A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6, 2002
New Bolton Center Dedicates Aquaculture Lab
(Continued from Page A 1)
“Aquavet” program 25 years
ago.
Sam Hayes, agriculture secre
tary, offered words of apprecia
tion for “the men and women
who professionally dedicate
themselves every day to provid
ing, propagating, and protecting
animal resources,” he said.
Hayes noted that the theme
for agriculture week, observed a
little while ago, was “harmony
in the world.”
“We cannot have harmony in
the world if we do not have good
agriculture,” he said. “As we
look around the world today,
many times the discord, the
foment, has been generated by a
people unable to clothe and feed
themselves ... we must find new
ways to generate new food and
one of those ways is to look to
the water and the organisms in
that water.”
Manuel Stematakis, Delaware
River Port Authority (DRPA),
spoke of the partnership of the
organization with the school. In
1997 the DRPA awarded a grant
to study the feasibility of
cutting-edge, closed-system fish
farming. Over the past five
years, he said, the DRPA has in
vested about $1 million to pro
mote aquaculturre.
The research is important, ac
cording to Stematakis, to de
velop technology to make the
industry economically feasible.
He sees aquaculture “as an op
portunity for the region.” Re
search could help this area, the
country, and the world provide a
stable source of food.
The center has also formed a
partnership with Cheyney Uni
versity to advance urban aqua
culture by developing a “world-
Call or email us today for a FREE CATALOG. TOLL FREE -1-800-845-3374 • 717-866-7565 • www.farmerboyag.com
Thanks to Jim & Shirley Hershey, Elizabethtown, pa
for choosing Farmer Boy Ag Systems to construct their 2 - 44’x500’
Tunnel Ventilated Broiler Houses with Recirculating Cool Cell System
This unit features...
r til a Lion sys/ems Mtf w
A Division of (jSI)
Feed Bins & Augers
Poultry contract provided by
Farmers
Pride
Fredericksburg, Pi
class aquaculture curriculum,”
according to Alfonso Jackson,
minority business development
agency.
Students who want to start
their own business of raising fish
or plants will be able to develop
marketing studies and business
plans or be involved in field ser
vice programs.
According to Robert Fair
child, board of overseers, the
project is “the beginning of re
search and discovery... our
work here will someday benefit
the people of Africa, teaching
them to grow food in areas that
would otherwise be inhospitable.
“1 hope that this building en
riches our lives and brings us to
new vistas,” he said.
His daughter, Suzanne Fair
child, gave a color commentary
about her father, who often took
his four daughters fishing.
Building construction began
Emergency Loan Program
MISSOULA, Mont. Agri
culture Secretary Ann M. Vene
man recently announced new
rules that will make it easier and
faster for farmers who have suf
fered losses because of natural
disasters to get federal loans.
Local Farm Service Agency of
fices will process all new Emer
gency Loan Program appli
cations from farmers under
these rules, which are effective
immediately.
“FSA farm loan employees
initiated these changes to make
the program more responsive to
all farmers, from those who raise
livestock to those who grow tra
ditional crops like corn, wheat,
and soybeans,” said Veneman.
A Division of (§9?)
Ventilation
S Shenandoah
Brooders
in May 2001. Each of the 16
tanks hold 200 fish. The facility
will house mainly hybrid striped
bass, a popular farm species
which grows well and is well
known in the area, according to
Chris Weaver, systems manager
and research associate.
Nutrition will be the focus of
the research. Researchers will,
for example, test the feasibility
of different protein sources to
substitute for fish meal, which
comes from “trash fish.” Fish
meal may be in short supply in
the future, said Weaver.
Future studies include meth
ods of preventing and control
ling infectious diseases in the
fish.
The aquaculture program,
part of the University of Penn
sylvania’s School of Veterinary
Medicine, will be housed in a
2,500 square-foot building, ine
facilities contain four groups of
“Farmers can now borrow 100
percent of production losses
rather than the previous 80 per
cent, and they will have to go
through fewer steps to apply for
a loan. These are the most sig
nificant changes to the program
in more than 15 years.”
Veneman made the an
nouncement during a trip to
Montana where she met with
farmers and ranchers in Mis
soula with Congressman Denny
Rehberg. The Secretary also at
tended a rural development con
ference in Bozeman with
Senator Conrad Burns and Gov
ernor Judy Martz.
Farmers now can borrow the
full amount of their losses, up to
Please Contact Shane Weller For New Poultry Contracts and Existing Building Renovations
FARMER BOY AG Systems
TURN-KEY ANIMAL PRODUCTIO
Standing at one of the tanks is, from left, Alfonso Jack
son, minority business development agency, Leon Weiss,
New Bolton Center; Robert Fairchild, board of overseers;
and Manuel Stematakis, Delaware River Port Authority.
four 330-gallon tanks, each five
feet in diameter and 2Vi feet
deep. Each group of tanks has
its own filtration and water
system. Additionally the build
More Accessible To Farmers
the maximum $500,000 out
standing balance. This reduces
the need for farmers to apply for
additional assistance through
other USD A loan programs. The
change will benefit borrowers by
decreasing the number of loan
applications they must com
plete.
In addition, USDA will use
established production informa
tion when available, rather than
requiring borrowers to submit
additional records to calculate
qualifying production losses.
USDA also has simplified steps
local FSA staff must follow to
determine applicant eligibility
and loan amounts. These
changes will reduce paperwork
Cumberland Hi-Lo
8 & 13 Spoke Pan
Feeders
‘The preferred feeders
tor easier starting
of chicks"
ing has a laboratory for re
searchers to test water samples
on site.
The New Bolton Center also
has a pond fish farming project.
for borrowers and shorten loan
processing time.
The program also will be
more accessible to livestock pro
ducers. In the past, these pro
ducers, unlike farmers who grow
crops like corn, soybeans and
wheat, had a difficult time quali
fying for emergency loans.
USD A has updated loss deter
mination methods, originally
developed with crop production
in mind, to accommodate the
different production levels and
margins of livestock production.
The Emergency Loan Pro
gram provides about $l5O mil
lion annually to more than 2,500
farmers who cannot obtain com
mercial credit.
A
A
SYSTEMS