Tasty Hamburgers
The meat industry has been hit with a great deal of publicity
about tainted hamburger. But it is important to note that consum
ers should not worry as long as they take precautions to make sure
any meat is well-cooked.
The U.S. Agriculture Department has recalled frozen beef pat
ties from a Hudson Food plant in Nebraska because of concern
that some of the meat may be contaminated by E. coli bacteria.
Common sense dictates that hamburgers, as well as any other
type of meat, should be well-cooked. If it is cooked properly, you
will have no problem. The necessary heat is 160 degrees internal
ly according to food experts.
According to Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute, meat
is sterile on the inside. When you grind it, you distribute bacteria
from the outside. A rare steak is most likely ok, but a ground pro
duct like hamburger needs to be cooked thoroughly.
There is still a question as to where the contamination came
from at Hudson, but officials do not believe it started at the plant
but at one of the suppliers. But USDA found a problem with
records for tracing the meat production so they needed to have a
much larger recall of product than would have otherwise been
necessary.
Millions of hamburgers are consumed each day by the world
population as testimony to the wholesomeness of this favorite
fast food. We believe the general public will continue to eat ham
burgers that are well-cooked and nutritious. It’s hard to find any
thing more tasty coming from an outdoor picnic grill.
Northwest 4-H/FFA District Dairy
Show, Warren County Fair
grounds, Pittsfield.
Mon Valley 4-H/FFA District
Dairy Show, Westmoreland
County Fairgrounds,
Greensburg.
Juniata County Fair. Port Royal,
Spartansburg Community Fair,
.a county Fair, thru Sepi
Ox Hill Community Fair, Home,
thru Sept. 6.
Waterford Community Fair,
Waterford, thru Sept 6.
West Alexander Fair, West Ale-
sburg, thru Sept 6.
Jamestown Communif
wood, thru Sept 6.
Pike County Agricultural Fair,
Matamoras, thru Sept. 7,
Penn Jersey Soybean Field Meet
ing, three separate locations:
Wertville Rd., Ringoes, NJ.,
10:30 a.m.; Rayna Farm in
Stewartsville, NJ., 1:30 p.m.;
and Rt. 115, Stockertown, Pa.,
6:30 p.m.
Twilight Potato Field Meeting,
Forrest Wessner Farm, Ger-
York Interstate Fair, York, thru
Sept. 14.
Mason-Dixon 35th Annual Steam
opinion
and Gas Roundup Show. Car
roll County Farm Museum, thru
County Holstein
Susquehanna
Sale Fairgrounds, Harford,
noon.
Berks Cbunty 4-H Fair, Benefit
Auction and Chicken Bar-
becue, 4-H Center, fair 9 a.m.-3
Conservation Society of York
County 7Sth Anniversary,
Indian Steps Museum, Airville,
2 p.m.
Woodland Demonstration Tour,
PP&L Montour Preserve,
Green Township Community Fair,
thru Sept 13.
Managing Price Risk Using Dairy
Farm and Home Cen-
ter l Umcasten^^_ >^^.
Pasture Walk and Conservation
Tour, Levi J. Fisher, Quarry vil
le. 10 a.tn.-noon DST.
Albion Area Fair, Albion, thru
Sept 13.
Denver Community Fair, Denver,
thru Sept 13.
Sinking Valley Fair, Skelp, thru
Sept. 13.
Ephrata Area Young Farmers
Ephrat'
Fair,
Stravaganza, thru Sept. 20.
Hinkelfest, Farmer’s Pride Air
port, thru Sept. 14.
Mushroom Festival, Kennett
Square, thru Sept 14.
A silage blower with one quar
ter inch too much paddle tip clear
ance suffers approximately 20 per
cent loss in blowing power, ac
cording to Brian DeMaris, New
Holland Service Engineer. Blower
paddle clearance should be checked
and possibly realigned every year.
All you need is a few minutes, a
nickel, a dime and two pennies.
The following tests are the
same for the discharge blower on
your forage harvester and the
blower at the silo. Place a nickel
and dime at the bottom of the
blower case. Slowly by hand, ro
tate the paddles in a clockwise
manner passing the two coins.
When properly adjusted, the pad
dle should pass over the dime but
push the nickel up the side of the
case to about the 8 o'clock posi
tion before there is enough clear
ance to let it slip by the paddle. If
the nickel drops before this, the
clearance is unnecessarily wide.
This cuts capacity and throwing
distance.
NDAR*
■ .*- t ‘
~ -> f.
If the nickel rides higher, the
clearance is too tight which will
cause the band to overheat and rob
power.
Remember repeat the test for
each paddle and make the neces
sary adjustments. Use the two
pennies to adjust clearance. Lay
the pennies in the bottom of the
blower case about an inch from
each edge. Loosen the paddle
mounting bolts till the paddle
touches the pennies. This assures
the paddle is square with the band.
Then re-tighten the mounting
bolts with a torque wrench. Make
sure each bolt is re-torque on
every paddle. If the paddles are
worn they should be replaced.
Normal use causes paddles to wear
beyond adjustment in 3 to 4 years.
To Look At Pregnancy
Rates
Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County
Extension Dairy Agent, states
pregnancy success rates depends
upon heat detection • and concep
tion rates. Based on Lancaster
DHIA records in April represent
ing over 700 herds, 44 per cent of
cows in heat were detected and
Northeast Lamb Pool, Troy Sales
Bam, Troy, grading noon, sale
3 o.m.
Schaefferstown Harvest Fair, Ale
xander Schaeffer Farm
Museum, 10 a.m.-S p.m.
Cambria County District Horse
Show, Bedford.
Pasture Management Field Day.
John Rodgers’ Plum Bottom
Dairy Farm, Belleville, 11:30
a.m.-l p.m.
Sunday. Sc|)U‘liilht 14
Beaver Community Fair, Beaver
Springs, thru Sept. 20.
Gratz Fair, Gratz, thru Sept. 20.
To Adjust Silage Blower
only 43 per cent conceived. This
results in only a 19 per cent preg
nancy rate (44 per cent times 43
per cent).
At 19 per cent pregnancy rate,
it takes 5.3 heat periods to get
cows settled. That is 111 days
from the volunteer waiting period.
For these herds this period was 59
days. This results in cows being
open for 170 days (111 plus 59).
Add the 280 days gestation period
and you have a 450 day calving
interval or about 15 months. To
improve profits you may want to
shorten the calving interval by
improving pregnancy rates. To do
this you will need to set heat de
tection and conception rate goals.
To Set Pregnancy Rate
Goals
Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County
Extension Dairy Agent, reports
NO LASTING CITY
August 31, 1997
NO LASTING CITY
August 31, 1997
Background Scripture:
Hebrews 13
Devotional Reading:
James 5:7-16
A little over a month ago I re
turned to preach at the church in
Mohnton, Pennsylvania where I
had served for 13 years before
coming to Dallas, Texas 22 years
ago. The invitation from the cur
rent pastor had been on my calen
dar for several months and I
looked forward to it as a kind of
homecoming.
Of course I realized that it
would not be exactly the same
church I had left in 1975. Some of
my former parishioners had
passed on, some moved away, and
there were new people who had
come since my departure. I knew
also that the church building itself
had undergone some extensive re
novation. Yet, despite all of this
preparatory thinking. I was not
prepared to find that the appear
ance of the congregation was sur
prisingly different
I really should not have been so
surprised, for I know better —just
as you do. Change is one of the
facts of life with which a Christian
must deal. Hebrews puts it meta
phorically: “For hoe we have no
lasting city, but we seek the city
which is to come” (13:14). We all
know that with the mind but we
have a hard time accepting it in
our hearts.
ACCEPTING CHANGE
I hope it isn’t so for you, but I
find that the older I get, the harder
it is for me to accept the changing
of things to which I have grown
accustomed institutions, prac
tices, friends, relationships, asso
ciations. I must constantly
struggle with myself to acknow
ledge and accept the changes that I
cannot avoid. I know that “we
seek the city that is to come,” but I
am often trying to cling to what
Hebrews describes as “no lasting
city."
The writer asks his readers to
remember and consider the exam
ples of the leaders who introduced
them to and nurtured them in the
way of Christ. One gets the im
pression that these leaders had
died in the faith. Instead of be
moaning the fact that they were no
longer with them, he tells them to
many daily fanners need to im
prove their calving intervals. A
12.5 calving interval is 380 days.
Subtract from that a gestation pe
riod of about 280 days and you
have 100 days cows are open. If
you shorten your volunteer open
days to 45 then you have 55 days
to get cows bred or 2.6 heat peri
ods. To achieve this we need a
pregnancy rate of 38 per cent.
This may be attained by a number
of combinations of heat detections
and conception rates from 70:54
to 60:63. Goals you need to set
include number volunteer open
days, heat and conception rates.
The shorter your calving interval,
the higher profits you should at
tain.
Feather Prof.'s Footnote:
"Talk health, happiness and pros
perity to every person you meet."
concentrate on the examples these
leaders had provided them and
even to “imitate their faith” (13:7).
A few nights ago I awoke in the
middle of the night and, for some
reason, began to think about all
the people who had been influen
tial in the formation of my faith
over these years. Many of them
are no longer with us and I have
lost track of others. I gave God
profound thanks for what these
people had meant for my own
spiritual condition.
ONE FIXED POINT
Yet, although these Christian
influences have come and gone in
my life, I realize that the one reali
ty that has never changed for me is
Jesus Christ. My understanding
has changed over the years and
probably will continue to change
and my way of responding to
him has, too. But Christ himself is
the one fixed point in the whole
universe of my experience. He is
the one immutable, unalterable,
eternal reality in my existence. So,
1 can say with the writer of He
brews; “Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday and today and forever”
(13:8).
Some of those who read the
Episde to the Hebrews probably
found it difficult to resist the
temptations to fall back on rituals
and practices upon which they had
depended for many years. He
brews is not saying that they must
give up these practices, but that
their dependence, their trust, their
hope cannot be based upon altars,
strange teachings, foods, build
ings or sacrifices. These are all
“earthen vessel,” as Paul put it in
II Corinthians 4:7, not the “trea
sure” of the gospel.
So, although the trappings of
the gospel have changed and con
tinue to change, the good news of
Jesus Christ remains constant We
can remember and draw strength
for “the good old days,” but we
cannot live in them. We “seek the
city which is to come” as we “con
tinually offer up a sacrifice of
praise to God ...” (13:13). No
matter how much things have
changed and continue to change,
God still requires of us the same
response now that he has always
set before us: “Do not^ neglect to
do good and to share what you
have, for such sacrifices are pleas
ing to God” (13:16).
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main SL
Ephrata, PA 17522
-by-
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stelnman Enterprise
Robert G. Campbell General Manager
Everett R. Newawanger Managing Editoi
Copyright 1997 by Lancmur Farming