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MO-Uncaster Farming, Saturday, Saptambar 4, 1993
opinion
Wool Act And
The True Facts
If several U.S. senators and representatives have their way in
the upcoming days, the National Wool Act of 1954 may be no
more.
This could create dire consequences on the many nationwide
sheep producers who depend on the incentives from the bill to
allow them to continue their business.
According to Pennslvania Sheep and Wool Growers President
Joe Vogel, a registered Columbia sheep producer in Kempton,
people are not getting the true facts about the Act.
The American Sheep Industry Association (ASI) indicates that
the Act came into being as a result of a move to help protect sheep
producers from a flood of wool following the lowering of trade
restrictions after World War 11. At the time, the U.S. was trying to
prevent damaging markets with the beleaguered economy of
Australia, hit hard by the war. Wool flooded into the U.S., drop
ping domestic prices drastically. Sheep producers knew they
were in trouble, so they petitioned Congress. Congress side
stepped efforts to set up restrictions, and instead passed the Act.
The National Wool Act allows up to 70 percent of the total tar
iffs on imported wool and wool products to go to the program to
provide incentive payments to wool and mohair producers,
according to ASI. Payment is based on the percentage needed to
bring the national average market price received by producers up
to the support price determined annually by the USDA.
Nearly 70,000 wool producers receive program payments,
ranging from very small to very large operations. It includes pay
ment raps. Wool Act incentive payments to growers in 1992 were
some of the highest in history allowing many sheep producers
to continue in business and provide a reliable, quality product to
U.S. consumers.
There is no net cost to taxpayers to continue the program, since
the money is collected from tariffs, according to ASI. In 1991.
according to ASI, tariffs collected more than $4Ol million, bring
ing the lifetime earnings of this program to $7.4 billion. Total
payments in 1991 were just more than $172 million.
The problem producers see is that instead of 70 percent of the
total tariffs being funnelled to the incentive program, only about
30 percent are. The rest goes directly to the U.S. treasury, which
many producers believe is unfair.
But if the Act is killed, and it could happen soon, the effects
could be long-ranging and devastating. Local economies could
suffer. Many producers would be forced to close up shop.
Vogel urges producers to get in touch with their U.S. senators,
particularly Sen. Aden Specter ((202) 224-4254) and Sen. Harris
Wofford ((202) 224-6324), and let them know the National Wool
Act must continue.
In a letter to Lancaster Farming, Vogel urges producers to tell
representatives and legislators the “true story” about sheep and
the U.S. sheep industry.
“Sheep and wool are the oldest industry known to man,” he
writes. “We therefore must do all we can to preserve it.”
Farm Forum
Editor,
Recently I had the opportunity
to review prices paid to dairy
fanners since 1980. The figures
clearly show the average dairy
farmer has lost nearly $70,000 in
gross income during the last
twelve years by not keeping up
with the milk price received in the
early 80’s. Can you imagine what
this loss would be if you figured
something for inflation? No won
der dairy farmers are having such
a tough time.
On my farm we are logging and
my wife has a part-time job; why
should this be necessary?
Why is it that dairy farmers
have had to pay all kinds of as
sessments for nearly ten years and
yet we receive a lower price for
milk today, than we did twelve
years ago. It’s time we as farmers
wake up and do something.
Something else bothers me
who else receives a lower price to
day than they did in 1980?
Do our so-called farm leaders
receive less wages than they did in'
1981? It seems that some farm
leaders always, refer to school
teachers, school administrators
and about every other public offi
cial regarding how much their sal
ary has increased since 1981. In
stead of picking on the above
mentioned people all the time,
let’s reveal how much of a salary
is paid to the co-op leaders, both
the managers and the board mem
bers.
Is it true that some of these peo
ple receive nearly $200,000 per
year, paid for by dairy farmers?
INCREDIBLE!
Let’s not stop with milk coops
like Eastern, Dairylea, and Atlan
tic; what about other farm organi
zations such as Farm Bureau,
Farmers Union and now Pro Ag.
What kind of salaries are paid in
these organizations?
Everyone knows what teachers
receive, but what about these other
guys. Don’t tell me it’s not my
business, it is because some of you
are the people that’s promoting
(Turn to Pago A 42)
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NOW IS
THE TIME
By John Schwartz
Lancaster County
Agricultural Agent
To Check
Silage Corn Maturity
The quality of com silage is
determined largely by moisture
and maturity at time of harvest
How long it takes a crop to reach
maturity is determined by heat
units during the growing season
and not by days since planting. The
hotter the growing season, the fas
ter the crop will mature.
Thus, hot weather shortens the
amount of time we have to harvest
com and still capture its quality.
This summer, we have had a lot of
hot days and nights, and the com is
maturing very rapidly. The time
required for it to move from a
green succulent plant with soft
milky kernels to a mature dried
plant with fully dented hard ker
nels is considerably less than in
cooler weather.
Check your fields now and be
ready to chop. For optimum qual
ity, kernels should be dented and
the milk line should be about half
way down the kernel.
To determine this, take an ear of
com and snap it in half. You will
see the Arm starch deposited in the
outer part of the kernel while the
milk will occupy the base of the
kernel. This gives the appearance
of a whitish line separating the two
areas. As the kernels continue to
mature, the'milk line moves down
the kernel.
By harvesting when the milk
line is halfway down the kernel,
the crop is near maturity and has
Farm Calendar
Mon Valley 4-H Dairy Show, Fay
ette County Fairgrounds, 9 a.m.
Northwest 4-H Dairy Show, Craw
ford County Fairgrounds.
Southwest 4-H Dairy Show.
Somerset Fairgrounds.
Montour Antique Farm Machinery
Show, Montour Delong Fair
grounds, Washingtonville, thru
Sept. S.
Juniata County Fair. Port Royal,
Cambria County Fair, Ebensburg,
thru Sept. 11.
Spartansburg Community Fair,
thru Sept 11.
West Alexander Fair, West Ale
xander, thru Sept. 11.
Waterford Community Fair,
>VaterfoidJm^ieDtM2^^
Claysburg Farm Show, Claysburg,
thru Sept. 11.
Jamestown Community Fair,
wood, thru Sept 11.
(Turn to Page A 42)
accumulated aboutas much energy
as it ever will. The kernels arc not
overly hard and the stalk still con
tains enough moisture to pack well
and ferment properly.
For upright silos, aim for a
moisture level of about 60 to 65
percent and 65 to 70 percent for
bunker silos. Maintain a fairly
coarse chop of about 3/8 inch blade
setting so the effectiveness of the
fiber is not destroyed.
To Not Let
Animals Suffocate
Tunnel ventilation systems have
become a popular way to help
improve cow and broiler comfort
during hot summer days.
R involves placing a large num
ber of fans in one end of the bom to
create a three to five miles per hour
breeze and to have a rapid air
exchange in the bam. To accom
plish this, it is necessary to close
all the air inlets along the side
walls so all the air is pulled through
inlets in the end of die bam oppo
site the fans.
This works very well when the
fans are running. When the power
fails, the bam may become very
hot and stuffy in only a few
minutes.
Thus, it is very important to
have a way to provide cows and
poultry with fresh air when power
failures occur. This may involve
using a standby generator, opening
curtains, windows and doors, or
letting cows out of the bam.
Always have someone on
24-hour standby to regularly check
the bams and respond quickly to a
power failure. These procedures
are necessary whether you are at
home or away from the farm.
Background Scripture
Genesis 1:1-25
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 40:21, 25, 26. 28-31
“In the beginning...” begins the
Book of Genesis and the Bible
itself. In fact, the term ‘Genesis’
means ‘beginning.* In Genesis, we
reach back as far as we can to
point-zero in time.
Contemporary science tells us
that the beginning was ten to
twenty billion years ago. And the
beginning, according to many sci
entists, was an instantaneous “Big
Bang,” the reverberations of
which are still echoing through the
universe.
'sv*T
If you throw a stone into a pool,
you can see the rings of force that
ripple from the point of contact
between the stone and the water.
Those rings grow ever larger, keep
expanding at a geometric rate. In
nature, those rings are never
reversed, never get smaller and
retreat int£ the single point from
which they began. But, if I capture
that event on my video camera and
then run it on “rewind,” I can do
just that: I can see the rings grow
smaller and return to the original
point of impact.
AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE'
One year before I was bom, a
scientist by the name of Edwin
Hubble realized that wherever you
look, the distant galazies are mov
ing away from us like the rings
that ripple on a pond disturbed by
a stone. Using the telescopes and
astronomical equipment of his
day, he convinced most of the sci
entific community that ours is an
expanding, not static, universe.
Since Hubble’s discovery, scien-
BEHIND THE BIG
BANG 1
September S, 1993
To Reduce
Egg Shell
Breakage
Egg breakage reduces profits!
Eveiy broken egg is costing you at
least four cents per egg.
William D. McKeen, University
of Califorina Poultry Farm advis
er, has identified the following fac
tors that may contribute to exces
sive egg breakage:
• Damaged cages or collection
trays.
• Excessive bird density in
cages.
• Operation of egg collection
equipment at speeds which are too
fast
• Failure to separate oversized
eggs in flats.
■ Excessive disturbance of birds
during peak laying hours. Jobs
such as manure clean out spraying
for mites, flies, etc. should be lim
ited to afternoon hours when few
eggs are present.
• Failure to carefully maintain
and clean egg handling equipment
• Increased body checks
because of crowding in cages or
extended day length.
Most of these factors are related
to preventative maintenance. It
takes a strong commitment to qual
ity and pride in work in order to
reduce egg breakage.
By reducing cracks by one per
cent, you are increasing profits by
at least 10 cents per bird. For a
SO,OOO-hen flock, this is $5,000
per year increased income.
Now is the time to manage for
quality!
Feather Profs Footnote: "You
are never a loser until you quit try
ing" Mike Ditka
lists have used computations to
theoretically reverse the outward
flow of the galaxies back to a
moment in time when those forces
were all contained in one great
moment of power, giving rise to
the generally-accepted Big-Bang,
but not the Big Bang itself, let
alone the moment before it. As
soon as they try to look back
behind that first second, they run
into a door that they cannot open.
Some of them suspect that it is
God who stands behind that door,
others refuse to make that assump
tion but are troubled with the
necessity for looking for some
thing, if not Someone, behind it.
BEHIND EVERY DOOR
In 1951, Pope Pius XII
embraced the Big Bang theory as
supportive of Christian beliefs. In
fact, he suggested that, in light of
these discoveries of science, it
might be anticipated that “God
were waiting behind every door
opened by Science."
It may seem strange that the
Pope and other Christians should
look upon the Big Bang theory as
supportive to Christian belief.
After all, there is no place in
Genesis where there is even a faint
suggestion of a Big Bang. Yet,
when we understand what Genesis
is saying to us, the relationship
between the Biblical saga and the
scientific theory becomes very
clear. What the writer of Genesis
1:1-25 is giving us is not an eye
witness account of the day of crea
tion, but an explanation of that
day’s meaning: “In the beginning
G0d...”
The Big Bang theory takes us
back to the very beginning-plus
one-moment and Christians press
back beyond that one moment and
fine “In the beginning G0d...” We
can see the Big Bang as the out
ward description of God creating
“the heavens and the earth,” spin
ning the galactic masses of gas
and dust out into the universe like
the ripples on a gigantic pond.
“And God saw that it was
good."