AlO-Lanculer Farming, Saturday, April 28, IW7 OPINION Incentive To Continue To Milk Cows Last week the three-member Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board (PMMB) gave unanimous approval to extend the current 80 cents over-order price premium for one year, ending May 1, 1998. Without PMMB’s action the over-order price for Class 1 milk produced, processed and sold in Pennsylvania would have dropped from 80 cents to SO cents after April 30th. This will provide much needed help for dairy farmers in Pen nsylvania. Wholesale prices paid to fanners in February were already 80 cents below a year ago, so another drop in prices would have added more pressure to the income squeeze that is common among dairymen. We commend the PMMB for acting in a timely matter on this issue so that there was no interruption in premiums to farmers. Without swift action the premium would have fallen by nearly 40 percent. In addition, we note that no one opposed the action at the hear ing earlier this month. Often there are many different opinions from various segments of the industry, but in this crisis, all farm organizations and dairy cooperatives supported the action. It is good to see the whole dairy industry united in the interests of dairy farmers. We realize this action alone cannot make dairy farming profit able. It does however, provide some relief and incentive to con tinue to milk cows. Saddle Cinches, 4-H Model Horse Show, Farm and Home Center, 10 a.m. Grazing Field Day, Ramey Fire hall. 9:30 a.m. Sunday. April 27 Grange Week Legislative Ban quet, Sheraton Inn-East, Harris- Dairylea Cooperative Regional Informational Meetings, VFW Post, Middleburry, Vt., 7:30 p.m. Wheat Production Walk, Mark Wolfskill Farm, Robesonia, 10 a.m.-noon. Dairylea Cooperative Regional Informational Meetings, War ners Gallery, Wells River, Vt., Awareness Day, Food Safety, Finances, Family Stories, etc., Dauphin County Agricultural and Natural Resources Center, Dauphin, 9 a.m. Lancaster/York Fruit Growers’ Twilight Meeting, Hampshire Orchards, Manheim, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Pittsburgh Allegheny County Fair, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festi val, Howard County Fair grounds, West Friendship, Md. May 2-4. Dauphin County 4-H Communica tion Night, Extension Office, EasternLlamaandAlpaca Fcsti val. Charming Forge Farm, Womclsdorf, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Adams County Apple Blossom Festival, South Mountain Fair grounds, Arendtsville, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Plant Discovery Day, Secrest Arboretum, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Wooster. Sunday. Ma\ 4 I iKS(la\. Ma> 6 Bucks-Mont Sheep Shearing (Turn to Page A3l) Editor After reading your article about dumping (Rural Areas Become Dumping Grounds for Bottles, Cans April 19 issue) I feel the need to write to you. I and all others need the farmer. But some years ago. the farmer removed all fences along the roads so he can turn and make the headland on the road. Always to save time, he tries to haul extra large loads on the man ure spreader and loses much of it cm the road. After washing my vehicle and driving through this to get home, I get the idea that the highway is becoming a dumping ground for him. Maybe he likes this splashed over his vehicles, but I do not I must get a permit to move wide articles on the highway, but this same farmer may take a very wide piece of machinery down some road, and I go into the field to pass him. I do not throw my cans, hot- To Prepare For Ryelage Rye is growing rapidly. The question is, will you be ready to harvest'this flush of early spring growth in a optimum manner? asks Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County extension dairy agent Are your silos ready to be filled? Are you and your equipment or your custom operator ready to roll when the time is right for harvesting? Rye should be ensiled at the boot stage of maturity. Because it matures so rapidly, you have only a few days for harvesting. The window of opportunity is very small. So, when the time com es, make ryelage harvesting job one! To Plan For First Cutting Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County extension dairy agent said there is generally a small window of opportunity for making the first cutting of hay or haylage. ,■ Usually it is around the middle of May when you are busy planting com. Again, take advantage when you get a few successive days of good weather. This may mean temporarily halting com planting activities or hiring some additional labor. You need a bigger break in the weather to make hay than to plant com. If you miss this first break. W 73 'i Farm Forum ❖ il& <£s ’ f ties in his fields, so why does he cover the road with so much of his stuff? My patience is running out also. Wilbur Yeager Chambersburg Editor: I recently received my 1997 Penn State Trustee Ballot. In light of the recent events regarding our Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brosius, I have decided to write in his name as a Penn State Trustee. Many of you might not be aware that prior to being appointed as Pennsylvania’s Sec retary of Agriculture, Charles Brosius was an elected member of Penn State’s Board of Trustees. When he became Secretary, he continued to serve as a trustee by virtue of that position. Obviously, the elected position he held was (Turn to Pafl* A3l) the next opportunity may not come until weeks later. Watch the weather reports closely and start cutting at the