On Being a
Farm Wife
(and other
hazards)
Joyce Bupp
Farmers have generally earned
a reputation as trusting souls.
They share tools and equip
ment, help one another out with
supplies, trade field work and
machinery parts, and think noth
ing of sealing business agree
ments' with a promise and a
handshake.
Farmers will stop to help one
another when a flat tire leaves
one stranded, heifers take to the
hills or a combine catches fire.
Few things more personify the
rural good-neighbor policy
groups which materialize almost
out of nowhere and turn out to
help a fellow farm who has been
hit by disaster from wind, flood,
fire or serious health problems.
Still, there has always been
PHILADELPHIA Thou
sands of gardeners, families, and
visitors from the Philadelphia
area will celebrate a cornucopia
of home-grown bounty as com
petitors vie for ribbons at the
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that small element of human na
ture which is willing to take ad
vantage of the inherent trust of
rural folks and turn it to their
criminal advantage.
Sadly, rural crime is alive and
well, as evidenced by a recent in
cident which happened to fellow
dairy farmers here in southern
York County. They sought to
share their latest brush with
crime in an effort to possibly
thwart a repeat performance
somewhere else in the area.
Two strangers stopped at Ed
Johnson’s son’s home near the
family dairy and crops farm late
one recent evening, inquiring if
they could have permission to
hunt pigeons. Wild pigeon flocks
tend to congregate and roost in
Gardeners To Celebrate Seasonal Bounty
ciety’s Philadelphia Harvest
Show, September 16 and 17, at
the Horticultural Center in Fair
mount Park.
“Harvest 2000... and Beyond,”
with its competitions, activities
and displays will celebrate futur-
)‘ I (
most farm buildings in these
parts of the country if they can
gain any access, especially any
where that has feed grain com
modities, which offer plentiful
eating. They mess up buildings,
eat feed, litter hay supplies with
droppings, and can carry disease
and pest organisms, which can
be harmful to domestic livestock,
as well as to people.
So, especially if flocks have
grown excessively large for a
farmstead, wild pigeons become
fair game for hunters, who can
do a farmer, as well as neighbors
and the general consuming pub
lic, a service by helping to reduce
the source of potential livestock
and human disease problems.
The family’s son granted per
mission to the hunters, casually
observing that it appeared the pi
geon hunters were driving a bat
tered pickup truck with a wood
en crate on the bed.
Next morning, the Johnson’s
discovered that their two best
heifer baby calves were missing
from their pens in the calf-rais
ing bam. The two calves hap
pened to be ET’s, embryo-trans
fer offspring, from some of the
family’s best polled registered
Holstein bloodlines in their dairy
istic gardening themes and ideas
in a festive weekend of family
fun. Prize winning fruits, vege
tables, herbs, flowers, pressed
plant materials, floral designs,
baked goods, and preserved proj
ects all set the stage for this
“Country Fair” of success
ful summer growing. Visi
tors can attend a variety of
educational exhibits and
hear guest speakers who
will offer free lectures and
demonstrations. Youth ac
tivities will include scare
crow making, pumpkin
painting along with compe
tition categories that in
clude succulents, vegetables.
Lowfat Milk May Reduce Obesity Risk
COLUMBUS, Ohio The
American Dairy Association &
Dairy Council Mid East has
great news for dairy farmers
and dieters alike. According to
a study published in the Feder
herd. The pair of calves had been
removed from a unit containing
about a dozen; these two were
the most valuable from the entire
group, with none of the others
disturbed.
Coincidental that they got the
best? Maybe.
The eartags reportedly held no
particular information that
would identify the calves as
being any more special or valu
able than their pen mates. Inher
ently, suspicious person that I
am, I find it hard to believe that
thieves would just be lucky
enough to grab the two best. If
they have that good an eye for
cattle, we should sign them up
for dairy official judging train
ing.
Family members immediately
contacted the police and traveled
to an area livestock auction to
see if the missing calves might by
chance turn up there. And in
their visiting with other farmers,
they spoke with a fellow produc
er who had lost a supply of
bagged feed some months earlier,
after granting pigeon hunting
permission to a pair of strangers.
Coincidental? Maybe. (Makes
perfect sense to me that someone
who steals calves might also steal
sunflowers, dish gardens, terrari
ums, annuals, perennials, con
tainer gardens and preserved
products. Plus, a mini-village
with seasonal gift tools, clothes,
furniture, orchids, bonsai, soaps,
and gardening supplies will be
open with more than 30 market
place shops.
Special events this year will in
clude a “vegetables-on-wheels”
race, a performing rocket skater,
and a traveling magician. The
“Great Pumpkin Pie Contest”
will take place on Saturday after
noon, and beekeeper Robert Har
vey will don his massive “bee
beard” and demonstrate hive
maintenance techniques. Mike
McGrath, host of WHYY’s “You
ation of American Societies for
Experimental Biology journal,
Americans can still consume
dairy products such as lowfat
milk, yogurt, and cheese and
continue to lose weight.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 22, 2000-B3
feed.)
My heart has a rock-hard spot
in it toward cattle thieves since
some 20 years ago, when our
daughter’s first beloved 4-H heif
er was stolen, along with some
less precious ones. We, too, never
found a trace of them. But no
one had asked permission to be
on the property before Lassie
vanished; they just sneaked in
and stoled our heifers from an
adjoining pasture not visible
from our home.
“Maybe we can help alert
someone, somewhere, so that this
doesn’t happen to them,” say the
Johnsons.
Cattle prices are beginning to
nudge up a bit, so this kind of
disgusting stuff might well be on
the increase. Do your part to
help take a bite out of rural
crime: be suspicious, be question
ing, be cautious, be alert, be wary
of anyone you don’t know asking
to do anything on your property
or if they appear to be “casing”
the neighborhood.
If it doesn’t “feel right” to
have someone you don’t really
know on your property, just say
“NO.”
And write down their license
number.
Bet Your Garden” will broadcast
live from the show on Saturday
at 11 a.m. while answering ques
tions from the Show audience.
The Philadelphia Harvest
Show will be held Saturday, Sep
tember 16, and Sunday, Septem
ber 17 at the Horticulture Center
on Horticulture Drive in Fair
mount Park, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
both days. Admission is $6 for
adults and $2 for children. Indi
vidual gardeners, community
growers, groups and clubs are all
invited to enter.
For information about submit
ting entries call the Pennsylvania
Horticultural Society at (215)
988-8800.
After controlling calories,
physical activity and other fac
tors, body fat was remarkably
lower in people who consumed
dairy products in the study.
“Mistakenly, people cut out
milk, yogurt and
cheese when trying to
control weight gain or
loss,” says Ann Marie
Krautheim, registered
dietitian, director of
nutrition communica
tions for ADADC Mid
East.
“Dietitians have
known for some time
that lowfat dairy foods
may help reduce the
risk of osteoporosis,
high blood pressure,
and possibly even
colon cancer.