VOL. 30 No. 46
By the Board Foot!
Even in Lancaster County, where corn is traditionally
"as high as an elephant's eye,” Roy Erb’s backyard corn
plot is a real head turner.
Erb, of Brook Lawn Farm north of Lancaster, planted
some novelty seed from Mexico around the first of May. To
date, the stalks are an estimated 16 feet tall (the "yard
stick" in the photo is a 12-footer) and still growing.
“I believe it’ll go to 17 or 18 feet ‘til it’s done,” he
predicts. Would the veteran Lancaster County farmer
want to harvest 100 acres of this skyscraping variety? "If it
lays down I wouldn't want any part of it," he smiles.
Tobacco Auction
to hold meeting
BLUE BALL - The first in a
.■series of tobacco growers’
imeetings is scheduled for Sept.
24, 7:30 p.m., at the Blue Ball
School. The school is located on
Ewell Road, one-half mile east
of Blue Ball between Route 322
and 23.
Sponsored by Pa. Tobacco
Auction Inc., the meeting will
acquaint growers with
procedures for selling tobacco
through the newly organized
auction. PTA officers will be on
hand to answer questions.
According to auction
manager Eric Probst, more
weekly meetings throughout
Lancaster County will be
scheduled, with dates and
locations to be announced at a
later date.
Four Sections
Grubb hearings slated
Sept. 30 in Senate
Richard E. Grubb
Uncaster Farming, Saturday, September 21,1985
August milk production
up 9.7% over 1984 output
BY JAMES H. EVERHART
WASHINGTON U.S. milk
production rose once again in
August, surpassing year-earlier
levels by an incredible 9.7 percent,
USDA officials said.
The increase marks the sixth
consecutive month in which
production exceeded 1984 figures
for the month Moreover, the in
creases have grown larger each
month, 'beginning with a 1 2 per
cent increase in March.
Production in August was 12.291
billion pounds, up from the 11.206
billion recorded in August 1983
The figure was, however, about 100
million pounds less than the
record-high production levels
achieved in June and July.
Dauphin County farmer appeals
‘clean and green’ assessments
BY JAMES H. EVERHART
HARRISBURG The chairman
of the Dauphin County Con
servation District has filed an
appeal that challenges the county's
reassessment of agricultural land
enrolled in the statewide Clean and
Green Assessment Program.
DCCD Chairman Russ Cassel is
filing the appeal for his 290-acre
dairy farm in South Hanover
Township. But he anticipates that
any ruling would affect all of the
county’s participants in the
program.
Cassel is challenging the county
Board of Assessment’s 1985
Reassessment, which, in effect,
simply doubled 1973 assessments
of all real estate in the county.
Even though ag land would be
valued the same, relative to other
BY JAMES H. EVERHART
HARRISBURG - The State
Senate’s Agriculture and Rural
Affairs Committee will hold
hearings Monday, Sept. 30, on Dr.
Richard E. Grubb’s nomination as
state Secretary of Agriculture.
Senate sources indicated that
little opposition to Grubb has
surfaced, despite criticism of the
nomination by the Pennsylvania
Farmer’s Association.
PFA is opposing the Grubb
nomination, citing the nominee’s
lack of experience in production
agriculture, his unfamiliarity with
current ag issues and inexperience
in state-level politics. Other farm
organizations, including the state
Grange, have endorsed the choice.
Asked about the nomination
process this week, Grubb said he
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Cow numbers continued their
steady increase, jumping 33,000
from month-earlier levels, to 11.1
million. Production per cow
jumped 6.8 percent, to 1,107
pounds.
In Pennsylvania, milk
production went up eight percent,
to 847 million pounds, while New
York recorded a seven-percent
increase in August.
Much larger increases were
noted in the other top five milk
producmg states, according to
USDA figures. Minnesota led the
majors with a 16 percent increase
over 1984 totals, while Wisconsin
reported a 13-percent hike and
California, an eight-percent in
crease.
Among the other states.
Dauphin County Conservation District chairman Russell
.Cassel goes over his notes with DCCD Director David Ball,
just after Cassel filed an appeal of his farm's assessment with
the Dauphin County Board of Assessment Appeals.
property in the county, Cassel
contends the reassessment does
not comply with the terms of the
1974 act which created the
program.
The land, he contends, should
only be reassessed on the use value
of the property, which, he says, has
not doubled since 1973 and may,
in fact, have dropped.
His proposal would continue the
ag land at 100 percent of the 1973
assessment levels rather than the
200 percent set by the assessment
board for all Dauphin County real
estate. If accepted by the board,
his plan would actually lower taxes
paid by farmers participating in
the program.
The appeal could have wide
ranging impact on similar
reassessments in other counties.
The Dauphin County Board of
Commissioners has adopted a
resolution in support of Cassel’s
appeal.
The issue is complicated slightly
by the assessment history. Though
$7.50 per Year
b londa’s dairymen increased
their production by 19 percent,
Illinois farmers, by 14 percent, and
Arizona’s producers, by 12 per
cent.
Lackawanna County Extension
Director Tom Jurchak said ho
thought the production increases
would continue to grow for the
foreseeable future. The reason, he
said, was that feed prices are low
and will probablv be low for
quite some time, as a result ot
1985’s bumper crop oi teed grains
here and in the Midwest.
He said lowering the support
price to $lllO one of the many
approaches being considered now
in Congress might not be enough
to slow down production.
the last countywide assessment
occurred in 1973, the figures for the
affected ag properties were
established in 1976, when the
county established its Clean and
Green Program.
Unlike the procedure followed in
1976, this year’s assessment was
not based on the use value of the
land, Cassel says. It did not use
information from the State
Department of Agriculture, or
from soil surveys conducted by
Penn State, the National
Cooperative Soil Survey, or the
U.S. Census of Agricultural
Categories of Land Use.
“The doubling of the Clean and
Green Program’s use-values for
the 1985 reassessment cannot be
justified,” Cassel wrote in his
appeal. “The law and the rules and
regulations mandate a two-step
process which the assessor must
follow in determining preferential
assessments.
“The assessor is obligated 'not
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