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Vol. 39 NO. 4
Farm-City Week activities across the state bring together people of different back
rounds who are given an opportunity to view each others’ perspectives on life. Here,
standing, Vincent and Juile Wagner, open their family dairy farm to Carrol and Jean
Dltzler, a husband and wife dentistry team from Lebanon.
Nutrient Management Advisory Board Attacks Tough Issues
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) The state Nutrient Man
agement Advisory Board to the
State Conservation Commission
on Wednesday approved interim
criteria for nutrient management
plans, but didn’t appear ready to
advise on a method for dcterming
which terms will be automatically
excluded from filing mandatory
nutrient management plans.
The IS-member Nutrient Man
agement Advisory Board is com
prised of representatives of the
This Boar Sires Champions, According To Strauss Brothers
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
STEVENS (Lancaster Co.)
Count them eight champions
out of the top 30 on the carcass
evaluation contest at the barrow
show at the recent Keystone Inver
national Livestock Expo (KILE).
The champion on-rail. And the
reserve champion crossbred on rail
last year.
The reason for such success?
It’s all in the boar, according to
two brothers, Rick and Steve
Strauss. The Strauss brothers
believe they can raise a champion
Christmas
Deadlines
The Lancaster Farming office
will be closed Friday, December
24 in observance of Christinas
day. Early deadlines will be fol
lowed the week of Christmas.
These deadlines are as follows:
Public Sale Ads Noon,
Mon., 12/20.
Mailbox Markets Noon,
Mon., 12/20.
General News Noon, Wed.,
12/22.
Classified Section C Ads 5
p.m., Tue., 12/21.
All Other Classified Ads 9
a.m.. Wed., 12/22.
60t Per Copy
various segments of production
agriculture and those with know
ledge of it. The members are nomi
nated by the state’s major agricul
tural organizations and appointed
by the chairman or the State Con
servation Commission (i.e. the
secretary of DER).
The advisory board has no regu
latory authority. Its purpose is to
make recommendations to thfe
commission. Under the Nutrient
Management Act, the commission
has authority to promulagate its
own regulations.
The Wednesday meeting was
hog, because they have the
genetics.
From a purebred Hampshire
boar the Strauss brothers pur
chased in October 1991 from Jim
and Steve Eamhart in Albion, in
northeast Indiana, they’ve bred a
long list of show champions,
including the champion hogs exhi
bited this year by their niece and
nephew. Sarah and Gerald Boyd,
from Ephrata.
What makes the boar so special?
“It’s no accident that you get some
pigs that are going to really cut,’’
said Rick Strauss. The Eamharts
“have a line of hogs that’s bred
more for muscle leanness and they
win carcass shows all over the
place,’* said Rick. Several litter
mates to the boar they purchased
did well at several shows, includ
ing one at the National Barrow
Show which sold for about $7,500,
according to Rick. That boar is
sired by the half-brother' to the
Strauss boar.
The cost for the boar? Twelve
hundred dollars, according to
Rick. “Hampshires are supposed
to be the best breed for muscle and
leanness,” said Steve, who
traveled with Rick the 600 miles to
obtain the boar. The animal “was
the best investment we made,” he
said.
Lancaster Arming, Saturday, Dacambar 4,1993
held in a room in the East Wing of
the Capitol building in Harrisburg,
and was scheduled in order for the
board to make comment on recom
mendations for interim criteria for
nutrient management planning
prior to yesterday’s scheduled
meeting of the State Conservation
Commission. (Held after the Lan
caster Farming news deadline for
this week.)
According to a Nov. 27 letter
from Michael Krempasky. execu
tive secretary of the commission,
to board members, the commission
had been scheduled to meet yester-
They knew what they were
looking for. They spotted the pig,
acting “real aggressive,” said
Rick, left, and Steve Strauss stand In back of the purebred Hampshire boar that
sired several champions. Photo by Andy Andrews
Farm-City Activities
Offer View Of Life
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
MYERSTOWN (Lebanon
Co.) Viccnt and Julie Wagner
of Myerstown run an average size
family farm dairy with their tee
naged son Christopher and daught
er Stephanie.
The Wagners have been fea
tured in stories in this and other
newspapers in the past because
they ate an example of a young
couple who together not only built
a family farm against formidable
obstacles, but have immersed
themselves into the dairy com
munity, volunteering time and
energy to try to make life better for
themselves and those who sur
round them.
Recently, as part of the Lebanon
County Farm-City program activi-
day (Friday, Dec. 6) to consider the
interim criteria for nutrient man
agement planning, which are to
“provide direction to the Pa.
Department of Agriculture for
development of the certification
Tillage Event Set
COLLEGE PARK, Md.
Local and national issues affecting
termers will be addressed by most
of the speakers at this year’s six
state Mid-Atlantic Conservation
Tillage Conference. The twentieth
Rick, and “climbing the fence.”
Rick and Steve’s mother, Mrs.
Strauss, said, “I don’t know how
FOur Sectioni
ties, the Wagners opened up their
farm to share a day on the farm
with a local dentist and his wife.
The following week, the Wag
ners spent a day at the dentist’s
office, learning about a different
type of business, but also run by a
husband and wife team.
Through community involve
ment, the Wagners were exposed
to the responsibilities and rewards
of life as seen through the eyes of
another couple.
Across the state, farm organiza
tions and county area chamber of
commerce organizations host a
variety of Farm-City programs, all
designed to allow the consuming
public to understand more about
life on the farm.
But there ate many signs that the
(Turn to Pag* AM)
program and represent the baste
concepts for development of plans
under the Act”
In compliance with the Nutrient
Management Act, signed into law
(Turn to Pag* A 26)
Annual event is set Dec. 16 at the
Ramada Inn and Convention Cen
ter in Hagerstown. Md.
Specific topics will deal with
changes in store for agriculture.
(Turn to Pago AST)
many boars we went through ’til
we got the one we wanted."
(Turn to Pag* A2S)
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