AlO-Lancasfer Farming, Saturday, August 13 1994 '
OPINION
Great Reasons To Visit
Ag Progress Days
Ag Progress Days have become the annual mid-summer spot
light on agricultural advancement and technology in the state of
Pennsylvania. Much of this “progress” has revolved around the
research and extension at Penn State and so it is fitting that the
theme should recognize: “Penn State Ag Sciences... We’re More
Than You Think!”
Private industry has also contributed to the advancement of
agriculture. This is evident in the pi any innovations in machinery
and methods that appear at Ag Progress Days each year. With
more than 300 exhibitors this year, what’s new in production and
environmental agriculture will be showcased again.
But make no mistake about it. Penn State can’t educate and
exhibitors can’t show their new technology if you don’t come.
People who come to the show are the most important group of all.
Of course, if you have any kind of interest in farming you will
be attracted to Ag Progress Days. One big attraction is the equip
ment working in the fields. This year, precision planters and high
tech harvesters as well as hay making equipment will be up and
running.
For antique lovers, the Pasto Agricultural Museum is always
an attraction. Here you can see a 175-year-old apple peeler to a
milking machine powered by foot pedals.
Research tours provide information of interest to many people.
Dairy, poultry, potato and conservation tours are among the listed
tours on the schedule this year.
Yes, these three days, August 16-18 promise to be provide
many great reasons to visit Ag Progress Days. We’ll want you to
break into your work schedule at home for a few hours, load up
the family in the car or truck, and make the trip to Rockspring this
week. We’ll look for you.
Farm Calendar
South Central Championship
Show, Fairgrounds, Shippens
burg, 9:30 a.m.
Montour-Delong Community
' Fair, Washingtonville, thru
Aug. 20.
The Old Time Plow Boys Club,
Inc. late summer plowing
demonstration, Kutztown Uni
versity North Campus Farm,
ICutztownMhn^ugM4^^
Huntingdon County Fair, Hunting
don, thru Aug. 20.
McKean County Fair, Smethport,
thru Aug. 20.
Washington County Fair,
Dayton Fair, Dayton, thru Aug. 20.
Venango County Fair, Franklin,
thru Aug. 20.
Lawrence County Fair, New
Castle, thru Aug. 20.
Bullskin Township Fair, Mount
Ag Progress Days, Rockspring,
thru Aug. 18.
Huntingdon County Holstein
Show, Huntingdon Fair
grounds, 9 a.m.
Centre County Holstein Sale, Fair
grounds, Centre Hall, 7 p.m.
Berks County 4-H Fair, 4-H Agri
culture Center, Leesport, 8:30
Southeast Pennsylvania Market
Hog Derby, thru Aug. 19.
Performance-Tested Boar Sale,
Fair.
Wye Field Day, Wye REC, 8
a,m.-6 p.m.
Ml Nebo Fair, Ml Nebo, thru
Aug. 20.
Middletown Grange Fair. Wright
stown, thru Aug. 20.
Findlay Township Fair, Clinton,
thru Aug. 20.
Northeast FFA Dairy Show, Tioga
County Fairgrounds,
Whitneyville.
Grazing Field Day, Samuel King
Farm, Gordonville, 12:30
p.m.-3 p.m.
Pasture Walk, Walter Nuding
Dairy. Farm, Montgomeryville,
10:30 a.m.-noon.
Washington County Holstein
Bucks County Holstein Show,
Middletown Fairgrounds, 11
a.m.
Lebanon County Holstein picnic,
Pa. Holstein Association Central
Championship Show, Fair
grounds, Huntingdon, 6 p.m.
Northeast 4-H Dairy Show,
Wyoming County.
Warren County Holstein Sale,
Pittsfield Fairgrounds.
Central Championship Show,
Huntingdon Fairgrounds, 6
p.m.
Southeastern Pennsylvania Chap
ter of Fellowship of Christian
Farmers picnic, Samuel Lewis
State Park, Wrightsville, 11
Somerset County Fair, Meyers
dale, thru Aug. 27.
Crawford County Fair, Meadville,
thru Aug. 27.
To Start
Studying Worker
Protection Standards
Fanners will need to come in
complete compliance with U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
Worker Protection Standards
(WPS) by January 1, 1995,
The WPS is a regulation that
covers pesticides used in the pro
duction of agricultural plants on
farms, forests, nurseries, and
greenhouses. The WPS requires
you to take steps to reduce the risk
of pesticide-related illness and
injury to you, your family, or your
employees.
If you are an agricultural pesti
cide user and/or an employer of
agricultural workers or pesticide
handlers, the WPS requires you to
provide to your employees and in
some cases to yourself and to
others information about exposure
to pesticides, protection against
exposures to pesticides, and ways
to reduce exposures to pesticides.
Contact your local cooperative
extension office for more details
on WPS. Now is the time to pick up
information on WPS to study and
start implementing this program
on your farm.
To Wear
Respirators Around
Organic Dust
Agricultural workers may be at
risk for developing organic dust
toxic syndrome (ODTS).
This is a common respiratory ill-
Cameron County Fair, Emporium,
thni Aug. 27.
Franklin County Fair, Chambers
burg, thru Aug. 27.
Westmoreland County Fair,
Harford Fair, Harford, thru Aug.
27.
Fulton County Fair, McConnells
burg, thru Aug. 27.
Mountain Area Fair, Farmington,
thru Aug. 27.
Pa. Tobacco Growers meeting,
Southeast Field Lab, Landisvil-
Blue Valley Farm Show, Bangor,
thru Aug. 27.
Perry County Fair, Newport, thru
Aug. 27.
