AIQ-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, dune 2,2001 * OPINION ‘ Hands-On ’ Dairying Throughout the course of the summer, many dairy farms in the Mid-Atlantic open their doors, so to speak, to outside visitors, farm and nonfarm alike, to see how a dairy operates. It can be fun. It can also be a great challenge not only to educate the public about how dairies work, but dealing with the public itself. Hats off, then, to Oregon Dairy, who every year conduct the annual Oregon Dairy Family Farm Days. The open house event is scheduled June 12-14 this year, from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., at the farm off Rt. 272 and 222 north of Lancaster. Last year the event drew more than 8,000 people. Those visitors en joyed a variety of dairy and agriculture activities in celebration of June Dairy Month. It’s almost a “hands-on” event for the public. Farm managers and volunteers take the general public on a short hay wagon tour, where exhibits from a variety of milk industry com panies and agencies provide a great deal of information about the state’s dairy industry. And of course there are the free ice cream sundaes. This year they will have the chicken barbecue dinner, also, for a small fee. Point is, in light of the recent scares about foot and mouth disease, and with a prolonged legislative concern about protecting the public from harms that can be stopped by the simple suggestion of washing your hands after you touch animals and before you eat isn’t it nice to know that the nonfarm public is welcome to the farm? Let’s hope others take these examples to heart. For others who are considering something similar to what Oregon Dairy does: please, don’t keep the public away from knowing where their food comes from. And happy June Dairy Month from all of us here at Lancaster Farming ! Calendar ❖ [ary land Walnut Council Workshop, Western Mary land Research and Education Keedysville, Md., Center, (301)695-6659. 51st Annual West Virginia Purebred Sheep Breeders Stud Ram and Ewe Club Lamb Sale, Tri-County Fair grounds, Petersburg, W.Va., (302)257-4372. Lebanon County Dairy Princess Pageant, Lebanon County Career and Technology Center, Lebanon, 7:30 p.m. Wyoming-Lackawanna County Dairy Princess Pageant, Fac- toryville Fire Hall, Factory- ville, 7:30 p.m. Franklin County Dairy Princess Pageant, Lighthouse Restau rant, Chambersburg, 7 p.m. Centre County Dairy Princess Pageant, Logan Grange, Pleasant Gap, 7:30 p.m. Wayne County Dairy Princess Pageant, Mt. Pleasant Fire Hall, Mt. Pleasant, 7:45 p.m. Huntingdon County Dairy Prin cess Pageant, Standing Stone Elementary School, Hunting- don, 7 p.m. Bradford County Tree Identifi cation, Hills Creek State Prin<” •edforo ounty /airy Princess Pageant, Arena Restaurant, Bedford, 1 p.m. Butler County Dairy Princess Pageant, Clearview Mall, Health Cont^^^ a. urai icaltl conference, Penn State Conference Center Hotel, State College, thru June 5. Grief Through A Child’s Eye, Berks County Ag Center, 7 - ,r ' ~ x p.m.-9 p.m. Water Forum, Quality Inn and Suites, Lancaster, 6 p.m., (7171705-4904. lauphin ,ounty .xtension Awareness Day, Dauphin County Ag and Natural Re- sources Center, Dauphin, (717)921-8803. Southeast Pa. Fruit Growers Twilight Tour, Shanesville Orchard, Berks County, 6:30 iyr^(6l Wildlife Course b' 1 ildlL ourse sponsorei oy Sustainable Forestry Initia tives of Pa., Wayne County, (814)867-9299. 4-H Strawberry Roundup, Farm and Home Center, Lancaster, Cumberland County Dairy Princess Pageant, Monroe Township Municipal Hall, Mechanicsburg, 8 p.m. Indiana County Dairy Princess Pageant, Marion Center Pres- IwterianChurchiTjSOPjin^^ Farmand Rural SaretyDay! Leesport Farmers Market, Leesport, (610) 562-8230 or (610)683-5344. Empire State Meat Goat Show, Whitney Point, N.Y., (607) 656-8826. Lancaster County Dairy Prin cess Pageant, Farm and Home Center, 6 p.m. Luzerne County Dairy Princess Pageant, Wall Mart, New Castle, 7:30 p.m. Lycoming County Dairy Prin cess Pageant, Nisbet Volun teer Fire Hall, 7:30 p.m. (Turn to Page A 43) To Evaluate Uneven Corn Fields For Yield Impact Dr. Greg Roth, Penn State corn management specialist, provides the following guidelines for evalu ating corn fields with uneven emergence. Many com fields have good stands despite the earlier period of dry weather, but some fields have late emerging plants and uneven stands. This is most common in tilled soils in areas with clay knobs, poor soil structure, or cloddy soils which cause poor seed-to-soil con tact. Since the recent rains, many of these gaps are filling in with late-emerging plants and the result is a mixture of larger and smaller plants. An important question to ask is how much will this variation impact yield? A study conducted at the Uni versity of Wisconsin and Universi ty of Illinois several years ago ad dressed this question. This study showed that when one fourth of the plants emerged within the row about three weeks later than the others, yields were reduced about THE COST OF ‘TOUGH’ TALK Background Scripture; 1 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 10:1 through 11:12. Devotional Reading: Matthew ll;27-30. In our society, especially in the media, our leaders are usually judged on the basis of how “tough” they talk. “Tough” is good, a sign of strength. Less than “tough” is not good, a sure indication of weak ness. This is true even of people who regard themselves as followers of Jesus Christ, even though, according to the gospels, Jesus rarely if ever talked “tough” per se. Jesus spoke some hard truths, but he did not seek to intimidate his hearers. That’s what “tough” talk is all about coping by intim idation. Until our own era, “tough” talk was pretty much the private prop erty of the male sex. Men were, and are, expected to talk “tough.” Women were not. Today, lots of women are sounding a lot like men Lancaster Farming An Award-Winning Farm Newspaper • Keystone Awards 1993,199 S • PennAg Industries 1992 • PACD Media Award 1996 • Berks Ag-Busmess Council 2000 • Recognised for photo excellence throughout the years bv the Northeast Farm Communicators 10 percent relative to a uniform stand. When one half to three fourth plants emerged three weeks later, the yield loss was about 20 to 22 percent relative to a uniform stand. The later plants in the mixed stands will have higher moisture content at harvest. They will