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VOL. 35 NO. 5
Editor’s Note: For a research
project, Dr. Peter A. Keller, psy
chology professor at Mansfield
University, interviewed 100
dairy farmers in Bradford,
'jhvcoming and Tioga counties to
*e how they viewed the business
of farming. Dr. Keller was
assisted by Virginia Phillips,
research associate and Kenneth
Marple, graduate assistant.
Here’s a report on what these
farmers had to say.
MANSFIELD (Tioga Co.)
Dairy farmers in Pennsylvania
aren’t making much money and
view their lives as stressful, but
Nearly 3 Million In
Stockholder Capital Returned
SHOEMAKERSVILLE (Berks
Co.) Keystone Farm Credit,
ACA has returned more than
$2,895,000 to eligible
stockholdcr/members as part of its
rtnpitalization Plan. This
sfflnouncement was made by
Bruce Hoffman, chief financial
officer of the cooperative. The
Agricultural Credit Act of 1987
provided Farm Credit associations
with the option of operating on a
lower base of member-owned cap
Extension Agent Wins
Pork Producers Award
Jan* Macum
History-Loving Couple Live On Century Farm
BY USA KISSER
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
say Arthur Reist lives and
"Wihes history would be an
but only just. A his-
J®y teacher at Conestoga Valley,
* lives in a house filled with love
v antiques on a newly certified
jlPtury Farm.
Bt addition, Arthur and his wife,
pfian, enjoy collecting antique
“m implements and tools and
an extensive collection of
wse-drawn vehicles that they rent
*loan out When President Bush
Four Soctiont
Dairymen Say: Not Much Money In Farming,
But They Would Do It Again
most would choose farming again
if they had their choice of careers.
Those are among the findings
of a survey of 100 northern Penn
sylvania dairy farm families con
ducted by Mansfield University
researchers.
“Our sample could generally be
described as wary of what the
future will hold,” says Dr. Peter A.
Keller, professor of psychology at
Mansfield and project director.
“Nearly one-quarter expect the
situation for farming to get worse
in the next few years, and another
one-third have mixed feelings
about the future.”
ital than in the past Because of
this legislation. Keystone’s
required member capital invest
ment in the association is now
equal to 2 percent of a members’
total outstanding loan balance or
,sl,ooo*(whifhever is less.) Prior
to the legislation and the forma
tion of Keystone, a member’s cap
ital requirement was equal to S
percent of any outstanding loan
balance. One of the first actions of
(Turn to Pag* A 32)
NEW BLOOMFIELD (Perry
Co.) —Jane Mecum, Perry Coun
ty cooperative extension family
living agent, has received the 1989
“Excellence in Home Economics
Communication Award” spon
sored by the Pennsylvania Pork
Producers Association.
The single annual award of
$lOO is given to encourage excel
lence in home economics commu
nications featuring pork and poric
products. Entries arc judged on
program content, intended audi
ences, resources used, and origi
nality of the communication.
Entries must also contain at least
two types of media
communication.
(Turn to Pag* A2l)
came to Lancaster County, one of
the Reists’ carriages carried him
from spot to spot, and about 12
vehicles were used in a Franklin &
Marshall College parade.
The Reist farm, 58 acres located
northwest of Lancaster, has been
in the family for 141 years and has
the distinction of being the oldest
tobacco farm in the county. Penn
sylvania type 41 tobacco has been
grown there for the past 114 conse
cutive years.
Farm purchased in 1848
Simon S. Reist, Arthur’s great
Uncaatar Fuming. Saturday, Dacambar 9,1989
Just under 29 percent were opti
mistic about the future of dairy
farming in Pennsylvania.
Among the results of the per
sonal interviews with randomly
selected farm families in Brad
ford, Lycoming, and Tioga
Although she is 71-years-old, Pauline Strack isn’t think
ing about retirement She’d rather be baking pies than vaca
tioning. Three yeafe ago the Lebanon County woman
decided to bake a few pies and sell them at a roadside stand
on her dairy farm. The demand for her pies reached an all
time weekly high of 389 during Thanksgiving week. To read
more about this industrious lady and her pie-making sec
rets, turn to page 818.
Hail To The Queen Of Forage Crops
BY
Dr. JOHN E. BAYLOR
Alfalfa is queen of the forages.
And she will remain queen for us
as long as we have a livestock
industry. The reasons are obvious.
Alfalfa is our most productive
grandfather, was bom in Warwick
Township in 1816 and lived at Sun
Hill in the township before pur
chasing a 132-acre tract in 1848
from the Dietrich family. He
farmed the land and lived in a large
brick house in the southern half of
the property. Simon also operated
a blacksmith shop in part of the
house.
Slightly after the outbreak of the
Civil War, he sliced his hand on a
piece of metal and infection set in.
During a visit to the doctor, the
same one who treated James
Forage Council Meeting Set Dec . 20
509 Par Copy
counties:
Most, 58 percent, had
adjusted gross family incomes of
under $20,000 annually. Another
22 percent actually lost money last
year.
Approximately 75 percent
perennial forage legume. Quality
wise, alfalfa is unsurpassed as a
forage for ruminant livestock. And
from a dollars and cents point of
view, there is no other forage crop
that can match alfalfa.
How much alfalfa can we grow
Buchanan, Simon caught smallpox
and died one month later.
‘This was a great shock to my
great grandmother. Mary, because
her daughter, Annie, died shortly
before her father when she was
only in her second year of age,”
related Arthur.
Mary raised her four boys, Hen
ry R., Linnaeus R., John R. Frank
lin, and Simon R., single handedly
to be responsible and respected
community leaders.
(Turn to Pago A2O)
$12.50 Per Year
felt fanning was stressful. Long
hours and low pay were cited.
- Around 69 percent said they
were happy with their choice to
farm and more than 60 percent
said they probably or definitely
would be farmers again if they
could start life over.
Being your own boss, working
out-of-doors and a healthy living
environment were touted as the
best things about fanning.
“More than one-third admitted
(Turn to Pag* A 29)
Conservation
Tillage Event
Ready To Roll
TIMONIUM, MD Govern
ment policies which strike a
balance between the carrot and the
stick in cooperation with produc
tion agriculture provide one
answer for solving farm-related
environmental problems.
- Aaotlfer answer depends on
good research by land-grant uni
versities; private industry, and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Farmers themselves need to rec
ognize both moral and legal
responsibilities for intelligent,
careful farm management.
Those are the opinions of Peter
C. Myers, keynote speaker for
next week’s Mid-Atlantic Conser
vation Tillage Conference in
Timonium. A former crop and
livestock farmer from Missouri,
Myers is currently president of
The Farm Credit Council, a
Washington, D.C.-based trade
association representing the
nationwide Farm Credit System.
More than 800 farmers and
agribusiness representatives from
(Turn to Png* A 24)
on an acre of non-irrigated land in
Pennsylvania? Nulrient-wisc,
what is required to grow it? And
how much does it cash? These
were the questions we asked
ourselves 15 years ago when the
Pennsylvania Forage and Grass
land Council, in cooperation with
Penn State University initiated the
Pennsylvania alfalfa growers
program. During the past 15 years
we’ve gotten some excellent data
(the best in the country, in fact) to
answer those questions.
And on December 20, at the
lnn in Altoona, we would
like 16 share some of that informa
tion with you.
FIFTEEN YEARS
OF SUCCESS
Fifteen years of sucess. That’s
the theme of our meeting on
December 20. This year concludes
the data collecting phase of our
most successful alfalfa growers
(Turn to Pago A 34)