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Vol. 40 No. 27
National Officers Share Enthusiasm For FFA Program
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.)
Six of the nation’s brightest and
most articulate teens gave vibrant
testimony to the advantages of par
ticipating in FFA recendy.
The six are national FFA offic
ers who presented a leadership
workshop for Milton Hershey
School students. The three-day
workshop -offered a glimpse into
the opportunities and growth the
FFA team experienced through
their FFA involvement.
“It’s the greatest experience of
my life and something that could
be yours,” Travis Hagen told the SO
students who were selected to
attend the pilot program.
It was the first time the national
FFA officers presented the work
shop. for which they developed the
curriculum. This pilot program
will be fine-tuned and presented to
state officers across the U.S. as the
national officers spend 320 days on
Environmental Regs, Consumer Groups Challenge Poultry Producers
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
MANHEIM (Lancaster Co.)
Heavy government regulations in
countries such as The Netherlands
have made it tougher to produce
poultry products. As a result, edu
cators and industry personnel have
had to forge viable working rela
tionships to help solve the ensuing
Keith and Helen Matter stand at the entrance to Sternum
Maeter Potatoes Inc., their Schuylkill County family farm
buaineae.
60e Per Copy
the road and log 150,000 air miles
fulfilling their year-long term.
Each national officer worked
with a team member to present
workshops. The topics varied from
the structure of FFA’s founding 68
years ago to issues confronting
agriculture today.
The national FFA officers are
headed by president Corey Flour
noy from Chicago. As an urban
student, Corey’s interest in agricul
ture was sparked in 1988 when he
decided to attend the Chicago High
School for Agricultural Sciences.
“I attended the school because it
was strong in math and science, not
because I was interested in ag,”
Corey said. “But every student at
the school is involved in FFA. I
was motivated to participate by
teachers who were excited about
opportunities available through the
program.”
That enthusiasm was conta
gious. Corey’s interest in career
(Turn to Pago A 32)
environmental and economic
issues.
In fact, it is becoming a chal
lenge to try to control poultry food
borne and other diseases simply
because industry has its hands tied
by many regulations as a result of
intense lobbying by powerful con
sumer advocacy groups.
And the controversies never
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 13, 1995'"
National FFA offieara gather at Milton Herehey School to teach how FFA makee a
positive difference in the lives of students by developing potential for premier leader
ship, personal growth, and career success through agriculture education. From left,
Travis Hagen, secretary; Lee Schroeder, Eastern region vice president; Corey Flour
noy, president; Greg Vetter, Western region vice president: Trisha Bailey, southern
region vice president: and Jennafer Neufeld, central region vice president.
cease. In one case, according to a
visiting professor from Holland, a
consumer organization went to a
supermarket, bought 100 broilers,
and claimed to newspapers that up
to 35 percent of the chickens were
“contaminated” with Salmonella
when in fact, only five or six
had small amounts of the bacteria
in them.
The Netherlands export a lot of
poultry products, but have had to
deal with the problems of manure,
according to Dr. Ron Meijerhof,
visiting professor from the Centre
for Applied Poultry Research,
Spclderholt, The Netherlands.
Meijerhof spoke to about 35 poul
try producers at the Penn State
sponsored Poultry Management
and Health Seminar on Monday at
Kreidcr Farms Restaurant.
Meijerhof said The Netherlands
are known for several exports,
mosdy flowers. Also high on the
export list are poultry and hogs to
Germany and beer to many
countries.
Meijerhof spoke about the gen
eral research under way to deal
with the environmental issues of
high production of poultry, about
Family Farm Business Helps
Post-Coal Economy
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
SACRAMENTO (Schuylkill
Co.) Keith Masser is a family
farmer and seventh-generation
potato producer in the Schuylkill
County town of Sacramento.
He wears a ball cap and some
times a blond beard stubble.
His striped work shirt has his
name tag sewn over the left breast,
and he wears work pants and work
shoes.
Masser plows, plants and he
plans. His hands have calluses.
the research on layers and
at the Centre, and about the tech
niques to manage the huge
amounts of manure to contain the
ammonia and phosphorous.
At the research farm, the breed
er houses are constructed of all
brick with special equipment for
air inlet control and other mea
sures. “We build our houses (to
last) almost forever,” he said.
“That makes it quite costly.”
A great deal of the layer
Districts Honor Soil
Stewardship Week
KAREN BUTLER
Maryland Correspondent
FREDERICK, Md. “A part
nership to develop, promote, and
deliver conservation resource pro
grams and to meet resource man
agement challenges” is how Roy
den Powell, HI, assistant secretary
of agriculture for the state of
Maryland, described the team
work among many agencies repre-
As president of Sternum Masser
Potatoes Inc., he also employs,
full-time, 35 people at his potato
packing plant that he built on the
home Gum, expanding his father’s
original 1 00-acrc potato farm.
Sacramento developed, as did
many small communities in the
rolling ridge and valley area, pri
marily as a coal town. But miners
needed food and a number of far
mers supplied miners’ tables with
milk, meat and vegetables.
The name of the town means
little outside of the area, but its
Four Sections
is on how to produce
more efficiently with less waste,
while looking into the economics
of the production. Also, different
types of equipment are used to aid
in the study of breeder production
and layer management
‘ ’We put quite a lot of money in
all those little things that we have
in that house, a lot more than you
do here. It’s not a matter of good or
bad or better or worse or whatever,
(Turn to Pag* A 27)
sented here at a recent soil ste
wardship luncheon.
Powell was the guest speaker at
the Catoctin and Frederick Soil
Conservation district’s luncheon
recently, in honor of Soil Steward
ship Week.
Daniel C. Poole, chairman of
the Catoctin Soil Conservation
District, welcomed a group of
(Turn to Paqo A 34)
location is just west of Hegins, a
place reeling in good fortune, ever
since the town’s historic live
pigeon shoot was targeted by an
extremist animal rights group as a
place to find victory in defeating
an “animal abuse.”
Locals there chuckle at how the
annual shoot, held to raise funds to
operate the town park, was on its
way out because of a lack of atten
dance, until the event became
publicized and deemed evil by the
anti-animal use group.
(25.00 P«r Ytar
(Turn to Pag* A2O)