DIO-Umcaster Farming Saturday, October 5,1985
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Pennsylvania Agriculture
OnDisplay
This month I am deviating from
my usual emphasis on dairy to
reflect on another topic which has
taken a considerable amount of my
time this past month or so. I am
referring to the annual meeting of
the National Association of County
Agricultural Agents.
This is an event I take great
pleasure in attending. It is an
opportunity to talk with agents
from other parts of the country, to
exchange ideas about doing Ex
tension work and to leam about
agricultural issues and concerns in
other parts of the nation. There are
plenty of opportunities to attend
professional improvement
workshops and to hear in
spirational talks.
One day is devoted to
professional tours. This is usually
one of the highlights of the week,
one that affords you the op
portunity to get a first-hand ob
servation of the agriculture, the
industry and the cultural
background of the host state.
It’s been 20 years since Penn
sylvania hosted the annual
meeting. Pennsylvania agents felt
we had a lot to show, and four
years ago we extended an in
vitation to host the annual meeting
at Hershey, September 29 to Oc
tobers.
Most Pennsylvania agents are
deeply involved, one way pr
another, in planning and con
ducting the annual meeting. I’ve
had the pleasure--and the
challenge-of chairing the tours
and transportation committee.
Fortunately, I’ve had a good
committee to work with. One of our
responsibilities was to organize 24
different tours for a total of 48 to 50
buses. Even with that many dif
ferent tours, one of our problems
was deciding what ideas had to be
cut from the tour schedule. We had
so much to show that we simply
could not include everything.
The other challenge we wrestled
with is transportation. Of the 2100
registrants, about 1100 had to stay
in 5 other outlying motels - 1100
people that had to go in a dozen
different directions and at varying
times. And you thought moving
cows was a problem! Until the
week was over, I had nightmares
of being tarred and feathered for
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By
Glenn A. Shirk
Extension
Dairy
Agent
making people wait too long for a
shuttle bus, making people late for
scheduled events, or exceeding our
budget because of having excess
transportation scheduled.
As tours chairman, my one
regret is that I’ve been unable to
participate in all of the tours. And
many other agents probably had
that same frustration. There were
probably a dozen different tours
they wanted to go on.
In our tours, we attempted to
expose the agents and their
families to the diversity of our
agriculture and industry, to our
local culture and to our heritage.
They got a first-hand look at the
intensity of our agriculture and the
competition for land. They ob
served many supportive industries
such as feed mills, machinery
assembly plants, lime production,
A.I. and E.T. in addition to seeing a
variety of good processing
operations, they also visited
several marketing establishments.
They saw small farms and large
farms, young farmers and
established farmers, farms with
electricity and farms without.
They learned about production
practices as they visited livestock,
poultry and dairy operations plus
fruit, vegetables, mushroom and
greenhouse growers. Our number
one cash crop, tobacco, was new to
many.
Nutrient management, sludge
application, conservation and land
use were discussed on several
tours. They also get a look at
beautiful gardens, nuclear energy
production, hydroponics, methane
production, coal and limestone
mining, game bird and Christmas
tree production, organic fanning,
medical research and farm
tourism.
The tours also afforded the many
guides an opportunity to discuss
such things as: land prices, soils,
growing seasons and rainfall.
Some of them shared our ex
perience with avian influenza,
water quality, rabies, etc.
Hopefully, this was an ex
perience our visiting agents will
long remember. We hope they
received a better understanding of
Pennsylvania, and that Penn
sylvania will also be remembered.
Those who were on the tours also
witnessed first-hand, the pride and
respect our local people have in
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their homes and farms and for the
[ land they till. They also observed
I how the life of many of our local
families is deeply rooted in
religious convictions.
As I look back on this ex
| perience, I become more aware of
all that we have in this part of the
country, much of which we often
take for granted and don’t fully
1 appreciate. We are well blessed.
I And we have muchto be thankful
I for! Not the least of these is the
1 great people we have to live and
work with. Without all their help
and support, we would not have
been able to “show off” Penn
sylvania in the fashion that we did.
For all of this, I thank you!
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A Registered Holstein cow owned by Joseph C Wivell R #1
Columbia completed the highest 305 day lactation Angela
produced 30 172 lbs of milk 1 130 lbs of butterfat with a
37% test Second high lactation was completed by a
Registered Holstein cow owned by Nelson W Nolt 140 A
Pilotown Road, Peach Bottom 44 produced 25,232 lbs of
milk, 1 119 lbs of butterfat with a 4 4% test in 305 days
First 305 Days of Lactation
With 780 or More Lbs of Butterfat
No Days In
Brd Age Cows Milk
Owner
Joseph CWivell
Angela
Nancy
Fan
Irene
Delta
Expo
Lonna
Penny
Nelson W Nolt
44
RH 5 7 305 30 172
RH 410 305 26,610
RH 511 305 25,925
RH 3 2 305 24,100
RH 7 7 305 19 639
RH 7 2 305 19 164
RH 3 3 305 18,055
RH 6-9 305 21 921
RH 8 2 305 25 232
(Turn to Page Dll)
August, 1985
Lbs
Fat
Lbs
Milk
1130
965
929
896
831
830
796
794
1119