beginning of a predicted break in the weather even if the crop may be more immature than you prefer. You can always give the crop a chance to recover by harvesting the second cutting at a more advanced stage of maturity. Once you harvest the first cut ting early, you may take pleasure knowing die second cutting of hay is growing while you continue planting com. Hopefully, you have captured good quality in the first cutting and set yourself up for an extra cutting for the season. To Look At Cows Vs. Fieldwork Fieldwork and bamwork are high priority jobs for dairy producers. These are jobs that compete with each other during planting and harvesting seasons, according to Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County extension dairy agent. For a milk producer, cows are job one! They are the income end of the business. Therefore, do not LUKEWARM AND USELESS April 27, 1997 LUKEWARM AND USELESS April 27. 1997 Background Scripture: Revelation 3:17-22 Devotional Reading: 2 Peter 2:4-10 When I was a young man I vis ited New York and, attending a television quiz show, was picked from the audience to audition as a contestant. Everything in the interview went very well until they asked me, if I won any of the prizes, how I would react. “Don’t worry about me,” I assured them, “I’ll stay calm and collected." That brought the interview to an end quickly. What I didn’t realize was they didn’t want contestants who stay ed calm and collected. They wanted people who could generate some excitment and I had assured them that they could count on me not getting excited. STAYING CALM Today, when I remember that incident, I ask myself where I ever got such an obsession with staying calm. Calmness, of course, is a very good character trait in certain situations. But there are other cir cumstances in life that call for excitment, yes even passion. Some of us spend our whole lives trying to be quite dispassion ate in every circumstance. When there is a dispute, a dispassionate voice is usually the constructive one. When there is an emergency, someone needs to keep us calm. But there are also times when we need excitement, enthusiasm, and even, perhaps, a bit of abandon when we are doing something for the Lord. Some of us try to keep our relig ion dispassionate and often this is to our detriment. 1 have often observed that we keep our wor ship services calm and our church business meetings emotional. Sometimes, perhaps, it ought to be the other way around. That’s what inspires the letter of Revelation to Laodicea: ”1 know ypur works: you are neither shortchange cows for the purpose of getting the fieldwork done. ' You need to provide enough time for the best cow person to manage the herd for optimum per formance. However, timely field work is key to the success of a dairy farm. If necessary, hire additional help or rely more heavily upon the services of a custom operator to get the fieldwork done. Another option is to grow less feed and rely more heavily on smartly purchased feeds. The emphases is on smartly pur chased. Harvest time may be a good time to make major feed buy ing decisions. It gives you first access to available supplies of high quality feeds at harvest time prices. Another advantage is feed may be moved directly from field to your storage. This saves the cost and inconvenience of extra hand ling and hauling and loss in quality when fermented feeds are transferred. Feather Prof.’s Footnote: “Commitment is a line you must cross. It is the difference between dreaming and doing.” cold nor hot Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot I will spew you out of my mouth” (3:15). A church that is lukewarm is usually useless. It isn’t bad, but neither is it really good. Being lukewarm is no bless ing for anyone. NEITHER COLD NOT HOT What causes us to be so nau seatingly tepid? In the case of the Church at Laodicea it was apathy bred of self-satisfaction. “For you say. I am rich. I have prospered,. and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable,, poor, blind and naked” (3:17>.* Churches that are self-satisfied are useless. Churches that feel no sense of challenge are also use less. And the same thing applies to individuals, too. In my early days of ministry in the church someone said, “A church without a debt is a church without spirit.” I*m not sure that that maxim can be applied to all churches everywhere, but I have observed that a church in debt is more likely to pull together in unity than one without indebted ness. It’s not the debt that is important, but the challenge to accomplish something. Even the church at Philadelphia draws his praise: “I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name ... because you have kept my word of patient endurance, 1 will keep you from the hour of trail...” The Philadelp hians are not praised for passivity, but for patient endurance. There is a difference. Patient endurance requires heart and Spirit Passivity is just lukewarm and useless. (In October, Rev. & Mrs. Alt house will lead a 14-day tour to Turkey to trace the footsteps of Paul and John. For information, write: 4412 Shenandoah Ave., Dallas, TX 75205.) Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturdsy Ephraim Review Building 1 B. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 -by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stelnman Enterprise Robert G. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newcwanger Managing Editor C'fifHghi 1997 0 y t tncatUr Ftrminf
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