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VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
QUARRYVILLE (Lancaster
Co.) The Lancaster County
Holstein Club held its 45th annual
banquet Tuesday at the Solanco
Fairgrounds in Quarryville.
The club meets annually to
review club business, elect officers
and to present awards. Jack Cole
man presided.
Speakers included Kenneth
Raney, representative for the state
association, Clarence Stauffer,
representing Holstein Association
USA, and club officers.
In elections for director, Lowell
Brubaker, of Manheim, was
selected to serve a two-year term,
while Rick Hess, of Lancaster,
Larry Kennel, of Mount Joy, and
Gerald Risser, of Bambridge, were
selected to serve full-length terms.
It was announced that the club
has a bam meeting scheduled to be
held 7:30 p.m., Dec. 4, at the
Masonic Home Farms. The topic is
to be bird and rodent control, but
the farm was also recently remod
eled and will be open for a tour.
Those who attend the meeting
can qualify for pesticide credits.
In his address, Raney reviewed
the services of the organization,
reminding members that those
who renew memberships by Dec. 1
receive a $3 discount, while those
who renew by mid-January qualify
their local club for a $2 rebate from
the state organization.
He also talked about the fact that
Pa. Holstein has been marketing
cattle for export. He said they are
currently getting an order together
for a sale to Saudi Arabia.
Raney said the registered heifers
should be from dams averaging at
least 17,000 pounds milk, and pre
gnant three to seven months.
He said that breeders may also
be interested in tentative orders for
bred heifers about mid-spring.
Further, he said that anyone
looking for good registered or
grade Holsteins should contact the
association.
Stauffer reviewed the national
organization’s identification
options, the fact that prices have
been reduced for registering older
bulls, and that many prices have
been reduced because the organi
zation has realized a sufficient
amount of investment income to
cover the losses from the lower
service fees to members.
John Howard, county club
member and a national director,
reviewed the national finances,
and discussed other services and
offerings available through the
national organization.
In junior-member awards pre
sentations, Denise Bollinger
received first place in the club’s
human interest photography con
test with a photo of one of her
calves that had gotten loose and
was sniffing sheets drying on the
clothes line.
Brian Mull received first prize
in the club’s working photography
contest with a professional
looking photograph he took of him
and one of his cows.
In production awards, a cow
owned by Justin Wivcl won first
place for 2-year-old production,
while Jeremy Welk won first place
in the 3-year-old class.
In the club’s Distinguished
Junior Member contest, Leslie
Howard was the winner and
received a show box. In the inter
mediate age class Jeremy Meek
was the winner and won a show
calf donated by Welk-Shade
Acres.
Meek’s new calf, Welk-Shade
AJ. Delight, is an Astro Jet
daughter out of an Ultimate dam.
Lancaster County Holstein Club Reviews Year
The calf was donated by Welk-
Shade Acres to support the Lan
caster County Holstein Club’s
annual distinguished junior mem
ber contest. Each year the club pre
sents a show calf to the
intermediate-aged youth member
who wins the club’s distinguished
junior member contest
In other production awards,
Spring-Lawn Farm’s Target GE—
PO was first junior 2-year-old in
all three catagories with 29,218
pounds milk, I,o3opounds fat, and
849 pounds of protein.
They also had the highest milk
producing senior 2-year-old,
Spring-Lawn Deputy Latsy with
30,923 pounds of milk
Vem and Lois Umble had the
senior 2-year-old with the highest
production, Maril-Dale Cleitus
Caroline with 1,234 pounds of fat
and 910 pounds of protein.
Static Rock Farm had the highest
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From the left, Lancaster County Junior Holstein mem
bers receiving recognition are Denise Bollinger, winner of
the club’s human interest photography contest, Jeremy
Welk, winner of the club production contest for a 3-year-old,
and Brian Mull, winner of the club’s working photography
contest.
Learn To Balance
Present, Future Needs
BRUCE H. MOYER
Union County
Cooperative Extension
Agent
Balancing present and future
needs is no easy task. It is a task
made even more difficult when we
arc working with limited or finite
resources.
We have all faced, at one time
or another, the difficult decision of
whether to use ouf limited resour
ces today or to save them for some
future need. The decision
becomes even more difficult if it
involves choices that will impact
our children and grandchildren
long after we are gone.
The same holds true for many
decisions that are made by our
government —be it local, state or
national. With our finite natural
resources, do we consume to satis
fy today’s needs or do we expend
our resources in such a manner to
meet the needs of future
generations?
How much do we care about
people whose lives won’t begin
until long after our own have
ended? How much should we care
about them?
These questions often come up
when we contemplate environ
mental issues that benefit people
who are separated by many years
or even generations from those
who pay the costs.
