VOL. 31 No. 30
Part Time Farmers Socially Acceptable
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
ITHACA, NEW YORK-A
leading agriculturalist told the
Northeast Farm Communicators
Council here this week that he
expects a growing division of
agriculture into two groups of
farmers. Speaking on the topic of
“What’s Ahead for Agricultural”
Dr. Kenneth Robinson, Professor
of Agricultural Economics Cornell
University said the one group will
be a relatively small group of
efficient farmers that utilize the
latest technology to produce the
cheap food you buy in the super
market. The other larger group
will farm part-time and therefore
New Technologies To Increase Milk Production
BY SUZANNE KEENE
LANCASTER Until now, most
of the increases in milk production
have been attributed to advances
m management, genetics and sire
proofing. But now, new
Farm anit Home
Scholarship Winners
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster County Correspondent
LANCASTER - Fourteen $l,OOO
scholarships were presented to
local high school seniors by the
Lancaster County Farm and Home
Foundation this week.
The scholarships were awarded
to five students planning to major
m agriculture, four planning to
major in home economics and five
planning to become nurses.
Money tor the agriculture and
home economics scholarships is
provided by the Elmer Esben
shade trust fund, established at the
tune of the organization of the
Foundation. Nursing scholarship
Many parts of Lancaster Farming Territory received much needed rain this week so
the growing corn at the corner of Hagars and Lime Valley Roads should be a few inches
taller by now. The trees and the bank barn and silo frame a nice scene looking south of
Strasburg. Photo by Everett Newswanger, Managing Editor.
Four Sections
will not be nearly as dependent on
agriculture for their income.
Dr. Kenneth Robinson
technologies that can produce
dramatie increases in production
are coming to the forefront.
Among those new technologies is
bovine somatotropin, which can
produce results that would take
money is provided by the Foun
dation. Recipients are selected on
the basis of financial need,
scholarship and leadership.
Conestoga Valley High School
was represented by four recipients
and J.P. McCaskey and Lancaster
Mennonite had two each. The
remainder of the .seniors were
from other county schools.
Those who will major in home
economics include:
Melissa K. Snader, 18, is the
daughter of Estella Snader, 140
Ronks Road, Ronks. A senior at
Conestoga Valley High School, she
will attend Messiah College and
(Turn to Page Al 7)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 24,1986
“I think this is socially
desirable,” Robinson said. “The
part-time farmer cares for the
land, buys supplies locally, but
does not need maximum
production for income to add to the
surplus. European countries and
Japan already have this kind of
farm situation,” Robinson said.
“I don’t recall when there has
been such a wide spread among
dairy farmers in their ability to
cope with what’s happening. There
will be, survivors. In the northeast
we don’t have the very depressed
land prices that exist in the mid
west. This helps banks and other
creditors. Therefore, we don’t
have nearly the secondary
depressant effect on communities
years of skilled breeding and
continued advances in nutrition
and management to achieve, Dr.
William Chalupa, a professor at
the University of Pennsylvania
School of Veterinary Medicine,
said at a veterinary nutrition
forum in Lancaster Wednesday.
Studies have shown that bovine
somatotropin, or bovine growth
hormone, can increase milk
production anywhere from 10 to 40
percent, Chalupa said.
Reports of increased milk
production resulting from
somatotropin date back to the
19305, but it has been only in the
last four or five years that the
product has been the subject of
intensive research efforts.
Chalupa was part of one such study
done at the University of Penn
sylvania.
In that study, injections of
somatotropin were started bet
ween day 28 and 35 of the lactation
and continued through day 305. The
study showed an average increase
of 6.6 kilos of fat corrected milk or
a 27 percent increase in milk
that are dependent on agriculture.
Some farms are doing very well
even with the low prices. And other
farms are in extremely difficult
situations.”
“I would like to project a lot of
optimism for agriculture but I
don’t think the facts warrant a lot
of optimism, at least for the next
few years. A lot of what happens is
going to depend on government.
The role of government is going to
be especially influential for a small
group of commodities such as
grains and dairying. What happens
in Washington will effect these
commodities very much. For other
commodities however this is not
true. Market forces will tell the
production.
In a similar study at Cornell
University, cows were injected
with somatotropin starting at day
84 of the lactation and continuing
for 180 days. This study showed an
average of 9.4 more kilos of milk
per day for a 34 percent increase in- a
milk production.
The animal’s production
potential may have an effect on
response to somatotropin, Chalupa
said. The cows in the Cornell study
had a slightly higher production
potential and "the responses, in
fact, were a little bit greater,” he
noted.
(Turn to Page A3B)
Ag Forms Basis For
Teaching Grade School
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
ITHACA, NEW
YORK-“Because people don’t
know about agriculture, they cause
problems,” said Betty Wolanyk,
Extension Associate Cornell
University. These problems show
up in the voting booth and in the
fewer number of students enrolled
in agricultural courses. While
agribusiness has demand for 60
thousand people in related jobs we
have a short fall of 13 thousand
people each year. Speaking on the
subject, “Ag in the Classroom”,
Wolanyk asked the question, “Why
don’t people understand
agriculture?”
“In 1930 ag illustrations were
used in textbooks. But writers
today don’t have an agricultural
background so they don’t use these
examples. Whether it’s math or
science, ag illustrations are not
used or are used with facts that are
not relevent to today’s
agriculture,”’ Wolanyk said. “In
addition, commercials use
animated scenes and historical
type people. Society has a problem
The Lancaster Farming editorial and advertising offices
will be closed on Monday, May 26, in observance of
Memorial Day.
story in fruits, vegetables and
poultry products. About one half of
the receipts that come from
(Turn to Page A 39)
Second CRP
Signup Nets
13,000 Acres
HARRISBURG - USDA of
ficials were disappointed enough
with the response to the first
Conservation Reserve Program
signup in March to schedule a
second signup for May 5 to 16.
Following the tabulation of
results at its Harrisburg office this
week, the Agricultural
Stabilization and Conservation
Service reports that both the
number of bidders and acres fell
slightly short of the March tally.
The number of acres accepted
should be much higher this time,
.hMvever, since the bids are more
Inuhe with what USDA is willing to
pay, says ASCS conservation
program specialist, Richard
Pennay.
The goal of CRP is to take the
nation’s most highly erodible land
out of production. Acres qualifying
must be planted to trees or other
permanent vegetative cover and
cannot be used for hay production
(Turn to Page A 24)
of stereo typing farmers. The
farmer is wrongly portrayed as
either stupid or he’s rich or he’s
probably poisoning the public with
chemicals.”
The ag in a classroom program
is trying to change these attitudes
by teaching elementary children
where food comes from. “It’s
easier to create attitudes than to
change them,” Wolanyk said. Ag
in the classroom is a concentrated
effort. Examples like one drug in
four that is used in medicine has a
farm product as a base. One in 52
people is a farmer. Examples of
how ag uses life cycles or how ag
interupts life cycles can be used as
examples in science.
“We want to use agriculture as
an environment for teaching.
Teachers like the idea and have
responded enthusiastically to the
first news releases about the
program. Agriculture has been
important to history as well as
technology. The teachers can use
this material to make the
classroom more interesting for the
students,” Wolanyk said.
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