VOL. 32 No. 14
Biotechnology Forces Agriculture
To Deal With New Groups
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
WASHINGTON D.C. - At the
USDA Biotechnology Challenge
Forum here Thursday, William
Marshell said biotechnology forces
agriculture to deal directly with
interest groups it heretofor did not
sense the need to include.
Marshell of Pioneer Hi-Bred and
chairman of the National Users
Advisory Board listed these new
interest groups as the en
vironmentalist, the theologian and
the city dweller. The forum called
together 350 to 400 national, state,
Members, Leaders Honored
At Lancaster 4-H Banquet
BY JACK HURLEY
LANCASTER It was Saint
Pati ick’s Day, 1937 when a young
Jtenn State graduate named Max
Smith began his Extension career
is an assistant county agent in
Lancaster County.
The transplanted Washington
Countian must have liked what he
found, both in the county and the 4-
H program.
Half a century later, Smith’s
legacy lives on, in the form of the
more than 300 4-H beef and sheep
club members and supporters who
gave him a standing ovation at the
Lancaster County 4-H Livestock
Banquet on Thursday evening at
the county’s Farm and Home
Center.
During his tenure as county
agent from 1937 to 1981, Smith
guided club members to 16 grand
Lancaster County Independent
Dairymen To Receive Letter
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
LANCASTER Dairymen
across the state of Pennsylvania
are quickly getting the message
through the farm press and local
meetings that the Regional
Cooperative Marketing Agency,
Inc i RCMA) can put extra mone>
m their pockets
The major questions seem to be
whei e is this extra money coming
from, and will my local in
dependent handler be hurt by my
association with RCMA. These
questions and more will be an
swered in a letter to be mailed this
week to the 650 independent
producers in Lancaster County
This local area has a concentration
of dairymen who ship to in
dependent handlers so the mailing
is being used as a test to see if
fanners will return the enclosed
R( MA contract without the need to
make personal visits and ad
ditional mailing
Harold Ely, RCMA state coor
dinator, and Donald Ranck, county
(Turn to PagrAsi)
European and Japanese govern
ment and industry leaders as well
as scientific biotechnology and
communications leaders.
Discussion at the forum included
regulation of biotechnology, the
opportunities in biotechnology and
communicating with the public
about biotechnology.
Marshell stressed the need to
move forward in this research to
reduce agricultural imput costs
rathan than increased production.
“Since 1976 the variable imput
costs associated with planting corn
have increased $55 per acre,”
champion steer and 19 grand
champion lamb trophies at the
State farm SJjow. Starting with 33
4-H memDers in his first year,
SiailMMfad up the ranks to 176
members in 1958, a record that still
stands.
According to the veteran county
agent, a trip he made to Colorado
during the 1950 s may have been
one of the reasons for the growth in
the club’s popularity. Smith made
the trip to scout for some Hereford
show prospects that might be good
enough to break the string of Farm
Show wins posted by Angus steers
from the Lehigh Valley. Visiting
ranches in the Colorado Rockies,
he finally found what he was
looking for.
“We picked a carload of
Hereford calves and they turned
(Turn to PageA26)
Harold Ely (left), and Donald Ranck visited the Lancaster
Farming office this week in the interest of a local RCMA letter
to be sent to Lancaster County dairymen who are not
members of a dairy cooperative.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 7,1987
Marshall said. “At today’s target
prices, yield increases of 18
bushels per acre would be
necessary just to cover the rise in
imput costs. Increases in
productivity cannot assure
profitability,” Marshell said. “We
need to develop a whole new menu
of inexpensive technologies to
support inexpensive commodities.
The low commodity prices of the
future cannot support the
traditional costs of imputs.
Dr. Orville Bentley, USDA's
assistant secretary for science and
education, said the ability to
transfer genetic information
molecules under laboratory
conditions may be the most
significant development of recent
times for applied biology The
ability of techniques to modify
cellular components in order to
achieve desired practical ob
jectives provides a new tool of
onparelled promise to agncr'tural
scientists. For the first time, we
can identify and isolate a specific
genetic segment from a plant,
which will create predictable end
results. The door is open for us to
progam the ability to vary a
plant’s nutrient intake from soil,
sun, water or fertilizer to inpart
resistant to a specific desease,
insect or environmental stress and
to enhance product quality In
animals molecular biology enables
us to modify body composition to
meet the demand for leaner meats
and to increase growth and
production through the use of
biotechnologically produced copies
of naturally occurring substances
(Turn to Page A 32)
Larry Hay, region 5 vice president, congratulates the*
Outstanding Young Farmer Over 30, Tim Brown, and his
wife, Marcia, of Adams County.
Harry Hilbert, region 4 vice president, congratulates the
Outstanding Young Farmer Under 30, Wayne Heimbach, and
his wife, Correne, of Snyder County.
Brown, Heimbach Selected
PYFA Outstanding Farmers
GETTYSBURG - Members of
the Pennsylvania Young Farmer’s
Association honored two farm
couples with Outstanding Farmer
awards during their annual con
vention banquet in Gettysburg
Thursday evening.
Timothy and Marcia Brown of
the Gettysburg Young Farmer
Chapter received the award for the
Outstanding Young Farmer Over
30, while Wayne and Correne
Heimbach of the Selmsgrove
Chapter were named the Out
standing Young Farmer Under 30.
The Browns, who represented
region 4 in the competition, are
dairy farmers. Tim is a 50 percent
partner with his brother, Martin,
in an operation that consists of 75
Holstein cows and 75 head of
replacements They grow corn,
small grains and hay
The Browns are active the
Kingsdale Fire Company, DHIA,
Interstate Milk Producers and St.
Mary’s United Church of Christ
Under 30 winners Wayne and
Correne Heimbach from Snyder
County are also dairy farmers.
Wavne is a partner in a dairy
operation that consists of 135 milk
cows and 140 replacements They
grow corn, small grains and hav
Parents oi two children, the
Heimbachs are active in PFA,
Farm Bureau, PYFA and the
Mifflmburg Church of the
Nazerene They represented
region 3 in the competition
Other regional finalists in the
Under 30 contest were Kerry and
Deborah Bovd of the Ephrata
Five Sections
Young Farmer Chapter, Stanley
and Gina Meyers of the James
Buchanan Young Farmer Chapter,
Donald and Janet Cober, Jr. of the
Berlin Brothersvalley Chapter,
and Sam and Starr Geesaman
from the Northern Lebanon
Chapter.
Regional finalists in the Over 30
group included Robert and
Deborah Wenger of the Solanco
Chapter, Allen and Linda Wehr of
the Mifflinburg Chapter, Richard
and Nancy Walker of the Berlin
(Turn to Page A 27)
Breakfast With
PA Legislatures
HARRISBURG - Dairylea
Cooperative, Inc , held an informal
breakfast for dairy farmers and
Pennsylvania state senators and
house members this week here in
the Tuesday Club. This meeting
gave Dairylea members and state
legislatures face-to-face discussion
of current dairy and ag issues.
About 50 people attended the
breakfast
Dairylea was founded in 1907 and
is a milk marketing cooperative
headquartered in Syracuse, New
York. This cooperative is com
prised of dairy farmer mem
ber/owners with the marketing
objective to supply a guaranteed
market for all producers at the
best possible return Dairylea
membership area includes New
York, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey and parts of New England
$8.50 Per Year