Locally this could involve deci
sions on the restoration of wet
lands or waterways, recycling, die
use of prime agricultural land for
3-year-olds. Its junior 3-year-old
Gaywell B Aerostar made 34,002
pounds of milk, 1,239 pounds of
fat and 984 pounds of protein.
Its Musser Frandale Dingo Bet
ty made 42,467 pounds of milk,
2,055 pounds of fat, and 1,234
pounds of protein.
The top milk-producing 4-year
old was Wood-Spring Likabul
Rusty, owned by Dale and Debbie
Hersehy, with 36,730 pounds.
The top butterfat and protein
producing 4-year-old was Rayside
Tesk Valiant Kim, owned by Glen
da Farms, with 1,141 pounds of
fat, 1,048 pounds of protein.
The top senior aged cow for
milk production was Ken Zurin’s
Kenbum Daydream Rosita with
37,333 pounds.
Star Rock Farm had the highest
fat and protein producing aged
cow with its Russeldald Count
Casey making 1,441 pounds fat
and 965 pounds protein.
development, the storage of low
level radioactive waste, and many
other very sensitive issues.
On the national level, it could
involve decisions to limit carbon
emissions or preservation of the
ozone layer. Whether the best
interests of both present and future
generations are being equitably
met with these decisions can, to
some degree, be addressed on
whether a dollar’s worth of future
benefits is worth less than a dol
lar’s worth of present costs —what
economists call discounting.
Discounting is the opposite of
what we know as compounding
interest on our savings accounts.
Compound interest increases the
value of our savings over time, in
an accelerated fashion.
If you have SlOO in your sav
ings account today at 6 percent
interest, it would be worth $lO6 in
a year. Because the 6 percent
interest will be earned on not just
the initial $lOO, but the added $6
as well, the gains in the second
year will be $6.36.
Over time, these compounding
gains become substantial. At 6
percent interest the $lOO invest
ment will be worth about $2OO in
twelve years, $4,000 in 24 years,
and $B,OOO in 36 years. In 100
years it would be worth about
$34,000.
So you see, in this case, a penny
saved is more than a penny
earned. After a century, the penny
becomes $3.40. In 1626, the
Dutch bought Manhattan for a
Jeremy Meek holds the halter of his new calf, Welk-Shade
A.J. Delight, an Astro Jet daughter out of an Ultimate dam.
The calf was donated by Walk-Shade Acres to support the
Lancaster County Holstein Club’s annual distinguished
junior member contest. Each year the club presents a show
calf to the intermediate-aged youth member who wins the
club’s distinguished Junior member contest.
Leslie Howard stands with her show box award pre
sented to her for being named the Lancaster County Hols
tein Club’s Junior-aged distinguished Junior member.
mere $24. If that sum had been
invested at just over 6 percent per
year, it would have yielded more
than $4O billion in 1990. This is
about the total income generated
in Manhattan that year.
Discounting operates in the
opposite way. While compound
ing measures how much present
day investments will be worth in
the future, discounting measures
how much future benefits are
worth today.
To figure the discount present
value, we must first choose a dis
count rate to transform benefits a
year from now into benefits today.
If we choose the same discounting
rate as the interest rate in our
example on compounding, $lO6 a
year from now would be equal in
value to $lOO today. Discounting
the benefits of a project that gen
erates $2OO in twelve years by a
discount rate of 6 percent per year
would tell us th it those benefits
arc worth $lOO loday.
The paramount consideration in
assessing future environmental
benefits in this fashion is the size
of the discount rate. The larger the
discount rate, the less future bene
fits will count when compared
with current costs. If the discount
rate were 10 percent, $2OO in
twelve years would only be worth
about $64 today. If the rate were 3
percent, the current value would
be $l4O. At zero discount rate, $1
of benefits in the future would be
worth $1 in cost today. So you can.
see, differences in discount rates
becomes crucial for benefits span
ning very long periods.
This type of economic analysis
can be very beneficial when mak
ing difficult decisions on how to
allocate scarce resources. As long
as resource scarcity makes trade
offs between the present genera
tion and future generations inevit
able, considerations on environ
mental issues to benefit future
generations cannot ignore eco
nomic opportunity cost. However,
such decisions are made in the
political arena where pure eco
nomics is not the only game in
town. Decision makers arc forced
to consider ethical concerns and
value judgments along with eco
nomics when deciding these diffi
cult and complex issues.
To say that present and future
generations have equal standing in
an ethical sense docs not necessar
ily imply that they have the same
claim on present resources,
because the general level of
wealth or well-being may change
over time. One could argue, we
should sacrifice today for the ben
efit of future generations only if
the average well-being of people
in the future goes up by more than
we lose on average today. If pre
sent trends continue, advances in
technology and knowledge will
make people better off in the
future than we are today. In that
case, more than a dollar of gains to
them would be needed to make up
for a dollar lost to us.