Aio-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 4, 1992 OPINION All Roads Lead To The Farm Show With the new year, agricultural thoughts turn to the annual winter Pennsylvania Farm Show to seek what’s new and to make contacts for service and equipment purchases. The farmer inquiries that commercial exhibitors receive at the Farm Show help these agribusinesses to make plans for the coming spring field work season. In the arenas and other areas where crops, livestock, dairy, and other farm products will be judged, another part of the Farm Show is unveiled. With $198,266 in premiums for winning entries. Farm Show goers can be assured of some fancy Pennsylvania-grown products to be on display. Then there will be the meetings. The Farm Women have a big day. And anyone who has never seen the pageantry of the FFA annual meeting at the Forum should go just to be inspired with hope for the future from our youth in agriculture and agribusiness. A lot of people talk about the “Farm Show Weather,” which usually means snow. So far this year, the weatherman has only recorded a “trace” of snow for the Harrisburg area. Will the Farm Show bring out the first good snow blizzard of the season? We’ll know next week. On a more economic note, the impact that agriculture has on the entire economy of the State cannot be overstated. Twenty percent of the jobs in Pennsylvania are dependent on agricul ture. Cash income from farm marketings in 1990 was $3.78 bil lion. All things considered, this is not just a show for farmers. From Beaver To Bucks and from Tioga to Fulton and from all the counties in between, all roads lead to Harrisburg. From Janu ary 11 to 16, 1992, all roads lead to the Farm Show. Farm Forum Editor: I would like to start this letter with a press release from the Virgi nia Milk Commission. Fanners get more for milk Most of Virginia’s dairy farmers will gel about four cents more per gallon for raw milk, beginning Dec. 1. The state milk commission voted Nov. 6 to increase eastern Virgini a's milk base price from $16.85 per hundredweight to $1726 per hundredweight. Ira W. Harlow, deputy admini strator for the Virginia Milk Com mission said many producers have been receiving less than the cost of production for their milk for more than a year. I believe going to Washington looking for higher milk prices is like beating a dead horse. Farmers are going to have to go to their state 'nr~ Farm Calendar Saturday. January 4 Wayne Co. Livestock Health Ma nagement Workshop, John Mar- £ shall ’s. Beach Lake, 10 61 a.m.-noon. Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St Ephrata, PA 17522 by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stetnrmn Enferprm* Robert G. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newswanger Managing Editor CspyrlfM IMI by Lancaster Firming governments, explain why a healthy dairy industry is good eco nomically. and seek higher prices. I read an article recently that said for every five dairy farms that go out of business, one rural busi ness closes also. Vermont was los ing farms so fast that the state started paying farmers $l.OO per hundred for their production because the loss of cows was hurt ing the tourist industry. I would like to see the Pa. Milk Marketing Board take over pricing for the state. I would also urge far mers to attend the Milk Marketing Board hearing to be held on Thurs day, January the 9th at 9:00 a.m. in Room 309 of the Agriculture Building in Harrisburg. It is across Cameron Street from the Farm Show Building. Dave Jenkins Meyersdale nn State Ice Cream Short Course, J.O. Keller Conference To Develop Budgets Budgeting with or without the aid of a computer allows you to see on paper the results of various alternatives. By taking time now to budget out on paper your anticipated costs and receipts, you will give yourself an idea of what production stan dards must be met in order to break even or needed to make the level of profit desired. Historical farm records will give you an idea of what your average yield is and the range of yields you have experienced ih the last 10 years. These figures are very important in establishing the assumptions for your budget. Remember, a budget is an esti mate of the future. While trying to be realistic in your figures, work in round numbers and do not try to account for every cent. By using averages and woiking on a per unit figure (for example, per acre, per cow, per hen housed), will take a lot of the drudgery out of budgeting. By budgeting, you could keep yourself from investing time, money, and other resources in a losing situation while placing these same resources in a more profitable enterprise. To Review Milking Preparation Procedure Proper preparation of dairy cows for milking is very important for the production of quality milk, efficient milkout, and for the pre vention of mastitis. About one minute before milk ing, dry wipe loose dirt from cows’ (eats, remove a few streams of milk, and fully immerse the teat in a pre-dip sanitizer solution. This will do a lot to prevent cows from becoming infected with environ- Center, University Park, thru Jan. 16. Mercer Co. Dairy Workshop, Extension Center, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; repeats Jan. 13. Advanced Commodity Marketing Seminar, Part 11, Cecil Co., Md. Extension Office, 9 a.m.