VOL. 31 No. 40
1986 Summer Drought
Hay Fund Is Opened
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
The first checks arrived this
reek for the 1986 Summer Drought
lay Fund. So on Thursday mor
ing Editor Newswanger met Don
lisser, fund treasurer and
taimbridge farmer, in the Far
riers First bank in Elizabethtown,
it that time an account was
pened to receive the drought hay
Linds.
Risser and Frank Stoltzfus who
rillvosign the checks arranged for
he funds to be placed under the
Slizabethtown Brethren In Christ
:hurch charitable organization
Lccount number so an immediate
Unification of the tax-deductible
latus of the fund could be
stablished.
As announced last week Can
ister Fanning, the Pennsylvania
armers Association, and the
'ennsylvania Department of
gnculture are working to bring
timers with serious drought loss
iieds together with other farmers
|x> can help supply those needs,
us week the United States
Apartment of Agriculture started
{erring national hotline callers to
« fund. The Pennsylvania
irmers Association will ad
nister the funds through their
iCMA division. PACMA has
teady shipped Pennsylvania
tiated hay to hurting farms in
lught areas.
Emotional stories of how this
brt of farmers helping each
ier could already be told. But
itor Newswanger has deter
Chester Co, Holstein Field Day
Richard Grubb, Pennsylvania agricultural secretary (left),
st Elisa Wilkinson, alternate Chester County dairy princess
d the Purple cow in front of the 50 foot long bananna split
the county holstein field day Thursday evening. The event
js held at the family farm of Arthur Hershey. Grubb spoke
er in the evening outlining the changes that farmers have
d and are experiencing' from milking cows by hand to
technology.
he cow judging contest winners were: men (first place tie)
rl Yoder and Harold Bare; (second place tie) Nelson
•Itzfus and Glenn Freese; women (first) Doris Hostetter,
cond) Betsy Wilkinson; youth (first) Clint Stees, (second)
erie Freese.
Clarence Stauffer from the National Holstein Association
1 breeders that the no sate family transfer registration cost
increase from $2.00 to $5.00 on November 1. Any
nsfer should be made before that time to save the added
t.
Four Sections
mined that emotionalism and
sensationalism shall not be used to
induce people to give. The 1986
Summer Drought Hay Fund was
established to give those who
wanted to help but didn’t have hay
to donate. If you would like to
make a donation* to this fund,
here’s what you can do.
1. Make your checks payable to
1986 Summer Drought Hay Fund.
2. Send your check to Lancaster
Farming newspaper, P.O. Box 366,
22 East Main Street, Lititz, PA
17543, Attention Hay Fund or At
tention Editor.
Lancaster Farming will forward
your check to the fund treasurer.
The deposit will be made. When
PACMA finds a need to pay for
transportation of donated hay or
when they find a need to buy hay to
donate, moneys from this fund will
be forwarded to PACMA to fill the
neMbw*M*N\
Ajjjjjfljr tyho would like more
information about this drought hay
fund may call Lancaster Farming
any time during office hours. The
phone numbers are 717-394-3047 or
717-626-1164.
In addition, if you have hay to
donate or need hay, you may call
the PFA office at 717-761-2740.
For information from the
Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture about the drought hay
situation you may call 717-787-2387.
Or to reach the USDA hotline in
Washmton you may call 1-800-433-
0703.
(For an editorial opinion about the
acts of benevolence see page 10.)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 2,1986
A press conference at the York County farm of Geary Hunsberger with National Ag
Secretary Richard Lyng. Secretary Lyng visited Lancaster, York County and the
Scranton area on a tour of Pennsylvania agricultural sites op Tuesg^.
Sec. Both Drought and
Abundance Across America
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
LANCASTER/YORK COUNTY
- National Agricultural Secretary
Richard Lyng made a whirlwind
tour to Lancaster, York County
and the Scranton area on Tuesday
to support the re-election of
Senator Arlen Specter from the
farm community and to hear the
opinions of farmers on political
matters related to agriculture.
Arriving half-a-day late due to a
last minute meeting with
President Reagan, Lyng spoke to a
|5O a plate fund raising luncheon
for Senator Specter. Lyng told the
farm leaders of the great
phenomena he is seeing as he
travels the national farm com
munity. “It seems half my day is
spent reviewing the crops west of
here to Nebraska where we have a
com crop that will undoubtedly
give us the best yield per acre we
have ever had. That causes us
concern about the com export
sales and where to store the grain.
But when we are not worrying
about the big com crop, the other
half of the day is spent worrying
about the drought.”
“Last Friday, 1 was in Georgia
to speak to the peanut growers,"
Lyng said. “There the com doesn’t
look good. It’s awful. It makes you
ill to see it. President Reagan is
deeply concerned about the
drought” Lyng said. “He was in
South Carolina last week and feels
the USDA should do all we can to
help.”
“One of the things he did by
bringing the air force planes in to
fly hay down from the western
states called attention to how bad
the drought actually is. He was
able to get volunteers all over the
country to offer to help. Some by
giving hay. Some by giving money.
Some by giving transportation.
There has been an outpouring of
volunteensm that I think is very
unusual and tremendously
valuable. People in the south are
very grateful,” Lyng said. “We
can’t supply the need for every
hungry animal by flying hay into
the area. But it was a gesture that
showed how much the President
cared and it got the thing started.”
We set up a special telephone
number for people who want in
formation about the drought. The
first day of operation last Friday,
we had 900 calls. And on Saturday
Conservation Reserve
Signup Begins Monday
Signup for the 1987 Conservation
Reserve Program gets underway
Monday and continues through
Aug. 15 at county offices of the
Agricultural Stabilisation and
Conservation Service.
Enacted as part of the Food
Security Act of 1985, the goal of
CRP is to remove the
highly erodible land from
cultivation by paying farmers an
annual rental fee to maintain
permanent vegetative cover on
CRP acreage. Producers entering
land in the program are eligible for
cost-share payments of up to 50
percent of the cost of establishing
cover.
The CRP contract duration is 10
years, and total rental payments
for any one fiscal year may not
exceed |50,000, or its equivalent in
in-kind payments.
“We are pleased with the
response from farmers during the
1986 signup,” said Secretary of
Agriculture Richard E. Lyng, upon
announcing the 1987 signup. “Now
that producers are aware of the
other provisions of the Act, such as
sodbuster and conservation
$8.50 per Year
we had 700 calls. Of those calls,
most of the people whovwanted to
send money were calung from
Pennsylvania. The secretory gave
the hotline numbeir for the USDA
drought information as l\Boo-433-
0703. The hotline is avaialble 8 a.m.
to 6 p.m. \
After a short speech at the\fund
raising luncheon, Secretary Lyng
moved on to the York County farm
of Geary Hunsberger where \ a
large group of media represent
(Turn to Page A 39)
compliance, we expect even more
interest... in the Conservation
Reserve Program this year.”
USDA recently > announced in
terim rules that could affect far
mers participating in CRP,
commodity programs and other
government farm programs. The
so-called Sodbuster and Swamp
buster provisions prohibit farmers
from producing crops on highly
credible land without following a
locally approved conservation
plan, and from producing crops on
converted wetlands. These
provisions apply to highly erodible
land and wetlands in production
since Dec. 23,1985, the date when
the Food Security Act was enacted.
A conservation compliance
provision, related to the Sodbuster
provision, requires fanners who
request certain farm program
benefits, and who have farmed
highly erodible land at least one
year during 1961 to 1965, to plan
and apply locally approved con
servation plans.
According to the Soil Con
servation Service, Pennsylvania
fTnyw tn Pw A*3Q\ -