AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 22, 2002
OPINION
A Dairy’s Contribution
Don Robinson
Lancaster County
Conservation District Administrator
Consider this the average size dairy farm with 60 cows on 85 acres pro
vides more than 30 million gallons of net contribution to ground water per
year above the amount used by the farm. All regulations affecting water use in
Pennsylvania need to acknowledge that open farmland is a net contributor to
the groundwater supply.
With the value fannland has in the supply of groundwater, we need a poli
cy that protects and supports the continued maintenance of open farmland in
Lancaster County and Pennsylvania.
Example; The average 60-cow dairy farm on 85 acres provides more than
30 million gallons of net contribution to groundwater per year.
• One inch of rainfall over an acre of ground equals 27,000 gallons of
water.
• Average rainfall in Lancaster County is approximately 42 inches per
year, of which 12 to 15 inches infiltrates to the groundwater (good conserva
tion increases infiltration).
• 85-acre farm x 27,000 gallon per acre inch x 15 inches = 34 million gal
lons of groundwater recharge.
• 60 cows x 40 gallons of water (average consumption per cow) x 365 days
= 876,000 gallons consumed by cows per year.
• 60 younger cows x 10 gallons of water (average consumption/younger
cow) x 365 days = 219,000 gallons consumed by younger cows per year.
• Household on farm: ISO gallons (average consumption/household/day) x
365 days = 54,750 gallons consumed by a household per year.
• 876,000 gallons + 219,000 gallons + 54,750 gallons = 1,049,750 total con
sumed gallons of water on farm per year.
• 34,000,000 gallons of groundwater recharge - 1,049,750 gallons of water
consumed on farm = 32,850,000 approximate gallons of net contribution to
the groundwater supply each year from a 60-cow dairy on 85 acres.
Of course this will vary from year to year, farm to farm, and family to fami
ly. But the net effect is that farms provide tremendous groundwater recharge
opportunities. Improved conservation practices can greatly reduce runoff and
increase the amount of rainfall that infiltrates to recharge the groundwater
supply.
If this 85-acre farm was developed into 300 quarter-acre lots with each
household using 54,750 gallons, the water usage on that acreage would be
more than 16 million gallons per year. That 16 million gallons would go to the
sewer treatment plant and then into a stream or river and not recharge the
groundwater. In addition, with the roads, driveways, sidewalks, and house
roofs, there would be at least one-third less open area for water infiltration.
Compare that to the 1 million gallons used by the dairy farm with almost
100 percent infiltration area and no sewers and you begin to see the impact
our farms have on water supplies.
Saturday, June 22
Historic Schaefferstown Cherry
Fair and Early American
Craft Show, Andrew Schaeffer
Farm along Rt. 501, 10 a.m.-S
p.m.
Wool Pool, Tioga/Potter counties,
(570) 742-4337.
Do’s and Don’ts of Timber Har
vesting, Carbon County Envi
ronmental Education Center,
(570) 645-8597.
Private Forest Landowners’ Con
ference, Port Allegheny, 8:30
a.m.-4 p.m., (814) 887-5613.
Field Trip: Westmoreland Wood
land Improvement Associa
tion, 9:30 a.m., (724) 668-7650,
Maryland Grape Growers’ Sum
mer Field Day, Aellen Family
of Linganore Winecellars,
New Market, Md., 8:30 a.m.-
4:30 p.m.
Sunday,June 23
2002 PCC, PSU Summer Insti
tute, Shippensburg, thru June
26.
Mushroom Industry Conference,
Penn State Nittany Lion Inn,
thru June 26, (814) 865-8301.
Conservation Leadership School,
Stone Valley Experimental
Forest, (814) 865-8301.
Monday, June 24
4-H Ambassador Conference,
Penn State University Park,
thru June 26.
Forest Resources Institute for
Teachers at Penn State Uni
versity campus, 3rd through
12th graders, (814) 863-0401.
4-H Horse Driving Clinics,
Northampton County 4-H
Center, Nazareth, (610)
746-1970.
National Holstein Convention,
Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic
City, N.J., thru June 27.
Tuesday, June 25
Allegheny County Fair and Ex
position, thru June 30.
Penn State Cooperative Exten
sion for Small Business Own
ers, Harrisburg Community
College, Lancaster Campus,
also June 27, 8:30 a.m.-4:30
p.m., (717) 270-4391.
Manure Contracting Program,
Paulding County Extension
Center, Paulding, Ohio, 7:30
p.m., (419) 399-8225.
Conifer School, Ohio Agricultur
al Research and Development
Centers, Wooster Campus,
Wooster, Ohio, thru June 26,
(Turn to Page A3l)
How To Reach Us
To address a letter to the editor:
• By fax: (717) 733-6058
• By regular mail:
Editor, Lancaster Farming
P.O. Box 609,1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
• By e-mail:
farming@lancnews.infi.net
Please note: Include your full
name, return address, and
phone number on the letter.
Lancaster Farming reserves the
right to edit the letter to fit and
is not responsible for returning
unsolicited mail.
To Use Presidedress
Soil Nitrate Test (PSNT)
Providing the correct amount of
nitrogen for com production is very
important. Applying too much nitro
gen wastes money and can contribute
to ground and surface water contam
ination.
If the available nitrogen is less
than needed by the crop, however,
yields will suffer. If the fields in ques
tion have a history of manure use,
the PSNT is an important tool to de
termine which fields should be side
dressed with nitrogen and which
have enough residual nitrogen. With
the high cost of nitrogen fertilizer
and the low price of com, it is espe
cially important to determine how
much nitrogen each field needs.
The PSNT was developed to help
answer this question. Research has
shown if the soil nitrate-N level is
above 21 ppm ; there is little chance
of an economic response to adding
additional N to the field. At soil m
trate-N levels below 21 ppm, side
dress nitrogen will be needed to ob
tain optimum yield.
This test has most value on fields
with a significant contribution from
organic N sources, such as a history
of manure application or use of a for
age legume in the crop rotation. This
test is not useful on fields where the
primary nitrogen source is from fer
tilizer.
The soil sample should be taken
JUSTICE AND
JUDGMENT
Background Scripture:
Psalms 72; 82; 113.
Devotional Reading:
Psalms 72:11-19.
“When are Americans going to
wise up to the fact that lots of poor
people are lazy, worthless, and they
don’t deserve our help? ”
It wasn’t so much a question as an
affirmation. “Put them in decent
housing and they will turn it into a
pigpen. Put them in a nice neighbor
hood and they will trash it. Give
them jobs and they’ll loaf or just not
show up. Give them money and they
will spend it on booze or drugs. ”
I walked away quickly and I was
sorry I had overheard these remarks,
because they were uttered in church!
I suppose that is not so surprising
as it once might have been for, over
the past 30 years in particular, I have
noted a growing mood in our society
that encourages people to despise the
poor. This has been during a period
in our economy when the gap be
tween the rich and the poor has
grown alarmingly and during which
Lancaster Farming
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when the com is 12 inches tall or at
least a week before planned sidedres
sing. Walk the field in a random pat
tern and take 10-20 cores to a
12-inch depth, if possible. If a
12-inch depth is not possible, then
take the samples as deeply as you
can. Avoid starter bands and other
atypical areas. Because of sampling
problems, this test cannot be used on
fields that received injected fertilizer
or manure.
It is important to dry the sample
as quickly as possible. Crush the
cores and combine them into one
sample per field. Spread and dry the
samples in the sun or under a heat
lamp in a well-ventilated area. Send
the samples to a reputable lab for soil
nitrate-N analysis, or use a field test
kit for soil nitrate-N to determine the
nitrate-N level in the sample.
If the level is 21 ppm or higher, no
sidedress N is needed. If the level is
less than 21 ppm, use the worksheet
in the Agronomy Facts 17 publica
tion entitled “Prcsidedress Soil Ni
trate Test For Com” to determine
the nitrogen rate needed. This publi
cation is available from your county
extension office and also on the In
ternet at http://www.agronomy.
psu.edu/Extension/Facts/
agfactl7.pdf. The worksheet can also
be found in the agronomy guide.
To Learn About
The Impact Of
The Farm Bill
On Pennsylvania’s Dairies
Ken Bailey, associate professor of
dairy markets and policy in Penn
State’s College of Agricultural Sci
ences, said he expects the newly
signed federal Farm Bill to be “gen
erous” to Pennsylvania’s small dairy
farmers.
The new Farm Security and Rural
Investment Act of 2002 includes a
new dairy program called the “Na
tional Dairy Market Loss” program.
Bailey said the new program offers
help for small dairy farmers who
have to cope with volatile milk prices
by providing direct federal payments
whenever the fluid price of milk in
Boston falls below $16.94 per hun
dredweight (CWT). The program
will cover about 88 percent or the
milk produced in Pennsylvania.
“Pennsylvania is unique in that we
have about 10,000 dairy farms in the
state,” he said. “Most Pennsylvania
farms have fewer than 100 cows, and
that’s just the kind of farm opera
tions that Congress intended to sup
port with this program. Unlike many
Western states, we can expect the
bulk of our Pennsylvania dairy pro
ducers to receive countercyclical pay
ments on all of their annual milk
sales.”
justice leans heavily in the direction
of those who can afford it.
Archibald Rutledge has written
about the widow of a black preacher
who was always doing something for
the poor. He was so impressed by her
dedication that he built for her, in his
own backyard, an immaculate little
house. Shortly after the widow
moved in, she invited a most disrepu
table woman in to visit. The widow’s
benefactor was irate; “How could
you have invited that creature into
your pretty new home?” Softly, the
widow replied: “Jesus would.”
Worthy Of Compassion?
It is your privilege to believe that
the poor do or may not deserve our
help but not as a follower of Jesus
Christ, for he made it very clear how
he regarded the poor and expected us
to act toward them. He never taught
his disciples to help only those who
“deserved” help. Like the great
prophets, he understood that God
had a very special interest in and
compassion for the poor whether
or not they were “worthy.”
Jesus taught that the quality of
God’s judgment would depend upon
the quality of our compassion for
others: “Depart from me, you cursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angels; for I was hungry
and you gave me no food, I was
thirsty and you gave me no drink, I
was a stranger and you did not wel
come me, naked and you did not
clothe me, and in prison and you did
not visit me” (Mt. 25:41-43). Re
sponse to the needy, whether deserv
ing or not, is essential, not rituals nor
doctrines.
No Exemptions
In Psalm 82 we have a scene that
disturbs some readers because it de
picts God taking “his place in the
The National Dairy Market Loss
program works by making a direct
payment to farmers in any month
when the Class I price of milk in
Boston falls below $16.94. The pay
ment rate is equal to 45 percent of
the difference Detween $16.94 and
the Boston Class 1 price. Bailey esti
mates that the payment rate under
the countercyclical program will av
erage 97 cents per CWT for the peri
od December 2001 to September
2002.
“the dairy markets have been
weak in recent weeks because of
sluggish demand and growth in the
milK supply,” said Bailey, “that will
result in fairly large payment rates
under this new program. His analy
sis indicates that the Boston Class 1
price was above $16.94 just 28 per
cent of the time during the 60-month
period from January 1997-
December 2001.
“the program is retroactive back
to December 2001. Therefore, most
Pennsylvania dairy producers can
expect to receive a fairly substantial
check from USDA some time this
summer or early fall. This check,
which is for the transition period
from December 2001 until they get
the program running, will be a one
time payment. Thereafter, payments
will be computed monthly and will
be received by dairy producers no
later than 60 days from the previous
month.”
Payments are limited to the first
2.4 million pounds of milk from a
single “dairy operation” in a given
federal fiscal year (which ends Sept.
30). That is equivalent to the amount
of milk from a 133-cow dairy opera
tion producing 18,000 pounds of
milk per cow.
Pennsylvania dairy farmers will
receive instructions from USDA in
the next month or so to sign up for
the program at their local Farm
Service Agency office. They also will
receive the regulations that spell out
exactly how much milk will qualify
for the program. The sign-up period
should begin no earlier than July 13,
2002. The countercyclical payment
program is expected to end Sept. 30,
20051 USDA is still writing the regu
lations that will determine the defini
tion of a “dairy operation.”
Bailey warns that Pennsylvania
dairy farmers should consider this
program as temporary. “We should
take these payments and focus on
making our farms more competitive
over the next three years,” he said.
“That way, if the program ends, we’ll
be better positioned for the future.”
Quote Of The Week:
“Character is power. ”
Booker T. Washington
midst of the gods” (82:1). But before
we become embroiled in the specter
of the existence of other gods, let us
accept this image as simply an imagi
native device used to demonstrate
the sole sovereignty of the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In verse 2, the Lord castigates
these gods for the injustice they toler
ate and promote in the world: “Give
justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted
and the destitute. Rescue the weak
and the needy; deliver them from the
hand of the wicked” (82:3,4). In
Psalm 113, God is praised because
“He raises the poor from the dust,
and lifts the needy from the ash
heap...” (113:7). Nowhere are the
“unworthy” needy exempted from
the mercy of God.
We are a society that pretty well
knows and heeds the values of
things, but less and less do we seem
to be aware of the value of people
who are needy. Thomas Hood once
prayed: “Oh God! that bread should
be so dear, and flesh and blood so
cheap!” Many people take better care
of their car or their backyards than
they do the needy of their commu
nities where “bread is so dear and
flesh and blood so cheap.” The other
gods, “sons of the Most High” in
Psalm 82, “shall die like men” (v. 6).
Because they are not just and do not
teach justice, they will lose their di
vinity and “die like men.”
And what will be our judgment
from the Lord if we ourselves are not
just?
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
1 E. Main St.
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc.
A Stemman Enterprise
William J. Burgess General Manager
Andy Andrews, Editor
Copyright 2002 by Lancaster Farming