AlO-Lancastw'Farming, Saturday, May 13, 2000 OPINION We’ll Starve! The statement is true. People with their mouths full of food should not criticize the farmer who produces it. This becomes even more evident as unscientific environmental restrictions are placed on farmers. We’re talking about restric tions that have no scientific way to prove the need or basis to form regulations. The latest of the “can-you-believe-this” regulation proposal is a push to put a re striction on how much ammonia a chicken may emit Of course, if you could de termine how much she does, you could make the restriction low enough so you could not have Saturday, May 1 3 Western Pa. Sheep and Club Lamb Sale, Mercer County 4-H Park, Mercer, 6:30 p.m. Northeast Production Select IX Sale, Hereford Sale, Coopera tive Extension, Morrisville, N.Y., 12:30 p.m. Old Bedford Village Spring Cele bration and Plow Day, 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Farm and City Day, North Mu seum, Lancaster, 9 a.m.-S p.m. Mother Earth at the Market, Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, May 14 Willowdale Steeplechase, Ken nett Square. Nature Walk at site of future ar boretum, Penn State, comer of Bigler Rd. and Services Rd. near Penn State Hort Trial Gardens, 1:30 p.m. PennAg Industries Spring Poul try Banquet, Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Her shey. EtaiEl Current Advancements and Is sues In Equine Health, Holi day Inn, Phillipsburg, N.J., 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Chester County Cattlemen Meet ing, New Bolton Center, Ken nett Square, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Lancaster County Honey Pro ducers meeting, Alva Martin, Millersville, 6:30 p.m. Twin Valley FFA Banquet, Twin Valley High School, 6:30 p.m. Lancaster Farm and Home Scholarship Awards Ceremo ny, Farm and Home Center, 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 17 Horse Pasture Management Workshop, East Hanover Township Municipal Build ing, Shellsville, also May 24. Twilight Fruit Meeting, Heilig Orchards, Richwood, N.J., 6:15 p.m. Small Grain Twilight Meeting, WREC, 6:30 p.m. chickens on your farm. The next step would be to include pigs, cows, cats, dogs and then get rid of all people on the earth except those making the regulations. The world should know that our nation has become great not in spite of farmers’ ways, but be cause of it They work hard, in vest millions of dollars to do a good job of feeding people, and for generations have allowed the rest of us free to pursue other oc cupations and lifestyles. Farmers are a big part of everyone’s exist ence. So, let’s not regulate them out of business. To do so, is to starve. Land Use Farmland Preservation Conference, Logan Grange Hall, Pleasant Gap, 1:30 p.m.- 4 p.m. Thursday. May 1 8 Strawberry Twilight Meeting, Wye Research and Education Center, 6 p.m. Friday, May 1 9 Gettysburg Fair, thru May 21. Saturday, May 20 Lebanon County Rabbit Conven tion, Lebanon Fairgrounds. Capitol Area Beekeepers Short Course on Basic Beekeeping, Milton Hershey Farm Confer ence Center and Apiary, Her shey, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, May 21 Summer Camp Open House, Lindley G. Cook 4-H Camp, 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Monday, May 22 Sheep Scrapie Information Meet ing, Lancaster Farm and Home Center, Lancaster, 7:30 p.m. Public Meetings On Dairy, Speaker Pete Hardin, pub lisher of The Milkweed, Lan caster County Farm and Home Center, 8 p.m. Tuesday. May 23 Horse Pasture Management Meeting, Westmoreland County extension office, 7:30 p.m. PennAg Industries Divots For Degrees Golf Tournament, Foxchase Golf Club, Stevens, 7:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. (double thru June 3, Friday, May 26 Penn Jersey Extension Program Crop Field Day, Forage and Small Grain, Fred Clucas Farm, Oldwick, N.J., 9:30 a.m.-ll:30 a.m. and Farm View Farm, Easton, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. To Sign Up For Programs This week at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and In dustry’s Agricultural Committee meeting, Jay Clark reminded ev eryone the deadlines for signing up for Act 319, Clean and Green, and farmland preservation pro gram are approaching. Clean and Green is Pennsylva nia’s preferential tax assessment law that allows agricultural land to be assessed at agricultural value rather than fair market value. The deadline for signing up for Clean and Green is June 1. The farmland preservation program allows the landowner to sell the value of the development rights to the county. To partici- OFTEN ‘DOWN’ BUT NEVER ‘OUT Background Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4. Devotional Reading: 2 Corinthians 6:1-10. Recently I celebrated my 70th birthday. Unknown to me, in preparation for that event, my wife, Valere, asked a hundred or so of my friends and associates over the years to make a brief written contribution to a “Book of Memories” she was compiling for me. One of the responses came from a former parishioner who, when I had been his pastor 40-plus years ago, was a high school student. On March 21, 2000, when she presented the book to me and I read these “memories,” his letter in particular staggered me. Al though I well remembered him as a fine young man active in leading our church’s youth fel lowship, I had no recollection of influencing his life in any special way. In his letter, however, he ticked off a long list of ways in which he said I had helped him none of which I remember and closed with a tribute that I will never forget. What made this testimony so special to me was that during that period of my life I was “fresh” out of seminary strug gling in a church facing some seemingly overwhelming prob lems. Losing heart at an alarm ing rate, I was “down” and close to being “out.” BEYOND MY CAPACITIES. I was “down” because I had found myself confronted by con flicts and challenges which seem ed to be quite beyond my capaci ties. I had held very high pate, the farm must be enrolled in an agricultural security area. If your farm is not in an agricul tural security area, you will need to petition your township super visors to have your farm added to the township’s agricultural se curity area. The deadline for signing up for the farmland pres ervation program is Sept. 1. To Look At Soybean Fertilizer The question: will nitrogen fertil izer improve soybean yields? seems to come up each year. Robert Anderson, Lancaster County extension agronomy agent, reports researchers have looked at this question. Tests were conducted during a two-year period at Dallastown and Felton. Overall, those plots with no nitrogen outyielded those with nitrogen. The average yield of all the plots with nitrogen was 42.25 bushels per acre compared to an average yield of 42.75 bush els per acre for the plots without nitrogen. The plots without ni trogen had a yield advantage of 0.5 bushels per acre. Research has also shown that when soybeans are grown with nitrogen fertilizer added, they do not nodulate and produce their own nitrogen. This approach will result in very little nitrogen for the next crop. To Adjust Hay Conditioners The amount of time that hay needs to dry depends on many things, including air tempera ture, wind speed, relative humid ity, and the equipment used to mow and condition the hay, expectations of myself in the ministry. But, in that pastoral situation I began to realize slowly too slowly, I’m afraid no matter how hard I worked and prayed, I was unequal to the challenge. It was then that I real ized that my ministry did not de pend upon my personal qualifi cations alone. I began to learn to acknowledge my limitations and turn the situation over to God for him to resolve according to his plan and purpose. Paul’s advice in 2 Corinthians 4 was especially helpful to me be cause I came to see myself as one of the “earthen vessels” of whom Paul was writing: “. . . we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4;7). My problem was that I was forgetting that I am only the “earthen vessel,” not the “treasure” itself. We human beings are like common clay pots carrying with in ourselves the priceless treasure of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Whenever we have the opportunity to witness, it is to witness for Christ, not ourselves. As Paul puts it, “For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord” (4:5). And if we are able to bring light into any one’s darkness, we must remem ber that “. . .it is the God . . . who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:6). We do not create the light; we only re flect it. NOT LOSING HEART. Be cause the light and the power come from God, we can perse vere regardless of the outward circumstances of our lives. Physi cally, mentally and spiritually we may be worn “down,” but we will be “out” only if we allow ourselves to be “out.” As Paul said, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer na ture is wasting away, our inner according to Robert Anderson, Lancaster County extension agronomy agent. Hay producers cannot control the weather, but they can make sure their equipment is properly adjusted so the hay will dry as quickly as possible in order to achieve the goal of getting the hay baled before the next rain storm. Hay conditioners are de signed to crush or crimp the stems of the forage crop so the drying process is speeded up. A properly adjusted condition er may cut drying time in half compared to no conditioning of the hay. It speeds the drying of the stem so that the stems dry closely at the same rate as the leaves. When properly adjusted, a conditioner will crimp the stem every three to four inches. There are two basic adjustments on most conditioners that will affect this action. They are the space between the two crimping rolls and the pressure on the rolls. The proper adjustment of the rollers is to be as close to each other as possible without touching each other. You should check this ad justment at several locations on the rolls. There should be enough pressure on the rolls to crimp the stems without damaging the leaves. Less than five percent of the leaves should show damage after going through the condi tioner. Feather Prof, ’s Footnote: “Countless, unseen details are often the only difference be tween mediocre and magnifi cent. ” nature is being renewed every day.” (4:16). Thes? obstacles and defeats are only temporary, for he calls them ‘this slight momentary af fliction.” The “glory” down the road overshadows these tempo rary defeats. So, when we are discouraged because of our limitations and “down” because the challenge seems far beyond our capacities, we need to remember that, even when we’re “down,” God can de liver the “treasure” of Jesus Christ using “earthen vessels” such as ourselves and shining the “light” of Jesus Christ into the darkest nooks and crannies of this world. In that parish 40-plus years ago where I felt nothing worth while was happening in my min istry, unknown to me, God was able to use the “earthen vessel” of that ministry to shine the light of Christ into the life of a young man. So he is able to use each and every one of us and, no mat ter how great the obstacles, we may be knocked down, but not out. “So we do not lose heart . . .” Note: In the Steps of Paul to Rome and Greece, an 18-day tour conducted by Larry and Va lere Althouse, is scheduled for April 2001. If interested, please contact us at 4412 Shenandoah Ave, Dallas TX 75205/e-mail: al thouses@aol.com; fax: (214) 52109312. Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 G. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 —by— Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Stemman Enterprise William J. Burgess General Manager Everett R. Newswanger Editor Copyright 2006 by Lancaster Farming
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