AiO-LancMtar Farming, OPINION Old-Fashioned Farm Frugality In case you didn’t know, this has been National Meat Week (February 1-7). A number of in dustry organizations do promotional work to let people know about meat during this special week. The new promotional line now is “Meat, A Food For Fitness.” Sara Lylygren of the American Meat Institute is the national coordinator of Meat Week. She says the new slogan has caused a lot of interest by health- and fit ness-oriented organizations out side of the farm community. That’s good. We need all the help we can get to promote the use of meat. And certainly catchy slogans seem to be the way to do this today. However, we can’t help but remember a milk commercial that uses the same idea. Milk promotion has obviously increased milk sales. With the new beef Dear Editor: Dig A Little Deeper Dig deeper. That is the best and the only practical solution of the problem, and it is what every live farmer is doing. A few feet down and the living fountains are reached. We have come to a time when it seems to a great many farmers that their occupation is no longer profitable as it once was. They have to work harder and do not receive the returns they are en titled to. Thousands are seeking other positions, giving up the old farm for what can not be called anything else than an uncertainty. What these and all farmers of the present day need to do is to dig deeper if the levels of success in fanning have retreated. They Farm Calendar Saturday, February 7 Lancaster Conservation District Meeting, Farm and Home Center, 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 9 Sixth Pennsylvania Cornucopia Banquet, Hershey Convention Center. Luzerne Co. Com Clinic, Luzerne Extension Office, Wilkes-Barre, 7:30 p.m. Poultry Servicemen’s Seminar, Holiday Inn North, Lancaster, 6:30 p.m. Topic: Tax Reform in the Poultry Industry. Tuesday, February 10 Capital Region Turf and Or namental School, Holiday Inn, ijr, February 7,1917 promotion getting underway, we think meats sales will go up, too. But we have several questions for which we have no answers. Will we soon see everything grown and produced on the farm mer chandized as a food or drink that will make Average Consumer more fit? Since the stomach is only so elastic, will each commodity group soon be competing for a percentage of stomach capacity? And since so much of the “fast food beef” is imported, will the beef promotion increase the sale of home-grown beef? A lot of dollars are collected from farmers paychecks. So we hope an honest effort is made with each commodity group and bet ween groups to make sure we have no duplication of efforts. Even though we are talking about millions of dollars, we must maintain old-fashioned farm frugality. certainly have not dried up. New methods may be required. It may be men need to approach their business from a different angle and study it more closely but that need not mean discouragement. Send the pickax of thought down a little farther. Don’t stop on this side of success. Just out of sight lies the unfailing spring of successful endeavor. Tap it before you lay down your tools and never say, “I’m beaten.” No man is ever beaten so long as he has two strong arms and a strong heart. This sounds like today’s far mers. But I copied it out of a 1922 Lancaster Almanac. r ii 1, 1 -: i 9 '(A Pa— j Grantville. Atlantic Breeder’s Co-op, N. Western, Country Table Restaurant, 7 p.m. Lancaster County Sheep and Wool Growers Annual Meeting, 7:30 p.m., Farm and Home Center. Making Smart Farm Decisions (3 sessions), York County Ex tension Office, 7 p.m. Also on Feb. 17 and 24. Making Smart Farm Decisions (3 sessions), Cumberland County Extension Office, 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Also on Feb. 17 and 24. ASCS meeting, Acreage Reduction Program, Lancaster County Farm and Home Center, 7:30 p.m. NE Region Fruit Growers WHY X R£/V\£/V\oF£ By Jay Irwin Lancaster County Agriculture Agent The recent thaw provides a good chance to observe water drainage problems around barns and stornge buildings. If surface water drained into farm buildings or into homes, then something should be done about it very soon. Surface water should be directed away from buildings by way of terraces or diversion dutches. Water should not be permitted to flow down against buildings from upgrade. This will weaken the structure and wash soil away from the foundation. Water that seeps into a budding from underground is a different problem and more difficult to control. However, the surface water can be directed around and away from farm buildings. Also, area around wells should be protected from surface water contamination. Water from feedlots and bar nyards should not be allowed to flow directly into public streams; pastures or holding areas will help prevent the possibility of pollution. Meeting, Ramada Inn, Routes 6 and 11, Chinchilla, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Organic Crop Improvement Association meeting, Harrisburg Ag Building, 6:15 to 9 p.m. The speaker, agronomist Bart Hallbyer, will discuss organic farming. Making Smart Decisions Seminar (session 2), Chambersburg. Lancaster Extension Swine Thank You, Ben Housman Middletown Meeting, Farm and Home Center. Fayette County Dairy Day, Waltersburg lOOF Hall, 10.30 a.m. Wayne County Drinking Water Clinic, Grace Episcopal Church Hall, Honesdale, 1 to 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 to 10 p.m. Lebanon Valley Bank Ag Group luncheon seminar, Prescott Fireball, 8:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Mid-Atlantic Direct Marketing Conference, Radisson Hotel, Wilmington, Del. Continues through Feb. 14. Forage and Soils Day, Lemasters (Franklin County) Community Center, Lemasters, 9 a.m. Lancaster Extension Annual meeting, Farm and Home Center, 6:30 p.m. Dairy Cattle Reproductive Clinic, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Extension meeting room, Courthouse, Honesdale. Continues tomorrow. I* NOW IS THE TIME To Correct Drainage Problems Wednesday, February 11 Thursday, February 12 (Turn to Page A3l) To Evaluate Manure Plant Food Agronomists have told farmers for 40 years that a ton of dairy manure is equivalent to 100 pounds of 10-3-5 fertilizer, but recent research indicates that much of the nitrogen is lost when manure is spread daily and left exposed to the elements. Current data have confirmed that a ton of stored dairy manure is equivalent to 100 pounds of 104-0 fertilizer (page 22 of the 1987-88 Agronomy Guide). The nutrients in fresh manure are equal to those of inorganic fertilizers for crop production, but more slowly available. If the manure is incorporated im mediately, no nitrogen is lost; if incorporated after 2 days, 40 percent is lost. After 4 days, 60 percent is lost and 7 days or longer, 80 percent is lost. Studies concur with this and show that com fer tilized with fresh manure applied and plowed down in the spring produced the most com silage. Yields were lowest when the manure was applied in the fall, left exposed on the soil surface all winter and plowed down in the spring. Be sure to include the nutrient value of manure when calculating your crop needs. It’s important to manage manure application just as you manage other areas of your operation. To Check Poultry Waterers Hens without water can cost you money. In one experiment, birds deprived of water for only 24 hours required 24 days to return to normal egg production. In most experiments, after a period of only 36 hours without water, birds never returned to normal. A flock without water for 36 hours or more may molt, then go through a BELIEFS OR VALUES? February 8,1987 Background Scripture: James 2:8-18; John4:7-12. Devotional Reading: 1 John 4:13- The scripture passages from Galatians and Ephesians that we looked at last week firmly established that we are saved, not by what we deserve, but by the grace of God; “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God... ” (Ephesians 2:8). On the basis of that passage and others like it, many have depreciated the role of “works” in the Christian life and there have been formidable theological battles on the subject of “works” vs. “faith.” But, in the passage from Ephesians, if we go on from verse 8 to verse 10, we find the writer saying; “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” In the very same passage in which grace and faith are exalted, the writer goes T HAD TO DIG DOWN TWO FEET TO (ErET TO rT y prolonged period of restricted production. This is especially so in older flocks. If water is restricted for 48 to 60 hours, severe mortality can result from dehydration. As you walk through your house each day, check the waterers to make sure none are dry or a line is plugged. I am aware of a case where the water line was restricted by a faulty valve in the middle row of cages for nearly three days. Mortality was high and production was seriously affected in that row. A few minutes a day checking waterers can well mean saving a lot of dollars - don’t wait until molted feathers are under the cage. To Train and Prune Trees General pruning of apple trees should be in full swing at this time of year, especially if you have a lot of pruning to do. I’d like to remind growers and homeowners not to overprune young trees or those which haven’t yet started to bear fruit. There is a tendency to either prune the small trees too heavily, or simply to leave them alone. A middle-of-the-road course is best. The training of young trees should involve just enough cutting to maintain a healthy central leader and to develop the desired number of well-spaced scaffold branches. Branches that are either poorly spaced, or ones making narrow-angled crotches, should be removed. Keep in mind, when you start pruning early - start with your hardier trees, the apple and pear with plum and sour cherries next. Leave your peach till near the end, since they’re quite tender. The Cooperative Extension Service u an af firmative action, equal opportunity educational institution This is also the view of the writer of James, who asks: “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says on to say that the purpose of all this is “good works in Christ Jesus.” The writer of Ephesians does not see it as “faith” or “grace” vs. “works," but of all of these together. he has faith but has not works?” (James 2:14). A man may say he has faith and he may believe it, but the saying and the believing mean nothing if he does not act as if he thinks it true. There are lots of things we say we believe and, for the most part, we are sincere. When we process these ideas through our minds, we have no trouble in accepting them and saying, “This I believe.” But very often these are nothing more than empty words and un practiced beliefs. We may attack anyone who says he doesn’t share them, but that doesn’t mean we are so convinced and motivated by these beliefs that we are going to do anything about it. Let someone propose, “There are millions of starving people in the world and as Christians we ought to minister to them.” Should someone disagree with this sentiment, we would likely get up in arms over that disagreement. How can you disbelieve in feeding the hungry? The key, however, is not in what we believe or say about feeding the hungry, but what we do about it. “If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?” (2:15). It is at this point that James reduces the theological problem to a level everyone can understand: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder” (2:19). Belief is not what makes a Christian. If belief were all that there is, the demons of this world would qualify. Anyone can hold an idea in his mind. The real question is whether that idea can hold us. We may believe all sorts of things, but real faith is a matter of the things we value. For, if we value something, it will motivate our actions.
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