Vol 41 No. 43
Gov. Ridge Says Farms Must Be Profitable To Be Sustainable
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge
addressed the annual Leadership
Conference of the National Rural
Development Partnership Tuesday
morning at the Holiday Inn Lan
caster Host He said that because
3.7 million commonwealth citi
zens live in rural places, “Rural
Pennsylvania is the ‘Keystone’ of
our state.”
Ridge said, “The vitality of our
small towns is intimately linked to
the strength of Pennsylvania life.
Now, more than ever, we must
work to strengthen our rural
communities.
“In rural Pennsylvania, farms
It’s Rare, But Poland China Wins Champion Gilt At Allentown
Cheryl Bennecoff, left, won supreme champion gilt on Wednesday at the Allentown
Fair. At right Is Frank Feeser, show Judge.
Pennwood Farm Wins Premier Breeder, Exhibitor
VERNON ACHENBACH, JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
SUMMIT STATION (Schuy
lkill Co.) Pennwood Farms,
owned by Mary Jane and Harvey
Stoltzfus of Morgantown, was
named premier exhibitor and
breeder of the Southeast Pennsyl
vania Championship Show,
August 24 at the Schuylkill County
Fairgrounds in Summit Station.
The judge of the show was Steve
Wood, of Pennwood Farm in
Littles town.
Office Closed
Monday
Lancaster Farming’s office
will be closed on Monday,
September 2, to observe Labor
Day. Both the advertising and
news departments will open
again at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
Four Sections
are businesses. They support rural
families, they support rural jobs,
they support rural communities. As
businesses and as employers,
farms are the backbone of Pennsyl
vania, and they must be profitable
to be sustained.”
Ridge said that before he was in
public office, he, like other Ameri
cans, knew what he wanted from
the farm: cold milk, ice cream,
cheese of many varieties, good
beef, vegetables, and other foods.
“I took it (the food supply) for
granted,” he said. “When I started
to represent rural Pennsylvanians
in my western Pennsylvania dis
trict, I got to see what these men
and women did day after day to get
that’food and fiber to our tables.
The grand champion of the
show was a senior 3-year-old, Reu
Hel Gabriel Surf, owned by the
Geisinger family of Reu-hel Farms
Inc., of Mohrsville. It is a home
bred daughter of Fivebrooks Sprir
it Gabriel.
The reserve grand champion of
the show was also a bred and own
ed animal, 4-year-old Keystone
Mascot Scarlet, owned by Donald
Seipt owner of Keystone Farm, of
Easton.
The junior champion was a sum
mer yearling, Walnut-Hills Star
dust Brook, owned and bred by
Dianne Clock, of Walnut-Hills
Farm in Mifflin.
The reserve junior champion of
the open show was'also a summer
yearling. Brasspoint Skychief
Star, owned by Joshua Hushon, of
Delta, bred by Melvin Kolb Inc.,
Lancaster.
(Turn to Page A 32)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 31, 1996
They overcame enormous obsta
cles and have a, narrow, narrow,
narrow margin of profit
"It almost makes me sick to walk
into a grocery store today and pay
three or four dollars for a box of
cereal when I know the farmer, the
primary value provider of that box
of cereal, may be getting two or
three cents for the grain that is in
the box. We consumers are paying
for fancy TV ads and fancy boxes,
and the toys that are in the box. Yet
the men and women, families that
are slugging it out every day, don’t
reap the benefit of all that They are
struggling, and we take advantage
of that (fanners’ situation).
“We have the most productive
ag community in the world right
From the left, show Judge Steve Wood and Bucks/Montgomery Dairy Princess
Karen Wolfgang stand with Donald Seipt who shows the reserve grand champion
Holstein of the Southeast Pennsylvania Holstein Show, Cathy Geisinger who shows
the grand champion, and Berks County Alternate Dairy Princess Tammy Epting.
$27.50 Per Year
here in this country,” Ridge said.
“Yet government changes policy
every two or three years. We must
understand that farmers ate operat
ing businesses. They need regula
tion reform to become profitable,
and they desperately need some
predictability from government so
they can make long- and short
range plans.”
The National Rural Develop
ment Partnership is a unique, true
partnership between 37 governors
and the federal government. Each
has entered into a memorandum of
understanding to create state rural
development councils.
The annual meeting brings
together local, state, and federal
officials and rural development
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
ALLENTOWN (Lehigh Co.) —
“It’s rare for a Poland China hog to
win supreme gilt here at the fair,”
said Cheryl Bennecoff, who won
supreme on Wednesday at the
Allentown Fair.
In the past, said Bennecoff,
Landrace, Durocs, and Hamp
shires have won, but it’s the first
time in recent memory that Poland
China captured the spotlight
and the attention of the judge,
exhibitors, and audience.
Bennecoff, Kutztown, showed a
January gilt, Whinney 1-7, from a
McWhinney sire out of a Bal Crue
dam. for supreme gilt
Bennecoff said that the sire line
she works with on her farm, with
husband Todd and family, is a
“pretty even and consistent." The
Bennecoffs, who have won grand
champion gilt at the fair in the past
are showing this week in Syracuse,
N.Y. (where Cheryl said they have
24 hogs) and at the World’s End
Fair in Sullivan. The Bennecoffs
are also showing at the Blooms-
(Ot Per Copy
leaders to provide practical infor
mation and ideas to be used to
advance their local communities.
While in Lancaster County, the
group toured the Ruben Weaver
farm to observe die application of
biosolids as a fertilizer for agricul
tural crops, the Millport Conser
vancy to see examples of fencing to
limit access of livestock to streams,
Oregon Dairy to observe a dairy
operation using methane from the
herd to generate electricity, and the
Nelson Rohrer farm to observe
composting.
Other tours and workshops cen
tered on heritage tourism, land use
planning and growth management,
the Pennsylvania Umber Bridge
Initiative, rural health care, and the
arts and rural development.
burg and York fairs and at the State
Hampshire/Duroc/Yorkshire sale.
They’ll also be showing hogs at
Keystone International Livestock
Expo (KILE) and next year’s Farm
Show.
Also on Wednesday, a Landrace
exhibited by Grant A. Lazarus was
named supreme champion boar.
Grant, 18, is the son of Grant and
Linda Lazarus of Busy Acres Farm
in Germansville. The Northwest
ern High School graduate will be
showing at the Bloomsburg and
York fairs in addition to KILE and
Farm Show.
Kelly Lazarus, 17, won grand
champion market hog on Thursday
at Allentown. Kelly, daughter of
Wayne and Grace Lazarus, Ger
mansville, is a senior at North
western High School.
Kelly showed a 270-pound hog,
the heavyweight champion, a
Hampshire/Spotted cross. Grant
Lazarus, her cousin, said he picked
the pig to show at the fair. Kelly
said this is the last fair she’ll be
showing until the county roundup
(Turn to Page A 26)