also be subject to more silk clippings by rootworm beetles. If the original stand were destroyed and replant ed three weeks later, yields were reduced by 12 percent relative to the original early planting. As a result, replanting a mixed stand might result in a 10 percent yield benefit if more than half of the stand was delayed in emer gence. There are costs and risks in volved with replanting, however. Since most fields have much less delayed emergence than 50 per cent, replanting is probably not justified in most cases. To Prepare For Monitoring Worm Pests Of Sweet Com Dr. Shelby Fleischer and others in the Department of Entomology report that using pheromone lures to monitor for the three “worm” pests of sweet com European com borer, com earworm, and the fall armyworm has been very ef fective. Proper monitoring allows grow ers to increase spray frequency when populations are high and de crease spray frequency when popu lations are low. Using trap counts to adjust spray frequency results in fewer total sprays, offering a bene fit in terms of both dollar savings on pesticide and time saved by not spraying. A pheromone trap is designed to attract only males of the desired species using chemicals that re semble insect sex pheromones (sex ual attractants). However, insect pheromones are very complicated blends of volatile chemicals and similar species are often attracted to similar blends. If a lure does not have the exact chemicals in the correct propor tions, it may attract insects other with their own “tough” talk. What God wants from all of us, I believe, is wise, not necessarily “tough” talk. Appeal To Reason In 1 Kings 12, we see King Solo mon’s heir apparent, Rehoboam, confronted with a great opportuni ty to perpetuate the kingdom that his father Solomon and his grand father David so carefully put to gether. This is a pivotal moment the nation can just as easily break apart as continue unified. Truthfully but respectfully, Je roboam, the unofficial leader of the northern tribes (don’t confuse him with Rehoboam), says to the heir apparent, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke upon us, and we will serve you” (1 Ki. 12:4). It sounds like a strong plea for compromise. To his credit, Reho boam, instead of replying immedi ately, asks for three days to reply. Then he consults with his advisers. Unfortunately, the advisers seem to form two distinct groups: the older ones who had served his fa ther and the younger ones with whom he grew up. Old vs. new is not necessarily the best way to cat egorize counsel. Truth and wisdom are not the special province of ei ther group. The old advisers tell him: “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them ... then they will be your servants forever” (v. 7). They are not advising him to grovel before the northern tribes, but to speak to them with good will and reason. But, because they were older men, he disregarded their wisdom. His superfragile ego than the insect you want to trap. It is these unwanted (although often very similar) insect species that are called “nontarget captures.” Non target captures artificially inflate the trap count, giving the appear ance that there is more pest insects than is truly the case. When an error from nontarget captures is not corrected, it can result in rec ommendations to spray when sprays are not needed. For both the European corn borer and the corn earworm, pher omone traps have been effective in accurately representing the popu lation by mostly capturing the de sired species. Unfortunately, the current pher omone lure for the fall armyworm attracts a few species besides fall armyworm. In the past, the most common nontarget capture in fall armywofm pheromone traps was an insect called Leucania phrag matidicola, a moth without a com mon name. L. phragmatidicola feeds on grass and is not know to be a pest of sweet corn. When a fall armyworm pheromone trap er roneously captures high numbers of L. phragmatidicola, it gives the appearance that the fall armyworm population is greater than its true size. This case of mis taken identity can result in unnec essary spray applications. Users of blacklight traps must be just as careful in their identifi cation because the blacklight traps will capture most nocturnal insects and therefore almost certainly have look-alike species to the fall armyworm. The Penn State Entomology De partment staff has developed a Webpage with pictures highlight ing some of the characters that can be used to identify the fall armyworm and distinguish it from L. phragmatidicqla. You can find this Website at http:// www.ento.psu.edu/vegetable/ armyworm/armyworm.html. Quote of the Week: “It is not the employer who pays wages he only handles the money. It is the product that pays wages. ” Henry Ford demanded that he make the north erners grovel before him. ‘ln Your Face!’ Instead, he turned to the young advisers. Because they were close to the heir apparent, they were not very likely to give him advice he didn’t want and they did not; “Thus shall you speak to this peo ple ... ‘My little linger is thicker than my father’s loins’” (12:10). Men seem to win points when they talk “tough,” but if they use crude language, they score even more highly. They have appealed to his masculinity, implying that he will be less a real man than his father if he does not intimidate the northerners. How much of our be havior today is still based upon al lusions to male genitalia? So, instead of good will and a spirit of compromise, Rehoboam responds with the “tough” talk: “My father made your yoke heavy, but 1 will add to your yoke; my fa ther chastised you with whips, but 1 will chastise you with scorpions” (12:14). In today’s vernacular, he is saying “In your face!” One can al most hear his youthful advisers chorusing, “That’s telling them, Rehoboam. Right on!” Rehoboam pumped up his ego, but lost a golden opportunity. The northern tribes left the kingdom, never to return. What his father and grandfather had nurtured now lay in ruins. That is the price of talking “tough” when we ought to be talk- ing “wise.” Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 —by— Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Steinman Enterprise William J. Burgess General Manager Andy Andrews, Editor Copyright 2001 by Lancaster Farming
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers