(Continued from Page A3O)
oil prices. Moreever, unlike oil
money, the income gains are being
spread among average citizens.”
Surging Demands
For Better Diets
The first thing that poor people
do when they get more income is
to bid for better diets. It first be
gins with more rice and wheat,
then expands to eggs, milk, and
finally meat, fruits and vegetables.
Examples include:
China - 10% more demand for
Research On Hog Behavior May Give Clues To Pig Crushing
DES MOINES, lowa An
lowa State University study that
evaluated sow and piglet behavior
provides some clues to the causes
of pig crushing.
Researchers Jennifer Minick
and Don Lay took a different ap
proach to the problem, focusing
on the interaction of the gilts and
pigs that leads to crushing. “Typi
cally you’re looking at changes to
the pen to try and figure out how
to keep them from laying on the
pigs,” Lay said.
Minick and Lay presented re
sults of the research at the Mid
west meetings of the American
Society of Animal Science and
American Dairy Science Associa
tion.
Association Releases Fair Schedule
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) The Pennsylvania State Associa
tion of County Fairs released the 1997 fair schedule recently.
Following is a list of fair schedules, places, and dates.
May 15-26 PA Fair at Philadelphia Park Bensalem
May 29-June 8 Philadelphia County Fair Fairmount Park, Phila.
June 23-28 Schnecksville Community Fair Schnecksville
June 27-July 5
July 1-5
July 6-12
July 7-12
July 10-19
July 13-19
July 15-19
July 21-26
July 21-26
July 21-26
July 21-27
July 22-26
July 24-Aug. 2
July 26-Aug. 1
July 27-Aug. 2
July 27-Aug. 2
July 28-Aug. 2
July 28-Aug. 2
July 28-Aug. 2
July 29-Aug. 2
August 1-9
August 2-9
August 2-9
August 3-9
August 3-9
August 3-10
August 4-9
August 4-9
August 4-9
August 4-9
August 4-9
August 4-9
August 5-9
August 5-9
August 5-9
August 6-9
August 9-16
August 10-16
August 10-16
August 11-16
August 11-16
August 11-16
August 11-16
August 11-16
August 11-17
August 13-17
August 14-16
August 14-16
August 15-23
August 16-23
August 17-23
August 17-23
August 17-23
August 17-23
August 17-23
August 18-23
Saving The Planet With Higher-Yield Farming
have half of their domestic popu
lation on farms and so attempt to
protect them. Even so says Avery,
the U.S. has benefited with 48% of
the export growth around tlfljk
world and “expect to get at least
one-fourth of the growth in world
food demand in the next two
decades.”
meat - 4 million tons per ykear.
India - Trying to buy an addi
tional 1-2 million tons of milk and
dairy products per year.
Indonesia - Increased their
broiler consumption by 25% in
1995.
America’s Compalative
Advantage In Fanning
Avery states. “The world has a
shortage of cropland with soil
structure, temperate climate and
rainfall to support high yields (and
thus low costs per bushel). North
The goal of tl\e study was to
measure the behavioral differ
ences that may be responsible for
fewer crushed pigs. If activities
that prevent pig crushing could be
discovered, the researchers figure
that breeding stock could be se
lected based on those behaviors.
They looked at time the gilts spent
lying down, sitting and kneeling
and the number of body turns and
position changes.
Lay and Minick compared the
behavior of two breeds of gilts
Chinese Meishan and Yorkshire.
Meishan sows have a lower inci
dence of piglet crushing compared
to American sows. Yorkshire gilts
were used as the representative
breed in U.S. herds.
Sows of breeds typically raised
Butler Fair Butler
Wolfs Corner Fair Tionesta
Clarion County Fair New Bethlehem
Derry Twp. Agricultural Fair Derry Township
Lycoming County Fair Hughesville
Jefferson County Fair Brookville
Jaclctown Fair Wind Ridge
Jefferson Township Fair Mercer
Kimberton Community Fair Kimberton
Shippensburg Community Fair Shippensburg
Troy Fair Troy
Plainfield Farmers Fair Nazareth
Fayette County Fair Dunbar
Lebanon Area Fair Lebanon
Mercer County Grange Fair Mercer
Potter County Fair Millport
Morrison Cove Dairy Show Martinsburg
Clearfield County Fair Clearfield
Goshen County Fair West Chester
New Stanton Farm & Home Fair New Stanton
Wayne County Fair Honesdale
Clinton County Fair Mackeyville
Greene County Fair Waynesburg
Bedford County Fair Bedford
Schuylkill County Fair Summit Station
Union County West End Fair Laurelton
Butler Farm Show Butler
Cochran ton Community Fair Cochran ton
Dawson Grange Community Fair Dawson
Sykesville Ag & Youth Fair Sykesville
Tioga County Fair Whitneysville
Warren County Fair Pittsfield
Elk County Fair Kersey
Harrold’i Fair Greens burg
Sewickley Twp. Community Fair West Newtown
Cumberland Ag Expo Newville
Washington Co. Agricultural Fair Washington
Bullskin Township Fair Wooddale
Huntingdon County Fair Huntingdon
Dayton Fair Dayton
Kutztown Fair Kutztown
Lawrence County Fair New Castle
Montour-DeLong Community Fair Washingtonville
Venango County Fair Franklin
McKean County Fair Smethport
Middletown Grange Fair Wrightstown
Findlay Twp. Community Fair Clinton
Mount Nebo Fair Mount Nebo
Westmoreland Agricultural Fair Greensburg/Mt.Pleas.Rd.
Crawford County Fair Meadville
Cameron County Fair Emporium
Franklin County Fair Chambetsburg
Fulton County Fair McConnellsburg
Somerset County Fair Meyersdale
Transfer Harvest Home Fair Transfer
Harford Fair Harford
American has the biggest chunk of
such land anywhere in the world.”
The other three “green jewels” are
smaller the Ukraine, North China
Plain, and Argentina.
> The U.S. has the best infra
structure to support its farms. We
have four costs for low cost trans
port and internal waterways such
as the Mississippi, Missouri,
Ohio, Arkansas, Columbia and
Snake.
> America’s agricultural re
search is second to none.
in the United States crash an aver
age of 1.2 to 1.5 pigs per litter. In
lowa, crashed pigs cost pork pro
ducers $8 million a year. A Euro
pean study found a 5 percent sur
vival advantage for the Meishan
breed.
The gilts were placed in
S-by-7-foot pens to study their be
havior in a mote natural setting
than a farrowing crate, said Min
ick, an ISU animal science senior.
Lay said that Meishan gilts are not
used to crates and sometimes
“sulk” and refuse to eat when
placed in them.
In the ISU study, the four York
shire sows each crushed one pig.
Just one pig was crushed by all six
Meishan sows and that was done
during farrowing.
August 18-23 Mountain Area Community Fair Farmington
August 18-25 Williamsburg Comm. Farm Show Williamsburg
August 19-23 Blue Valley Farm Show Bangor
August 19-23 Elizabethtown Community Fair Elizabethtown
August 19-23 Hookstown Fair Hookstown
August 19-23 Perry County Fair Newport
August 22-28 Centre County Grange Fair Centre Hall
August 24-30 Indiana County Fair Indiana
August 24-30 West End Fair Gilbert
August 26-30 Big Knob Grange Fair Rochester
August 26-Sept. 1 Allentown Fair Allentown
August 26-Sept 1 Greene-Dreber-Sterling Fair Newfoundland
August 26-31 Wattsburg/Erie County Fair Wattsburg
August 27-31 South Mountain Fair Arendtsville
August 27-Sept 1 Kiwanis/Wyoming County Fair Reshoppen Twp
August 27-Sept 1 Stoneboro Fair Stoneboro
August 27-Sept 1 Sullivan County Fair Forksville
August 30-Sept 6 Juniata County Fair Port Royal
August 31-Sept 6 Cambria County Fair Ebensberg
August 31-Sept 6 Spartansburg Community Fair Spartansburg
September 1-6 Ox Hill Community Fair Bowe
September 1-6 Waterford Community Fair Waterford
September 1-6 West Alexander Fair West Alexander
September 2-6 Claysburg Area Farm Show Claysburg
September 2-6 Jamestown Community Fair Jamestown
September 3-6 Bellwood Antis Farm Show Bellwood
September 3-7 Pike County Agricultural Fair Matamoras
September 4-8 Luzerne County Fair Dallas
September 5-14 York Interstate Fair York
September 6-13 Green Township Community
Fair Coolport
Albion Area Fair Albion
Denver Community Fair Denver
Sinking Valley Fair Skelp
Berlin Brothersvalley Communi
ty Fair Berlin
Beaver Community Fair Beaver Springs
Gratz Fair Gratz
Harmony Grange Fair Westover
Southern Lancaster County FairQuanyville
North East Community Fair North East
Oley Valley Community Fair Oley
PA Yorkshire Summer Show &
Sale Lebanon
Blooms burg Fair Bloomsburg
All American Dairy Show Harrisburg
Reading Fair Kutztown
Norrison Cole Community Fair Martinsburg
Ephrata Fair Ephrata
PA Holsteinn Fall Championship
Show Harrisburg
September 24-26 West Lampeter Community FairLampeter
September 26-28 Tri-Valley Community Fair Hegins
September 27 Falmouth Goat Race Falmouth
September 30-OcL
September 9-13
September 9-13
September 9-13
September 10-13
September 14-20
September 14-20
September 16-20
September 17-19
September 18-20
September 18-20
September 18-20
September 20-27
September 22-25
September 22-28
September 23-26
September 23-27
September 23
4
October 1-6
October 6-9
October 6-10
October 8-11
October 14-18
October 17-19
> Nobody else has been divert
ing 40-50 million acres of good
cropland.
