■ ferii« v . v^-
vol. 41 NO. 26
Dutch Belted Cattle Make Comeback On Rotational Grazing Farms
The Dutch Belted cookie” calf le shown by children of Roman and Lucy Stoltzfoos,
cap Road, Lancaster County. After appearing on The American Livestock Breeds
Conservancy s critical list, the Dutch Belted cattle breed Is making a comeback
because these animals adapt quite readily to rotational grazing programs. Showing
the calf is from left, Josh, 4; Charlene, 8; Clifford, 6; Delmar, 10; and Caleb, 2.
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) The sharp spike in grain
prices has affected the entire pro
duction agriculture sector, causing
producers to scramble to find low
cost or alternative feeds in order to
keep down production costs.
At the same time, prices for beef
and cull cows are depressed and
though reports of certain proces
sors being inundated with cattle
could not be confirmed by dead
line. it is expected that there are a
lot of meat cattle available for
slaughter.
American Lamb Producers
Must Market A Leaner;
Consistent Product
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
American lamb producers are
simply growing a product that is
too fat leading many packers
and processors to seek a leaner
product from countries such as
Australia and New Zealand.
And if American producers
want to seriously contend with loc
al markets, they must turn out a
high quality, lean, consistent lamb
in the 6S-75 pound dressweight
606 For Copy
Effects Of Grain Prices
Affect Alt Agriculture
In Kenneth Kephart’s column
“Pork Prose” (see page C 3 this
issue) he outlines possible alterna
tive feeds, though he notes that ”...
most are too expensive to consider,
some are barely competitive” to
com. g
Others have reported a market
tightness on seeds, especially
some of the newer bio-engineered
versions resistant to herbicides, or
designed with insect larva
resistance.
For the local dairy industry,
reports are that some have tight
supplies or poor silage feed values
because of last year’s latc-season
range.
Those were some of the mes
sages that about 25 lamb producers
heard by a lamb merchandiser and
university meats specialist on
Tuesday night at a Penn-State
sponsored Lamb Merchandising
Workshop at the Farm and Home
Center.
Bill Fox. president of Fox’s
Market (with stores' in Middle
town, Hershey, Harrisburg, and
Camp Hill) has been in business
(Turn to Pag* ASI)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 4, 1996
drought affecting carbohydrate
formation.
Those who depend upon all pur
chased feeds can be expected to be
suffering in this perhaps unprece
dented situation of high feed
prices, high operating costs, low
availability of feed and strong and
anticipated stronger demand.
On top of this, fuel prices recen
tly surged, and can be expected to
(Turn to Pogo A3B)
Pa.DHIA Board Reorganizes
. of directors recently held a reorganizations! meeSng?Fmmth^^
left in the front row art Lana Sollenberger, president; Norman Hershey, vice prasL
dent; Neal McCulloch, secretary; and Ralph Gilkinson, executive committee member.
In the second row, from the left are Marion Butler. Luke Rebuck. Donald Duncan
Brookes Smith, Frank Omer, and George Cudoc. in the back row, from the left are
John Brodzina. Adam Derr, Steve Mowry, John Wilcox and William Hie. Not shown is
Dale Hoover, treasurer.
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
EPHRATA (Lancaster
Co.) When you hear a dairy
man, especially a grassland farmer,
affectionately talk about his Oreo
cookies, he may not be talking
about a famous registered name
snack that has white cream sand
wiched between two chocolate
cakes and is eaten with milk. The
grasslander's Oreo cookies most
likely have four legs, a head and
tail, and are expected to give the
milk that is eaten with cookies.
With the surge in input and over
head costs in the dairy operation,
fanners are turning to less costly
ways of doing things. The method
of choice that has emerged is called
rotational grazing. Since the cow
has a front end chopper and a rear
end manure spreader, she can do
the harvesting and fertilizing in one
operation while supplying milk
Carl Shaffer Elected Vice
President OUtqn Bureau
CAMP HILL (Cumberland
Co.) Carl Shaffer of Mifflin
ville, Columbia County, has been
elected vice president of the Penn
sylvania Farm Bureau (PFB).
Shaffer was elected during a meet
ing of the PFB State Board of
Directors. He was one of four can
didates for the position.
The election was held to fill a
vacancy created by the succession
of former vice president Guy
Donaldson to the office of PFB
president Former president Keith
Eckel resigned April 1. Both
Donaldson and Shaffer will stand
for re-election during PFB’s annu
al meeting in November.
Shaffer has served as one of the
16 district directors on the PFB
State Board of Directors since
1994. He represents Farm Bureau
members in the Columbia, Luzer-
Four Sections
and meat to provide a living for the
fanner.
The genetics bred into today’s
cows made them adaptable to the
mechanized, high grain feeding
programs in confinement opera
tions. These cows produce lots of
milk at a very young age to cover
the increasing costs of the opera
tion. A never ending treadmill of
higher and higher production tak
ing higher and higher inputs puts
more and more stress on the feed
ing program and the cow.
Environmentalism and animal
rights notwithstanding, economics
has turned the minds and farming
operations of many dairymen back
to a less industralized program.
And with this new emphasis on
economy rather than production, a
new kind of cow is emerging. A
cow that can and will walk the pas-
(Turn to Page A 26)
neand SchuylkiU/Carbon couny
farm bureaus. Before becoming a
state board member, he was a loc
al farm leader serving over the
years as a board member, vice
president, president and legisla
tive chairman of the Columbia
County Farm Bureau.
PFB is a voluntary, non
governmental organization which
represents 25,851 member fami
lies in 54 county farm bureaus.
Shaffer, who owns a 300-acre
grain and vegetable operation,
recently received the Master
Farmer Award from Pennsylvania
Farmer magazine and Penn State
University Cooperative Exten
sion. He also farms 700 rented
acres with the help of two full
time employees and one part-time
(Turn to Page ASS)
$27.50 Per Year