AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 1, 1992 w OPINION Alpo Petfoods is reported to be unveiling a new beverage milk product to the nation’s food relailcrs-canncd milk for cals. In the June issue of The Milkweed, a private milk marketing report from Wisconsin reports that research shows that nearly 30 percent ol the nation’s household pet cats gel milk from time to lime. So in a few months Alpo will introduce a 5-oz. can of milk for cats. This cat beverage will be lactose-reduced, to alleviate the digestive intolerance some felines show for the lacteal secretion of the bovine species. Suggested retail price: about 50 cents per 5-oz. can The stuff will be a bit expensive. At retail, the estimated price of approximately 50 cents for a five ounce container works out to $3.20 per quart or $148.80 per hundred pounds. There has been no word from the federal government if any dairy cooperatives have requested a special federal milk market ing order designation C-l for raw milk sold for pet food. 1-Casin “Cal Milk”. Farm Calendar ' Berks County 4-H Horse Roundup. Pa. Shorthorn Cattle Breeders State Field Day. Southwest Pa. Holstein Champ ionship Show, Fayette Co. Fair grounds, Uniontown. Cumberland County 4-H Dairy Roundup, Shippensburg Fairgrounds. Pennsylvania 14th Performance Tested Ram Lamb and Invita tional Ewe Sale and Sheep Pro ducer’s Field Day, State Col lege, 9:30 a.m. Adams County 4-H Fair, South Mountain Fairgrounds, Arendtsville. Schuylkill Co. Fair, Auburn, thru Union County West End Fair, Morrison Cove Dairy Show, Mar tinsburg, thru Aug. 7. Clearfield County Fair, Clearfield, thru Aug. 8. Cochranton Community Fair, Penn State 4-H Achievement Days, Penn Stale University, thru Aug. 6. Empire Farm Days, Rodman Lott & Sons Farm, Seneca Falls, N.Y., thru Aug. 5-6. On-Farm Composting Confer ence, Penn State Harrisburg Campus, Middletown. Tioga County Fair, Whitneysville, thru Aug. 9. FFA Show, Morrison’s Cove, Memorial Park. Pequea-Mill Creek Incentive Program meeting, Intercourse Park. Industrial Weed Control and Right of Way Meeting, Montgomery County Ag Center, Creamery, 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Lancaster County Compost Tour, departs Farm and Home Center 9 a.m., returns 4 p.m. Summer Christmas tree meeting, Penn Slate University, Days Inn, thru Aug. 8. Rural Clean Water Program, Farm and Home Center, 8:30 a.m.-3 D.m. Cat Milk Lancaster Poultry Queen Pageant, Farm and Home Center, 6:30 p.m. Timber 1992 Hardwood Lumber Assocation Timber Show, York Fairgrounds, thru Aug. 8. Clinton County Holstein Show, Fairgrounds, Mackeysville, 10:30 a.m. Wayne County Fair, Honesdale, thru Aug. 16. Wheat Threshing, Steam and Gas Engine Show, Showgrounds, Denton, Md., thru Aug. 9. Cumberland Valley Steam and Gas Show, Chambersburg, thru Southcentral Pennsylvania Hols tein Championship Show, Shippensburg Fairgrounds, 9:30 a.m. Lancaster County Master Garden er Open Garden Tour. Greene County Fair, Waynesburg, thru Aug. 15. Virginia Simmental Assocation Field Day, Woodstock, Va., Bedford County Fair, Bedford, thru Aug. 15. Montour-DeLong Community Fair, West Newton, thru Aug. 15. Landscape Bull Session, Nesha miny Manor Center, Doylestown. Butler Farm Show, Butler, thru August 15. Kulztown Fair, Kutztown, thru August 15. Sewickley Township Fair, West Newton, thru August 15. Warren County Fair, Pittsfield, thru August 15. Venango County Fair, Franklin, thru August 15. Agricultural Financial Manage ment Workshop, Jordan Hall, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y. Greene County Fair, thru August 15. Cumberland Co. 4-H Livestock Roundup, Shippcnsburg Fair ffrounds^^^jm^al^^jm. Elk County Fair, Kersey, thru August 15. To Control Mice In Order To Control SE Mice and Salmonella enteritidis (SE) seem to go hand in hand. In an early version of a poultry disease book, the author stated if you have an SE problem, you also have a mouse or rat problem. As we study SE outbreaks in egg flocks, the data is suggesting that mice and rats are probably a major player in SE. I am amazed, after all the meetings held this year on mice and rat control in poultry houses, there are many poultry producers who have not started an aggressive rodent control program. Each and every poultry produc er needs to launch an all-out war against every mouse and rat on their farm. The goal is no living rodent. This involves killing all vegetation around the chicken house; removing all litter, spilled feed, and storage piles around the chicken house; closing up all holes around the foundation; and placing bait stations where you see rodent activity. If you need help in developing a rodent control program or identify ing rodent activity, talk with you poultry service person. They will be able to help you develop your program. To control SE, we need to have every poultry producer launching war on rodents. In addition to help ing to control SE, a rodent control program will help to improve feed conversion, reduce building repair and maintenance costs, reduce electrical problems, and could reduce your insurance costs. At least one insurance company is exploring the idea of reducing the premiums to producers you have an on going rodent control program. Now is the time to declare war on rodents and start your rodent control program. To Practice Soil Conservation Farming involves good soil ste wardship. One of the reasons a farm stays in the same family for many generations is good soil stewardship. By protecting the soil, we are insuring its productivity. We need to remember the les sons or art of farming taught by our grandfathers. I still remember my grandfather saying, “If you treat the soil right, the soil will treat you right.” For our family in Adams Coun ty, that meant crop rotations, cover crops, soil tests, liming, fertilizing, and never working the soil when it was wet. Harrold’s Fair, Greensburg, thru