archie Williams, of
(Turn to Page A4O)
BY JACK HUBLEY
LAMPETER Most young beef
and swine showmen driving for the
championship at the Lampeter
Fair on Wednesday found them
selves stonewalled by Michelle
Dean, who took grand champion
honors in the Baby Beef com
petition after showing the reserve
champion market hog earlier in
the day.
With the steer competition
divided into FFA and 4-H shows.
Miss Dean’s 1,320-pound Angus-
Chianina entry was named the
champion FFA steer before going
on to take the grand champion
overall title Sired by a Lombard
son, the top steer was purchased
from P.T. Mclntyre and Sons of
Virginia.
This was the second consecutive
Lampeter steer grand cham
pionship for Miss Dean, now in her
10th year of showing steers. Elated
(Turn to Page A 26)
Dairy Princess crown
stays in Western Pa.
He 11 0... Goodbye...
Western Pennsylvania seems to have a handle on the
Pennsylvania Dairy Princess Crown.
This week, the crown moved only a few counties north in
the western extremes of the Commonwealth from the head
of Tamara Lynn Cree, of Washington and Green counties, to
that of Lynette Loper, of Erie County.
Above, Lynette begins her reign and Tammy waves a fond
goodbye at the coronation ceremonies on Tuesday night.
For a first-hand report on the coronation read Sue Keene’s
report on Page 814.
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