AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 3, 1991
OPINION
Dairy Of Distinction:
A Viable Program
Additions were added to the list of recognized Dairy of Distinc
tion farms again this year. Sixty-seven farms were named in
Pennsylvania’s 10 districts in 1991 to bring the total over the last
five years to 420.
Each year local volunteer committees undertake the ambi
tious task to select the most attractive dairy farms. Teams of
judges survey the farms that have applied for the designation.
Scores arc given to each farm for appearance as viewed from the
public highway or farm entrance.
Attractive farmsteads have an appeal to the public. As Dan
Baker, program president and a dairyman from Tioga County
says, “Clean and neat farms sell milk.”
With the high cost of milk promotion, it is nice to see a prog
ram that is run by volunteers on a very low cost budget.
The Dairy of Distinction farms are a great asset to the dairy
industry. And without the volunteers the Dairy of Distinction
would not be successful. So we congratulate the winning farms
and thank the volunteers who have again made the 1991 Dairy of
Distinction program a viable dairy promotion and beautification
program.
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Farm Calendar
Westmoreland Co. Performance
Tested Ram Sale.
Adams Co. 4-H Dairy Show,
South Mountain Fairgrounds,
11 a.m.
Wayne Co. Fair, Honesdale, thru
Aug. 11.
Antique Tractor Workshop, Lake
Farmpark, Ohio.
Susquehanna Co. 4-H Dairy
Roundup, Harford Fairgrounds,
9 a.m.
Fayette Co. Fair, Uniontown.
Farm Forum
EDITOR:
Having just read PFA President
Keith Eckel’s article (Keystone
Dairymen Could Lose $1.05 Pre
miums) under the new dairy legis
lation being considered in Con
gress, I find it very amazing that
Mr. Eckle expresses concern about
this, as PFA helped reduce the pre
miumn at the last milk board hear
ing. PFA and Farm Bureau are also
still trying along with USDA and
trade representatives to reduce the
dairymen’s milk price at the farm
level to be able to export dairy pro
ducts into the world market at
world market prices.
I would agree with him that
states should be able to set prices at
the stale level. But this permission
would not even be needed if PFA,
Farm Bureau, NMPF and some
other so called farm organizations,
along with USDA and the Secret
ary of Agriculture and a host of
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E Main St
Ephrata. PA 17522
by
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stmnrrmn Entorprme
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Everett R Newtwanger Managing Editor
CagyrlgM IWI kf Lancaster Panning
Jacktown Fair, Wind Ridge.
New Stanton Farm and Home Fair,
New Stanton.
Centre Co. 4-H and Pony Round-
Penn State College of Ag alumni
get-together, Berks Co. 4-H
Community Center, 3 p.m.-7
p.m.
Union Co. West End Fair, Laurel
(Turn to Page A 37)
politicians, started to think about
the damage they are doing to the
dairy industry, especially the dairy
farmer.
All dairymen hear from them is
that we need prices set by the law
of supply and demand, which they
say is working. This to me is a cruel
joke on dairymen. USDA sets the
price under sthe M-W price senes.
Yet even with production dropping
and the M-W price going up, my
price per #lOO has dropped every
month this year. Is this the way
supply and demand is supposed to
work?
I also agree with Mr. Eckle that
we do not need mandatory supply
or quotas. And also if passed that
no part of the country should be
exempt.
1. What we as dairymen need is
a dairy policy that sets the price of
milk at the average cost of produc
(Turn to Page A3l)
The Agricultural Engineering
Department at the University of
Illinois has developed a technique
for estimating com grain yield
prior to harvest
A numerical constant for kernel
weight is figured into the equation
in order to calculate grain yield.
Since weight per kernel will vary
depending on hybrid and environ
ment the yield equation should be
used to estimate relative grain
yield.
The steps in doing this yield
check are:
• Step I. Count the number of
harvestable ears per 1/1000 th
acre.
• Step 2. Count the number of
kernel rows per ear on every fifth
ear. Calculate the average.
• Step 3. Count the number of
kernels per row on each of the
same ears. Do not count kernels on
either the butt or tip that are less
than half size. Calculate the
average.
inds.O
• Step 4. Yield (bushels per
acre) equals: (ear number) times
(average row number) times (aver
age kernel number per row)
divided by 90. This yield estimate
may be done anytime after kernels
develop on the ears.
The Lancaster County Commis
sioners have declared August as
Poultry Month in Lancaster Coun
ty. Poultry is the county’s number
1 agricultural industry.
