A22-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 12, 1988
BY BETH N. GRAY
Bedford C. Correspondent
LOYSBURG Sarah Ann
Baker’s schedule reads as if she’s
trying to make up for all (he young
people who don’t get involved, a
fact about others for which she
feels badly. The 1988 Bedford
County Outstanding Holstein
Youth, named at the annual ban
quet of the County Holstein Club
here last week, said, “There are a
lot of ways for people to get
involved. It seems like most youth
don’t want to get involved.”
The 18-year-old daughter of J.
Allen and Norma Baker of Bed
ford, RIM, has been building her
registered Holstein herd since she
first joined the Friendly Moo-
Moos 4-H Outsat age eight. She
recently joined the newly organ
ized County 4-H Dairy Judging
Club and says she’s looking for
ward to involvement in a Youth
Dairy Bowl, if the tentative project
should get underway. She also
belongs to the County 4-H Teen
Club.
The senior at Bedford Area
High School is a full-fledged
worker at Alienor Holsteins, own
ed by her parents. She arises daily
between 4:30 and S a.m. to ready
the bam for milking, to feed the
calves and to bed the cows. In the
winter she helps to hay cows in the
evening, cleans the milk tanks and
finishes odd chores. And in the
summer she helps with haying as
well.
Outstanding Holstein Youth Gets Involved
All are experiences that Baker
appreciates. In her essay that
helped her earn the “Outstanding
Youth” title. Baker wrote: “Farm
ing is always challenging and a
stimulating experience for me. I
look back on all the years of grow
ing up on a farm and it fasc/iptes
me to know that I have seen a Beau
tiful life created and brought into
this world as a calf.”
As the young woman has built a
family from her original calf. Alie
nor Sun Lisa, she’s won reserve
champion female at the Bedford
County Fair five times. A disap
pointment has been the lack of a
grand championship.
“That’s what I’d like to get this
year.” she noted. Another disap
pointment has been an abundance
of bull calves. Her cow family
today includes Lisa plus her
daughters Alienor Citation Lin and
Alienor Belle Linda plus Linda’s
offspring. Alienor Torn Lydia.
Baker is conversant in DHIA
numbers and classifications. All of
her cows have classified Very
Good. Their most recent records;
Lisa, a 5-year-old: 20,338 lbs,
milk and 694 lbs. butterfat;
Linda, a 4-year-old: 17,000 lbs.
'milk and 563 lbs. butterfat;
Lin, a 3-year-old: 19,500 lbs.
milk and 712 lbs. butterfat;
Lydia, a 2-year-old: 15,300 lbs.
milk and 624 lbs. butterfat
“They’re a good family for milk
production,” she said, yet added
that she’d like to bring in an out-of-
family female for her 4-H effort
this year.
She expects to be able to show
the new animal to a 4-H’er from
the South. Baker is looking for
ward to hosting an exchange
4-H’er for a week during the com
ing summer. Last summer she her
self visited a Kansas 4-H family
for a week, after serving as hostess
at Alienor the previous summer to
a Kansas 4-H’er.
She did all that amidst two suc
cessful seasons learning coopera
tive enterprise. In 1986 she
advanced from the county to the
regional and to the state Institute of
Cooperative Education sponsored
by the Pennsylvania Association
of Farm Cooperatives. At the latter
she was chosen to take part in the
American Institute of Cooperative
Education at Knoxville, Tenn. Last
summer she served on the scholar
staff for the PAFC institute.
Baker is likewise busy at school
where she has lettered on the track
team, is secretary and treasurer of
the local chapter of Students
Against Drunk Driving, is a mem
ber of chorus and its elite group,
the Varsity Singers. She also
serves as a library aid and is an
honor roll student.
As a community service effort.
Baker helps conduct a weekly
story hour at the public library for
pre-kindergarten children. She
teaches Sunday school and is lec
tor at her church.
The Alienor farming enterprise
includes 150 registered Holsteins
in milk-- “three are Excellent and
more than 30 are Very Good,”
Baker notes -- and some 600 acres
of owned and rented land in com. The young woman is undecided
alfalfa, mixed grasses and soy- about her career. “I have so many
beans. Her father has won honors interests and there are so many
as Pennsylvania’s best alflafa things to do,” she says. Her agenda
grower in four years since 1982. spells it out
Census Counting
On Farm Operators
WASHINGTON, D.C. Far
mers and ranchers have you
returned your 1987 Census of
Agriculture form? The U.S. Cen
sus Bureau says the form was due
February 1. If you haven’t, the
bureau asks you to please take a
few minutes to complete it
Use your best estimates if you
don't have the information in your
records. Return your forms to the
Census Bureau even if you did not
grow any crops, or have any lives
tock, poultry, or other agricultural
products in 1987, so the bureau can
correct its records.
If you have questions or need
help filling out your form, call the
Census Bureau’s toll-free number,
1-800-233-6132. Indiana residents
should call 1-800-233-6135. You
also can obtain help from local
offices of the Cooperative Exten
sion Service, Soil Conservation
Service, Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service, Far-
mers Home Administration, and
vocational agriculture teachers.
The census shows how farmers
in each county stand today com
pared with five years ago how
they are doing compared with far
mers in other counties. It provides
a picture of the number of farms,
farm size, production, sales, and
the financial health of agricultural
producers. The agriculture census,
an unbiased accounting, gives a
clear picture as to changes that are
taking place.
This picture of the agricultural
production industry is studied by
both the public and private sectors
to help chart the future. Here are
some examples:
* Farm organizations use the
facts to plan programs and evalu
ate legislative proposals.
* Congress uses the census of
agriculture data for evaluating and
developing legislation.
• Farmer cooperatives use
county-level agriculture census
numbers to evaluate the need for
grain elevators, and other services
to farmers and ranchers.
• Feed manufacturers use agri
culture census livestock numbers
to define their market potential
down to the county level and to
determine equitable dealer
territories.
• The U.S. Department of Agri
culture uses agriculture census
data in estimates of farm income
and other economic indicators for
the farm sector.
• The Farm Credit Administra
tion uses agriculture census results
to formulate and evaluate farmer
loan programs.