056034 033100 •*• Jl
V 01.45 NO. 24
101 Farms In 100 Days
Preserved In Pennsylvania,
Meets Gov. Ridge Timetable
EVERETT. NEWSWANGER
Editor
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) - “Momentous meeting!”
“Milestone.”
Thus Samuel Hayes Jr., Penn
sylvania’s secretary of agricul
ture, described the preservation
of more than 100 farms in 100
days before Earth Day next Sat
urday. Gov. Tom Ridge an
nounced the “Growing
Greener” program at the Penn
sylvania Farm Show in January.
The reached goal came on
Thursday at the regular meeting
of the Pennsylvania Agricultural
Land Preservation Board held in
the PDA building. Here 34
farms were approved to raises
the total to 101 farms perserved
in the designated time period.
“1 am pleased with the hard
work and dedication of the
Showing livestock is going to be a lot more fun for these
4-H’ers, from left, Chad Menges, Matt Bankert, and Cory
Thompson. They are among the guests who gathered at
the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the York 4-H Center’s
livestock exhibition facility. The $286,000 building was
funded largely by volunteer labor and donations of materi
als and cash. See page 816 for the story and photos by
Joyce Bupp.
Penn State Council Visits
Ag High School In Philadelphia
I EVERETT NEWSWANGER
* Editor
I PHILADELPHIA-Heralded
• as “a truly enlightening and in
formative session,” the Penn
1 State Ag Council held its regular
bi-annual meeting at the W. B.
Saul High School in the city of
Philadelphia last week. The
Four Sections
members of the state agricul
tural land preservation board
and the county farmland preser
vation boards throughout the
state who worked hand-in-hand
with our state’s farm commu
nity to reach our goal,” Hayes
said. “Since January, we have
invested nearly $23 million to
help preserve these farms from
the development that endangers
our agricultural economy and
encroaches on the quality of life
of these and future generations
of farm families.”
At the farm show, Gov. Ridge
called the loss of open space and
farmland Pennsylvania’s biesest
environmental challenge in the
new century.
“As Pennsylvanians, we are
proud to be part of our nation’s
breadbasket,” Gov. Ridge said.
(Turn to Page A3B)
meeting is most often held in
State College. But for this meet
ing, the attraction at Saul was
the uniqueness of the vocational
ag science school within the city
limits and a part of the Philadel
phia city public school system.
To educate city youth in the
ways of agriculture they milk 21
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 15 2001
Jeff and Lisa Bander, Norlina, N.C., were named Maryland and Virginia Milk Coopera
tive’s 2000 Outstanding Young Cooperators. Together, with the help of their son, Jacob,
they milk 245 cows and .manage 400 acres of crops. The Benders were recognized at
the cooperative’s annufl meeting in March. Turn to page A 34 for the story.
Joint Venture’s Ultimate Goal Is To
Lower Costs To DHITTTVIembers
JAYNE SEBRIGHT
Lancaster Farming Staff
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) The Pennsylvania Dairy
Herd Improvement Association
(PA DHIA) and Dairy One
based in New York have joined
together to improve milk pro
duction record management in
other countries while improving
profits for local DHIA members.
The joint venture involves
creating an international service
company called Ag Star Tech
nologies, focused on delivering
American-style dairy herd man
agement systems around the
globe. The company will be
owned 50/50 by the two organ
izations.
“Most of the current milk
record management programs
internationally are administered
on huge, high-cost mainframe
computers,” said David Slusser,
Pennsylvania DHIA general
manager. “Through AgStar, we
can provide these foreign coun
tries with PC-based software,
which is a lot more cost effective
than the traditional programs
running on mainframe comput
ers.”
AgStar is marketing the dairy
herd record processing software
currently used by the Pennsylva
nia DHIA and Dairy One to
these other countries. Along
cows, have an equine program, a
meat processing plant, swine
and sheep herds, a turf grass
program, a horticulture depart
ment that includes a greenhouse
and floral design program, a
poultry flock, and a farm me
chanics program. Every one of
(Turn to Page A 27)
$31.00 Per Year
these other countries. Along
with the processing software, the
company will provide on-farm
dairy herd management soft
ware and seminars on how to
manage the software.
“What we’re offering to these
countries is very similar to what
we’re doing locally with our
management software and
George Cudoc’s seminars,” said
Slusser.
According to Pennsylvania
DHIA President Norm Hershey,
AgStar presents an enormous
opportunity for the Northeast
dairy industry to provide infor
mation services and technolo
gies to agriculture’s global
marketplace.
“By joining forces with Dairy
The Maryland Brown Swiss Bell Ringers are showcased
in this week’s Lancaster Farming. In addition to being the
Maryland senior 2-year-old winner, Dublin-Hills KM Mitsy,
owned by Aimee Smith of Woodsboro, is a national bell
ringer. For more bell ringers, turn to page A 22.
Conference Highlights In Next Foraging Around
Next week Lancaster Farming is publishing the spring issue of
Foraging Around, the newsletter of the Pennsylvania Forage and
Grassland Council (PFGC). The issue will include highlights of
the annual PFGC conference and other grazier news.
i
60c Per Copy
One, we can bring the expertise
and resources of both organiza
tions together to create an in
dustry-leading service provider
around the world,” said Her
shey.
AgStar has already negotiated
projects in Poland, Latvia (one
of the Baltic states), and
Canada. The company is also
exploring opportunities with
other countries in Europe and
South America.
The Poland project has
started, with around 40 herds
signed up on a test pilot. Based
on the test pilot, AgStar is
hoping to win the bid to process
all of Poland’s milk records for
their 370,000 cows. To create a
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