V 01.43 No. 27
FARMER Members Care, Make A Difference
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
HERSHEY (Dauphin
Co.) The political action com
mittee of the Pennsylvania Farm
Bureau held its 18th annual ban
quet program Monday at the Her
shey Lodge and Convention
Center.
Calves In the pasture make grazers’ thoughts turn to
spring. With warm weather and plenty of moisture, pastures
are now growing well in most parts of the Northeast.
"According to the Pennsylvania Agriculture Statistics Ser
vice, com planting Is approximately one week ahead of the
raverage completed at this time. Wheat and barley look
Bcod,8 cod, and oats are reported in good condition too. Current
sted activities include planting small grains, spreading
lime, plowing fields, harvesting and chopping ryelage,
machinery maintenance, hauling manure, and caring for
livestock.
The Nittany Farms, located along Route 322 near Penn
State on the way to State College, always provide a pictur
esque setting. With the calvefc scattered out over the fore
flround as captured early one momlHfc) last week, it was
Impossible to drive by without taking this picture. Photo by
Bvaratt Nawawangar, managing adltor.
Penn State Poultry Club
Holds Annual Meeting
JUDITH PATTON
; Union Co. Correspondent
> STATE COLLEGE (Centre
£o.) At the eighth Penn State
(Poultry Science Club banquet held
May 1, John Hoffman, Pennsylva
nia Poultry Council’s executive
director, told students their biggest
career challenges will be resolving
environmental, food safety, and
Inimal rightist’s issues.
“You're paying the same price
fcr chicken now as your grcat
■reat-grandmother did,” Hoffman
Mid. But he cautioned that to con
ptue to have a self-subsidized U.S.
Four Sections
The PFB political committee is
called FARMER and it selects,
endorses and supports fanner
friendly political candidates.
Following a meal, the event fea
tured a special presentation of a
certificate of appreciation to PFB
President Guy Donaldson from
Bill Werhy, chairman of the state
agricultural economy these chal
lenges must be met Consumers
now only pay nine percent of their
disposable net income for food.
“The most serious challenge of
your careers will be making high
density farm operations compati
ble with a safe and healthy environ
ment” Hoffman said.
Because the Susquehanna River
flows through the heart of Pennsyl
vania farm areas into the Cheasa
peake Bay, farm nutrients and
waste runoff is overly blamed for
pollution in the bay. Some states
(Turn to Pag* A 33)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 9, 1998
committee of the Pennsylvania
office of the USDA Farm Service
Agency, on behalf of the USDA,
for the generous contributions
made by members of PFB in the
USDA Farm Service Agency’s
national drive to build stocks in
food banks across the nation.
The contributions arranged
Noel and Elizabeth Schlegel have been farming the property since 1983 and pur
chased the property from Elizabeth’s parents, Harry and Thelma Herbert, in 1986. A
preservation ceremony was held Friday morning on their farm. The farm sign reads
“Shaynah Kee," Dutch for “nice cows,” said Noel. Photo by Andy Andrews
$29.50 Per Year
through PFB made up the bulk of
foods collected in Pennsylvania
through a special U.S. Department
of Agriculture program earlier this
year.
Originally, the USDA food
drive program was all inhouse and
was unexpected, initiated just after
the New Year.
600 Per Copy
That gave only about a month’s
time for the national agency to
notify all the state agencies and for
the state agencies to notify all the
regional offices and employees,
and then collect the food and distri
bute it.
Given the short notice of the
food drive, most USDA employ
ees at most state offices had little
time to make allowances to
donated food items for local food
banks.
After the first deadline arrived, a
second deadline was created, but
as that began to close down to
about a week away, USDA began
contacting some state farm organi
zations to see if they could help
out
(Turn to Pag* A3O)
Land Preserved In
Nick Of Time For
Farm Viability
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
TOPTON (Berks Co.) Noel
and Elizabeth Schlegel were hard
pmsied to come up with enough
land, literally, to be able to raise
enough feed for their dairy herd
and for land to spread manure on.
After all, they had 60 cows to
milk and another 45 replacements
to take care of.
And the new nutrient manage
ment law had Noel worried
(Turn to Pag* A2B)