AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 12,2002
OPINION
Maybe It Is Time
To the surprise of few, southcentral Pennsylvania is once again experienc
ing a drought situation. With Pennsylvania recording drought conditions in
four of the last six years, maybe it is time to look beyond our typical band-aid
approach of emergency water conservation such as reducing water consump
tion in our homes, and turn to more long-term conservation practices.
We are not suggesting that individual water conservation measures are not
important. They are! What we are suggesting is that our past and current
conservation actions have not been enough, and maybe it is time to tackle the
tough and controversial issues of how we use our land and abuse our water re
sources.
There are those individuals who would argue that we are going through a
natural cycle concerning the frequency of our droughts and that, soon enough,
all will be well. This may very well be a natural cycle it may be 10 or 15 years
until we have another serious drought. Or, the drought trend could be indica
tive of a larger problem. However, no matter what the case, a drought is the
only time when many people realize the limited aspects of our fresh water
and, therefore, it is the best time to decide our actions concerning the future of
that water. What we do now will have a serious impact on the severity of any
future droughts.
Many people realize the limited aspect of other natural resources such as
oil, but fail to acknowledge the same limitation of our clean, usable freshwa
ter. Our water resources are not unlimited! They are affected every day by de
velopment, pollution, and population growth. In 1900, each of the six million
people living in Pennsylvania used about five gallons of water per day. Since
then, our population has doubled to almost 12 million people and our water
consumption has increased to an average of 62 gallons per day.
Part of this 900 percent increase in water use is obviously due to the many
modern water-using conveniences in our homes, but nevertheless indicates
that we could be in serious trouble, soon! Each year we drill 10,000 new wells
in Pennsylvania that are, to a great extent, unregulated. Simple math shows
that the severity of our current drought will probably be much worse in 10 to
15 years when we could have as many as 100,000 or 150,000 additional wells
drawing water from our underground aquifers.
To further compound the problem, each day we are converting more land
to paved parking lots and rooftops (impermeable surfaces), thereby increasing
runoff and decreasing natural ground infiltration that would normally help to
recharge our groundwater sources.
Maybe it is time:
• To seriously consider our surface waters and groundwater as a natural
resource with limits.
• To employ best management practices that will help to minimize the ad
verse impacts of new development by providing more ground infiltration,
water quality treatment of stormwater runoff, etc.
• To promote land use decisions that are in the best interest of a watershed
and the people that live within it, rather than viewing land planning as what
is best for individual municipalities within the watershed.
• To make tough land use decisions that would protect stream valleys,
floodplains, and riparian buffers in the interest of all.
• To change our thought processes from viewing key land parcels along
streams, in aquifer recharge areas, and in stream valleys for their value as po
tential tax revenue. Instead we should view them for their value to protect and
enhance water quality and quantity.
• To dedicate our efforts-to make every citizen realize that we all contrib
ute to our problem and therefore all need to recognize that everyone is an inte
gral part of the solution to water concerns.
It is important to understand that the conservation district is not an agency
that is against development and economic growth. We recognize that both
must and will occur. However, even economic growth and development de
pends on a clean and abundant water supply. What we promote as a conser
vation district is responsible development, growth and land planning, and a
recognition of the importance of our surface and ground waters in all of the
decisions relating to this growth.
We can and must develop a better way of doing business and making deci
sions. In 10 or IS years, or even next year, when the next drought occurs, will
we look back and say “We are so glad we took the actions that we did to pro
tect our water resources?” Or, will we be in the middle of another drought
emergency with mandatory restrictions as the big solution?
Maybe it is time? No, it is time.
❖ FarmC ALENDAR ❖
Dauphin County
Annual meeting, Old Country
Buffet, Harrisburg, 11 a.m.
Ohio Eastern Ohio Forest Wild
life Conference, New Phila
delphia, Ohio, 8:30 a.m.-4
rMiu(74OV732-238E^^
SparusnCourseior Dairymen,
Lancaster and Gettysburg,
Penn State Extension, Jan.
14-April 8, every Monday,
(888) 472-0261, ext. 312.
James Patches Growers’ Meet
ing, Schaefferstown Fire Hall,
9:45 a.m. and 6:45 p.m., (717)
From Earthtones
The Newsletter of the Dauphin
County Conservation District
949-3860.
Ohio State Extension, USDA
program, Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development
Center, Wooster, (330) 264-
8722.
Lime and Fertilizer Conference,
Penn State.
Eastern Regional' Nursery,
Landscape Seminar, Dela-
ware Valley College, Doyles
town, (610) 489-4315.
Vegetable Growers’ Association
Annual Meeting and Trade
Show, Atlantic City, thru Jan.
17,(856)985-4382.
Tuesday Talk, Equine Medical
fTurn to Page A 11)
To Analyze Milk
Production Costs
No one seems to enjoy preparing
the records needed to file income tax
reports. However, one benefit of this
process is it forces us to summarize
information about our operation’s in
come and expenses.
Glenn Shirk, extension dairy agent
in Lancaster County, points out that
while you are doing this work you
should take this opportunity to learn
as much as possible from these re
cords.
As a business person, it is impor
tant to know what your itemized
costs of production are. Do you
know? It is very simple to calculate.
Simply take the itemized list of ex
penses from your tax return and di
vide it by the hundredweight of milk
shipped last year, which appears on
your last milk check stub for the
year. Don’t forget to include depreci
ation and make adjustments for pre
paid expenses and changes in ac
counts receivable and accounts
payable. Also, exclude income and
expenses related to nondairy related
enterprises such as cash cropping, a
custom operating business, other ani
mal enterprises, etc.
You may want to lump all crop-re
lated costs together, including the
crop share of rent or mortgages,
THE EMPTINESS
Background Scripture:
Isaiah 55.
Devotional Reading:
Psalms 85:4-9.
Last evening we went to a party
and there was a magnificent buffet. I
had some of this and some of that, in
total quite a bit more than our nor
mal evening meal. Still, when we got
home from the party, I felt strangely
unsatisfied. Instead of filling my
emptiness, the great abundance of
food left me feeling that I was lack
ing something.
Have you ever experienced some
thing like that? Maybe not with food,
but with something that promised to
fill-a void within you, but didn’t? It is
well known that many people who
overeat are not satisfied with the
quantities of food they ingest and it
has been suggested that they eat to
fill a void tnat cannot be filled by
food. Some people drink to excess for
the same reason. More of us, I sus
pect, try to fill the void with
The exiled Jews in Babylon were
probably startled with Isaiah’s mes
sage: “Ho, every one who thirsts,
come to the waters; and he who has
no money, come, buy and eat” (55:1).
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building and machinery depreciation
and repairs, insurance, taxes, etc. If
you add this to your purchased feed
costs, you’ll have a better idea of
what your total feed costs are. But
remember this also includes the cost
of feeding heifers, bulls, etc.
Shirk also suggests you can also
split out total replacement costs, in
cluding their share of the above feed
costs plus their share of the mortgage
or rent, taxes, insurance, building re
pairs, etc. and calculate replacement
costs per hundredweight of milk.
You should then answer several
other questions. How much less
would your cost per hundredweight
(or CWT) be if culling could be re
duced? What other dairy income do
you have other than milk sales?
What does this amount to per CWT
of milk produced? Could this be in
creased if you could reduce the num
ber of cull cows sold at depressed
prices and sell more cattle at higher
prices? Answers to these questions
can guide you as you evaluate man
agement changes needed to have a
profitable operation in the future.
To Prepare For
Insect, Disease Management
In Vegetable Transplants
Dr. Tim Elkner, horticultural
agent in Lancaster County, recom
mends that you start your pest man
agement program for your next
greenhouse crop now. Pest manage
ment for vegetable transplant pro
duction is an integrated process and
includes sanitation, sound cultural
practices, the use of resistant culti
vars (where possible), and finally,
proper use of the correct pesticide.
Elkner said you should begin the
season with a clean, weed-free disin
fected greenhouse. This means clear
ing the growing area of any plant de
bris, weeds, and any discarded flats
or tools. After cleanup, wash and dis
infect empty benches, potting areas,
storage shelves, tools, and leftover
cell packs and flats that you plan to
reuse. Your disinfecting solution can
contain any of the sanitizing prod
ucts such as Green-Shield, Physan
20, Triathlon, Zero Tol ; or chlorine
bleach (10 percent solution). Be sure
to follow the manufacturer’s direc
tions when using any commercially
prepared materials.
If you are using a l-to-9 bleach so
lution, remember that it requires a
30-minute soak in order to be effec
tive. Also, while chlorine bleach is an
effective sanitizer, please note that
He is talking about the basic necessi
ties of life water, milk, bread but
the exiled Jews are probably more af
fluent than they were in Judah.
Some scholars believe that it was in
Babylon that the Jews learned to be
merchants. They had come to Baby
lon as exiles, but they prospered
there.
‘Moneytheism’
Still, for all of their success and
ease in Babylon, many of them felt a
sense of emptiness that the “good
life” there could not fill. Isaiah
knows this and he goes on to say,
“Why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread, and your
labor for that which does not satis
fy?”
These words, I believe, are just a
relevant for us today. Some of us are
“moneytheists” money and the
things money buys frequently take
the place of God. Despite what we
may profess on Sundays, it is that to
which we look for our help, salva
tion, and fullness that constitutes the
object of our true faith.
Our society is fascinated today
with the gospel of “consumerism.
Instead of the Kingdom of God, the
“smart money” today is on a “global
market.” Does not Isaiah also speak
to our complacency?
God’s call is one of grace. It is of
fered to those who have “no money.”
The true essentials of life are offered
“without money and without price.”
That which we can never earn from
God, he gives us as a gift. All that is
required is an awareness that the
“emptiness” we experience can be
filled only by his grace and a willing
ness to accept that gift.
That is the irony, isn’t it? We try
to buy things to fill the void that only
the free gift from God can fill. This is
the “Gem-shaped blank” that H.G.
Wells said is in every person’s heart.
there will be a SO percent reduction
in strength of a chlorine solution
after just two hours. Therefore, you
should prepare a new solution each
time you plan to sanitize. This in
cludes a new solution after lunch if
you started working in the morning.
Once you have the growing area
and equipment sanitized, be sure to
avoid recontamination. Dirty hose
nozzles or tools can contaminate pot
ting soil and the general growing
area. Be sure that everything brought
into the area is clean. The floor or
soil in the growing area is a good
source of insects and diseases. Do not
stand on the benches after they have
been cleaned as you can easily move
diseases up from the floor on your
shoes. Use hooks to keep your hose
nozzle off the floor. Ideally, grow
your transplants off the floor as well,
either on benches or pallets. The
floor in your greenhouse should be
well drained and cleaned before
plants are started there. Some grow
ers have taken to covering the entire
floor with black fiber cloth to both
prevent weed growth and make
cleanup easier after transplant pro
duction. Once dry, plant and soil res
idues are easily swept-up and re
moved.
Finally, always use disease-free
media for transplant production. If
using soil, be sure it is pasteurized be
fore you bring it into the growing
area. Successful soil pasteurization
requires 30 minutes at 180 degrees
Fahrenheit. Be sure to frequently
sanitize and maintain clean areas
where soil is mixed and pots are
fdled.
Elkner recommends that you have
separate areas if you are producing
both vegetable transplants and orna
mentals. Bringing cuttings of flower
ing plants into the vegetable area can
introduce pests such as thrips and
diseases such as tobacco spotted wilt
virus (TSWV). Look at your avail
able space(s) and plan accordingly.
Take some time to prepare your
vegetable transplant greenhouse now
to reduce disease and insect problems
later this season. Waiting until seed
ing time to start this chore may not
leave enough time to do the job thor
oughly. This could result in a great
deal of time and money spent later to
control a disease or insect infestation.
Quote Of The Week:
“What lies behind us and what
lies before us are tiny matters com
pared to what lies within us. ”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sins Of‘Good Men’
The good news of restoration
.which Isaiah brings here is also a call
to repentance. “ ... let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; let him return to
the Lord... for he will abundantly
pardon” (55:7).
Although God offers his free gift to
all, it cannot be received by the unre
pentant. Very often this is because
the unrepentant does not even realize
he or she has anything of which to
repent.
Keinhold Niebuhr once said that
much evil is not done by evil men,
but by good men who do not know
they are not good. We do not know
the-depths of sur own sinfulness be
cause we generally do not think
about it. “If is for want of thinking
that we are undone,” says Thomas
Wilson.
The good news of God “Come,
buy wine and milk without money
and without price” always comes
with a call to examine ourselves by
the teachings of Jesus Christ, not the
standards of society. As far as society
is concerned, we may be OK, fine, or
even outstanding. But we must re
member that God’s thoughts “are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, says the Lord” (55:8).
So, now is the time for us “return
to the Lord,” even if we didn’t realize
that we had been away from him.
“Seek the Lord while he may be
found, call upon him while he is
near” (55:6). God is always near, al
ways to be found, but there are times
in our lives when we can be more
aware that he is ready and waiting to
fill our emptiness.
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Steinman Enterprise y
William J. Burgeaa General Manage!
Andy Andrewa, Editor
Copyright 2002 by Lancaster; Farming