A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 17, 1993
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Talking with those who
fed and watered and otherwise
cared for some 1,500 of Penn
Stale’s animals during the Bliz
zard of ’93, you’d think it was just
another day.
When asked about their experi
ence, Department of Dairy and
Animal Science employees said it
\vas pretty much like any other
day, except there was a lot of
snow. Maybe it’s just modesty,
but more likely that altitude is a
reflection of their day-m and day
out work ethic.
These workers simply give 100
percent every day. To them, the
welfare of the University herds
and flocks is always uppermost in
their minds weather or not. It
look a little prodding, but stories
of selflessness, adversity, and her
oism began to surface.
In anticipation of the upcoming
storm, staffers and student
employees began to arrive at their
work stations well-prepared with
extra clothing and plenty of food.
When clothes became 100 wet to
wear, they were left to dry on
radiators and heaters and replaced
with second or third sets of dry
ones. Saturday crews began stock
piling feed and preparing bedding
for the animals while the ordeal
was gelling underway outside.
Many of them came prepared to
stay the duration, leaving families
behind to carry on until the wind
and snow subsided enough to
return home.
Before the weekend was over,
many were to log more than a
week’s worth of hours in a little
more than two days of around-the
clock time. They slept only briefly
on couches, cols, or wherever they
could curl up. Dairy Center Mana
ger Walker McNeill reported that
six of his employees—from 5:30
a.m. on Saturday through 2:30
a.m. on Monday—did the work of
11, and did it under extreme con
ditions. They contended with
drifts four to eight feci high just to
move the cows between the milk
ing parlor and the bams.
Beef and Forage Herd Manager
Pete LcVan cleared chest-high
snow from an outdoor pen at Hall
er Farm just in time for a heifer to
calve. Swine Center student work
ers Tom Bycr, Matt Fenton, and
Gary Schick earned feed in plastic
bags 1,000 feet through waist
high snow to animals housed in
outdoor shelters, then cleared
paths for their charges to gel to
water troughs, which arc heated to
prevent freezing.
Fellow student Greg Wacik was
making similar efforts at the Deer
Pens as he attempted to keep full
feed bins 100 feet from the bam in
nine different directions. He
walked on top of the snow much
of the time, often right over the
top of fences. It look an hour-and
a-half to do what usually lakes 20
minutes. Wacik, who walked in
one-half mile from Fox Hollow
Road, said the yearlings had the
toughest lime, but deer mostly bed
down when bad weather threatens.
Still, the animals came out to greet
him every lime he approached.
“They always seem glad to sec
you,” he said, “even il they
already have feed. They seem to
appreciate you just being there.”
Dairy Center student employee
Tcny Martin, who said he came in
because he knew others wouldn’t
be able to make it, trudged
through the drifts from Beaver
Hill Apartments to help. Marlin
spent 18 hours digging out feed.
He was one of six people from the
Dairy Center crew who expressed
In Rain, Snow, Whatever
their thanks to McNeill’s wife,
Jean, for feeding them a hearty
dinner on Sunday. They said eggs,
sausage, grits, warm applesauce,
and biscuits never tasted so good.
Beth Carver and Chris Polacck,
also student employees at the
Dairy Center, brought food from
Hardy’s when they reported Fri
day evening, prepared to stay.
When that ran out, they raided the
student apartment upstairs, confis
cating canned goods and other
foodstuffs they planned to replace
after the storm, and then enjoyed
Jean’s Sunday meal. Workers at
the Beef and Sheep Center had a
two-day stack of pizzas dcliveied
before the roads became
impassable.
Meanwhile, down at the Horse
Bam, Brian Egan and student Jay
Brehm not only kept the horses
fed and watered, but trudged
through the snow and wind to
bring in seven brood marcs and
seven yearlings which were out on
pasture. They even managed to
breed a mare and deliver a foal.
Brenda Hogan and Jackie Reed,
both student workers at the Sheep
Center, logged 30 hours keeping
the flock fed during the blizzard.
Even Rock, the resident Border
Collie, who usually beds down in
an outdoor kennel, spent the
weekend warm and safe inside.
Beef Center employee George
McQuiston said the weekend was
quite an experience, one that is
“nice to be done with.” He spent
much of Saturday morning trying
to dig out the road at Beef Center
before helping deliver several
C.J. HOUGHTALING
Tioga Co. Correspondent
WHITNEYVILLE (Tioga Co.)
Agriculture is number one in
Tioga County. That was the mes
sage delivered to those attending
the Potter-Tioga Chapter of the
Pennsylvania Farmers Associa
tion annual banquet April 1.
Among those in the audience were
members of the Tioga County
Development Corporation
(TCDC), a volunteer group of
county residents whose goals are
to create employment opportuni
ties, raise wage scales, and pro
vide adequate housing, health
care, transportation and communi
cation systems within the county.
Many of TCDC’s members
include business owners or depart
ment figureheads of prominent
institutions within the county. As
part of their plan to achieve their
goals, they hired consultant Wade
VanLandmgham with Richard C.
Sutter and Associates, a com
prehensive planning and econom
ic development firm out of Holi
daysburg. It was VanLandingham
who spoke of agriculture’s impor
tance as an industry in Tioga
County at the banquet.
“Agriculture is important to
Tioga County,” said VanLanding
ham; “much more so than I was at
first led to believe, and much more
so than what I was expected to
find as I was driving around the
county.” For generating income
within the county, the consultant
was brought in under the assump
tion that travel and tourism was
the leading industry. “Most other
people within the county don’t
know how important agriculture
here is, either.” Directing his com
ments to the farmers present, he
said, “You need to blow your own
horn.”
Citing 1989 figures from the
most recent Pennsylvania statisti
cal abstract, VanLandingham
Agriculture Top Industry In Tioga
said, “Agriculture employs twice
as many people as travel and tour
ism, and it generates twice as
much in total gross sales as travel
and tourism; twelve hundred peo
ple verses six hundred; generates
about 55 million dollars in gross
revenue verses 25 million in gross
revenue”
“Agriculture employs four
limes as many people in Tioga
County as in the Commonwealth,
as a whole. Tioga County ranks
14th in the State m value of agri
cultural production, and it ranked
11th in value of dairy production.
It ranked sth in value of produc
tion per cow per person person
residence of the county.”
But, as the consultant pointed
out, because agriculture has such
tremendous impact on the local
economy, there are potential prob
lems. Comparing wage growth
and income growth in the Com
monwealth overall, farm family
incomes did not rise as quickly as
Blizzard, a Holstein calf, and Snowflake, an Angus calf, joined the Penn State
herds at the height of the Blizzard of ’93. Shown here with four of the 22 employees
with the Department of Dairy and Animal Science, who worked around the clock to
keep more than 1,500 animals fed and cared for during the severe weather, are, left to
right, Don Nichols, Myron Rudy, Pete LeVan, and Dick Todd
calves. McQuiston said he
believed the experience helped
everyone get to know one another
better
Night shift dairy worker Boyd
Homan, who used a skid loader to
clear his home lane because it was
100 deep to plow, said he enjoyed
working with the morning shift.
When all roads from Bellefonte
Karl Kroeck, president of
the Potter-Tioga Chapter of
PFA, welcomes those attend
ing the annual banquet.
They Care
*9
were closed on Saturday and Dave
Hosterman was stranded at home,
he kept in touch with the three
young men at the Swine Center
via telephone.
Dairy Supervisor Myron Rudy,
who called the student employees
“lifesavers,” said, “We really
would have been stuck without
incomes elsewhere, therefore,
Tioga County incomes did not rise
as quickly. Seventy percent of
agricultural production in Tioga
County is dairy, which is not cur
rently a growth industry.
With this in mind, TCDC is
looking to bring dairy-valued
industry into the area to provide
another avenue of marketing the
milk produced within the county.
As a joint effort, TCDC invited
farmers to express their ideas on
how to strengthen the link
between agriculture and other
county industries.
State Representative Matt Bak
er was on hand to congratulate the
farm industry, as well as TCDC,
for putting the program together.
In reference to agriculture
throughout the state, Baker said,
“The State budget is $l5 billion
dollars, and agriculture should
reflect that. Unfortunately, the
budget in promotion of dairy pro
ducts and research will be taking
some cuts as proposed by the Gov
ernor. We will try to change that if
we can and refocus where the
focus should be in this state and
that’s our number 1 industry,
agriculture.”
Other guest speakers at the ban
quet were Ed Lazowski, Pioneer
Hi-Bred Field Sales Manager;
Bob Weller, Agway Regional
Manager; Bob Reich, Northeast
ern Farm Credit CEO; Richard
Denison, PFA Associate Admini
strator; Gene Field, PFA ROD;
Beth Ask, Soldiers and Sailors
Memorial Hospital Dietitian: Ann
Krohn, Project Concern coordina
tor; and Bob Blair, TCDC
Secretary.
Lazowski, who spoke on the
future of farming, said we will
continue to see a sharp increase in
productivity. “To be a low cost
producer has been the way to be
profitable, and that, too, is going
to continue. It is necessary to
them.”
Haller Farm’s Pete Levan said
everyone gave service above and
beyond the call of duty.
Other employees who worked
during the blizzard include Craig
Fleck, Scott Marstellar, Don
Nichols, Tim Smeltzcr, Dick
Todd, and Dan Wallers.
County
improve demand to where it will
absorb normal production at
prices that will return a reasonable
profit to the average producer.”
According to Lazowski, that is the
challenge and farmers need to
adjust to that challenge to make
their farms profitable.
Nutrition, diet, and health will
also continue to be major concerns
in the future, Lazowski slated.
“While the same foods and fiber
will be utilized, the trend will be
away frpm animal meat and fat,
towards more fruits, vegetables,
and complex carbohydrates.
This message was reinforced by
Ask who gave the food pyramid as
an example of how Americans
should eat on a daily basis. The
majority of our food consumption,
according to the pyramid, should
range between 6 and 11 servings
in the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta
group, followed by 3 to 5 servings
from the vegetable group and 2 to
4 servings from the fruit group.
Dairy products as a group and the
group comprised of meat, poultry,
fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts
should consist of 2 to 3 servings
per day. The least desired group is
the fats, oils and sweets, which
should be used sparingly.
To stress her point, Ask planned
a nutritious luncheon based on the
food pyramid to give those attend
ing the meeting an idea of how the
food groups can be used accord
ingly on a day-to-day basis.
Adding to the overview of the
farming industry, Krohn gave a
presentation on major health con
cerns for farmers ranging from
machinery accidents, to injuries
from animals or chemicals and
cleaning solutions, to respiratory
problems in breathing such toxins
as silo gas, hay dust, molds, and
spores. Tips on how to handle or
possibly avoid dangerous situa
tions were discussed, as well as
what to do if the problems occur.
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