%' «xj'UWWiiw .. Vot. 43 No. 4 Rutt Receives Delp Award, Landis Has Century Farm EVERETT NEWSWANGER Managing Editor LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) The 21st annual Lancaster County agriculture-industry ban quet brought together 450 suppor ters for agriculture Tuesday even ing to present the county’s highest honorary agriculture award, recog nize the 128th century farm, and develop relationships among agri culture and industry business people. Sponsored by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Indus try, under the direction of James Shirk, ag services manager, and the chamber’s agricultural committee, this event serves more and more to highlight agriculture’s immense role in the local economy. Again, the prestigious award. Secretary Hayes Honors Egg. Quality Efforts VERNON ACHENBACH Lancaster Farming Staff g HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) State Secretary of Agri culture Samuel Hayes Jr. on Tues day in the state Capitol in Harris burg recognized a representative group from the retail sector of the state’s egg industry for its quality and safety cooperative efforts. For the industry, the publicity about how egg producers and retailers have been cooperating under the Pennsylvania Egg Qual ity Assurance Program (PEQAP) is welcomed. Especially since the heaviest consumption of eggs occurs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Despite Season’s Heat, Drought, Turkey Producers Fortunate David and Karen Keller, who care for 26,000 toms under contract for Wampler Foods, remember the stultifying summer of 1995 when dangerous levels of heat destroyed 5 percent of their flock. Karen, left, holds a poult at about a week and a half old. David holds a bird that was 15 weeks, five days old. 056034 9710:‘!i o~ g|R l °D IC AL.S DIV )SI ON*" PENN STATE UNTVCRSirY wgog patte library UN IV PARK PA 16t JOS Four Sections named in honor of ag industrialist and philanthropist George C. Delp, was presented to a person who has made a significant personal contri bution to the agriculture communi ty. This year’s recipient is Kenneth Rutt, Edgefield Farms, Quaayville. Rutt was one of the driving for ces behind the development of the chamber’s agriculture services department, the only full time ser vice department in the nation. He is ihc past president of the Master Farmer's Association and serves on the Agway and Farmers First Bank boards of directors. A trustee of the Lancaster County 4-H deve lopment fund, Rutt has also been active in the state farmland protec tion board. To make more use of his know- the aventatark eU to provide news gathering •flMtdi* crews with pre l&anksgiving stories that hopeful ly can build consumer awareness of the egg quality program the Pen nsylvania industry and govern ment has jointly created. It is also hoped that the program will build consumer confidence and selectivity for those quality program labeled eggs. As the entire agricultural indus try should know, public percep tions of quality ate key to main taining, and critical to improving, demand. Now more than several years ago, Pennsylvania had been Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 29,1997 ledge of agriculture, Rutt has been a consultant to fanners in Nigeria, helping to develop the fust dairy farm and processing facility in this African country. Rutt and his wife Connie arc active in the Mechanics Grove Church of the Brethcm, and they have three grown children. In 1976 the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture ini tiated the century farm award to emphasize the contribution of the family farm to the Commonwealth. Since that time, 127 farms and farm families have received the award in Lancaster County. Jay Landis, Pequca, in Mattie Town ship, became number 128. Landis is the great gnndaod of Aldus Erb, (Turn to Pug* *3O) involved in prebfcaaa arising from eggs people ate in restaurants, institutional food service, and other retail outlets mostly in large cities and sutounding stales. Pennsylvania is a major produc er of eggs for consumption and use in food processing and manufac ture in the Northeast According to Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service, there were S.6S billion eggs pro duced in Pennsylvania in 1995, valued at $264,843,000. National ly, the state tanks third for egg production. The problems Pennsylvania egg producers and packets faced was (Turn to Pag# A 23) $28.50 Per Year Lancaster County Poultry Ambassador Kendra Weaver can do more than fry an egg to perfection. Her poultry related scientific research and speaking ability have taken her to national competitions. Turn to page B 3 to read more about Kendra and her family. Photo by Lou Ann Good. ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Stiff GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.) Even the little things that hap pen in a turkey growing season can leave growers a lot to be thankful for. David and Karen Keller, who cam for 26,000 toms under con tract few Wampler Foods, remem ber the stultifying summer of 1995, when dangerous levels of heat destroyed 5 percent of their flock. They were fortunate, noted David, because at the time he knew of other growers that lost half of their flocks. “It was a total disaster,” said Keller. However, this Thanksgiving, they have a lot to be thankful for. One night in. July, temperatures hovered at 95 degrees at 9 o’clock at night. It was only their careful scrutiny of the flock and working to keep the toms cool that kept losses at 1 percent losses they must still cover themselves. “When this happens, Wampler Joses,” David 60* Per Copy Keller told Lancaster Farming at a recent interview at his farm, before Thanksgiving. “You share it. It’s a gamble, like putting in a crop." Adams Count/ also suffered its share of field losses from this year of drought For soybean growers, it was especially damaging. “They'll only yield half if they yielded that,” Keller said, who grows 10 acres of beans. But the farm's source of water never dried up and was ample to cany the flock over to harvest time, noted Karen, who works part-time for the local United'Par cel Service office. The birds need close to 3,000 gallons a day. The Kellers farm 20 acres (about 10 actcs are tilled) on their turkey farm near Gettysburg. The farm was parceled out from David's father, Joseph’s, dairy farm across the road. David, who grew up on the dairy farm, worked in a machine shop for a few years. After work with the machine shop, Keller did land- (Tum to Pago A 22)
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