A36-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 23,1989 Pennsylvania Seedsmen Support Changes To Plant Protection Act BY LISA RISSER LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) “Farmers selling protected seeds to other farmers has gotten to be a cottage industry, particularly in cotton and soybeans,” said Jerry Peterson, president of American Seed Trade Association (ASTA), at the recent Pennsylvania Seeds men’s Association winter meeting. At Peterson’s urging, the mem bers of the Pennsylvania Seeds men’s Association unanimously voted to support the ASTA in its push to get the Plant Variety Pro tection Act amended. The proposed amendments would tighten up the loose word ing of the right-to-save-seed or far mer’s exemption. As it is currently written, “Seed can be sold under the counter,” said Peterson. “In the Midwest, farmers have sold seeds of protected varieties to other far mers. This undermines the value of plant protection.” After the United States Depart ment of Agriculture turned down a request for a language change to the Act, the ASTA formed s spe cial committee to prepare amend ments to the Act The amendments are to prohibit sales of protected seeds by the farm where it is grown; make it an infringement to buy protected seed for reproductive purposes without the owner’s permission; and that anyone who cleans, conditions, or treats a protected seed variety must have the owner’s permission before selling the seed or must return it to the owner after being processed. Peterson reported that ASTA is looking for sponsors for the amendments as well as supporters. He uiged the seedsmen to join in Maryland 4-H Member Is Presidential Tray Winner COLLEGE PARK, MD Michael T. Howell, 19, of Glenelg has become the third Maryland teen-ager in six years- and the second from Howard County- to win the prestigious 4-H silver tray award, given on behalf of the President of the United States. Howell was one of 12 outstand ing young persons who received the Presidential Award during a banquet that closed out the 68th National 4-H Congress last week (Dec. 2-6) at the Chicago Hilton hotel in Chicago. More than 1,600 of the nation’s outstanding 4-H members were in attendance. In addition to the silver tray, each of the Presidential Award winners received a $1,500 scho larship from the Reader’s Digest Foundation. The 12 honorees were selected through personal interviews from among national winners of $l,OOO scholarships in various 4-H prog ram areas. Seven of this year’s national scholarship winners were from Maryland. Interviews for selecting the Presidential Award winners were conducted by representatives of the Cooperative Extension Ser vice from land-grant universities and the U.S. Department of Agri culture. These agencies supervise the nationwide 4-H program for nearly S.S million youth. | Earlier during this year’s National 4-H Congress. Mike was honored as one of four national winners in the 4-H sheep program. That earned him a $l,OOO scholar ship from the American Sheep Industry Association. 'Winners were selected by, the Cooperative Extension System. Arrangements were handled-fcy the National 4-H Council. this search. Celebrating 40 years John Baylor, representing the Atlantic Seedsman Association, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agri culture Boyd Wolff, and Peterson joined to commend and congratu late the Pennsylvania Seedsmen’s Association on its 40th anniver sary. Wolff noted that the seed industry has changed drastically in the past 40 years and stated that the Pennsylvania Department of Agri culture will continue to address seedsmen’s concerns. “The PDA seed lab will continue to strive to process seed samples within 10 days,” Wolff said. “In addition, we are looking at an ammendment to the Seed Act for seed salesmen to be licensed.” The proposed licensing, which is only in what Wolff terms the concerned stage, will protect deal ers from being sold seeds that couldn’t be resold. PDA is seeking comments from Pennsylvania seedsmen on licensing. Farm seed report “The com seed supply looks excellent industry wide this year," reported Tim Markovits of Pion eer. “Last year, because of bad weather conditions, we had reduced carryover seed, which prompted companies to plant lar ger than normal acreages to build back carryover supply." Markovits predicted that com acreage will be up slightly in Pen nsylvania partially because the com price has stayed relatively strong. He added that the seed price for com, industry wide, will be basically the same or slightly lower than last year’s prices. The supply for soybean seeds is very good and the quality is excel- A 4-H member since the age of 9, Mike Howell credits the 4-H program with both developing his expertise in sheep production and stirring up an interest in intercul tural affairs. When three Costa Rican parti cipants in the Central American Peace Scholarship Program came to Howard County several years ago, Mike honed his high school Spanish by helping the trio to understand U.S. culture and the English language. He later spent six months in Costa Rica as a par ticipant in the International 4-H Youth Exchange program. His acquired fluency in Spanish enabled him to serve more recen tly as interpreter and guide for several Extension agents from Brazil who toured the Howard County area— even though their native tongue was Portuguese. Now Mike is into Japanese stu dies and hopes to spend next sum mer participating in a cultural exchange program with that Asian country. A sophomore at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., Mike has aspirations of becoming a pro fessor of Eastern religions or philosophy. Mike’s mother, Peggy Howell, recalls that one of the memorable events during her son’s 4-H sheep project years was hauling three purebred Shropshire ewes home from Harrisburg, Pa., in the back scat of the family Volkswagen after Mike and the county Exten sion 4-H agent had' purchased them at a sale. Mike’s sister, Jeanne, has now taken over the sheep flock as her 4-H project. Their father, Thomas Allan Howell, is a computer spe cialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural The Pennsylvania Seedsmen’s Association celebrated Its 40th anniversary during its winter meeting In Lancaster last week. Joining In the celebration were, from left, back row: Boyd Wolff, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture; Jerry Peterson, presi dent of the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA); James Billings, regional vice president of the ASTA; front row: Charlie Abbott, a founder of the association; and Dennis Shoop of Agway, association president. lent, according Maikovits. The planted acreage will be flat or down slightly compared to last year, and the seed cost will be low er than last year. “Considering the weather con ditions this past year, there will be more alfalfa planted this spring,” predicted Markovits. “The seed supply for common varieties should be adequate to cover the Research Service at Beltsville. In addition to sheep production and inlcrcullural activities, Mike has been active as a junior 4-H leader, teaching basic sheep care to younger 4-H members. He has helped to train the county 4-H livestock judging team, and he has designed lamb and wool displays for the county and state fairs. Mike and his fellow 4-H club Wayne DHIA Celebrates 63rd Year HONESDALE (Wayne Co.) — The Wayne County Dairy Herd Improvement Association com pleted its 63rd year of milk testing on October 8,1989, with 98 whole year herds. In addition, four owner sampler herds completed the test ing year. During 1989,4809 cows were on test in the county produc ing on the average 15,717 pounds of milk and 578 pour\ds of butter fat per cow. The number of cows on test was down 555 from the year, but production was it an all-time high with 298 pounds of milk and 22 pounds of butterfat per cow above the 1988 levels. The top herd in milk and butter fat production was Kevin Bur leigh, Pleasant Mount, with a record of, 21,198 pounds of milk, 800 pounds of butterfat and 677 pounds of protein per cow. Char les P. Dennis Jr. of Honesdale had die top herd in protein production with 20,908 pounds of milk, 775 pounds of butterfat and 706 pounds of protein. Other dairymen with herds in excess of 700 pounds butterfat per cow were Rowe Brothers, Hones dale, 756 and Gary Fielding, Lake Ariel, 736. Additional dairy herds needs. Supplies on the new or pro prietary varieties should be adequ ate to slightly less. “If farmers are looking to plant alfalfa this spring, they should confirm their seed now,” he warned. Production seed yields were reduced this year on newer varieties due to bad weather condi tions, and the price will reflect tills. The pricing on older or public var- members also have been active in community service work, includ ing a fund-raising event that net ted $3,000 to help pay hospital bills for a 4-H member in need. Previous Maryland winners of the national 4-H Presidential Award have included Duncan Murrell of Rockville (Montgom ery County) in 1985; Stephanie M. Pardoe of Lisbon (Howard Coun- with protein production records in excess of 600 pounds were Kevin Burleigh, 677; Jack & Ella Chyle. Pleasant Mount, 642; Gary Field ing, 640; Rowe Brothers, Hones dale, 621; A & M Spangenberg, 618; Alton C. Olver, 617; Clear field’ Farms, Honesdale, 613; Clyde Eltz, Pleasant Mount, 602; and Arthur Rutledge. 602, The cow with the highest but terfat lactation record in the asso ciation for the ydkr was "Verna 1” owned by Charles Dennis. She produced in 305 days 27,627 pounds of milk and 1143 pounds of fat. “Cricket,” a cow owned by Clearfield Farms, had the top lac tation milk record for 305 days. She produced 28,773 pounds of milk and 826 pounds of butterfat The current record holder for the highest lifetime total in milk and butterfat production is “Satifac” owned by Rowe Brothers. In 11 lactations she milked 241,563 pounds of milk and 8576 pounds of butterfat. The high quality milk award has been earned by James Slocum of Susquehanna. This award is presented to the heid owner with the lowest average somatic cell count for the testing ieties will be stable or a little lower than last year. Markovits added that the seed supply for forage grasses is excel lent and the price will be down considerably. In other business, members renewed Tim Markovits’ board term, elected Fred Gaston and John Burpee as new board members. ty) in 1983, and Dwight C. Smith of Jefferson (Frederick County) in 1965. Duncan is now a senior at Cor nell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Stephanie is an emergency medi cal technician for the Lisbon vol unteer fire department, a business major at Howard Community Col lege, and an employee at Sandy Spring National Bank in Ashton. year, which in this case was 74,000. Other herds with somatic cell counts of 150,000 and below were Alton C. Olver, Honesdale, 107,000; Carl A. Robinson, 116,000; Kevin Burleigh, 117,000; William Taninies, 127,000; Charles P. Dennis Jr., 135,000; and Ken & Elaine Soden, 135,000. Bear Brook Farm of Lake Ariel has been recognized for having the largest increase in milk pro duction over the previous year. The Wayne County Dairy herd Improvement Association held its annual meeting November 14 at the Fireside. David Soden, presi dent of the group presided. Awards were presented and John Castrogiavanna, State Director, spoke on centralization. New directors, elected for three-year terms were David Soden, Ellis Dix and Gary Rickard. Other directors are Harry Antoniolli, William Bryant, Charles Dennis, Michael Nebzydoski, John Pawloski, James Slocum, Marlyn Shaffer, and Grant Teeple. Marilyn John son of Honesdale serves as secretary-treasurer.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers