AiO-Lancast*r Fannina, Saturday, Dacambar 18, 1993
Uaseesfl^teiMi
OPINION
Keep Integrity
The Wetland Issue
In
Private property rights are the backbone of fanning and
they must be protected. Although compensation for gov
ernment seizure of property is guaranteed in the U.S. Con
stitution, recent confiscations of private property for envir
onmental reasons has caused numerous financial hard
ships and headaches for farmers. The procedures for taking
land for eminent domain should also apply to the retiring of
wetlands into the public trust.
“Ownership and use of property are the cornerstones of
the most economically successful nation in the world,”
said Dean Kleckner, president, American Farm Bureau.
He was addressing the House Agriculture subcommittee.
The cost of increased government regulations on private
property is having a negative impact on all farmers and
ranchers.
Legislative and regulatory threats can easily be written
to take away water rights, change production techniques
and devastate land values. Today’s farmers need to be as
alert to threats against private property rights as the threat
posed by drought or insects.
In all these issues we need standard definitions that are
consistently applied. Often farmers must deal with several
government agencies that have conflicting regulations. It’s
very important, for example, that wetlands be classified
according to real usefulness to the environment. Not all
wetlands are created equally. When true wetlands are
found and must be put under government control for the
public good, then the public, the recipient of the land, must
pay the private owner full value for the farmland at the time
it was taken. This is the only way to maintain integrity in
the wetland issue.
Farm Calendar /^/
Delmarva Meat Goat Conference,
U. of Md. Eastern Shore, Prin
cess Anne, Md., 9:30 a.m.-4
Breeding Priorities for the Com
mercial Dairyman, Franklin
Co. Human Services Building,
10 a.m.-noon.
Swine meeting, Country Table
Restaurant, Mount Joy, 9
a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Alternative Field Crops Seminar,
Hegins Fire Company Hall,
Wayne County pesticide certifica
tion exam. Courthouse, Hones
dale. 8:30 a.m.-noon.
I
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Lancaster County Conservation
District annual meeting. Stock
Yard Inn, 6 p.m.
Bucks/Montgomery Dairy Day,
Family Heritage Restaurant,
Franconia, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
Franklin County Dairy Day,
Kauffman’s Community Cen
ter, Chambersburg, 9:30
a.m.-2:40 p.m.
Milk Marketing Board Sunshine
Meeting, Pa. Dept, of Ag,
Harrisburg^^^^^^^^^^^
Pa. State Farm Show, judging
only.
Mercer County pesticide meeting.
Elder Sales and Service,
Stoneboro, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Financial Management Workshop,
Schuylkill Campus, Schuylkill
Haven, continues Jan. 13 and
27.
Pa. State Farm Show, judging
Pa. State Farm Show, thru Jan. 13.
Pa. Rabbit Breeders Association
Fr Shr
ADSI
g, PAY OFF!
NOW IS
THE TIME
By John Schwartz
Lancaster County
Agricultural Agqnt
To Vote
On Referendum
On February 9. 1994. USDA’s
Agricultural Marketing Service
will conduct a national referen
dum to determine whether soybean
producers favor the continuation
of a national Soybean Promotion,
Research and Consumer Informa
tion Program.
The registration and voting will
take place at your county Coopera
tive Extension office. County
Agricultural Stabilization and
Conservation Service (ASSS)
offices will determine eligibility of
challenged voters, count ballots
and report referendum results.
All producers who produced
soybeans between September 1.
1991 and December 1, 1993 are
eligible to vote in the referendum.
A simple majority vote will deter
mine if the soybean promotion
program will stay in effect
In the referendum, producers
will decide if they want to con
tinue to pay the current assessment
of half a percent of the net market
price of soybeans they sell.
Mark your calendars now and
plan to vote on Feb. 9.
To Prevent
Poisoning
of Children
Children under the age of five
are the most frequent victims of
accidental poisoning. Infants and
toddlers are a very high risk group.
Common household items such as
medicines, make up, cleaners, and
plants are responsible for most
home poisoning.
Children who live on farms also
come in contact with fertilizers,
industrial cleaners (milk pipeline
cleaners and washing com
pounds), and pesticides.
Parents should be ready to react
if they find that a child has acci
dentally ingested a poisonous sub
stance. Write down the phone
number of the closest Poison Con
trol Center and keep it next to your
phone.
Never give emergency treat
ment without contacting the Poi
son Control Center first. Take the
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Mercer County DHI annual
meetine.
child and the container of the sub
stance which the child swallowed,
if possible, to the phone when
making the call.
Remember, the best treatment is
prevention. Do a safety survey.
Place all medicines and chemicals
out of reach of children and if pos
sible under lock and key.
