A2O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 22, 1991
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
WILLOW STREET (Lancaster
Co.) —In the beautiful setting of
the lawn on the John Howard and
family’s Howcrest Farm, the Lan
caster County Holstein annual
field day was held with good
attendance.
As usual, a judging contest
started the evening activities with
the excellent type found in the
Howcrest herd providing stiff
competition. Games for the child
ren and a bar-b-que chicken dinner
added to the festivities.
Pete Blodgett from Landmark
Genetics was the judge for the con
test and featured speaker of the
evening. Blodgett said in a breed
ing program, dairymen should
select for a balance between high
production “with all the yield you
can get, especially protein” and
functional type. “You need longev
ity and reproductive soundness,”
Penn Ag Seminar Explores Views On Nutrient Management
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster
Co.) Manure from animal pro
duction facilities and general nutri
ent management were the focus of
a Monday feed industry seminar
held at Eden Resort in Lancaster.
About 30 representatives of feed
and agricultural businesses
attended the seminar, sponsored
by the PennAg Industries Associa
tion. The program was moderated
by David Brubaker, executive vice
president of Penn Ag.
There were five speakers on
nutrient management during the
afternoon program. They were
Paul Swartz, with the state Depart
ment of Environmental Resources;
Tom Sexton, with the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation; Waller Pccchat
ka, with PDA; Bruce Limpcrt,
director of financial services for
Wenger’s Feed Mill; and Cindy
Dunn, spokesperson for the
Alliance lor the Chesapeake Bay.
In addition to the five nutrient
management speakers, Earl Haas,
a feed program specialist with the
state Department of Agriculture
(PDA) updated the group on two
pieces of proposed legislation con
cerning animal feeds
Apparently, neither piece of
PDA-created animal feed legisla
tion will become law before the
Lcgislatuie’s summer recess,
because of the budget crisis and
because the proposals have yet to
be sponsored by a legislator.
One proposal would change
labeling, licensing and fee struc
ture associated with the handling,
manulacturc and sale of animal
feeds.
The other proposal would
amend existing law, which forbids
baekhaulmg of food malcnals dcs
uned for human consumption in
vehicles previously used to haul
waste, to include animal feeds and
feed components.
Nutrient management legisla
tion could apparently have a
chance of becoming law before
current session ends.
Proposed nutrient management
legislation is currently in the
House Appropriations Committee,
having been reported out of the
House Agriculture and Rural
Aflairs Committee on June 10.
In brief, the proposed law would
set up the state Conservation Com
mission to create criteria for estab
lishing nutrient management plans
Lancaster Holstein Field D
Blodgett said.
“Dairymen must realize that
they are competing for their share
of the dairy product sales on a
world market. And to do this, they
must fine tune both their business
and herd management. They must
be willing to make changes, parti
cularly in some of the new techno
logies that come along in
breeding.”
Blodgett said a tool for breeding
that is new on the horizon is in the
field of molecular genetics. Sever
al systems of DNA markers will
identify young bulls and females
that have certain advantages in pro
duction and type traits by a simple
blood test. “Because of the eco
nomy in the dairy industry, dairy
men will need to be quick to take
advantage of new technologies,”
Blodgett said. “The dairymen that
survive will be the better
managers.”
In the judging contest the fol-
on farms and to act as the enforce
ment agency; establish a nutrient
management advisory board con
sisting of representatives from
each segment of the agriculture
industry most affected by calls for
nutrient management; give respon
sibility for local oversight of nutri
ent management to the county
level soil conservation district
offices; and direct the PDA to
establish a program for testing and
licensing people to create nutrient
management plans.
Some amendments were made
to the legislation, HB 496, before
coming out of the House agricul
ture committee:
• The enforcement authority
was changed to the commission,
rather than with DER;
• farmer liability protection was
added so that landowners with
nutrient management plans m
effect would be protected to the
fullest extent of the judicial system
from civil and criminal
prosecution;
• and wording was added to
strengthen the slate’s preeminence
over local ordinances concerning
nutrient management.
Although it wasn’t mentioned
during die seminar, efforts to have
state funds set aside to pay for the
statewide nutrient management
program have already been
made allocations for the nutri
ent management program have
been included in the House Demo
crats’ proposal for a 1991-92 state
spending package
However, as of prcsslimc, the
Democrats have yet to propose a
mcdiod for paying for the spending
plan
Irregardlcss of the current politi
cal position of nutrient manage
ment, the range of views and opin
ion on nutrient management pre
sented by the speakers was broad.
The views ranged from com
ments on the need for a whole cul
tural change in attitude and under
standing about environmental
human relationships to comments
about possible on-farm practices in
order to fulfill anticipated manure/
nutrient management laws.
Tom Sexton, with the
78,000-member Chesapeake Bay
Foundation, said his perspective
on nutrient management is to seek
permanent solutions to all nutrient
problems which affect the nation’s
environmental stability not
just agricultural problems.
Lancaster County Holstein field day crowd on the lawn at Howcrest.
lowing winners were named. Balmer. Kulp.
LADIES DIVIDION: 1, Susan MEN’S DIVISION: I, Roger YOUTH DIVISION: 1, Matt
Hess; 2, Juliet Wagner; 3, Sheila Slusher; 2. Darrel Mills; 3, Dennis Welle; 2, Troy Getz; 3, Matt Kolb.
The 25-year-old Chesapeake
Bay Foundation, which Sexton
represents, is an advocacy group.
It’s members actively and aggres
sively seek to clean up the Chesa
peake Bay, which because of nutri
ent overloading, has developed a
layer of water with no life
sustaining oxygen.
Restoring the ability of the bay’s
waters to provide oxygen rich
waters for fish, shellfish and other
forms of life within the aquatic
food chain is not the organization’s
only goal. The bay foundation
seeks to aid in the maintenance and
preservation of the bay’s aquatic
and relate wildlife.
“We’re not looking just at
farms,” Sexton said. “We’re look
ing at development in a big way.”
However, since studies have
indicated that Pennsylvania agri
culture is a major source of “non
point” pollution, and since gover
nors from those states with water
sheds draining into the
Chesapeake have pledged finan
cial and human resources to clean
up the bay by certain deadlines, the
foundation is involved in motivat
ing changes toward reduction of
nitrogen and phosphorus elements
into the Susquehanna River
watershed.
The Susquehanna River is the
main body of water originating in
Pennsylvania which affects the
quality of the bay.
According to Sexton, a recently
released book “Turning The Tide”
offers a “state of the bay” report.
“It is based on hundred of inter
views with scientists,” Sexton
said.
In summarizing the contents of
the book for the group of business
men, Sexton said reports show that
nitrogen levels continue to climb
while phosphorus levels arc
dropping.
In helping to achieve a reduction
in the nitrogen flow into the Sus
quehanna and thus the bay, Sexton
said he would like farmers to con
sider the concept of adopting a
nutrient balance on the farms
become efficient in using the
nitrogen-bearing wastes; limiting
the addition of commercial, out
side sources of nitrogen to farming
operations: and going to a permit
ting situation.
In the permitting situation, those
desiring a high animal density
operation would be required to
submit a proposal and then be
Held
reviewed and permitted to expand
beyond the normal ability of the
specific farm’s ecology to use the
additional nutrients resulting from
the increase animal population.
Sexton said he also supports
targeting certain problem farms;
moving away from using best
management practices (BMP) to
using best management systems
(BMS); and controlling human
growth in certain areas. Specifical
ly he said he would like to see
urban sprawl controlled, because
of the additional problems with
water quality presented with
human wastes and surface water
flows and quality.
He also said that the importance
of air deposition in aggrivating the
nitrogen level of the bay is only
starting to be taken into account.
As far as on-the-farm operation
of the program Sexton said he pre
fers the conservation district have
responsibility, but as far as opera
tion, most offices lack a good his
tory of eye-to-cye community
involvement.
He suggested a community out
reach program to be conducted by
the conservation districts in order
to get more public awareness and
involvement.
Sexton said Lebanon County’s
program probably has the best
record as far as going out to the
farm and discussing issues.
However, farms may not be as
big a contributor to bay degreda
tion as was once believed. Accord
ing to Sexton, the Environmental
Protection Agency figures arc
changing continually.
When figuring in the amount of
nitrogen attributable to air deposi
tion, the amount of non-point nit
rogen thought to come from agri
culture may be reduced by 85 per
cent from previous estimates, he
said.
Walt Peechatka, with the
department of agriculture, said he
sees the whole issue of nutrient
management and the superficially
different viewpoints as a conti
nuum. On one end is the preserva
tionist extremist and on the other is
the stout Jeffersonian landowner
with everyone else somewhere in
the middle.
He said the state Department of
Agriculture is in the middle, but
clearly aligned more closely to the
farmer.
The distinction between farmer
and environmentalist, Peechatka
said, is that the “farmer looks at the
environment as his farm, while the
environmentalist looks at it all.”
“The farmer can be sold on
nutrient management if he under
stands the bottom line and the
impact on the farm environment.
There has to be a benefit (to the far
mer) on those two issues,” he said.
He suggested redesigned educa
tional efforts to focus not cm some
thing as abstract to the average
landowner as saving the bay, but
rather to focus on the benefits on
the farm of nutrient management.
And, referring to those who seek
to save the overall environment,
Peechatka said, “We have to edu
cate ourselves as to what their
goals and missions are.”
Also, since “funds are going lo
very limited, we have to target
high priority areas. The funds
should be used for edcuation and
for installation of equipment.”
Bruce Limpert, director of
financial services with Wenger’s
Feed Mill, did provide specifics,
but rather called on the industry to
use the capitalistic and competitive
spirit to combat unmanaged nutri
ents. He tempered that with saying
that cooperation is also needed and
can be done.
From a business point of view,
he said that individuals within the
industry need to identify where
they are and where they arc going
to, especially since the farm popu
lation is down, the demand tor
farm products is up, and farm com
petition is up.
“We need to manage the mar
gins,” he said.
Also he called on the industry
not to shun those seeking to create
an atmosphere of environmentally
responsible industry.
“Regulators and advocates must
invite us in, and we must be willing
to go in while it’s early,” he said, or
else the industry will find itself
working under impossible terms
and suffering needlessly, a"
because of a failure to become
involved in the democratic
process.
In short, he said that if the lar
mers and industry do not get
involved, they will little chance of
modifying rules and regulations
and of establishing reasonable and
still profitable methods of dealing
with a problem, whether it is nutri
ent management or not
The other speakers addressed
similar views and opinions.