Vol. 47 No. 45 Miraculous Mine Rescue Changes Everyday Life For Somerset Dairy Farmers Bill and Lori Arnold of Lincoln Township in Somerset County hold their children Janna, 5, and Morgan, 3, outside on the lawn of their historic property, Dormel Farms. The farm was the site for the miraculous mine rescue in late July. Photo by Sandra Lepley, Somerset Co. correspondent Farm Expo Prepares For Second Successful Year DEANNA CUNFER Carbon Co. Correspondent GILBERT (Monroe Co.) The West End Fairgrounds, Gil bert, will be the site of the second annual Northeast Regional Small Farm and Rural Living Expo and Trade Show Sept. 21-22. Located near the foothills of the Pocono mountains, the fair grounds are a perfect setting for the various displays and demon strations scheduled throughout the two-day event. This year, Cornell Cooperative Extension has joined Penn State and Rutgers Cooperative Exten sions along with several ag busi nesses, agencies, and producer and commodity groups to organ ize an even larger event than last For Week, Market Hog Prices Drop Below $2O MILLIE BUNTING Market Staff NEW HOLLAND (Uncaster Co.) On the heels of the $B-10 lower midwestern hog prices re ported last week, at New Hol land’s hog auction Monday the reduced holiday supply of 49-54 percent lean, 220-280 pound bar rows and gilts sold $lB-20 per hundredweight fully $7 lower than the previous Monday’s prices. Hog prices are at the lowest levels since November 1998 when many pork producers were forced out of business as the prices went as low as $lO a hun dredweight. The weekly hog av erage price at the Lancaster County auctions dropped to $15.35 for the week ended Dec. 18,1998. What pork producers were or are trying to avoid is a market disaster in the fourth quarter of 2002 similar to the one in 1998 when hog marketings over whelmed the capacity of the slaughter plants. Producers have evidently www.lancasterfarming.com year. The event last year was a real crowd pleaser as visitors were treated to many interesting demonstrations on equipment use, rotational pasture mainte nance, Christmas tree produc tion, and the use and care of vari ous livestock species just to mention a few of the many dis plays and demonstrations posi tioned throughout the fair grounds. The expo is designed to pro vide a useful educational experi ence and networking opportunity for small farm owners and indi viduals interested in living in the country. Many newcomers to the rural way of life do not know the contacts or where to go for sup plies and help in their new ven- taken the advice of the analysts to market hogs earlier at lighter weights to avoid the predicted large, burdensome numbers in November and December. As much as we try to find otherwise, in the midst of a lot of analyzing, it’s still supply and de mand that rules the marketplace. There are huge supplies of all meats filling the packers coolers and the frozen storage. The de cline in exports has helped to overpower the domestic demand. The “other white meat” has had to contend with large poultry stocks that should have been ex ported to Russia, plus all that other red meat (beef). At the Midwest terminal mar kets, last Thursday (Aug. 29), prices on 47-51 percent lean, 220-270 pound hogs ranged from $l7-19 that was $9.50-10 lower than the previous Friday. One market report noted that it was the largest one-week decline ever on a terminal market. In the Eastern Cornbelt trade last Friday, prices on carcass basis lean hogs ranged Four Sections tures. It is the hope of the organ izers of this event that visitors will go away with the informa tion and confidence they need to pursue their dreams. Equipment demonstrations will include trailer design and safety, operation of small farm equipment, antique tractors, and portable sawmills. The Parade of Horse Breeds, Alpaca Obstacle Course, and Oxen Driving exhibitors from last year will be returning and joined this year by a 4-H rabbit show, and display of rare breeds of sheep. The popular Border Collie sheep herding and free-range poultry demonstrations, both (Turn to Page A3O) $24.25-32.13, weighted average price $28.92, which is $8.69 lower than a week ago. Midweek re ports indicate $26.23. It was gen erally thought that the hog mar ket was ready to level off after the Labor Day holiday. It didn’t happen. Instead, what did happen was the release of both the USDA’s Aug. 1 Monthly Pig Report and the USDA’s weekly slaughter re port Friday last week. First, the July 2002 U.S. Pig Crop was re ported at 8.68 million head, 2 percent more than the previous year. Sows farrowing during this period totaled 980,000 head, also 2 percent above last year. Second, the livestock slaughter report had the hog slaughter numbers esti mated at more than two million hogs for the week. A new round of pressure hit the hog market Monday and Jive hogs and future prices declined sharply. It sounded like a good idea to increase marketings in (Turn to Page A 29) Saturday, September 7, 2002 Somerset Co. Correspondent SOMERSET (Somerset Co.) Life has never been the same since Bill Arnold and his family, dairy farmers of Lincoln Town ship in Somerset County, awoke to their dog barking shortly be fore 2 a.m. Thursday, July 25. The dog barking ironically symbolizes a moment in time when life was systematically commonplace on their 135-head milking operation at Dormel Farms. That early morning, Bill told his wife Lori he was going out to see what all the commotion was about over by the mines. He knew some thing was up and by view of his bedroom window, it looked serious. “I saw a ve hicle parked up there and there were peo ple with flash lights, which is call to alarm on a farm, so I got dressed and went out,” explained Arnold, whose wife, Lori, stayed at home with their two small children Janna, 5, and Morgan, 3. “I knew one of the engineers, and he told me there was a mine accident with nine guys trapped in a mine underneath my farm,” said Arnold. “I said ‘what can I do to help?’ and the rescue began. I never slept until they got out.” Although the dairy farmer and part-time auctioneer knew that mining accidents have happened in Somerset County before and several mine shafts were under neath his farm, he never imag ined he would be part of an unbe- Jen Linton with “Thyme,” her 2-year-old Toggen burg doe, at the recent Maryland State Fair. Read more about the Maryland Dairy Goat Association Youth Representative on page 86. Photo by Andy Andrews, editor $36.00 Per Year SANDRA LEPLEY 6 £ Everyone was thrown headlong into this, but never questioned it. They never thought ‘can we do this?’ We just thought ‘we will do this, they can’t die, we won’t let them die.’ 5 5 Bill Arnold $l.OO Per Copy lievable story of drama and rescue that would gather the at tention of the whole nation and world. In the early morning hours of July 25, 18 miners were finishing up their 3 p.m.-ll p.m. shift the day before when danger struck suddenly. An old mine barrier broke, trapping nine of the men underground and allowing the other nine to barely escape with their lives. After 77 hours of edge-of-seat tension with media crews from around the world focused on this desperate scenario at Quecreek Mine, the miners were miracu lously pulled to safety from above, all unharmed. “There were hundreds of peo ple giving 100 per cent and more to make this a glori ous outcome and what a glorious outcome it was,” said Arnold, who worked furiously alongside fire de partment person nel, engineers, and other mine offi cials in order to free the trapped miners. Arnold explained that the will of the rescue personnel to free the miners safely was as strong as the will of the miners to survive and come to the surface. “Everyone who came here came here with one thing on their minds to get those guys out safely. Everyone was thrown headlong into this, but never questioned it. They never thought ‘can we do this?’ We just thought ‘we will do this, they can’t die, we won’t let them die’,” said Arnold. Lori Arnold, who is originally from neighboring Cambria Coun- (Turn to Page A3l)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers