Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, November 27, 1993, Image 34

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    A3Hjncwty FurmnOr Saturday, November 27, 1993
Agricultural Groups Support NAFTA
(Continued from Pago Alt)
“We believe the nation has had a
healthy debate on trade with many
important issue being raised by
both sides,” said Steve Hallotan,
NFO president, in a statement
“Our organization was never
opposed to trade, just this version
of the trade agreement We now
pledge our efforts to making NAF
TA a success.”
Further. Halloran said thatNFO,
created as an agricultural com
modities marketing organization,
would probably serve its members
better by spending time marketing
commodities, rather than attempt-
District
Honors
(Continued from Pago A 33)
time operator. The Engles have
two children, Roy Martin Engel,
Jr. and Bonnie, and have four
grandchildren.
Allen and Louise
Click operate a dairy
consisting of 40 milk
cows. In 1968, Allen
began fanning in part
nership with his father
until Allen purchased
the 196-acre farm in
1971.
Conservation plan
ning has been part of
Click's conservation
agenda since March
1988, when his conser
vation plan was written.
On April 19. 1988,
Click became a Juniata
County Conservation
District cooperator.
Click's conservation
plan was fully imple
mented in 1991 with
93.4 acres of conserva
tion cropping system,
conservation tillage sys
tem, cover crop, and
crop residue manage
ment put in place. The
conservation practices
comprise 73.4 acres of
contour strip crapping,
1,850 feet of sod water
way, and 3,120 feet of
subsurface drain.
Click applied for and
receive a long-term
agreement (LTA) with
the Agricultural Stabili
zation and Conservation
Service (ASCS) in
1989. The five-year
LTA was completed in
1992. About 955 feet of
diversions and the
installation of a gravity
flow step gutter and
manure pit was com
pleted in 1989 to make
manure handling easier
and more efficient.
Click’s current crops
include 52 acres of com,
43 acres of hay, and 15
acres of oats.
Click rents additional
acres from a nearby
farm, and all conserva
tion practices were com
pleted in 1992. Recen
tly. a 10.000-pullet
house was built and
20,000 pullets are raised
for Empire Kosher
Poultry each year.
The Clicks have four
children, Donna, Valer
ic, Neil and Ncvin, who
have worked with their
parents on the family
farm. The Clicks have
ing to influence trade policies.
“Our experiences with policy
issues the last several years sug
gest we can better serve our mem
bers by focusing less on politics
and more on marketing. We’ve
enjoyed considerable success in
enhancing the prices received by
our farmer-members. While poli
tics and policy certainly have an
impact on price, our experience
with NAFTA suggests our efforts
are better directed to the marketing
side,” he said in the statement.
“Everyone involved on both
sides had very deep feeling about
NAFTA. They all supported it or
opposed it for their own personal
reasons. But now it’s time to move
on and work together for better
prices and more profit for Ameri
can agricultural producers.”
In a news release this week, a
Penn State College of Agricultural
Sciences expert stated that the
NAFTA agreement should mean
better business for the U.S. dairy
industry, but not necessarily a
direct boost for Pennsylvania
HERE'S WHAT YOUR LANCASTER COUNTY
NEIGHBORS MAY KNOW ALREADY !
Asgrow & Eastland
Dominate Solanco Young
Farmers Silage Trial
Quarryville, PA In '93
114% of
11l
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dairymen.
According to a news release
from the PSU College of Agricul
tural Sciences Agricultural Infor
mation Services, Dr. Milton Hall
berg. a professor of agricultural
economics and interim head of the
college’s economics and rural
sociology department, there is a
strong possibility that the U.S.
dairy industry will benefit from the
tri-national trade agreement
According to die statement
“U.S. exports of agricultural pro
ducts to Mexico are expected to
increase by $4BO million, while
Mexican exports to the United
Slates are expected to increase by
$l7O million. U.S. farm income is
expected to increase by up to $2OO
million.”
In the news release, Hallberg
said, “The United Slates has not
sacrificed much in this agreement
but Mexico has agreed to phase out
restrictive import rules and quotas
on many products, including agri
cultural goods.”
One of Hallberg’s students and
Note: Alt yields exi
Put these superior varieties
to work on your farm!
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ter acre - 65% moisture ei
tressed as tons
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Dr. Stephen Smith, an associated
professor of agricultural econom
ics at Penn State, in 1990 went to
Mexico to do field work on the
possible impact of free trade.
“Mexico’s dairy production has
not kept pace with its population
growth since the early 1980 s,”
Hallberg said of the results of die
field work.
“The countty’s dairy industry
has the potential to meet a larger
proportion of domestic demand,
but many Mexican dairies ate
hampered by remote locations and
equipment that generally cannot
support the most efficient produc
tion levels.
“Until (Mexican) domestic pro
duction increases. Mexico will
continue to import (dairy pro
ducts),” Hallberg said.-" The coun
try increased milk imports sub
stantially during 1989 and 1990,
and virtually all of die increase
came from the United States.”
However, Hallberg said that
most of the increased exporting
would come from Southwestern
. , . ' : : V
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U.S. dairy production.
“Mexican markets are better
served by Southwestern dairies,
because the cost of transporting
dairy products from Pennsylvania
(Turn to Pag* ASS)
Pa. Forage
(Contlnuad from Pag* A 25)
operator of Buck and Doe Run
Farm in Chester County. The farm
is situated on hills and erosion has
always been a concern of Elkins.
Therefore he began using intensive
grazing to both utilize the hill
ground and to minimize soil ero
sion caused by tillage.
Excess pasture production in the
spring is harvested as large round
bale silage and utilized during the
winter for his herd of 65 cows.
After several years of grazing, he
began to realize that the cool
season forages his system had been
based on were not producing suffi
cient amounts of forage during
July and August
As a solution to this problem, he
began using warm-season grasses,
various legume species, and recen
tly chicory to fill the '‘summer
slump” in his pasture production.
130%
r alent)