Dairy Industry To Promote Cheese At Maryland Wine Festival PHILADELPHIA What type of wine goes best with your favorite cheese? To provide the answer to that question and others about cheese, the dairy industry is sponsoring a booth at the 2000 Maryland Wine Festival to be held Sept. 16-17 at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westmin ster, Md. The American Dairy Association/ Dairy Council Middle Atlantic (ADA/DC Middle Atlantic) and the Maryland Dairy Industry Association (MDIA) have teamed up to tantalize your taste buds and enhance your knowledge of cheese at the annual festival, which attracts more than 25,000 people. The two groups will offer cheese products, recipes and other materials from their joint booth on the spacious front porch of the main farmhouse. They will join more than 80 other sponsors promoting Maryland’s agri cultural industry. “We are fortunate to have such a prime booth location,” said MDIA President Myron Wilhide. “Com bined with the excellent facilities of the Carroll County Farm Museum, we look forward to promoting an im portant and popular dairy product cheese at this nationally renowned event.” Cheese consumption has increased over the last two decades and is now Welcome to Our House Vi'iii l'k’kviiiivi'mtt tttti r rjr*.n i T r i_ : ■.•.■■■■■/■„ at a record high. More than 200 do mestic varieties are available for con sumers today. “Cheese is such a versatile food,” said Mary Beth Sodus, a registered dietitian with ADA/DC Middle At lantic. “Not only is it delicious, but the varieties are endless. It really is perfect for any meal or snack. And it’s a nice complement to your favor ite wine.” In addition to providing informa tion about cheese, ADA/DC Middle Atlantic and MDIA will be promot ing milk’s dietary benefits and the dairy industry’s contributions to the state’s economy. Wilhide of Detour, Md., will join fellow MDIA members and other dairy specialists to answer questions and discuss current issues affecting Maryland’s dairy farmers. ‘We are pleased to be working with the American Dairy Association/ Dairy Council Middle Atlantic to en hance public awareness of dairy’s im portance to Maryland agriculture,” Wilhide said. The Maryland Wine Festival is lo cated off Route 32 at the Carroll County Farm Museum, 500 South Center Street in Westminster, Md. Festival gates will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, and at noon on Sunday, Sept. 17. The festivities will conclude at 6 p.m. each day. NORTHEAST AGRI SYSTEMS, INC. Fly way Business Park 139 A West Airport Road Lititz, PA 17543 Phone; (717) 569-2702 Chore-Time's Complete Systems Package Gives You Better Poultry Production The complete systems package from Chore-Time offers poultry producers better production at a competitive price with local technical service support. The complete package features Chore-Time's systems for feeding and feed storage, watering, heating, cooling, ventilation and controls as well as egg handling. So, join the producers who are already benefiting from using Chore-Time Systems. Call today for more information. authorized master distributor since 1982 Pennsylvania’s Leading Poultry Equipment Distributor and Installer Poultry Production Systems • Egg Production Systems For information call our free customer service number (800) 673-2580 Milk Marketing Board Announces August Class I Price To Be Paid To Dairy Farmers HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Re cently the Milk Marketing Board (MMB) announced the prices to be paid to Penn sylvania dairy farmers for August Class I milk as an average of $15.60 in the western areas of the commonwealth. Paid will be an average of $16.09 in the central and eastern areas of the common wealth. Class I milk is beverage type milk. These prices do include the current over-order premium of $l.OO per one hun- Forage Weeds: Fall Considerations Del Voight Lebanon County Agent Each spring there are always a few calls about what to do with poor stands of pasture, alfalfa, and controlling perennials weeds such as dandelion and hemp dogbane. Each year I need to explain the same research based opinions. The fall is the best time to prepare for spring. Applications of systemic herbicides now will increase their effectiveness almost twofold. In fact, Bill Curran showed that on hemp dogbane, a difference of 40 percent control, with spring gaining a 60 percent control of hemp dogbane and fall providing 90 percent control of the weed. The only way to completely kill the estab- Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 16, 2000-A25 *. * <* •*«^^AA*t»« t i ti* dred pounds of milk, and the fuel adjust ment premium of $.25 per one hundred pounds of milk. Since 1988, the MMB has mandated over-order premiums on Class I mild be cause of adverse conditions affecting the Pennsylvania dairy farmer. Chairwoman Beverly R. Minor an nounced that since the inception of the MMB’s over-order premium in 1988, Pennsylvania dairy farmers have received an additional $211,472,000 in income. lished plant and have no recovery the next year is to fall-apply systemic herbicides such as Roundup, Touch Down, 2,4-D, or Banvel. One might control seedlings during the grow ing season, but I am referring to those plants with large root systems that can compete much more than a few seedlings. What is the best time? Penn State studies show that most plants will respond better to treatment of systemic products shortly before a frost (early October) if the weeds have green leaves and are in good condition. Not all per ennials are the same hemp dogbane re sponded best in his research to early Septem ber treatments. In fields infested with perennials, producers need to harvest the corn or soybeans, then let the field green up this fall and apply a systemic herbicide when the weather warms to allow for better eradication of the perennials. With grass stands, fall is the time that the grass pushes more roots and will respond to nitrogen applications and get ahead of many weeds that are declining with the colder tem peratures. In addition, the natural freeze and thaw allows a frost seeding that will take root if grass seed is overseeded in the fall. This al lows producers to really thicken up grass stands better than any other time of the year. If p and K are optimum, 1 like to see a min imum of 100 pounds of urea per acre applied in the fall to grass stands. In addition, where stands are poor, I like to see a half rate of the desired grass overseeded with a spinner just after the first frost. Alfalfa is a different “beast” altogether. Many producers opt to leave a failing stand go to spring and make first cutting and follow with com. This is logical at a glance, but put a pencil to the loss in quality of the alfalfa, yield loss of both alfalfa and the delay in corn planting, and soon one will find it’s a foolish endeavor. The trick is to assess stands in the fall by using an alfalfa square (simply a one-foot square wire or wood outline), throw it randomly in the field, and count plants within the square. If there are less than four plants per foot, kill it this fall and plant full-season corn in spring. If, however, you find a decent stand of more than four plants per foot, then consider leaving the stand for another year or if you have to because of forage need. Plan to harvest first cutting and plan for silage har vest using sorghum for drought-prone areas and com for others. Alfalfa produces an enormous amount of nitrogen (commonly 100-120 pounds per acre) released from its nodules on the roots, which enables some of the best corn crops to be grown after, if killed in the fall and planted early in the spring. There is no question this is the best use of the alfalfa stand. There are ways to make better decisions to either kill the alfalfa in the fall or to let it go to after first cutting. The decision to make is how many plants are there right now this fall. As far as alfalfa and weed control, there is no time like fall to take care of duckweed and henbit. These winner annuals reduce yield and lower digestibility because of the weeds’ poor quality stemmy nature by harvest time. An application of Pursuit applied just after last cutting will kill emerged weeds as well as leave a residual to keep these weeds from coming up throughout the winter. Manage perennial weeds with systemic products such as Banvel and 2,4-D, overseed grass stands, and assess alfalfa stands in the fall to avoid spring worries in 2001.