AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 30, 1996
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OPINION
“GOT MILK?" It's the punch line ton cute series of ads paid
for by dairy farmers with an assessment on the milk they
produce.
Got milk? What if the answer were “no?" Residents of New
York City can tell you how it felt, during the blizzard of '96,
when dairy cases were empty, when shoppers fought over the
last milk, and guards had to be posted on delivery trucks.
Got milk? Americans are lucky to have abundant, good food
at reasonable cost, American consumers expect this. But we’ve
all seen films of Russians, or Bosnians, or Africans, queued up,
waiting for food.
Got milk? Dairymen get an average $13.00 per cwt. for their
milk. Average cost to produce that milk is $16.00 per cwt. To
stay in business, you need a profit. Continued losses, and
you're out of business.
Got milk? Farm families do not know a 40-hour week. Their
children do not benefit from child labor laws. Farm families
work from well before dawn to exhaustion at night. So we can
have milk.
Got milk? We enjoy cheap, wholesome, and plentiful food,
thanks to unpaid and underpaid American farm family labor.
And today, American farm families find they cannot afford to
continue producing that food for those prices.
Got milk? What if the answer were “no?” Where would we
be without farm commodities? Without the food and fiber that
farmers produce?
Got milk? What if the answer were “no?” If farmers go out
of business, who will replace them? Who else has the versatili
ty, die Ingenuity, the foiow-how to operate a farm?
We have got to educate the consumer and we are all con
sumers that without farmers, there will be no milk. Without
farms, the grocery shelves will be empty. Without farms,
Americans will go hungry. And without fanners their inge
nuity, their versatility and their know-how there may be
land, there may be seed, there may be animals, there may be
equipment, but there will not be productive farms. Once gone,
the farming community will be hard to bring back.
Got milk: I think we know the answer. If we want to con
tinue to have milk, meat, grain, fruits, vegetables we’ve got to
make sure that farmers make a profit. Katherine Shelly, Sus
quehanna County Farm Bureau.
Fruit Tree Pruning Demonstration,
Bertram’s Orchard, Honesdale,
1 p.m.-3 p.m.
Ag and Biological Engineering at
Penn State Open House, Uni
Keystone Farm Credit annual
meeting, Yoder’s Restaurant,
New Holland, 6:15 p.m.
Timber taxation meeting for pri
vate landowners. Arena
ence, Nittany Lion Iqn, Univer
sity Park, thru April 3.
Solanco Young Farmers meeting,
farm stress management, Sol
anco High School, 7:30 p.m.
Dairylea informational meeting.
Fair Haven Inn, Fair Haven,
Vt., 1:30 p.m.
Dairylea informational meeting,
Leaning Pine Restaurant, Peru,
N.Y., 8 p.m.
Dauphin County Farm Bureau
spring meeting banquet. Camp
* Hebron, Halifax, 7 p.m.
Keystone Farm Credit annual
Got Milk!
❖ Farm Calendar*
meeting. Holiday Inn, Fogels-
ville, 6:15 p.m.
Pa. Council of Cooperative Exten
sion Associations annual meet-
ing, Nittany Lion Inn, State
Collette. 9:15 a.m.-3 u.m.
DmryleainfonnaSonal meeting,
American Legion, Schaghti-
coke, N.Y., 1 p.m.
Dairylea informational meeting.
Best Western, Little Falls,
N.Y. V 7:30 p.m.
Alternative Ag Conference For
Southern Md., Waldorf Jaycee
Community Center, WaldoiT,
Md., 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Tioga 2000 Seminar, Schoonov
er’s Restaurant, Middlebury
Center, 12:30 p.m,-3 p.m.
Bradford County/Pa. DHIA
Spring Conference, Sinbad’s
Restaurant, 10 a.m.
ManorFFA awards banquet, Penn
Manor High School, 6:30 p.m.
Ohio Spring Dairy Spectacular,
Ohio State Fairgrounds, Col
umbus. Ohio, thru April 6.
Kickoff barbecue dinner, Ohio
Spring Dairy Spectacular,
Voinovich Center, Ohio State
Fairgrounds, 4 p.m.
t *, *
To Use
Safety Features
While headlines in news articles
and ads may highlight the ever
increasing productivity of new
farm equipment, the revolution in
safety has been just as dramatic.
Guards and shields are being
designed to allow easy service
access to the components they pro
tect so people will be more likely
to keep the shields in place. Hand
holds and footsteps have been pos
itioned for easy reach and designed
for non-slip gripping.
Equipment controls are more
clearly marked with colors and
symbols standardized throughout
the industry. The controls are
easier to operate to minimize
fatigue and improve control.
Lighting systems have been
improved to help you see and be
seen. Various safety interlocks and
operator present controls reduce
the possibility of starting in gear or
working on running equipment
Safety is one area where manu
facturers set aside their competi
tive strategies and work together to
offer safety equipment to farmers.
Industry councils meet regularly to
discuss safety issues and share
thoughts on ways to make all farm
equipment safer.
To Cater
To The Cow
High producing cows spend
most of their time doing three basic
things: standing to be milked,
standing to eat, and lying down
chewing their cud and making
milk.
With this in mind, Glenn Shirk,
extension dairy agent, states a
dairy fanner’s goals should be:
• Encourage cows to maximize
feed intake. Each pound of dry
matter a cow consumes has the
capability of producing about two
and half pounds of milk, provided
the ration is properly balanced and
the cow is healthy and
comfortable.
• Encourage cows to lie down
and chew their cud. When they
chew their cud, they produce more
saliva which keeps their rumen
Farm
Show Complex. Harrisburg,
and Education Center, Quecn
-9:45
1 msd.n. \|>i 1 1 ')
Ephrata Young Fanners meeting.
(Turn to Pag* A 34)
functioning at peak efficiency,
thus producing more nutrients for
milk production. Also, when cows
lie down, more blood flows
through their udders. This blood is
carrying the nutrients they need to
make milk.
• Minimize the time cows are
standing up and away from feed, hi
other words, keep fresh feed in the
manager all the time. Do not keep
cows standing more than one hour
waiting to be milked. Make sure
feed and water are easily accessi
ble to cows all the time, especially
after milking.
• Provide cows vwth a non
threatening environment so they
may eat and lie down with the
assurance that they will be safe.
To Use IPM
An abbreviation frequently in
the news is IPM. This is short for
Integrated Pest Management
Or. Tim Elkner, extension horti
cultural agent reminds us that IPM
involves using chemical, biologi
cal, and cultural practices to pro-
r i
BY LAWRENCE W. ALTHOUSe|
*®aS!Li
GOOD REASONS FOR
BAD DECISIONS
March 31, 1996
GOOD REASONS FOR
BAD DECISIONS
March 31. 1996
Background Scripture:
Luke 14:1-24
Devotional Reading:
Luke 14:7-14
Have you noticed he# often in
the parables of Jesus there seem to
be such good reasons for bud deci
sions? It was concern for his own
family that led the. unforgiving
servant to beg for a mercy he
refused to give to others. It was a
sense of fairness that caused the
workers in the vineyard to
grumble against the householder.
It was fear of the Master's reac-*
lions that led the one-talent ser
vant to bury his talent in the
ground. All good reasons but bad
decisions.
And in the parable of the great
feast, what could be more logical
than for invitees to ask to be
excused so that one could: (1) take
care of a newly-bought field, (2)
another look after five yoke of
oxen, (3) and a third to attend to
his new wife? These are all good
reasons, aren’t they?
Yes, they would appear to be
just as many reasons we give for
failing to respond to God’s call.
Look, God, you know I spend
every waking moment on my job;
there's no time for anything else.
Father, you know if I had blown
the whistle on my own company, I
would’ve been out of a job and my
family out on the street. Jesus, I
couldn’t afford to get involved;
I’ve got to live in this neighbor
hood. These are all good reasons,
too as far as they go.
DIVINE VS.
HUMAN REASONS
The problem with all of the
above is that God and his children
often see things vciy diffemtly.
Jesus makes this point several
times in Luke 14. Dining at the
home of a local functionary, Jesus
heals a man of dropsy. The
lawyers and Pharisees present are
outraged for they see this act as a
violation on the Sabbath. Jesus
does not: “Is it lawful to heal on
the Sabbath, or not?” Jesus asks
them.
Then he tells another parable
vide effective and environmentally
sound control of weeds and other
pests.
Any type of farming enterprise
could benefit from IPM. The
potential advantages are both eco
nomical and environmental.
There are several things you
need to keep in mind when setting
up or evaluating an IPM program.
First, an effective IPM program
suppresses pests rather than eradi
cating them. Second, your IPM
program must take into account the
local environmental and ecologi
cal conditions.
Each operation’s IPM program
may be different to control the
same pests. Finally, an effective
IPM program takes time to deve
lop and extra care to plan, imple
ment and monitor. However, the
time you devote to your program
will surely pay for itself in the
future.
Feather Prof.’s Footnote:
"Winners never quit. Quitters nev
er win."
and makes it clear that God’s view
of honor and importance are quite
different from ours. Take the
humble place at the banquet table,
he counsels. “For cveiy one who
exalts himself will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself will
be exalted” (14:11). But that is not
the way we team it, is it? The best
seats go to those we judge to be
the best people even in
churches.
Another difference can be dis
cerned from our invitation list
Don’t invite your friends and rela
tive or rich neighbors, he says.
“But when you give a feast, invite
the poor, the maimed, the lame,
the blind, and you will be blessed,
because they cannot repay you.
You will be repaid at the resurrec
tion of the just" (14:12-14). The
wisdom of this world says, get
your reward now!
sn
In the parable of the great feast,
Jesus makes is plain that the great
feast is the kingdom of heaven and
these people are passing it up for
much lesser things. And the vciy
people they disdain (he most
the poor, the helpless, the outcasts
will be there in their stead.
Their reasons are nothing more
than excuses. The word “excuse”
comes from the Latin ex causa,
meaning “free of charge.” They
are the mental gymnastics by
which we hope to free ourselves of
the charges against us. The Rev.
George Arthur Buttrick has said
that “Everyone is prone to set a
screen of lies between himself and
reality. Life is a process of remov
ing the Screens so that in God’s
light shall we see light” (Ps. 36:9).
Jesus challenges us as he chal
lenged his listeners to remove the
screens that keep us from seeing
(he divine reality and stop giving
good reasons for making bad
decisions.
The AMiouse will lead a group
to the Holy Land, Oct, 9 to Nov. 2,
1996. Space limited. For informa
tion, write them at 4412 Shenan
doah Ave., Dallas, TX 75205,
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
PQbfished Every Saturday
Ephnta Review Building
lE. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Submit Enterprise
Robert O. Cafnptwl Oonorol Managor
Cviratt 9l> NtwtMfiQW itontQlno Edttor
Copyright 1996 by Leneuli Forming
REMOVING THE
SCREENS