AlO-LancMt*r Farming, Saturday, June 10, 1995
OPINION
All Milk Safe
From Antibiotic Residues
Tests to screen all loads of milk for antibiotics at a level of five
parts per billion have been used throughout the U.S. since Janu
ary 1,1995. This means that consumers will not get any of the six
beta lactam classes (penicillin) or any illegal drugs in the milk
which they buy and consume.
Accordjng to Ronald Hostetler, Cambria County agent,
screening tests have been standardized at the most sensitive level
of S ppb, which they can detect with reproducible results. Pen
nsylvania has been screening loads of milk with the best tests
available for nearly three decades.
The Food and Drug Adminstration has determined that based
on the latest available technology that this is a safe level. With
any test or technology it is not practical or possible to attain a zero
level.
Presently every load of milk received at a processing plant in
Pennsylvania is sampled prior to unloading and processing and
tested by one or more screening tests. Any load positive at the 5
ppb level is disposed of for other than human food. Because anti
biotics are used to treat sick milk cows, more than 2,000,000
pounds of milk had to be disposed of in the January through
March period.
Similar procedures are used in all states with more than 68 mil
lion pounds being dumped in fiscal year 1994. These levels are
being reduced as success reaches more than 99 percent by the
action of dairy farmers who withold and dump milk from treated
cows. This is the way it should be.
Therefore, because of proper action by dairy fanners and the
aggressive testing procedures, consumers can be sure that the
fluid milk and dairy products they buy are safe and free from
harmful antibiotics.
Dauphin County 4-H Communica
tion Day, extension office, 10
a.m.-3 p.m.
Armstrong County dairy princess
pageant. Center Hill Church of
the Brethren Fellowship Hall,
Kittanning, 7:30 p.m.
Lebanon County dairy princess
pageant, Lebanon County Voc
ational School. 7:30 p.m.
Butler County dairy princess
pageant, Clearview Mall Cen
ter Court, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Chester County dairy princess
pageant, Coventryville U.
Methodist, 7:30 p.m.
Emu Open House, Hammercreek
Poultry Management and Health
Editor,
On Memorial Day, May 29, a
tornado took down the chicken
house on the Roy Weaver farm on
Camp Rodgers Road, Ephrata. For
the next three days, Mends and
neighbors came to help and
brought food for the workers. We
Seminar, Kreider’s Restaurant,
Manheim, noon.
Tioga County dairy princess
pageant, Mainesburg Com
munity Center, Mainesburg, 7
p.m.
Pa. Producers Research and Deve-
lopment Commission meeting,
Solanco Fairgrounds, Quarry-
State FFA Convention, Penn State
University, University Park,
thru June IS.
Mid-Atlantic Fruit School. W.Va.
University Experiment Farm
and Holiday Inn and Knights
Inn, Martinsburg, W.Va., thru
June IS.
Centre County Wool Pool, Grange
Fairgrounds, Centre Hall, 7
a.m.-ll:30 a.m., and 1 p.m.-2
(Turn to Pago All)
would like to thank everyone who
helped us. We are fortunate to live
in an area where people are so
willing to put aside their own
work to help a neighbor. We really
do need each other.
The Roy Weaver Family
Ephrata
To Choose
A Guardian
Death and taxes may not be any
one’s favorite topics. However,
people seem more willing to plan
for them than illness and disability
that may occur anytime.
Most people plan for death by
having a legally valid will. But
most people seem reluctant to pro
vide for someone to take care of
matters while they are still alive
but incapable of managing their
affairs.
A legal guardianship assigns the
financial responsibilities of one
person to another. People who
need a guardian because they are
physically or mentally unable to
manage their finances receive a
guardian by assigning one them
selves or allowing the court to
assign one.
When the courts appoint a guar
dian, they consider kinship and
geographical proximity. This
could be a person the ward would
not have chosen themselves. In
addition, a court-appointed guar
dian faces a tremendous burden of
paperwork and bureaucracy. Each
purchase and many financial trans
actions must be justified to the
court’s satisfaction.
With the help of a lawyer, draw
up a simple, durable power of
attorney that will assign responsi
bility to a guardian of your choice.
This makes things easier for the
ward and the guardian. The prob
lem with a durable power of attor
ney is that it may be drawn up only
when the person is still capable of
making important legal decisions.
When you are incapacitated, it is
too late.
Protect yourself and your family
by drawing up a durable power of
attorney.
To Know
Alternative Uses
Of Corn
Com is now being used for more
than animal feed. High fructose
com syrup is the sweetener of
choice in the expanding soft drink
industry.
Com is also a basic ingredient in
the production of high quality vita
mins and amino acids which were
previously derived only from the
petro-chemical industry.
In addition, we are seeing excit
ing developments in a number of
new product areas. An increasing
number of privately owned ethanol
plants have been started in lowa.
Ethanol is a clean burning alcohol
derived from com. It is also a
renewable energy resource.
The increased demand for pre
pared foods boosts the com pro
cessing industry, which provides
many of the starches, syrups, and
oils found in microwave, ready to
eat products.
Com starch has also found a role
in the manufacture of recycled
paper and the reduction of pollu
tion in waste water from paper
mills. Research has also shown
that com products may replace salt
as an ice melt.
All these new uses were made
possible from research. It is
another example of how funded
research creates new demands for
products.
To Be Aware
Of Poisonous
Plants
Summer storms and dried-up
pastures are two conditions that
increase animals’ exposures to
poisonous plants in pastures.
A variety of poisonous plants
are present on many farms. Fortu
nately, animals generally have the
good sense of not eating them.
However, very hungry and not
well-fed animals will be more like
ly to eat poisonous plants.
One of the leading causes of poi
soning is wilted wild cherry
BY LAWRENCE W ALTHQUSE
m
©asas
WHY ARE YOU LIMPING?
June 11,1995
WHY ARE YOU UMPING?
June 11, 1995
Background Scripture:
I Kings 18
Devotional Reading:
Deuteronomy 6:S-15a
In our newspaper recently I
read an article reporting a poll of
the American public indicating
that 95 percent of those polled said
they believed in God or some ulti
mate being!
At first, I was pleasantly sur
prised, but, after giving it some
thought, it occurred to me that I
need not have been so surprised.
In my own experience I have
found just about everyone I’ve
known could fit into that 95 per
centile. Actually. I’ve personally
known only one professional athe
ist and that was 50 years ago. I’ve
known some agnostics while
the atheist does not believe in
God. the agnostic believes that we
cannot know if there is a God.
But that doesn’t mean that the
balance of people left after you
subtract the atheists and agnostics
believe essentially the same. So,
more important than whether peo
ple believe in a deity is the kind of
deity in which they believe.
THE NAZI GOD
In the 1930 s and ’4os many Na
zis believed both in God and
Adolph Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoef
fer, a German Lutheran pastor,
protested that Nazism and Christi
anity were incompatible. The God
of Jesus Christ, he said, was not
the god of the Third Reich. For
those pronouncements he was
thrown into a concentration camp
and just SO years ago he was exe
cuted by the Third Reich.
During the Middle Ages there
arose in the Church, a diabolical
phenomenon called the Inquisi
tion. Some brave souls, martyrs
most of them, protested that the
God of Jesus was not the god of
the Inquisition. Historians have
helped us to understand that neith
er was the God of Jesus Christ the
god of the Crusades, nor of many
of the other aberrations that have
often been paraded under the ban
leaves. Limbs may break as a
result of storm damage. As the
leaves wilt, die levels of hydrogen
cyanide and sugars increase, mak
ing the leaves more poisonous and
more palatable. Once the leaves
become completely dry and
brown, they become safe.
Yew clippings is another source
of livestock poisoning. Some other
toxic plants are Jimson weed,
black nightshade, hemlock, brack
en fem and rhododendron and
azaleas.
To help prevent weed poisoning
in catde:
• Be sure animals are adequate
ly fed before turning them out to
pasture.
• Remove broken wild cherry
limbs from cow areas.
Never throw ornamental clip
pings into or next to pastures.
• Clip pastures regularly or use
an approved or labeled herbicide to
control unwanted weeds.
Feather Prof.’s Footnote;
"Begin each day with a personal
outlook that will open doors, wel
come opportunity, and bring
serenity."
ner of Christianity or some other
religion.
In our own times Christianity
has been used as a cloak to lend
respectability to other blasphe
mies against the God of Jesus
Christ Islam, Buddhism, and Hin
duism have also been abused in a
like manner. Someone has com
mented that God made us in his
own image and we have returned
the favor. Too often the god we
present to the world is not the God
of Jesus Christ but a projection of
human passions and prejudices.
WHO IS GOD?
So in I Kings 18 the prophet
Elijah comes to the people of Is
rael —and to us with two great
imperatives: “If die Lord is God,
follow him; but iffiaal, then fol
low him” (21). First the people
must decide who is God. Is it the
Lord or is it Baal? Is it the Creator/
Savior God of Abraham. Isaac, Is
rael, Moses and Joshua, or is it the
licentious deity of the Baalists?
And for us it is imperative that we
too decide what is the nature of the
God in whom we will believe, is
he the God of love revealed in
Christ or the god of prejudice and
injustice, the deity of selfish privi
lege? Just because we call our
selves Christians doesn’t mean the
god we serve is the Lord.
Once we have decided that, we
come to the second imperative;
follow the God you have chosen.
It is not enough to say you believe
in him, but to live as Jesus Christ
has shown us. The problem is that
often we try to profess one God
but serve many. We salute the
Lord of Jesus Christ but we pat
tern our lives and our society on
other gods. Elijah chided the Is
raelites. saying: “How long will
you keep hopping from one leg to
another?” switching from one
god to another? Choose just one
and live accordingly.
Elijah’s challenge is just as
timely for us; Why are you pro
fessing one God but failing to
serve Him alone? Why are you
still limping?
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
IE. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A SlUnman Entuprtso
Robert a Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Nawawangar Managing EdKor
Copyright 1995 by Umcutu Fuming