August 15. Dawson Grange Community Fair, Dawson, thru August 15. Intensive Rotational Grazing Field Day, Richard Moseman farm, (Turn to P*B« A3l) Fanning has intensified, but good soil stewardship is still very important. As we team more about crop nutrition, the nutrient value of manure, the effects of farming practices on water quality, and effects of soil erosion on aquatic life, farmers need to continue their soil conservation practices. By adopting these practices, we are insuring the productivity of our soil. If you need assistance in deve loping a conservation plan for your farm, contact your local Soil Con servation Service. Also, a nutrient management plan needs to be put in place, which your local cooperative extension can help you develop. Now is a good time to walk over your fields and review your con servation practices. To Improve Your Herd’s Genetics Dr. Gene Freeman, lowa State University, recommends the fol- "TTf Ht IA.VKtfKt W ALIHOUSt 'sasjts sn/ ARE YOU IN TRAINING? August 2,1992 Background Scripture: 1 Timothy 4. Devotional Reading: 2 Peter 1:3-11 There’s an old saying to the effect that “Practice makes per fect.’’ Actually, practice may not make us perfect, but it at least brings us closer to fulfilling our potential. When I was a boy 1 took piano lessons. I wanted to learn to play the piano and that meant, not only taking lessons once a week, but practicing every day. After several years, I resisted practicing and eventually I stopped taking lessons. Practice had not made me “perfect,” but it had helped me to team to play the piano to a certain degree. One of the reasons I lost my interest in the piano was my grow ing obsession with football. (My third grade teacher once said—a bit unkindly, I think—” I hope some day you break your fool neck playing football.”) But, as it had been with the piano, I found that learning to play football took a lot of training and practice. I hardly achieved perfection in foot ball, but I learned enough to enable me to play for several years in high school. NOT BY TALENT ALONE What I learned through these experiences with the piano and football is that learning to do any thing with some degree of compe tence requires training and prac tice, even for those who are spe cially gifted. Later, as a sportswriter for our local news paper, I observed some natural athletes who didn’t make the grade athletically because they tried to get by on talent alone. Training is even more intensive and complicated today than it was when 1 was a youth. People spend lots of money, time and effort to perfect themselves at jogging, golfing, tennis, playing a musical instrument, and even running for political office. There seems to be a general understanding that if you are looking to excellence in any field, the more you put into train ing, the more you will excel. Isn’t it interesting, then, to con sider that many of us try to live as lowing ways to improve your dairy herd’s genetics: • Have your herd on DHIA test. • Use sires that have been proven through the AI selection process and purchase as much pro duction potential as you can afford. • The primary emphasis in sire selection, should be maximizing production of the components that contribute most to your milk check. • Forced culling of problem cows should be held to less than 50 percent of the cows removed to provide more opportunity to selec tively cull cows for low produc tion, poor genetic potential, etc. • When selecting to improve a trait such as type or calving ease, select from bulls first chosen for production and then for the traits you want to improve. Feather Profs Footnote: “Once you are moving in the direction of your goals, nothing can stop you." disciples of Jesus Christ with as little training and practice as pos sible? Some years ago when I was pastor in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, I was speaking with a teenager about joining our Confirmation Class so that he could join the church. When I outlined the clas ses he’d have to attend and the study that would be required, he said, “Why should I go through all of that, when I can wait a few years and join as an adult...without knowing anything?” MISSING PRACTICE I had to admit there was a good deal of logic in that. Lots of peo ple I have known have assumed that one can be a Christian without any training or practice at all v The fact is, even more than in the arts or athletics, discipleship is a life long process of learning and prac tice. The only way we can excel in it is to practice, practice, prac tice. The great Polish pianist, Ignace Paderewski, said that if he missed practicing one dya, he knew it. If he missed two days, the critics knew it, and, if he missed three or more days, everyone knew it? That’s the way it is with Christian living: if our practice is not regular, sooner or later every one knows it. Just as I found that joining the team alone did not make me a football player, so, joining the church doesn’t make me a disciple of Jesus Christ Just think how much time and effort we may put into our tennis game, or spend on the golf course trying to reduce our handicap. That’s O.K.—l’m all for excellence—but is it not even more important for us to leant to excel in our discipleship? Like the rest of our material possessions, when God calls us home we will have to leave our golf clubs and tennis rackets behind. That’s why the writer of 1 Timothy admo nishes his readers: ‘Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godli ness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (4:7.8). Practice, anyone? Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St Ephrata, PA 17522 by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stmnrmn Enhfprii* Robert G. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newswanger Managing Editor Copyright 1892 by LoncaMor Forming
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers