Vol. 43 No. 51
State Farm-City Event Shares Agricultural Adventure
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) Almost 3,000 elementary
school students and an unknown
number of adults on Wednesday
participated in the second state
Department of Agriculture’s
(PDA) Farm-City Day event at the
PDA headquarters building in
Harrisburg.
Although the official Farm-City
Week is annually held the week
ending Thanksgiving Day, and the
state has been involved in Farm-
Beetles Prove An Effective
Weapon In Controlling Flies
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
ELIZABETHTOWN (Lancas
ter Co.) Fanners may have new
weapons for the war on disease
cany ing flies in layer and broiler
houses.
Those weapons could surprise
you.
In the past, researchers knew
about the effects of using the “bis
ter beetle” (known scientifically as
Carcinops Pumilio ) to live in poul
try house manure and eat fly eggs
and larvae.
But research by Penn State and
independent companies are clos
ing in on ways to mass-produce
beetles that each can eat up to 150
fly eggs a day.
Penn State has been studying the
hister beetle for many years,
according to Charlie Pitts, Penn
State professor of entomology.
Pitts said the beetle is an insect that
is native to the country, which,
NAZARETH (Northampton Co.) —Crisp, clear weather allowed a lot of shelled corn
harvesting to take place the past week. Bill Sandt, farm manager of Windhaven Farms
in Nazareth, takes a break from harvesting corn off of Penn Dixie Road. The 10-acre
field was yielding in the range of 30-150 bushels per acre. Photo by Andy Andrews
Five Sections
City Days for years, the PDA ini
tiated its first on-site Farm-City
Day event last year. Based on its
success, the event was continued
this year.
Last year about 500 youth
attended the event, which involves
many of the PDA staff.
For those unfamiliar with Farm-
City Day activities, they arc held
as a means for agriculturally
employed and non-agriculturally
employed people to get to know
and appreciate each other better.
The goal has been that simple.
according to the literature, was
transmitted through “cow piles”
from Buffalo herds to cow herds.
The beetle, transmitted across the
U.S., eventually ended up from the
cow piles into poultry houses.
A company operated by Roni
Clark and Leon Beiler, C & M
Farm Services in Elizabethtown,
manages a hister program to tackle
the fly problem. The natural fly
parasites include wasps, beneficial
nematodes, and the carcinops
beetle.
Working under a USDA Small
Business Innovation Research
Grant, IPM Laboratories, Locke,
N.Y., has come up with a way to
mass-produce the beetles. C & M
Farm Services has an exclusive
contract to sell the beetles in three
states, according to Carol Glenis
ter, president of IPM Laboratories.
Measuring less than '/«inch in
length, each adult beetle can
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 24, 1998
though the mission has sometimes
been difficult to maintain, given
the fact that fewer than 2 percent of
the population is directly involved
with production farming, and
many of the current generation of
people are two to three generations
removed from farming as a means
for direct sustainment.
As the general labor employ
ment of the population of the
United States changed dramatical
ly from farm, mining and timber
ing work to factory, manufacturing
and service work, the culture of the
new communities based on the
new types of employment deve
loped a void of first-hand know
ledge of farming, land issues, and
rural and environmental concerns.
Even more significantly, a phi
losophical chasm seemed to deve
lop between city and rural people,
that continues today. The chasm
seems to concern the nature of the
relationship of human beings to
plants and animals.
One of the efforts of Farm-City
Day events is to present the rela
tionship of agriculture lly produced
plants and annuals to everyday
commodities and products, in an
effort to educate the general public
about their everyday reliance on a
strong and healthy agricultural
industry.
While some community Farm-
City Day events are designed to
provide a forum for both city and
farm people to leam more about
each other, the PDA event is
designed more to have an impact
on children.
Wednesday’s program carried
the theme, “Farm City Week. A
Story to be Told Lessons to be
Learned.”
The theme was the concept of
state Secretary of Agriculture
Samuel E. Hayes Jr., who has been
a long-time advocate of promoting
education and agriculture.
“This year’s edition of PDA’s
Farm City Day was another great
success,” Hayes said. “Agriculture
has a wonderful stoiy to be told
and there are many lessons for our
young students to learn.”
Free candy apples, and a few
mild midway type rides were sev
eral of the not-strictly agricultural
activities ii'eluded.
However, the event is designed
to avoid boring the youth with dry,
force-fed lectures about the impor
tance of agriculture, but rather to
provide an atmosphere, similar to a
Quality Haymaking
In Foraging Around
To get good hay, you h t #e to feed it. “Fertilizer pays. It
doesn’t cost you,” said Joel Steigman, who farms 250 acres
at two separate sites below Broad Mountain near Halifax.
Steigman won first place for his alfalfa-timothy grass at the
1998 Hay Show during Ag ‘Progress 3ays. He is profiled in
the special section this issue, Foraging Around. Photo by
Andy Andrews
Set Clocks
Back Tonight
Time has come to change from Daylight Saving Time back to East
ern Standard Time. We “fall back” one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday morning,
Oct. 25. To get that extra hour of sleep, turn the clocks back one hour
before you go to bed Saturday night. Animal feeding and milking sche
dules also need to be adjusted accordingly.
Shirk’s S>rry Fniiii
3 isics Column
Or Lk Website
The “Daily Farm Management Course” column by Glenn A. Shirk,
Lancaster County extension agent, is now up to Article 20, “Heat
Stress," on page A 35. Readers with access to the Internet can also read
the previous articles in the series, of which several more will be written
for the newspaper. .Check out the columns on our website at
www.farming@lancasterfarming.com
$29.50 Per Year
county fair (that they may later
want to visit), of fun and
adventure.
The PDA building sits along
Cameron Street across from the
state Farm Show Complex, where
PDA vehicle and some guest park-'
ing was temporarly relocated for
the event.
The parking lot of the PDA
building, the front steps, landing,
lobby, first floor and basement,
side yard, and an area behind one
of the greenhouses were used for
the event.
On the steps of the PDA build
ing, 13-year-old country singing
entertainer Crystal Marie, dressed
in white Stetson and cowgirl attire,
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