A2B-Lmcaster Farming, Saturday, July 20,1985
BY SUZANNE KEENE
LEBANON Dairy cattle
judges from across the state met in
Lebanon County this week to hone
their skills in preparation for the
coming show season. The annual
judging school, sponsored by the
Pennsylvania Dairy Cattle
Association, was held Thursday
and Friday at the Lebanon
Fairgrounds.
Approximately 68 men and
women tested their judging ability
on Lebanon County dairy cattle
and compared their ratings
against those of official judge Bill
Elgin from Virginia Polytechnic
Institute. Elgin has judged dairy
cattle for 35 years and is co-author
of a book on dairy judging.
Candidates who place in the top
quarter of the class for three years
earn a place on the PDCA’s ap
proved dairy judges list, which is
distributed to fair and show
organizers.
Participants are selected by the
individual breed associations and
are invited to attend the school.
Many of the participants are
already on the approved list,
Lebanon County Extension agent
Anstutz to speak at Md.
WOODSBORO Dr. Amstutz, a
professor of large animal medicine
and surgery at Purdue University,
will address about 250 Angus
breeders at the Maryland State
Angus Field Day July 28.
Amstutz will present a slide
presentation on cattle leg con
ditions at 11 a.m. during the Field
Day, which will be held at Mar Lee
Farm in Woodsboro. After lunch he
will give a foot trimming
demonstration.
Other highlights of the day in
clude a herd walk and the debut of
Mar Lee Broadway, a tour of the
embryo transfer center and a
preview of Mar Lee sale cattle for
the Sept. 8 sale.
Grange cautions against
Farm Bill
WASHINGTON - The chief
spokesman for one of the country’s
major farm organizations warned
today that there are two extreme
proposals pending before Congress
which if either were written into
the new farm bill would have a
devastating effect on the in
frastructure of rural America.
Edward Andersen, Master of the
National Grange, said the first
proposal is market-oriented
toward a free market with
decreasing support prices and a
phase-out of income supports. The
second offers strict mandatory
production and marketing control
with high support prices and no
income supports. Andersen said
both plans will weaken the in
frastructure of rural communities.
The first by the loss of family
farms that support rural com
munities and the second by
reducing agriculture production to
only the domestic market,
requiring a smaller agricultural
support system and in shrinking of
the rural communities economic
base.
Andersen said, “A middle
ground must be found that will
improve farm income, not in
terfere with exports, maintain the
family farm structure and not
destroy the federal budget.” He
said the Grange, in testimony
before the House and Senate
Agriculture Committees, has
Lebanon County hosts PDAC judging school
Ken Winebark said, and come for
an update and to sharpen their
judging skills.
While judges are not required to
return to the school once they earn
a place on the list, they are en
couraged to come back every three
years or so, Winebark continued.
Younger students are also en
couraged to attend the school to get
more experience, said Paul An
derson, a dairy specialist from
Penn State University who helped
coordinate the school. Both Penn
State University and Delaware
Valley College had dairy judging
teams participating this year.
Throughout the two days, the
judges placed classes of Holsteins,
Brown Swiss, Ayrshires and
Guernseys, all belonging to
Lebanon County farmers. For
some classes the judges traveled to
Lebanon County dairy farms.
On Thursday they judged
Holsteins at the fairgrounds, then
traveled to the Gary Mase farm,
Lebanon, to judge Brown Swiss. On
Friday, they went to the the Dale
Maulfair farm in Jonestown for
Ayrshire classes and to the Robert
Smith and Sons farm in Annville
for Guernseys.
Angus Field Day
Registration for this event
begins at 9 a.m. and will be
followed by queen and princess
presentations. Also giving
presentations in the morning will
be Bill Powell, regional director of
the American Angus Association;
Tom Burke, Angus Hall of Fame;
Dr. Lee Miller; and Terry Welsh,
Soil Conservation Service.
Fred Frey of Quarryville, Pa.,
will serve kettle fried steak,
potatoes and mushrooms for lunch.
An art auction for the Herman
Purdy scholarship fund and a
weight guessing contest for the
first semen from Mar Lee
Broadway will take place during
the lunch hour.
‘extremes’
recommended the new farm bill be
built around voluntary supply
controls with economic incentives
sufficient to encourage large
producers to participate in the
program. He said by targeting
program benefits to medium-sized
commercial family farms, the
budget impact can be reduced and
federal financial assistance would
be directed at keeping a maximum
number of families in agriculture
production.
“It is no secret that agriculture
is in a depression similar to the
1930’5,” said Andersen, “and we
are greatly concerned about the
socio-economic effect this finan
cial crisis is having on our rural
communities.” Andersen said it is
Grange’s opinion that U.S. ~
legislators and the Administration
are ignoring the present day short
term problems. “Today’s financial
crisis must take precedence over
any ideological goals of a more
market-oriented agriculture
policy,” said Andersen. “We also
cannot let the 1985 Farm Bill be
entirely budget driven or
dominated by those who believe
that the solution lies totally in
increasing exports,” he said.
Andersen said, “We must
remember that the economic and
social well-being of our rural
communities depends on profitable
commercial-size family farms. ’ ’
Etgin said he was pleased with
the quality of the cattle and noted
that top cattle make the judges’
task more challenging. “The
better the cattle, the better the
workout,” he said.
Following each class one of the
students was called into the show
Bill Etgin, official judge for the dairy cattle judging school held in Lebanon this week
explains his placings in this Holstein class. ’
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ring to appraise the individual
cows. Another student was then
asked to share his placings. Time
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Local 4-H’ers and FFA’ers were
on hand to fit the cows for the ring,
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their cows for the day also showed
them.
Some Lebanon dairymen opened
their homes to out-of-town
students, giving them “a chance to
look at a different operation and
share some things,” Winebark
said.
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