AlO-Unctttar Fuming, Saturday, Hirctl 14,1998
A Salute To 4-H
Begining Simday, March 15, the 4-H program across the
nation and in each one of the states is honored for the work done
for the youth of America. From the heart of the city (the largest
4-H chapter in Pennsylvania is in center city Philadelphia) to the
most rural of communities, 4-H Awareness Week celebrates the
leadership of 4-H youth.
Each year “4-H week” celebrates the opportunities in the prog
rams by calling attention to the diversity of the lives and back
grounds of 4-H youth. This year the theme, “4-H... Are You Into
It?” is appropriate. Young people between the ages of 8 and 19
learn to develop leadership, citizenship, interpersonal, and work
force skills in a wide variety of 4-H programs. The subjects fall
within four major academic disciplines: biological sciences,
social sciences, arts and humanities, and physical sciences. For
example, in Chester County, 0ver4,700 young people completed
6300 projects this past year. Multiply these numbers by the large
number of counties in the nation and you get a little idea of the
impact of the program on those who participate.
In addition, dedicated, volunteer leaders give their time and
their talents to teach and to encourage young people and their
caregivers. We can never say enough good things about the 4-H
program and the extension service personnel that run the
programs.
To everyone in the 4-H program we say, “You are doing good
work that is obvious to many of us in the community, especially
to those who have been helped by the program when we were
teenagers. The hands-on experience is invaluable. Keep up the
good work!”
Editor,
I appreciated die excellent edi
torial Opinion “Enhance Soil
Ability,” in last week’s edition.
Lancaster County loses an esti
mated 12 tons of topsoil per year
from every acre of crop land and
organic matter levels are at best
being maintained instead of in
creasing. Long term soil health
and productivity hinges on how
we manage organic matter and the
“animals” who live in it (Last
week’s lead article in “Com Talk”
is a great example.) I believe the
biggest challenge to adopting a
no-till system is lack of informa
tion and experience. We have used
steel in the last ISO years in order
to prepare the soil for a crop and
have gotten pretty good at it But
now these fields are “addicted” to
tillage and require frequent opera
tions in order to break up the com-
Satin<l;t\. March 14
1998 Maryland State Holstein
Convention, Maryland State
Fairgrounds, Timonium.
Garden Wise, York County 4-H
Center. 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Pasture Night for Part-Timers.
Calvert Grange Hall, 10 a.m.-3
pjn.
Home Gardener’s School, SUN
Area Career and Technology
Center, 9 a.m.-3i45 p.m.
Ag Alternatives. Honesdale High
OPINION
♦ Farm Forum ❖
? <. y x -
pacted soil. Organic matter is
burned up during tillage and soil
microbes are hindered from multi
plying to their full potential. A
properly managed no-till will be
come more til thy and mellow over
time a nature is allowed to do its
work. Earthworms proliferate and
soil aggregate stability increases
which leads to better water infil
tration and moisture holding capa
city. Success in no-till is all in “ait
and technique.” We have the
equipment available now to
handle high residue levels and col
lectively have enough information
to make this a profitable, environ
mentally friendly, and productive
system to use.
We owe it to future generations
to make the soil better than when
we found it!
❖ Farm Calendar *
School
Cambria County Extension Day,
extension office, Ebensburg. 9
a.tn.-l p.m.
Date, Lcba-
non Valley Ag Center, 8:30
ajn.
Penn Stale Tri-County Weed Man
agement School, Keystone
Agway Building, Shippens-
Steve Groff
Holtwood
t a- •*
To Increase Cow Longevity
Are you breeding good genetics
into your herd but preventing
cows from attaining their genetic
potential? This is a question
Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County
Extension Dairy Agent asks.
Cows are a big investment and the
life blood of your dairy farm busi
ness. Are you protecting your in
vestment in cows so they have a
long and productive life and an
opportunity to generate a good re
turn on your investment?
The road to a long and profit
able life for cows begins with the
mating of good cows with good
bulls. This must be followed with
good management from day of
birth to the date of first calving
and beyond.
The challenge is to protect cat
tle from the things that may scar
them for life. They are the things
that seriously impair their health,
production, conception and lon
gevity. These things put a cap on
the cows potential to be profit
able.
To Control Diseases
Glenn Shirk, Lancaster County
Extension Dairy Agent, reminds
us it is important to control
things that scar cattle for life and
reduce their longevity in the herd.
High producing cows need healthy
lungs. Respiratory problems, such
as pneumonia and lung worms,
burg, 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Pesticide Core Credit Meeting,
Montgomery County 4-H Cen
ter, Creamery, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
First On The Scene For Farm Fam
ilies, Coudersport Elementary
eny College. Meadville.
Beef Management Short Course,
York County 4-H Center, also
April 28.
Midwest and Northeast Dairy
Conference, Holiday Inn,
Westlake, Ohio, thru March 19.
Soybean Management, Holiday
Inn, Bartonsville, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Expansion Strategies For Dairies
Seminar, Franklin County
Administration Annex, Cham-
bcrsburg, 9:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Mercer County Sheep and Wool
Growers meeting. Mercer
C( — Exi Mi
ing Center, Mercer, 1 p.m.-4
p.m.
Cover Crops Making Them
Work For You, Tidewater Inn,
Easton, M<L, thru March 19.
HACCP Training For Cider Pro
ducers, Nittany Lion Inn. Uni
versity Park, thru March 19.
Garden State Grazing Coalition
meeting, Broadway Grange,
Warren County, N J., 7:30 pjn.
Solanoo Young Farmers Tour to
(Turn to Pago A26}
may cause permanent scarring of
the lungs.
These are the cows that pant
the most, go off feed and drop in
milk production when pushed hard
or when exposed to stresses such
as heat. Coccidia, intestinal
worms and Johne's bacteria may
cause permanent damage to the di
gestive tract. Affected cattle utilize
feeds less efficiently and are un
able to absorb the nutrients they
need to support good milk produc
tion and good conception.
Several contagious diseases,
such as BVD and lysto, may cause
serious reproductive problems.
Failure to prevent and control ud
der infections allows mastitis or
ganisms to do permanent damage
to the udder's secretory tissue.
To Feed Cattle Properly
Poor feeding practices may
•V F'p
, A' h, , /
BY LAWRENCE W ALEHOUSE
sasiLS
sn
ON EATING WITH
TAX COLLECTORS
March IS. 1998
Background Scripture:
Marie 2;1 through 3:6
Devotional Reading:
Acts 2:22-36
One of the things that really
alienated Jesus from the religious
authorities of his day was the com
pany he kept In fact, Jesus prob
ably would not have ended up on a
cross if he just cultivated the
“right” people.
But he had that infuriating habit
of associating with the worst sort
of people: lepers, sick people, for
eigners, sinners and (ugh!) tax col
lectors. (Lepers, foreigners and
sinners for obvious reasons, but
sick people because it was as
sumed they were sick because of
sin and tax collectors, because
they worked for the enemy,
Rome!)
So, in Mark 2 when Jesus says
to die paralytic whose friends
have lowered his pallet through
the roof of the house where Jesus
was staying, “My son your sins
are forgiven” (2:5), they are irate.
I suspect they were angry because
Jesus released this man from the
paralysis of both his body and his
spirit They weren’t ready to have
this man healed. So, instead of
giving thanks and praise to God
that this man had been made
whole, they turned to theology and
grumbled instead: “It is blas
phemy! Who can forgive sins but
God alone?”
AN ACCUSATION
Jesus’ “error” might have been
overlooked if he had just made
that one faux-pas, but, as Mark
makes abundantly clear, Jesus
kept on doing it again and again.
Next Mark tells us that Jesus and
his disciples are sitting at table
with “many tax collectors and sin
ners.” When the scribes erf the
Pharisees saw that, they chal
lenged the disciples, “Why does
he eat with tax collectors and sin-
iters?” (2:16). Obviously it wasn’t
so much a question as an accusa
tion.
The scribes were caught up in
one of those infernal “good guy/
bad guy” systems of classifica
tions. Ibe essence of this kind of
classification is the division of
people into groups with labels, so
that they are dismissed or con
demned, not as individuals, but as
“kinds” of people. Tax collectors
were definitely bad. Everybody
with that vocation could be con
demned and shunned without a
cause acidosis. This results in
laminitis and permanent damage
to the feet or cause severe stomach
ulcers and liver abscesses. Under
feeding of young stock may se
verely stunt their growth for life,
reminds Glenn Shirk, Lancaster.
County Extension Dairy Agent.
On the other hand, getting
young calves to fat may trigger
excessive fat deposits in the de
veloping udder at the expense of
milk secreting cells. This will
jeopardize future milk production
potential. Thus, it is very impor
tant to be constantly monitoring
your feeding program and observ
ing your cattle weekly for best
performance.
Feather Prof, 's Footnote
"Some people dream of worthy
accomplishments while others
stay awake and do them."
moment’s hesitation. Sinners, of
course, were also bad and could be
treated accordingly.
I read in the newspaper the
other day that there is a lot of con
flict in parts of India today where
the “untouchables” are beginning
to revolt against the caste system
that denies them recognition as
human beings. They are rejected
by the upper castes, not on the
basis of who they are personally,
but as members of the “untouch
able” caste, a caste to which other
people have assigned them.
OUR CASTE SYSTEM
Our caste system operates on a
considerably higher level, but we
have it all the same. We use labels
to characterize unfavorably peo
ple whom we do not know. Some
of these insidious labels scarcely
need mentioning; we are all aware
of the existence of racial, ethnic
and religious prejudices. But one
which we may overlook is, in my
mind, the most destructive of all:
ideology.
Increasingly, many people are
more concerned with what ideo
logical camp you’re in than what
kind of person you are. To some,
if you are tabbed a “liberal” or a
"conservative,” that, depending
upon the one who is doing the la
beling, is the worst thing that can
be said about you and you are
written off as “undesirable.” Peo
ple do the same thing with
“Democrat” and “Republican,”
“fundamentalist” and “modern
ist,” “anti-abortion” and “Pro
life.” Challenged as to why he ate
with “tax collectors and sinners,”
Jesus replied, “Those who are well
have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick; I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners”
(2:17). All of us are sinners.
Three more times in Mark 2:18
through 3:6 they challenge him:
on why his disciples arc non
fas ters while the Baptist’s prac
ticed fasting, and whether he vio
lated the sabbath by plucking and
eating grain and healing a man
with a withered hand.
Jesus’ response is instructive;
“And he looked around at them
with anger, grieved at their hard
ness of heart...” (3:5). Their la
bels truly grieved and angered
him. How do you think he reacts
to ours?
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
IE. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522 I
-by-
Lancas'ter Farming, Inc.
A Stelnman Enterprise
Roberta Campbell Genaral Manager
Evrrtt R. Neweiwngw Mmeglnfl Editor!
Copyrigl* 19M by LanouUr Fuming