> No other country in the world
is better mechanized for the pro
duction of agricultural commodi
ties. The Chinese farmer invests
2-3 hours of labor per bushel of
com as compared to the American
farmer investing 7 minutes.
Currently much international
trade is being hampered by do
mestic politics of importing coun
tries. Developing countries still
Less-active gilts that spent
more time lying down had fewer
opportunities to crush their pigs.
The Yorkshire gilts were more ac
tive than the Meishan gilts and
also spent more time sitting and
kneeling, behavior that indicated
discomfort Minick said when the
Yorkshire sows were sitting, pigs
would typically run around under
them, making them more vulner
able to crushing when the sows
did lie down.
The Meishan gilts also per
formed a maneuver that seemed to
protect their pigs from being
crushed, Minick said. “The Mei
shan sows just flopped down, but
they turned at least once before ly
ing down to look for the pigs,” she
said.
New Holland Farmers Fair New Holland
Keystone International Livestock
Exposition Harrisburg
Hollidaysborg Community Fair Hollidaysburg
Manheim Farm Show Manheim
Unionville Community Fair Uniortville
Dillsburg Community Fair Dills burg
Union town Poultry A. Farm Pro
ducts Show Dunbar
What About
Global Competitors?
Western Europe’s commercial
farmers are reducing their output,
because their subsidies are being
slashed. Canada lacks the degree
days and rainfall to expand its
crop output sharply. Australia is
die world’s low cost wheat pro
ducer, but Australia has a severe
moisture constraint New Zealand
is the world’s low cost dairy pro
ducer, essentially because of good
year-round pasture, but they are
already using all their grass. Bim
zil has about 200 million u*
planted acres of arable land on the
western frontier. The problem is
the lack of a good transportation
system included with the rough
teirain and lack of funds to build a
suitable rail system. Eastern Eur
ope has the land and the climate to
produce dairy products for export,
but lacks the infrastructure, insti
tutions, capital, farm inuts, and
political stability. Argentina
would be the second-biggest bene
ficiary of free farm trade. They
could double their output, but
would have to give up their cur
rent low-cost pasture/crop rotation
and adopt intensive U.S. style
farming. Argentina still has only
one-third as much arable land as
the U.S.
Considering all of the above,
one might conclude that American
should have a global competitive
advantage.
Saving Wildlife Habitat
With Public Opinion
“If the American farmer has the
incentives to produce, and even
gets Federal payments to buffer
the shift toward export markets,
what else could farmers possibly
ned to prosper? They will need
public approval.”
Avery points out that if agricul
ture is going to regain its rightful
place in our public policies, it
must be seen as a public benefit.
The answer is “If agriculturists
understand and emphasize the en
vironmental benefits of high-yield
farming, they can convert the mo
mentum built up for protecting the
environment and saving wildlife
into support for high yield farming
also.”
Think about this, the public
concerned with saving the
vironment which includes wild
life. Many influential people be
lieve that to save wildlife would
require a famine. Do you agree?
Avery warned a senate hearing
that the real question was not fam
ine but wildlife. “Famines don’t
occur until after the hungry
people have hunted down vir
tually every every wild creature
and plowed the remaining forest
for low-yielding crops.” It is not
a choice between feeding the peo
ple or wildlife, we have to do both.
The only way that the world can
have wildlife in the 21st century is
by tripliing the yields again on the
planets safest cropland. That wUI
prevent the famines, prevent dQ
plow-down of tropical forests to
grow broiler feed and dairy for
age.
With the pursuit of higher
yields, through research, tech
nology and especially the new
frontier of biotechnology, we
should be able to meet the food
challenge erf die 21st century on
less land than fanning takes today.