-ll a.m. annual Tobacco >■B* A3l) Lancaster (Tun mental mastitis. It also minimizes the risk of environmental organ isms getting into the milk supply. Wait one half minute and (hen attach the milker units. Remove the units as soon as the cow is milked out. The teats should again be dipped in a post-dip solution to sanitize the teat ends. Always keep the udder and- teats as dry as possible. Remember, since mastitis organisms may be spread by your hands, dip your hands in a bucket of sanitizer solution as you move from cow to cow. To Protect Pesticides From Freezing Pesticide storage during freez ing weather is important and NEARER THAN YOUR LOCAL CHURCH JaniMiy 5, 1992 Background Scripture: Psalms 84. Devotional Reading: Psalms 90. I have always regarded the 84th Psalm as a hymn of joy composed by someone who is either making the pilgrimage to Zion, or has just completed one. I was surprised, therefore, to find that Biblical scholar Samuel Terrien in his The Psalms and Their Meaning for Today (Bobbs Merrill, 1952), regards the Psalmist as someone in exile who, out of his "religious homesickness," is expressing a deep sense of melancholy at his distance from God's Temple. There may be plaintiveness in his realization that "Even the spar row finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at thy altars..." (84:3). Is this what Jesus meant when he said, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matth ew 8:20). So, perhaps it is with spiritual envy that the Psalmist exclaims, "Blessed are those who dwell in thy house, ever singing thy praise!" and he is saying, in a sense, "Oh that I were there too!" If that is so, I can better under stand his lament, "My soul longs, yea faints..." (84:2). NO EDIFICE COMPLEX I had always also assumed that the Psalmist is rhapsodizing over the Temple itself: "How lovely is thy dwelling place..!" But Prof. Terrien tells us that it is not God's Temple that is the object of the Psalmist’s longing, but the God who is Experienced in that Temple. Wonderful as God's "dwelling place" may be, no mat ter how much we may long for "the courts of the Lord," it is not the building or even the place that is paramount, but God himself: "my heart and flesh sing for joy to should not be overlooked for those leftover or newly purchased pesticides. Year round, pesticides need to be maintained, secured, and prop erly supervised. But during winter weather, many pesticides must also be protected from freezing. Low temperatures, freezing, and damp conditions may affect the effectiveness of pesticides. Pesti cide storage facilities should be a separate, secured, heated, and dry building and protected from sunlight. Cold temperatures may crystal lize liquid pesticides and cause them to break storage containers or change their chemical makeup. Feather Prof s Footnote: "Take time to play it is the secret of perpetual youth." the living God," not his Temple. The Psalmist remembers not only the glory of being in God's Temple, but also the wonderful experience of making the pilgrim age to get there. He remembers that even in the midst of the desert wastelands, God gave him and others the strength to go on; "Bles sed are the men whose strength is in thee ...They go from strength to strength” (84:5-7). No matter how difficult the way, he found that his faith in God brought him the daily strength he needed to finish the pilgrimage. Sometimes Baca is associated with bekah, "tears," so that this is possibly an allusion to God turning the "tears" in his bar ren place to the "springs" and "pools" of a landscape that figura tively blooms. AS IN ins PRESENCE Then the Psalmist makes a dis covery: seperation from the temple cannot keep him from God's presence. "Blessed are the men...in whose heart are the high ways to Zion” (84:5). Blessed is the man who trusts in thee!" (84:12). God can live in our hearts as well as in our temples and it is in our trust that we are able to know his presence, as Emerson put it "closer than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet" At this point, the mystic becomes a moralist "No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly" (84:11). To "walk uprightly" is a Hebrew phrase which Terrian says means "to behave as if in the con tinuous of God, without any attempt at concealment..." If, because we are in the continuous presence of God that presence means not only his everpresent help, but his everpresent expecta tion for us to live unashamed in his sight No matter how near your church is, God is always nearer. And all of us can join St. Augus tine in saying, "I sought thee at a distance, and did not know thou wast near." (Note: join the 30lh Ski & Spa Holiday in Badgastein Austria with the Althouscs March 6-21. Friendship Tours, 4412 Shenan doah Ave., Dallas, TX 75205.) 0 6° o o
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