Teach children as soon as possi
ble not to drink or eat anything
other than what is given to them by
adults.
Though a T-bone steak may cost
$5 per pound at the supermarket,
the farmer probably received only
75 cents per pound for the steer
from which the steak came. Why
does the seemingly large gap of
$4.25 per pound exist?
Many costs and product weight
losses occur in transforming the
steer into packaged steaks and
other cuts. An average steer
weighing 1,150 pounds is sent to a
meat packer where it is dressed out
to a 724-pound carcass, now worth
$1.19 per pound.
Removing bone and fat along
with some moisture and meat loss
8f IAWKiNCi W AIIHOUSt
SOME CAREER!
December 19,1993
Background Scripture:
Luke 2:1-20
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 9:1-7
Bom in a stable—died on a
cross! Some career!
An anonymous author once
wrote:
Here is a man who was born in
an obscure village, the child of a
peasant woman. He grew up in
another obscure village, He work
ed in a carpenter shop until he
was thirty, and then for three
years He was an itinerant preach
er. He never wrote a book. He
never held an office.
He never owned a home. He
never set foot inside a big city. He
never traveled two hundred miles
from the place He was born. He
had no credentials but Himself.
Obviously, there’s either some
thing wrong with his life—or with
ours! By our standards today and
even then, this man was a failure.
That is one thing that has
remained the same over the centu
ries: the way we determine suc
cess and failure, power and weak
ness, importance and obscurity.
Still, the anonymous author
writes:
I am far within the mark when I
say that all the armies that ever
marched, and all the navies that
were ever built, and all the parlia
ments that ever sat, and all the
kings that ever reigned, put
together have not effected the life
of man upon this earth as power
fully as that One Solitary Life.
WHO’S WRONG
Either that anonymous writer is
wrong or the world is. Either the
world’s standards are in error or
the gospel is. No matter how much
we have housebroken the gospel,
blurred the distinctions between
Christ and culture, or tried to
demonstrate that you can have
your cake and eat it, too. the gos
pel and especially the Christmas
story tell us quite plainly that
God’s ways and values an not
To Understand
Beef Pricing
IS3OBILIS
Sfl
leaves about 478.4 pounds of sal
able meat, worth about $1.62 per
pound.
Price per pound increases so far
reflect only the loss of inedible
weight. Implicit labor costs
include about 14 cents for slaugh
ter and boxing. 4 cents for trans
portation, and 19 cents for wareh
ousing and store delivery.
Other costs of 86 cents include
packaging materials, advertising,
refrigeration, firm overhead, cut
ting, and merchandising costs.
This gives us a cost of $2.85 per
pound.
Only about 18.4 pounds of sal
able meat is T-bone steak. The
other 460 pounds are mostly cuts
that sell at lower prices.
Calculating a weighted average
of the T-bone at $5 per pound,
ground beef at $1.55, and the other
cuts at their average prices leads to
an average value of S2.BS. (Sour
ce: USDA Economic Research
Service).
Feather Profs Footnote:
"Reflect upon your present bless
ings, of which every man has plen
ty; not on your past misfortunes, of
which all men have some."
Charles Dickens
those of the worid. And, no matter
how long they have endured, ours
are not ultimate.
One of the things, then, that
Christmas ought to say to us anew
is that fundamentally the truth of
God and the truth of the world are
often diametrically opposed.
These are not the elements of a
success story—God coming into
the world in the human flesh of a
helpless infant, bom of a peasant
girl in an obscure village of an
unimportant country, bom into a
family so obscure that there was
no room for them in the inn, an
event so unimportant that only a
few misguided shepherds
observed it
It is interesting that'the only
witnesses to the first Christmas
were shepherds, for respectable
Jews tended to look down on
them. Because of the demands of
their work, they were not able to
keep the various strictures of the
ceremonial law.* Their flocks
demanded their constant attention.
They were simple people,
unlearned, out of step with the rest
of their society.
Do you think it was by chance
that God chose these men to hear
the heavenly throng announce
Messiah’s birth? Not I. Once
again God is telling us that he sees
things differently than we do. His
son is given not to the powerful,
but to the simple, unappreciated
people. The shepherds may not
have been “religious” according to
orthodox standards, but they were
receptive.
Someone has said that people
are seldom open to learning what
they think they already know. We
think we know what Christmas
means, so perhaps we no longer
ponder its meaning. “But Mary
kept all these things, pondering
them in her heart.” Let this Christ
mas be a time for us once again to
meditate in our hearts on the
meaning of the birth and career of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Lancaster Farming
Established 19SS
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main SL
Ephrata, PA 17522
by
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A aa*wwi CMaprim
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Event R. Naaaaangar Managing Edtor
Copyright 1M by Lancaster Fanning