||V|v VOL. 32 No. 32 4 Normal 9 Weather Prevails , Crop Growth On Schedule BY MARTHA J. GEHRINGER LITITZ Most areas of Penn sylvania are within one inch of normal rainfall and the current weather pattern indicates normal rainfall should occur for the remainder of the growing season. ‘ At this point the indications are that we are in a normal weather regime and there is no reason to expect it to change. We are cer tainly in a different weather pattern than last year,” said Paul Knight, Penn State meteorologist Last year there was a significant to disastrous drought in the Southeast United States,” the weather prognosticator said. At tins time last year the expansion of Farmers Home Funds Available At Banks * \MP HILL There’s a new pijgiam that Farmers’ Home ■l'li.iimstration borrowers need to !)“i vine familiar with. That is the gna anteed loan program which has been available through the Fanners’ Home Administration since 1972. According to the Pennsylvania Farmers Assn. Big Berries Over along Landis Valley Road near Lancaster they're picking strawberries with a backhoe this year Jim Hershey, 7, has his hands full with two quarts of the outsized berries hat his mother Ruth plucked from the Hershey family's acre plus patch on Monday. Ruth and her husband John say these ’re the biggest berries they’ve had since starting the patch p 'ght years ago. “My husband says he never saw strawberries I ke these,” says Ruth,' adding that her spouse has been picking berries for more than 30 years. What’s the secret? Plenty of rain and hot weather, says Ruth. "The hotter it is, the sweeter they get.” Anyone for strawberry /ongcake? the drought into the southeast portion of Pennsylvania was just beginning, he added. From April 1 to June 1 last year rainfall in the Lancaster area was 6.02 inches, 1.72 inches below normal. For the same period this year, 7.59 inches of rain was recorded, .15 inches below normal. “An insignificant amount,” Knight commented. , John Yocum of the Penn State Research Farm in Landisville noted, “Right now, surface wise, things look good.” At the Lan disville station, Yocum recorded 13.6 inches of rain from January to May 1986 and 12,05 for the same (Turn to PageA29) It's a program that both farmers and lending institutions in Penn sylvania need to learn more about. The Termers’ Home Ad mimstls4#«F*vas formed m 1935 to help family farmers regain self sufficiency lost during the Depression. Since then, the agency has expanded to become a broadbased rural lender, making Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 13,1987 Making hay while the sun shines on a beautiful Thursday afternoon, Levi Rohrer, 754 Doe Run Road, Lititz, was raking a substantial crop of mixed hay and hoped to have it baled before sundown. loans to f'V'niers, rura i residents and-CUral C -immunities. By federal law their credit policy state o that loose boi rowers who qualify for credit from commercial or cooperative lenders are ineligible for FmHA financing. Thus, for farmers, FmHA is a lender of “last resort.” Even though a farmer is facing financial difficulty, if he can show an ability to fulfill the terms and conditions of an FmHA loan he can be financed. In the 1940 s a revolving fund, Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund, was established to provide Crops Are ‘Herbicide’ In Rodale Research BYJACK HURLEY KUTZTOWN - No matter what you grow, weeds are the first competition you’ll encounter along the rocky, uncertain road to tur ning a profit And how you deal with those w’eeds has a lot to do with your bottom line after the crop hits the marketplace Traditionally, farmers try to nip weed problems in the bud, at tacking them with an arsenal of herbicides that normally gets the job done when timing and ap plication procedures fall into place. But herbicides up inputs in the form of purchase price, equipment costs and man-hours. According to the Rodale Research Center, there’s a better way; a way that can reduce inputs with the added benefit of avoiding unpleasant consequences when herbicides run off or leach into groundwater Rodale advocates letting the plants fight their own battles. Located in Kutztown, the research center'* aim is to dense cropping systems that are economically \ ladle and en vironmentally sound Some of then latest research imolves nroducing soybeans together with cere?l grains- using a techm ,ue called mterseedir.g Research is being conducted at two locations in Lancaster County the Lloyd Lefever farm near Conestoga and the Jim Nissley farm near Five Sections the resources for FmHA’s housing and rural development program. With the housing boom of the 19505, FmHA began lending monies to rural home buyers in addition to farmers. The Rural Development Act of 1972 authorized FmHA to guarantee loans made by com mercial lenders. Commercial lenders have been very slow to participate in this program. The recent financial distress ex perienced by traditional FmHA borrowers has caused a significant increase in growth of farm loan programs. Elizabethtown. Interceding involves sowing soybeans into an established stand of cereal grains, such as wheat, barley or oats “Basically, the strategy is to beat the spring wfeeds,” says Rodale agronomist Steve Peters With the help of Chesapeake Bay program funding through the State Department of Environmental Resources, Rodale established three different test plantings on the Lefever farm In one treatment Eight Young Jersey Dairymen Named COLUMBUS, Ohio - Eight young Jersey breeders and their families have been selected by the Board of Directors of The Ameruan Jersey Cattle Club to tetfive The Young Jersey Dam nun Award Presentations wnl be madi nine Jti at the AJCC Awards Breakfast it the Cmc Centei, Eau Plane Wis , during the AJO 119th Annual Meeting These awards are presented annually to young Jersey breeders who merit recognition for their expertise in dairv fanning, Jersey cattle breeding participation in \JCC programs and leadership in $8.50 Per Year The types of FmHA farm loans available are. LOANS (OL) which enable farmers to obtain short- and intermediate term financing. • FARM OWNERSHIP LOANS (FO) which enable family-sized farmers lacking other sources of credit to buy, improve, or refinance farm real estate. • EMERGENCY DISASTER LOANS (EM) which help farmers recover from actual production and physical losses inflicted by (Turn to PageA3B) soybeans were interseeded into winter barley. The barley was planted last fall and received 35 pounds of nitrogen per acre The soybeans were planted on 7-inch rows with a Tye no-till drill on April 30 No herbicides were used on either the beans or the barley In a second treatment the barley and soybeans were double cropped, with both crops receiving nitrogen and herbicide The final treatment involved (Turn to Page A 32) Jersey activities Ralph and Lillian Ashton, Payette, Idaho, took ownership of their Payette Jerseys fiom Ralph s father in 1978 and it's been all up-hill from there Then 41 cows on official !)HIK test a\ craned 19,352 pounds milk and 730 pounds butterfat, highei by a wide margin than anv othei Idaho Jersey hero The milk from their 100 percent registered Jersey herd . is marketed through Idaho Milk Producers Association, of who h Ralph is treasurer Their milk (Turn to Page A3O)
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