Crowd Smaller But Enthusiastic For Rescheduled Dairy Day
CAROLYN MOYER
Bradford Co. Correspondent
ATHENS (Bradford Co.)
The crowds were a bit smaller
and some exhibitors could not
come, but that didn’t stop many
Bradford County fanners and in
dustry representatives from
learning and sharing at the 2003
Bradford County Dairy Day.
Conduted at the Harlan-Rowe
Junior High School in Athens,
the event was rescheduled for
Saturday, March 29, after a
major winter snowstorm forced
organizers to cancel the event,
which is usually conducted in
February.
“We served over 300 lunches,”
said Bradford County Dairy
Agent Gary Hennip. “The num
What Are The Priorities Of Cuban Ag?
BRIAN SNYDER
Centre Co. Correspondent
HAVANA, Cuba The fol
lowing list of current initiatives
was presented to the Food First
delegation by Luis Garca, an
agronomist who is director of
The Center for the Study of Sus
tainable Agriculture at the Agra
rian University of Havana.
Entitled “The Cuban Model
for Sustainable Agriculture,” the
list reflects challenges facing
Cuba’s farmers since the begin
ning of the current economic cri
sis, but serves also as a pretty
good menu of priorities for sus
tainable farmers anywhere.
• Integrated Pest Manage
ment
ber was down from what we had
expected in February, but we
were pleased. Most of the exhibi
tors were able to come. We had
over 50 exhibitors.”
Dr. Ken Bailey, associate di
rector of dairy marketing and
policy with Penn State Universi
ty, served as the key speaker for
the event.
“He spoke about why the price
of milk is where it is, and he was
able to do it in a positive way,”
said Hennip. “The bottom line is
that it’s still a situation where de
mand is relatively soft and there
are concerns about the war and
other things. Dairy goes as the
economy goes.”
Also speaking at the event was
Dr. Zhiguo Wu, Penn State as-
• Organic fertilizers and bio
fertilizers
• Soil conservation and recu
peration
• Animal traction and alterna
tive energy
• Intercropping and crop rota-
tion
• Mixing crops and animal
production
• Alternative mechanization
• Urban Agriculture and com
munity participation
• Alternative Veterinary Med
icine
• Adjusting to local conditions
• Reverting rural emigration
• Increasing cooperative use
of land
sistant professor of ruminant nu
trition. He elaborated on his re
search on com silage cutting
height.
During his presentation, Wu
summarized current research in
dicating that increasing the cut
ting height will increase the silage
quality that will possibly compen
sate for the reduction in yields.
In other sessions, Tioga Coun
ty Dairy and Agronomy Agent
Craig Williams highlighted op
tions for bird control on area
farms. Penn State Agronomy and
Water Quality Agent Mark Mad
den offered 1 core and 1 category
credit for farmers who partici
pated in his talk on understand
ing how adjuvants make herbi
cide applications safer.
The Bradford County Dairy
• Improving agrarian research
• Changing agrarian educa-
don.
Extension Services
A key to the success of sustain
able agriculture in Cuba has been
the reinvention and rejuvenation
of university extension services.
Throughout the country, ex
tensionists, as they are called, ad
here strictly to a model of “popu
lar education" that is described
as “emancipatory” in nature. By
this model, the teacher is never
considered more important than
students, but both I earn and
share in the process together.
The principle goal of extension
services in Cuba is to integrate
Princess and her court kept
youth entertained with dairy triv
ia and games and manned the
booth offering free ice cream and
milk to all.
One highlight of the event was
the annual pie auction that raised
$760 for the 4-H dairy program
and the Dairy Princess program.
Sixteen pies crossed the auction
block. For the third year in a row,
Morrissey Insurance purchased
the high-selling pie. In all, they
purchased two pies for $lBO. Oth
ers who supported the event were
all three Bradford County com
missioners, McNeil Farm Service,
Grange Mutual Fire Insurance
Co., C&N Bank, East Smithfield
Hardware and several individu
als including Hennip and Brad
ford County 4-H agent Tom Ma
new technology with the tradi
tional knowledge of farmers, in
support of traditional production
systems.
Farmers are thought to be the
best judge of what to produce
and how it should be done. As
one extenstionist put it, “What
the farmer would not eat, the
farmer should not grow.”
Intensive Vs. Extensive
Agriculture
Of the many interesting per
spectives gained from listening to
farmers and other agricultural
specialists in Cuba, one of the
most intriguing was the concept
of “extensive agriculture.”
Cubans use the term “inten
sive” to describe industrialized
systems of agriculture that are
very familiar to us in the U.S.,
like confined livestock feeding
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 12, 2003-A4l
loney.
“They made me pay $55 for
my wife’s pie,” said Hennip with
a laugh. “But it was worth it, be
cause it forced Tom Maloney to
buy his wife’s pie for $45.”
During the event, visitors
could also take advantage of free
hearing checks and blood pres
sure screenings.
“We found nine individuals
with some hearing loss,” said
Hennip. “The screenings are
good because they give you an
idea of what you have.”
In all the extension staff agree
that the day was successful.
“We were pleased with the
turnout,” said Hennip. “We also
want to thank the Athens School
District for all their help and the
use of the school.”
operations and monocultural
cropping practices that depend
heavily on chemical inputs.
But in describing the alterna
tive, Cubans talk about “exten
sive” systems that consist of vast
networks of sustainably run,
smaller plots of ground that em
phasize cooperative labor, local
marketing, farm-based enter
prises, and a farm’s inherent re
sponsibility to the social fabric of
its community.
In contrast to intensive agricul
ture, extensive agriculture repre
sents an altogether different
philosophical orientation. Cubans
use the word “extensive” to em
phasize how big their plans for
establishing sustainable food and
farming systems really are.
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