C4-LmcMtor hfrming, Satnni*y, December 27,1986
You Can Succeed
Most farmers in Pennsylvania they were all part of a fanner’s
can survive and even succeed as regularly used tools,
farmers in the next decade. I am Recordkeeping A
quite optimistic that most family Must
operated farms can be viable One of the ongoing changes in the
businesses in the future. If I was operation of farms in the past 100
anything less than optimistic, I years has been the growing need
would not be leaving Extension for good records. I have a record
and more closely hooking my star book kept by my great-great
to the family farm of the future. grandfather in the 1800’s. It was
nothing more than a daily diary
with the things that were done, the
amount they received for sold
products, who worked for them,
the cost of supplies, and the
weather.
Todays records are not that
much different in context. They
are just bigger and more complex.
DHIA was brought into being over
50 years ago because a few for
ward thinking dairymen and
college professors thought that
dairymen needed a better handle
on what was happening in the dairy
herd. Those of you who had fathers
or grandfathers who were “on
test” 30 or more years ago should
look at their records. The in
formation they received from their
DHI records was considerably less
than the available information we
have today. Yet there are those of
us who Want even more from
today’s DHI records, because, we
know it is available and we feel we
nteed it to make better
management decisions.
As farm sizes have grown,
records and analysis of those
records have become more im
portant for a farm manager. The
diary idea is probably no longer
adequate.
Fanning will change in technical
know how, in size, in required
skills, and in methods of operation.
But, these changes have been
occurring every year since the
beginning of time. In the 30 years I
have been in Extension, I have
seen some tremendous changes.
If someone had projected the
changes that have occurred in
these 30 years in 1956 when I
started Extension, most people
would have laughed. Consider for
example the advent of atrazine in
the late 50’s. Or what about forage
testing and feeding programs. Or
calculators so cheap that prac
tically every school child has one.
Then we came to personal com
puters that cost about the same
today as a good calculator did 20
years ago.
Today no one would buy a tractor
without hydraulic or power
steering. Farmers who buy a
tractor without a cab are often
pitied by their neighbors as being
poor or demented. Not many of you
cut hay by hand anymore. In fact
most modem fanners probably
don’t even know how to use a hoe,
or a scythe, or hand hay rake. Yet
it was not many years ago that
Pennsylvania farmers will find
Grain Crops, a Penn State
correspondence course and an
accompanying 1985 Agronomy
Guide, helpful in selecting grain
varieties.
The course includes information
on uses and importance of the most
common cereals or grains, in
cluding com, wheat, oats, barley,
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Lewistown Extension Office
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P.O. Box 35 - Martindale, PA 17549
215-445-4585
Telex 5101011953 Martin Machine
FOR INFORMATION NOW
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send $l4, including Agronomy
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I’amiiy I'arm
Still Needed
Yet the one constant we have
seen throughout the hundreds of
years of change in the family farm
has been the need in our society for
those farms. The majority of
people in this country want the
family farm to continue to be a
viable part of our society and
economy. They have agreed to
farm bills that the news media has
often said were too expensive. The
average person on the street feels
positive about farmers and farm
pay y pi
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mg, especially family operated
farms. They want you to succeed.
And you can succeed if you want
to. No one said it would be easy.
And this brings us to the final and
possibly most critical change that
has occurred in the farming
business. The change from a
primarily physically oriented
business to a balanced physically
and mentally oriented business.
Todays farmers must be as willing
to work hard mentally as their
forefathers were to work hard
physically.
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