%• ;ff -1 MB I ly"" Vol. 42 NO. 38 When urbanization encroached on the Smith famlly’e New Jersey farm, they reluc tantly sold It and bought one In Relnholds. Turn to B 2 to reed how the Smith family found success at King and Queen Farm, about their daughter Elizabeth, who is Lan caster County dairy princess, and sons Brian, right, and Andy. Photo by Lou Ann Good. State Ag Secretary Hayes Issues Order Five More Flocks Have Avian Influenza, Poultry Shows Canceled HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) —As an added measure to slop the spread of avian influenza. Agricul ture Secretary Samuel E. Hayes Jr. issued an order Thursday, cancel ing live poultry exhibits at agricul tural fairs in nine counties for the remainder of 1997. Counties included in the order are Berks. Chester. Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Montgomery, Schuylkill and York. “TTiis is a precaution we believe is necessary to prevent any possi ble spread of the H7N2 virus,” Hayes said. u We will make sure that those fain which cancel live poultry exhibits are still eligible for reimbursement for exhibit costs.” Also. Hayes confirmed that an additional five flocks, comprised of approximately 730,000 birds, have been found to be positive for 056034 ''>7 on PERIODI CALSDIVIS lONION STATE UNIVFRSITV UNI? £JJJ f ot«RARY nV UN IV PARK PA 16802 Hvt Sections the avian influenza virus through active surveillance. One flock is being maintained as a study flock to try to gain additional informa tion on the avian influenza. So far, over 1 million laying hens have been depopulated in Lancaster and Lebanon counties. A quarantine to stop the spread of avian influenza was placed on a 75-square-milc area of northwest ern Lancaster County on May 16. Hayessaid he is working closely with Pennsylvania U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Aden Specter to encourage the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow the development of a protective vac cine. Nearly 4 million doses of the vaccine are currently being deve loped and stockpiled for possible uses if the virus continues to spread. An influenza risk-assessment Lancaster Firming, Saturday, July 26, 1997 team from the USDA is in Pen nsylvania this week, meeting with state Agriculture Department and poultry industry leaders to deter mine a future course of action. This is a first step in providing the necessary background should the request be made to use the vaccine. While there is no threat to human health, the quarantine in Lancaster County will continue. On June 18. Gov. Tom Ridge signed into law a bill to appropriate $5 million to provide financial assistance to Lancaster and Leba non county poultry producers affected by die outbreak. The poultry industry makes a $563 million contribution to the Commonwealth’s economy. Of die 25 million chickens in the Commonwealth, 17 million are in Lancaster County. , Growing Com By Degree (Days) VERNON ACHENBACH JR. Lancaster Farming Staff LEBANON (Lebanon Co.) “Growing degree days” are more and more becoming part of the mainstream fanning voca bulary and Lebanon County agro nomy Extension Agent Delbert Voight said that those who aren’t using the measurement tool to help with crop management are missing out. Com is king in Lebanon Coun ty, Voight said recently, referring to results of data he collected this past year from 270 fields in the county. He did the survey to establish existing planting patterns and weed problems (pcrrenials are the main problem with thistle heading the list) so as to have a base from which to work to help provide growers with research-based infor mation for bettering their Clover Grand Champion At Lancaster Holstein Show EVERETT NEWSWANGER Managing Editor QUARRYVILLE (Lancaster Co.) - Silvermine Holstcins, Wil low Street, owned by the Thomas family look top honors at the Lan caster County Holstein show with the grand, reserve grand, and reserve junior champions. Donegal Creek farm, Columbia owned by the Joe Wivell family was premier breeder, and Wengdale Farm, Quairyville, owned by the Bob Wenger family was premier exhibitor. The stylish C Wridale Broker Clover, topped the senior three year-old class for Sandra Thomas and went on to be the grand champ ion of the show. The Broker daughter out of Jaclean Jet Cakp is working on 30,000 m l.lliOf I.OOOp. The reserve grand champ ion was the senior two-year-old, MVF Raider Desaray. Ag Progress Days Coming The time for the annual Ag Progress Days, sponsored by Penn State’s College of Agriculture Sciences at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, is fast approaching. Scheduled for August 12 to 14. the show includes more than 300 commercial exhibi tors and research and education programs that address issues of interest to every farmer. Lancaster Farming’s August 9 issue will pay special tribute to this event with field maps, schedules of events, new areas of interest, and messages from our advertisers. To have your advertising included in this issue, call us anytime during office hours Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p,m. at (717) 394-3047 or (717) 626-1164. Dairy Of Distinction Section In a special section this week, we honor the new Pennsylvania win ners of the Dairy of Distinction awards. Look for photographs of each farm, information about how to obtain the distinction for your farm next year, and messages from our advertisers. We congratulate all the winners. $28.50 Per Year production. But knowing, as he already guessed from observation, that com is king in Lebanon County, he also knew that the fanners have a valuable tool available to them that not many use or of which they might not be aware. Com is a crop for which “grow ing degree days (ODD)” work well, he said. Voight said earlier this year that farmers, especially dairy produc ers who raise most of their own feed, would probably do well to learn about and use ODD as a man agement tool. Growing degree days is a mea surement of the energy usable by a specific variety of plant. Correla tions between plant growth stages and the amount of calcualted GGD is established through research. Most of the com seed compa- (Turn to Pago A2O) The junior champion for both the open and youth shows was Howcrest Mandel Charlysc, the homebred fall calf shown by Lind sey Howard, Willow Street The reserve junior champion in the open show was Silvermine Mandel Raye, the winter yearling shown by Austin Thomas. And die reserve junior champion of the youth show was Hilltop-Heritage Star Lizzy, a spring yearling shown by Crystal Brubaker, Ml Joy. The grand champion of the youth Show was Welk-Acers Raid er Mandy, the junior three-year-old entry of Andy Welk. Randy Wen ger had the reserve grand champ ion of the youth show with Wcng dales Horace Honey. While the number of entries was down this year. Judge Steve Wood, an Adams County Holstein breed (Turn to Pago A 26) 601 Par Copy
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