Retired County Agent Keeps Farm Show On His Agenda
BY SALLY BAIR
Lancaster Co. Correspondent
LANCASTER - Arnold Lueck
will be attending his 40th Farm
Show this year and can still say,
"It’s exciting to participate.” For
the last 25 years he has assumed
duties for some of the exhibits as
county agent from Lancaster
County, and though he is working
this year, he is no longer a member
of the Penn State Cooperative
Extension staff. Lueck retired
December 31 from his work in
Lancaster County, but is carrying
out commitments made before his
retirement.
He says, ‘‘lt’s only been about 20
years that I have actively par
ticipated in the crops area of the
Farm Show. I usually attend
association meetings that are held
that week. The Farm Show is good
public relations between farmers
and the non-farming segments of
society. It is where farmers and
consumer meet.”
Asked if he’ll continue to go to
the show when his job does not
require it, he laughed and said,
“Sure, I’ll go.” In fact, he recalls
visiting the Farm Show from his
home in State College when he had
no compelling reason to go.
But he tries to leam from the
many exhibits. Lueck says, “I look
for trends, especially in the
machinery exhibits and watch for
things happening in the livestock
world and with crops. I enjoy it
each year.”
Learning and educating have
been an integral part of Lueck’s
career. Before joining the Penn
State Extension Service, he taught
vocational education for 10 years.
But it is through the informal
education of the Extension Service
that his impact has been strongest.
He says candidly, “My only
regret is not having gone directly
into Extension. I made the change
because I felt I could use my
background, my training and
experience to much better ad
vantage with the University.”
As Lueck reflects on his 25-year
career in Lancaster County, he
says, “This is an amazing county.
You feel the challenge from the
people themselves. They were well
informed and willing to make
changes where it will make their
life easier. It was a big challenge to
try to keep up with the needs of the
people, and the needs kept
changing."
He called this area a “very
challenging area” to work in.
“People here engage in an in
tensive type of agriculture and we
get satisfying results from what we
do.”
Indeed, Lueck says that one of
the reasons he has enjoyed living
and working in this area is that,
“We have the kind of people who
are receptive and who welcome the
kind of information Extension
makes available. They respond
affirmatively."
Throughout his reflections on the
;y tension office has been home for
Lueck for 25 years. With his retirement on December 31, he
will no longer be going to the office every day, but he will
work of a county agent in Lan
caster COunty, Lueck makes it
clear that part of the "charge” of
an Extension agent is making
information available to the
public. He said local people will do
something to help themselves once
they receive the information and
the ideas. “That is what Extension
is all about.”
One of the attractions of the job
was the diversity of the people with
whom he worked. Lueck admitted
to having to be prepared on a wide
variety of subjects, and needing
the ability to “shift gears and get
on with something else.”
Whether it was agronomy or
horticulture, beekeeping or
nutgrowing, Lueck was involved
and could be counted on for an
answer.
Having grown up on a diverse
smaLl farm in Wisconsin, Lueck
says he studied crops and hor
ticulture because of “my interest
in growing various crops.” He
recalls, “I had potatoes as a 4-H
project. I may have had
strawberries. 1 started two kinds of
grapes at an early age - and they
are still bearing.”
Asked if his projects were blue
ribbon winners, Lueck says there
were no round-ups in those days as
there are now. He said the county
agent, who lived less than a mile
from their home, came and
evaluated the projects.
Lueck was bom in Wisconsin of
“half immigrant” parents. His
mother was first generation
American from parents who came
from southcentral Germany, and
Lueck’s father came ffom a part of
Germany that is now Poland.
There were four brothers and two
sisters, and Lueck was a twin. His
twin was a dairy farmer in
Wisconsin all his life. They grew up
in what Lueck refers to as “the
foreign cheese area” of Wisconsin,
home to Swiss cheese, brick cheese
and Limburger cheese.
He took a short course of the
University of Wisconsin but felt he
couldn’t afford the full-time
tuition. A professor, however,
seeing the potential, gave him the
$27.50 to pay the tuition, and Lueck
was off on the pursuit of an
education.
After graduating from the
University of Wisconsin, Lueck got
a job with the U.S. Regional
Pasture Research Lab at Penn
State because he says, “I had done
considerable work in pasture in
vestigations and grass breeding. I
had a good background in what
they were doing with forage
crops.” Friendships developed
while living in State College made
the transition to Extension a
logical one for Lueck when he
decided upon a career change.
In 25 years there have been some
major changes in agriculture and
in the role of an extension agent.
Lueck says, “There is now an
explosion of information available,
including material from research
J-
Lueck was especially adept at ai
with their trees and shrubs. Here
Farm and Home Center.
stations and private research.
Fanning has gone from a way of
life to being business oriented.”
He said the use of computers will
make widespread the availability
of information. And, he added,
“Farmers must be aware of the
marketing of farm products.
Marketing used to stop at the end
of the lane, and now it is world
wide. There is competition with
farmers in other continents.”
Part of the competition comes
from consumers, about whom
Lueck says, “Consumers of today
are much better educated and
have much better knowledge. That
puts the pressure on farmers to
produce what the consumer
wants."
Helping farmers evaluate all the
information available was an
integral part of Lueck’s job. He
notes, “We’ve been charged with
providing impartial information.
We counsel farmers on their
choices ’’
Another big change in his job
over the years was providing
information to homeowners who
became increasingly well in
formed. He said, “Homeowners
are much more aware of the en
vironment they can create for
themseleves around the home, and
are much more interested in
controlling pests, insects and
weeds. They are much more
quality conscious.”
Today Extension workers are
more dependent upon the mass
media to get out timely in
formation. Lueck recalled the
early days when he would send
newsletters weekly to fruit
growers, advising them of the
current pest for which to watch.
Lueck’s weekly columns in the
daily papers were not only well
read, but were also well headed.
The timely information he
provided was useful to farmers
and homeowners alike.
Indeed, one of Lueck’s pleasures
over the years has been working in
his own garden and caring for his
own trees, shrubs and lawn He
admits that at least part of the
reason for gardening is, “I like to
practice what I preach It gave me
a picture of how the weather had
been influencing the growing
season, and what pests were
current " In addition, he said that
he likes to try new varieties in his
garden each year
Perhaps the biggest change he
has witnessed over his 25-year
career is that brought about by
farmers adopting technology to
production practices. He said one
of the most significant changes
due to technology has been the
trend to high density populations of
both livestock and crops.
Remembering his early years,
Lueck said 12,000 to 15,000 plants
per acre was the maximum.
Today, 22,000 to 25,000 plants per
acre is the norm. He adds, ‘‘That’s
r-
mswering questions from homeowners about problems
! he looks over one of the holly trees on the patio of the
crops and animals has increased
so much.”
He has also seen tremendous
strides made through the use of
superior genetics and inheritance.
“That means a bigger return for
labor and management.” He said
he likes to repeat information used
by Earl Butz who is of the same
generation. In the 30’s it required
30 minutes of labor to grow a
bushel of corn. Today it lakes less
than one minute to grow that
bushel of com.
Farm mechanization has
become commonplace, and Lueck
says it means almost the
elimination of.the scoop shovel and
the fork. “There’s a lot of push
button farming.”
He notes, “Tremendous strides
have been made in controlling crop
and animal pests.” Another area of
change has been thq “extensive
use of agricultural chemicals in
producing feed and food. The
widespread use of these chemicals
are tools for production for far
mers.”
So as he slowly closes down his
office after 25 years of serving the
public, Lueck says, “What I will
probably miss most are the day to
day contacts. In Extension every
day is different. I often wondered
what would happen next. I had a
curiosity about each day, like a kid
going to school. We are 100 percent
people oriented and I will miss
that.”
He admitted that the most en
joyable part of his job was leaving
the office and visiting one to one at
a farm or home. “I’d much rather
do that than office work.” His
Chrysler was a familiar sight both
in the parking lot and throughout
the county, and he put 290,000 miles
on it in as he served Lancaster
examines a sample of alfalfa hay for leafiness, color, moisture
and aroma to determine its quality. Lueck will be at the 1987
Farm Show, working on the crops area, where he has been
countians,
Lueck said he really felt the
caring and appreciation of the
people with whom he has worked
at the reception held in honor of his
retirement several'weeks ago.
Over 200 countians turned out to
say “thank you” to Lueck for his
untiring devotion to furthering
Lancaster County agriculture. The
plaques, gifts and tributes will be
packed away to be enjoyed in the
moments of quiet which are yet to
come.
At that time he alluded to his
desire to travel with his wife Pat to
the west to see the “biggest plants
of them all,” the pant redwoods
and sequonias. Now he adds that
he will also look forward to visiting
that famous San Joaquin Valley,
that most fertile of all land in the
country.
Furthermore he would like to
travel to Europe and see the areas
from which his ancestors came.
But mostly, he says, he will spend
his retirement "paying more at
tention to family members,”
visiting with some of the many
people he has come to know over
the years, and doing a lot of
reading for pleasure. There are
also four grown children to visit
with and grandchildren to spend
time with.
He promises too to maintain his
interests in agricultural events,
and it’s certain that he will be seen
at many events throughout the
county and state. As he closes out
his formal career in informal
education, he leaves a legacy to
those he has served - a more
productive county, and thousands
of people who have benefitted from
his great knowledge and love of
agriculture.