AlO-UwM»t»rF«w^r6«l>irtiy t -Aptlb23,,ja^,
OPINION
A Bad Day To Plant Corn
animals sold back to the farm are
also included. Some say change
the program before you agree to it,
others say don’t miss the chance to
get it on the books- the inequities
can be changed after the vote.
Whatever you think, if you own
ed or acquired ownership of cattle
during the period of October 1,
1986-March 31, 1988 you need to
get out to your county agent’s
office on May 10 and vote in the
referendum. If you are eligible but
will not be able to get to vote in
person, then get an absentee ballot
from your county agent, complete
it, and send your vote by mail
before the May 3 deadline.
To have the future course of the
beef industry set by the voice of
only a small percentage of the pro
ducers would be very disconcert
ing. We think May 10 will be a
very bad to plant com, unless, of
course, you do it after you have
voted in the beefreferendum.
FARM FORUM our readers write j|
The one thing you can’t do with
a beef referendum is ignore it. This
national vote that will be taken in
May will determine if producers
are willing to permanently foot the
■biy for promotion and research in
the beef and veal industry. Over
‘the last ten years we have had a lot
of experience on which to base our
vote. Twice, in 1977 and 1980, the
checkoff was defeated. Then in the
1985 Farm Bill a checkoff was
mandated as a 22-month trial to see
how it would work. So we know
what it’s like not to have it and we
know it’s like to have it And pro
ducers are to be called on to judge
the results.
Some producers talk about the
increase in public awareness of
beef that has come from the
increased advertising. Others talk
about the inequities in the program
that requires $1 per head regard
less of age and the fact that dairy
Editor
Regarding your article in the
April 16 issue “Beef Check-Off
Will It Die or Survive The Vote?”;
the article was very well written
but before beef producers vote
May 10th perhaps they should
view the other side of the coin.
We live in central Pa. and have 6
Farm Calendar
Saturday, April 23
Bradford Co. Holstein Tour, 7:30
a.m. Towanda Plaza.
PSU Dairy Expo, Ag Arena State
College, 8:00 a.m.
Maryland State Jersey Sale, Sunset
View Farms, Uniontown, MD.
Contact James Stoneseifer
301/756-6640, 11:30 a.m.
Cook College Field Day, New
Brunswick, NJ.
Biodynamics As Applied To Com
mercial Vegetable Production
and Home Gardening, Cinna
minson. New Jersey, for infor
mation, call 609/786-2777.
Monday, April 25
Waverly Invitational Jersey Sale,
Frederick Co. Fairgrounds,
Clearbook, VA, 11:00 a.m.
Poultry Meeting, Farm & Home
Center, 6:30 p.m. For more
information, call Steve Combs,
295-8737.
Red Rose FFA Banquet, White
Horse Fire Hall, 7 p.m..
Tuesday, April 26
Spring Homemaker’s Day, Stan
ton Grange, 10:00 a.m. Tickets
, Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
At Reoord-Exprees Office Building
22 E. Main Street
Lititt, PA 17543
by
Lancaster Fanning, Inc.
A SUnrnn EMmpfSa
flobart G. Campbell Ganaral Managar
Evaratt R. Maaranvangar Managing Editor
' ' *■
c«piH|ia as nr i ■■■■«! a—
to 12 head of beef cattle depending
on our estimate of our feed supply.
The calves are sold as feeders as
they come to size.
On 2/18/88 I wrote the Pa. Beef
Council requesting a refund of my
beef check-off dollars - the refund
amounted to $B.OO. Now you and 1
both know $B.OO isn’t a lot of
*2
$9. Contact Diana Mack,
201/788-1342.
Wednesday, April 27
International Horticulture Confer
ence, Willow Valley.
Thursday, April 28
Pennsylvania Poultry Federation
Banquet, Hershey Convention
Center, Hershey, 5:30 p.m.
social, 7:00 p.m. dinner.
Friday, April 29
Washington Co. Holstein Calf
Sale, Washington Co.
Saturday, April 30
Brown Swiss Mid-Atlantic Calf
Sale, 12 noon, Frederick Fair
grounds, Frederick, MD.
Monday, May 2
State Grange Banquet, Penn Har
ris, Camp Hill.
Tuesday, May 3
Berks-Schuylkill Christmas Tree
Meeting, PSU Schuylkill
Haven Campus, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 7
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festi
val, Howard Co. Fairgrounds, 7
p.m. West Friendship, MD.
who i£ that cote ]
LITTLE 80/ THAT (
UDS>T WALKED BY \
with that old goat? j
NOW IS
THE TIME
By Jay Irwin
Lancaster County Agriculture Agent
To Prepare For
Corn Planting
We are fast approaching com
planting time and if your planter is
not “ready to go” then put this high
on your list for jobs that must be
done. If you plan to change the row
width, be sure to calibrate your
planter to the plant population you
desire. This should be done well
ahead of time so if you need new
plates - they can be picked up and
installed. Also your pest control
programs should be worked out.
If you are on a no-till program
and have a cover crop of rye, wheat
or barley, then it should be sprayed
when die vegetation is 18-24
inches tall. Paraquat plus a surfact
and does an excellent job.
As far as insect control goes,
research data collected from
numerous sites over the past sever
al years indicates that soil insecti-
money but on 2/15/88 our farm
truck used to haul hay to auction
was involved in a traffic accident
and suddenly $B.OO was one of the
few checks we had coming in.
Folks living in Lancaster Coun
ty may find it hard to believe, but
the unemployment rate in Hunt
ingdon County is 11 to 12%. This
means a family losing their main
source of income can’t go out and
find an off-the-farm job to fill in
financial gaps. About 2 weeks
after I wrote for our refund we
received no not the expected $B.OO
check, but a leaflet from the Pa.
Beef Council listing all the things
they are doing for Beef Producers
and suggesting we contact our
neighbors telling them the merits
of the Beef Check-Off. Well I fig
ured the check would be along any
day. Wrong! No check was
received. I wrote again on 3/31/88
and again about 2 weeks later
instead of the requested refund
more Beef Check-Off propaganda.
I hate to tell you but this type of
paper is not accepted as legal ten
der at the local IGA. (as of 4/17/88
I still have not received a refund
check.)
So before folks climb on the
Beef Council’s bandwagon, they
need to check out how if the Beef
Council is living up to their obliga
tions. Is the small percentage of
refunds a true picture or are refund
requests being thrown in some
one’s wastebasket? Would the
Beef Council spending beef check
off dollars on research result in a
better return on the Beef Produc-
(Turn to Page A 35)
cidc treatments forcomrootworm
control have not significantly
increased yields except in a small
percentage of the fields. If root
worm was not a problem in the
past, treatment will not be neces
sary. If the field was in anything
but com last year, there should not
be a rootworm problem because
they only survive on com roots.
To Think Ryelage
Many farmers plant rye as a for
age crop for their catde. Rye can
provide a lot of much needed high
quality forage - if it is handled
properly. For top quality feed val
ue, rye should be cut around the
boot stage of maturity, and wilted
before ensiling. After this stage,
feed value drops rapidly. Some of
our rye fields will be heading out
soon. That means we should be
thinking about cutting rye, perhaps
even before we start planting com.
Be sure your equipment is ready to
go.
To Evaluate Sewage
Sludge Before Using
Many farmers are being
approached to have sewage sludge
applied to their land. Several
things must be evaluated before
considering this step. First of all,
many of our farms are presently
producing more animal and poul
try manure than they have land to
UNBELIEVING
HEART
April 24,1988
Background Scripture: Hebrews
13:1 through 4:13.
Devotional Reading: Psalms 95.
"Take care, brethren, lest there
be in any of you an evil, unbeliev
ing heart, leading you to fall away
from the living God" (3:12).
Good advice! But what does it
mean? What is an "unbelieving
heart”? How can one will his mind
to believe more firmly? How can
we discipline ourselves to have
more faith? Surely we’d all have
more faith if it was simply a matter
of deciding to have it. And in the
gospels, what about those who
admitted difficulties with their
beliefs “doubting Thomas,” the
man who said to Jesus, “I believe;
help thou my unbelief’?
YET REBELLIOUS
I had to read this passage from
Hebrews quite a few times before I
realized what the writer means by
“unbelief.” It finally dawned upon
me that nowhere here is the writer
of Hebrews talking about what
people say they believe or don’t
believe. Creeds, doctrines and
theologies have nothing to do with
the “unbelief’ against which
Hebrews warns.
Instead, the writer of Hebrews is
concerned with behaviour. The
falling “away from the living God”
is a matter of hearts “hardened by
the deceitfulness of sin” (3:13).
GZDED
ED
CD€l
L
V £ gs 3
apply it on, so we just don’t have
the acreage. You should also be
aware of potential pitfalls in sew
age sludge. Sludge is a by-product
of wastewater treatment and can
contain many different elements
and compounds from municipal
and industrial sources. The waste
water goes through several stages
of treatment, but the sludge that is
removed from the effluent may
contain heavy metals and trace ele
ments such as copper, zinc, lead,
nickel, chromium or cadmium.
These elements can be toxic to
plants at low levels and some rep
resent a hazard to the food chain.
To Develop
Safe Habits
Farming is now the most
hazardous occupation, yes passing
mining which held that position for
many years. In fact the average
farm worker can expect that once
every four years he’ll be injured so
severely that medical attention is
needed. Farmers have a work acci
dent rate that’s two and a half times
greater than the average for all
industries. The problem is, that
unlike industry, farmers work with
a minimal amount of supervision
and they may not be properly
trained for the job. We urge far
mers, during this busy season, to
take time to be safe.
Sins usually have much more to do
with wrong actions that wrong
words and ideas. When the writer
of Hebrews refers to the Israelites
with Moses in the wilderness, he
doesn’t accuse them of subscribing
to the wrong beliefs or failing to
verbalize the right articles of faith.
Instead he tells us that they were
“rebellious” (3:16), they had
“sinned” (3:17), and were “disobe
dient” (3:18). Then he sums up the
whole passage saying: “So we see
that they were unable to enter
[God’s rest] because of unbelief’
(3:19). The problem with these
people was not that they failed to
agree to the right beliefs, but that
they failed to live by them.
BEYOND DOUBT
Unbelief, therefore, is some
thing that goes beyond honest
doubt and questioning; it is belief
that fails to influence our behavi
our. It is professing that we believe
in God, while acting as if God did
not exist or matter. It is calling God
our “Lord,” and then disobeying
his commandments. It may mean
saying the right words, yet doing
the wrong things. That is what the
writer of Hebrews means when he
says “. . . but the message which
they [the people of Israel] heard
did not benefit them, because it did
not meet with faith in the hearers”
(4:2).
Faith is essentially trust. The
problem is that while many of us
have no trouble agreeing with and
professing certain beliefs, that
doesn’t mean that we have the faith
to entrust our lives to those profes
sions. After all, it is that to which
we entrust ourselves, not that
which we profess, that saves us
from unbelief.
(Based on copyrighted Outlines produced
by the Committee on the Uniform Senes and
used by permission Released by Community
& Suburban Press)
OHTWT& UTTLE 6ILLY
\NfTH HIS> ONCLE OTiS.