AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 9, 1995
OPINION
Been There, Done That,
Let's Move On!
The year was 6500 8.C.: bom in a cave—what you saw was
all you needed to know from birth to death. The ratio of new
information to known information was 1/100,000. By the year
1950 we knew what our parents knew. The ratio had advanced
to 1/100. Recall and memorization were adequate methods for
learning new information. In the year 1965, the popular saying
of young people was, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” and the
ratio of new information to known information broke even at
1/1. By the year 2000 the ratio of new information to known
information will be 100/1. At this point the human brain can no
longer process the new information as fast as it receives it. We
are drowning in knowledge.
We can no longer teach effectively using the same methods
we did in the 1950 s and ’6os. The schools that have effectively
prepared us or our parents will no longer effectively prepare
our children to be “productive, contributing members of
society.”
Agricultural technology is certainly not exempt: it will
advance more rapidly in the next five years than it did in the
previous 50 years. Competencies necessary for job perfor
mance will change at an equally rapid pace. The rate at which
agricultural technology is changing is such that by the time a
student is trained for a skill-specific occupation, there is a good
likelihood the skill or the occupation will be obsolete. Research
shows that a person will change jobs at a rate of once eveiy five
to seven years. Keeping all these factors in mind, we realize
that if we continue using the skill specific only approach, every
five to seven years the average worker may have to go through
a retraining process.
Research also shows that by the year 2000, an estimated
15,000,000 manufacturing jobs will require more advanced
technical skills, and an equal number of service jobs will
become obsolete. Fifty percent of developing jobs will require
skills greater than those provided by existing educational pro
grams. Sixty percent of today’s students will woik in jobs that
don’t currently exist.
To address these challenges, education/vocational education
will need to design educational programs which will produce
thinkers and problem solvers rather than assehibly line robots.
Common sense should tell us that students who can function in
a variety of job situations won’t require extensive retraining.
As we design programs, it will be important that we under
stand these challenges. To address these challenges, we will
need to design secondary, post-secondary and adult programs
that offer flexibility for training in multiple occupational areas
offering a broad-minded spectrum of opportunity. We will
need to incorporate, in a deliberate and organized way, adult
educational opportunities into the overall educational picture.
Adult educational programs should provide; advanced level job
placement; job maintenance; updating.
Agricultural education is also faced with a challenge of
dwindling personnel, resources and commitment as is true with
much of the agriculture industry. To effectively address this
challenge, we need to get serious about developing collabora
tive efforts for pooling resources from any or all educational
and agricultural entities. A collaborative effort'of networking
as partners can provide dynamic opportunities for training the
agricultural work force of the 21st century.
History teaches us, ‘To know the past is to forge the future.”
Understand the present, envision the future ano move on.
—Timothy A. Weller, Agriculture Education Advisor,
Pennsylvania Department of Education.
Maryland Pleasure Horse Semi
nar, South Carroll High School,
Winfield, Md., 8 a.m.
Frederick County Ag Society
stockholders meeting, Freder-
Moihl.i\. iH’d'inlKM II
ADADC District 21 meeting, Tim-
>•
* Farm Calendar ♦
berwolf Restaurant, Darren,
Farm Employee Management
Seminar, Carlisle Holiday Inn,
also Dec. 20.
Berks/Lehigh Valley Milking
Schools, Berks Ag Center, 9:45
a.m.-3 p.m., also Dec. 20.
Shade Tree Association meeting of
southeastern Pennsylvania,
Morris Arboretum, U. of Pa., 7
p.m.
(Turn to Pago A3l)
To Look At
Corn Contest
Results
When you look at the data from
the National Com Growers Asso
ciation yield contest, many things
may be learned from the results
and the information provided by
the growers.
In 1994 a total of 3,172 com
growers from 24 states partici
pated. Here are a few questions
people are asking about com pro
duction and answers from contest
results:
• Is there one best com variety
to plant? In 1994 a total 0f448 dif
ferent hybrids were entered in the
contest. The 417 winners planted
140 different varieties. This sup
ports the idea that there are many
good hybrids available to growers.
Growers who select die best
hybrids from those available in
their area have a good chance of
producing an excellent yield.
• Do farmers practice crop rota
tion? Growing die same crop year
after year is not good management
In the 1994 program, S 3 percent of
the entries were planted following
soybeans and only 25 percent were
planted following com.
To Look At
Corn Fertilization
Looking at results from the
National Com Growers Associa
tion yield contest, we can look at
two questions regarding nitrogen
fertilization:
1. Do farmers overfertilize
com? Most research has shown
that com needs between 1.1 and
1.5 pounds of nitrogen to produce
a bushel of com. In 1994, die aver
age yield of all farmers entered in
the contest was 192 bushels. They
applied an average of 180 pounds
of nitrogen or about 0.94 pounds of
nitrogen per bushel of com. The
winners in the program had an
average yield of 203 bushels per
acre with an average application of
198 pounds of nitrogen per acre or
about 0.98 pounds per bushel. This
information would support the
conclusion that farmers do not
overfertilize, not even to win
contests!
2. Do growers sidedress nitro
gen? Only 9 percent of the winning
growers applied nitrogen in the
fall. Fifty-nine percent applied
Farm Financial Management
Workshop, Centre County
Extension, Bellefonte, 10
Seminar, Williamsport Shera
ton Inn, also Dec. 21.
Winter Meeting of the Pa. Seeds
men’s Association, Eden
Resort Inn, Lancaster, 10 a.m.
some fertilizer before planting and
67 percent applied at least part of
their nitrogen at sidedress time, the
most environmentally beneficial
time to apply nitrogen. Fifty-eight
percent of the growers had a soil
test taken before planting the crop.
To Properly
Handle Livestock
Understanding cattle psycholo
' gy and providing well-designed
facilities will cut stress for produc
ers and their cattle, according to
Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado
State University.
Cattle have long memories.
Animals that have been handled
roughly will be more stressed and
difficult to handle in the future.
However, animals handled
gently and accustomed to the
handling procedures will have
very little stress what handled.
Because of their long memories,
cattle remember painful restraint
methods such as nose tongs. Hand-
BY LAWRENCE W. ALTHOUSE
'rotm
THE BIG PICTURE
December 10,1995
THE BIG PICTURE
December 10, 199 S
Background Scripture:
Isaiah 51:1-8
Devotional Reading:
Acts 27:14-26.
Do you ever feel like going
back to bed and pulling the covers
over your head after you’ve read
the morning paper? Disasters, vio
lence, corruption, and prejudice
are what the editors of our local
newspaper put oh the front page.
If anyone anywhere is doing any
thing that is worthwhile, it is like
ly to be buried somewhere near
the obituaries.-Or is your news
paper different from mine?
If you don’t read the newspa
per, perhaps you watch the news
on television or one of those talk
shows where, everyone washes
their dirty laundry in public. May
be you were one of those who for
the better part of a year were glued
to the O.J. Simpson trial. Regard
less of which category fits you the
result may be pretty much the
same: a sense of helplessness,
frustration and fear.
There are different ways we can
choose to regard all the daily bad
news. Alternative one is to reason
that none of the bad news has any
thing to do with you and ignore it.
The second option is at the other
end of the scale; to feel you per
sonally ought to be doing some
thing about each and every prob
lem the world is facing.
“BIG” OF US
The third choice is to be con
cerned and respond where and
when you can, but leave the out
come in God’s hands which is
mighty “big” of us considering
that it always has been in His
hands. That is one of the enduring
values of the Bible it presents
us with the big picture against
which all our little pictures have to
be viewed. When we begin to
despair about a situation in our
lives or world, we need to look
back, as Isaiah says, and “Hearken
to me, you who pursue deliver
ance, you who seek the Lord; look
to the rock from which you were
hewn, and to the quarry from
which you were digged” (51:1).
The stories our Bible tells are
reminders to us that, in the long
run, God’s will and purpose pre
vail even though it seems a long
ling will become easier if you usea
halter to hold the head and keep
electric prod usage to an absolute
minimum. If you use tail twisting
to move a cow up the chute, let go
of the tail when she moves to
reward her.
Cattle will learn quickly to
move when their tails are touched.
The basic principle is to prevent
cattle from becoming excited.
They may become excited in just a
few seconds, but it will take 20 to
30 minutes for the heart rate to
return to normal in severely agi
tated cattle.
According to Grandin, the level
of cattle stress depends on several
things: the amount of contact with
people, quality of handling, and
genetics. Grandin recommends
culling the few individuals with a
bad temperament
Feather Prof’s Footnote:
“Reward success, respect indivi
duality and recognize problems as
opportunities."
time coming. “Look to Abraham,
your father,” Isaiah says, “and to
Sarah who bore you, for when he
was but one I called him and I
blessed him and made him many”
(v 2).
The story of Abraham is the
saga of God’s faithful providence
and Abraham’s trust in God, even
when the fulfillment of the prom
ise seemed a vain hope.
I pray daily for peace in the for
mer Yugoslavia, in Ireland, in Sri
Lanka and elsewhere because I am
truly concerned. If and when I get
a personal opportunity to do
something positive to back up my
prayers, I do so. For the rest, I
leave it in God’s hand and trust
that His will and purpose will pre
vail. I do the sane with the prob
lems of our own nation: racial
divisiveness, political turmoil,
unemployment, social security,
medicare, rampant materialism,
and so forth. When I have prayed
and worked the best I can, the rest
is in God’s hands.
IN GOD’S HANDS
It is good to be reminded of the
big picture: “for the heavens will
vanish like smoke, the earth will
wear out like a garment, and they
who dwell in it will die like
gnats...” Why? Because God
assures me: “but my salvation will
be forever, and my deliverance
will never be ended” (51:6). That
promise is the one thing that 1 can
trust, the one assurance by which I
can live.
1 won’t say that what others say
or do doesn’t ever disturb me. But
I am learning to live a life that is
not anchored to the approval and
encouragement of others. I can
understand Isaiah’s admonition:
“fear not the reproach of men, and
be not dismayed at their revilings.
For the moth will eat them up like
a garment, and the worm will eat
them like wool; but my deliver
ance will be forever, and my sal
vation to all generations” (51:7,
8).
Tomorrow morning when I read
my newspaper, you may be sure
that, regardless of what the head
lines scream, I will keep my mind
focused on the big picture.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Pflblished Every Saturday
Ephrala Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Epbrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Panning. Inc.
A Steinman Enterprise
Robert a Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Nawewangar Managing Editor
Copyright 1995 by Lancaster Farming