The county ranks first in the
state in number of eggs and broil
ers produced and first in the nation
in the number of eggs produced
The county’s laying hens produce
6.5 dozen of eggs every second
The farm value of poultry pro
duction in Lancaster County is
more than $225 million. Poultry
continues to be a growing industry
in the county.
During the past five years, the
number of broilers produced has
increased by 40.4 percent and the
number of laying hens by 38.9 per
cent. This poultry production con
To Estimate
Corn Yields
To Salute The
Poultry Industry
tributes to the general economy of
the county.
Support companies such as
hatcheries, trucking services, hus
bandry services, feed manufactur
ing, grain buying, management
services, and investment firms
have developed. These farms and
companies provide jobs and gen
erate money that is used in the
community for goods and services,
taxes, and investment
Every citizen in Lancaster
County is affected by the poultry
industry. We salute this strong
agricultural industry for its prog
ressive growth in supplying people
an economical source of protein
food while providing jobs and con
tributing to the economic health of
the county.
To Visit With
Your Banker
It is always a good idea to main-
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Background Scripture: Nehe
miah 8.
Devotional Reading: Psalms I
19:97-104.
Whenever God speaks to us and
we are willing to hear him (which
is a big "whenever"), there are two
logical reactions to what he com
municates to us.
Our first reaction that is if
we have really listened to what he
says is usually one of feeling a
sense of guilt at the most or humil
ity at the least Take all the classic
confrontations in the Bible and
you will see this illustrated again
and again; Moses at the burning
bush, Isaiah in the temple, Jere
miah and Ezekiel when called to
be prophets, Mary at the annuncia
tion, Paul on the Damascus road.
In God's presence all of them are
struck humble with the realization
of the tremendous gap between
themselves and the Lord.
There are numerous occasions
in the Bible when the whole nation
of Israel reacts in this same man
ner. One of these is the great
assembly in Jerusalem after the
temple walls have been com
pleted. Nehemiah is implored to
read to them the law. Apparently
the law had been much neglected
while they were in their Babylo
nian captivity. Now they want to
get back to God's law, so Nehe
miah reads it in the original
Hebrew while others translate the
Hebrew into the Aramaic lan
guage which the people had
learned from their captors in
Babylon.
When they hear the law and
realize what God expects of them
and when they consider that they
have not been living up to his
expectations, they are mortified,
so that Nehemiah has to say to
them, "do not mourn or weep."
This does not mean that Nehemiah
does not want them to realize their
need for national repentance. But
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tain good communications with
your banker. This dry year pre
sents many challenges both in pro
duction and financial
management.
If you have not talked with your
banker recently, now would be a
good time to schedule' a visit with
him. You might want to invite him
to come and visit your farm and see
first hand what you are doing.
This would be a good time to
discuss where you are, any antici
pated problems facing you, and
your credit needs for the next six
months. By sitting down and
working out a plan before loans
come due, will reduce stress, pre
serve equity, and maintain a good
credit rating.
Remember, bankers do not like
surprises. By keeping them
informed and soliciting their
advice will help keep your farming
operation financially sound.
Nehemiah knows that the experi
ence of God's revelation does not
end in the grief of repentance.
That is just the first step.
THE FIRST STEP
Christians have often done well
in learning this first step and
Christianity has often been char
acterized by a sense of holy—and
maybe not so holy sorrow. My
earliest perceptions of the church
as a very young child were that
whatever Christianity was, it must
be very sad. Even the most posi
tive mood I found in the church
was far short of joy. I concluded
wrongly, as it turned out
that the essential mood of being a
Christian was something that was
just short of being down-right
grim. (I'm sure some of the prob
lem was mine and not just that
particular church.)
Nehemiah was gratitied by the
people's repentance and he now
needed to move them to the sec
ond step: "Go your way, eat the fat
and drink sweet wine and send
portions to him for whom nothing
is prepared; for this day is holy to
our Lord; and do not be grieved,
for the joy of the Lord is your
strength" (8:10). Repentance was
necessary, but one must move
from repentance to the joy of the
Lord.
To be sure, in the presence of
the Lord we are struck with the
sense of our own inadequacy and
lack of worth. But we need also to
realize that the joy of God's love is
just as compelling as the grimness
of his judgment If we focus only
upon die grief of our sin to the
exclusion of the joy of our rede
mption we have not really heard
God's word to us. And half of the
message is not enough.
On this occasion at least the
people got the whole message
from God through Nehemiah and
he tells us: "...all the people went
their way to eat and drink and to
send portions and to make great
rejoicing, because they had under
stood the words that were declared
to them" (8:12).
It matters little what we get
from our Christian faith if we pos
sess everything but joy. Without
joy, we’ve missed the message.
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