Transfer Harvest Home Fair,
Greenville, thru Aug. 27.
Elizabethtown Community Fair,
Elizabethtown, thru Aug. 27.
Hookstown Fair, Hookslown, thru
Aug. 27.
Pa. Holstein Association North
east Championship Show, Fair
grounds, Troy, 10 a.m.
Beef Cattle Pasture Walk, Conrad
and Bonnie Fisher’s Farm,
Green Lane, 7 p.m.
(Turn to Pago A 39)
ness that may follow exposures to
heavy concentrations of organic
dust when shoveling or moving
organic materials such as oats,
wood chips, compost, and silage.
The syndrome is characterized
by fever occurring 4 to 12 hours
after exposure and flu-like symp
toms such as general weakness,
headache, chills, and cough.
DOTS usually disappears within
24 hours to a few days after the
worker is removed from the
exposure.
No specific therapy is needed to
treat ODTS. However, the syn
drome may often be misdiagnosed
as acute bronchitis, influenza, or
farmer’s lung disease, which may
lead to unnecessary or excessive
treatment with medication.
You should minimize the risk of
exposure by carefully harvesting
and storing agricultural products to
minimize spoilage, use automated
or mechanized equipment to move
decayed materials, use engineer
ing controls such as local exhaust
ventilation and wet methods to
control dust, and use appropriate
respirators.
I BY LAWRENCE W ALTHQUSe !
*
LET'S GO BACK!
August 14,1994
LET'S GO BACK!
August 14, 1994
Background Scripture:
Numbers 13 through 14
Devotional Reading:
Numbers 23:18-23
“Let us choose a captain, and go
back to Egypt” (14:4). So said the
people of Israel when the twelve
spies whom Moses had sent into
the land of Canaan gave their re
port
So say many people today when
they are confronted with “an evil
report.” The “captain” may be a
political candidate, a religious fig
ure, or a charismatic person who
promises a return to the good old
days. It is a fact of life that lots of
people would rather accept the
known hardship of an Egypt than
the seeming elusive promise of
Canaan.
Before we come down too hard
on the people of Israel, let us
acknowledge that their reaction is
understandable because we often
respond to life in the same way.
We long for the Promised Land,
but we don’t want to have to take
any risks to get there. And when it
is apparent that there are grave
risks we frequently find it more at
tractive to go back to what was.
instead of what can be. We as
sume that misery that is familiar is
less uncomfortable than misery
that is uncertain.
YOU CAN’T GO BACK
One of the lessons that the Bible
teaches us, however, is that you
cannot go back. Even if you return
to a place geographically, it is not
the same for life moves on inexor
ably. It is impossible for humans
to hold back or even delay the
march of time. Continuing change
is one of the themes of the Old
Testament and it is one of the
hardest lessons for us to learn.
Change makes us fearful. Any
thing that disturbs our status quo
is likely to make us resistant But
change was inevitable for the
twelve tribes of Israel in the wil
demeii and it is inevitable for us.
If we consider it bad news when
To Guard
PTO Shafts
According to National Institute
for Occupational Safety and
Health. 112 people died as a result
of entanglement in PTO-driven
shafts from 1980-1989.
Nearly 10,000 non-fatal entan
glement injuries also occurred on
farms between 1982 and 1986. Of
these accidents, 864 resulted in
amputation. In addition, at least
five women have been scalped in
PTO accidents.
These injuries, amputations,
and deaths are caused by the use of
inadequately guarded machinery
and the failure to follow proper
safety precautions.
Ensuring that the original or
available retrofit guards ate in
placed on farm equipment, disen
gaging the PTO, and turning off
the tractor ignition before perform
ing maintenance on PTO-driven
equipment will prevent entangle
ment incidents.
Feather Profs Footnote: "We
are continually faced by great
opportunities brilliantly disguised
as insoluble problems."
God tells us of change, we need
also to listen to the good news that
goes with it: God goes with us into
the changing future and not only
sustains us amidst the perils of it,
but transforms many of the perils
into opportunity and advantage.
We are right to distrust the future,
but wrong not to trust in God.
That is the key to the report of
twelve spies. They were agreed on
one aspect of their reconnais
sance; Canaan was all that God
had led them to expect. “It flows
with milk and honey, and this is its
fruit,” they said, bringing back a
cluster of the abundant grapes
they found in the Valley of Eshcol
(which means “cluster”)- Reports
of the future usually have some
element of positive opportunity.
There is something to be gained
by going forward.
MILK & HONEY
But the spies did not agree on
the second part of their report.
Moses had asked them to spy out
both the land and the people: “Go
into the Negeb yonder, and go up
into the hill country, and see what
the land is, and whether the people
who dwell in it are strong or weak,
whether they are few or many..."
(13:17,18). Ten of the twelve
spies reported that taking the
Promised Land was beyond the
capabilities of the Israelites.
“.. .all the people that we saw in it
are men of great stature.. .and we
seemed to ourselves like grass
hoppers, and so we seemed to
them” (13:32,33). But Caleb and
Joshua saw the same situation dif
ferently: “Let us go up at once,
and occupy it; for we are well able
to overcome it,” said Caleb.
Note that these twelve men all
had the same experience in the
same place. Ten of them, how
ever, saw dangerous futility in the
same place where two of them saw
opportunity to do God’s will. Ten
of them came down with the
“grasshopper complex,” while
two were willing to trust in God’s
promise. . .
Often, that’s the same choice
that confronts us.
Lancaster Farming
Established 19SS
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
by
Lancaster Farming! Inc.
A SMiman Emnprim
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Everett H. Nawewanger Managing Edtor
Coeyrifht teee by Lanoeelar Fermlni