AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 31,2003 OPINION What Will Slots Do To/For Pa.? Probably one of the most divisive issues not only in agriculture but in the general economy is how to solve the $2 billion budget deficit faced by Pennsylvania. Some of our legislators believe the state needs slots (apparently, the argument goes, Pennsylvania residents gamble out of state to the tune of about $3 billion a year) or to raise the sales tax. Gov. Ed Rendell, according to analysts, stands to generate about $7BO million in 2004 from slot machines if the licenses can get to the right people. There is talk about simply giving them away. (Some crit ics say: Why not sell the licenses and generate income that way?) In the end, there is going to be an onslaught of opposition from groups who traditionally don’t favor these sorts of things. Rendell had some interesting ideas when he decided “vice taxes” could pick up the deficit tab or stand in place of property taxes. Per haps those who don’t smoke or drink could care less and think those are the only things that should get taxed in the first place. At this point, however, we don’t favor cutbacks to state educational institu tions and don’t want to see our kids in school suffer as a result of nothing being decided. In addition, other methods are desperately needed to replace our outmoded and unfair property tax system. Recently, we received a news release from the Pennsylvania Tour ism and Lodging Association (PTLA) that supports slots at state race tracks. PTLA’s 800 members announced that they support legislation to legalize slot machines at Pennsylvania’s horse racing tracks. The reason: the state needs to “enhance its competitive advantage in providing a quality tourism product and experience compared to competing destinations,” noted Barry Wickes, PTLA president. PTLA believes slots will increase jobs and revenue to the state. However, critics point out: What about the inevitable gambling debts and bankruptcy court that having slots will entail? Do tourists come to Pennsylvania and the historic counties to see this kind of thing? Does Lancaster County want to be the next Atlantic City? In 2001, Pennsylvania was the fifth most visited state in both leisure and business, according to PTLA. Travel was up in 2002. Slots may attract more visitors. Maybe Pennsylvania may gain visitors, but we believe it will have lost what made it special and separate from the rest of the general consumer-driven, strip-mall, vice-exploited public. Saturday, May 31 Penn State Garden Forum, Uni versity Park, Penn State Uni versity, (814) 863-0918. North Star Prospect, Clinton County Fairgrounds, (570) 321-5653. Composting Seminar, North brook Orchard, West Chester, 10 a.m., (610) 696-3500. Also Editor: At a time when prices paid to area dairy farmers have dropped to the 1976-1977 era, me would think that the U.S. Congress would step in and take corrective 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@lancasterfarming.com 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. Pete’s Produce, Westtown, 1 p.m. o Sunday, June 1 Rabbit Show, Penn State Ag Arena, (814) 863-0835. New York State Dairy Foods, Inc. and Pa. Assoc, of Milk Dealers combined conference. (Turn to Page A 29) measures. Since April 1, 1981, when con gress and former President Rea gan, prevented an upward ad justment on the support price of manufactured milk products, dairy farmer’s prices have bounced around like a yo-yo, usually on the downward swing. Subsequent action taken by congress ince 1981 has cost tax payers billions of dollars and usually their actions meant lower prices to dairy farmers. There are three things congress has never tried: 1. Pricing milk on the dairy farmer’s cost of production. 2. A true milk supply manage ment program. 3. Giving dairy farmers a fair share of the retail market price. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), (Turn to Page A 27) To Wait For Proper Soil Conditions To Finish Cora Planting Although Pennsylvania farmers got a good start on com planting this spring (more than 40 percent com plete by mid-May), recent rainy weather has caused planting to fall behind average. Gregory Roth, Penn State associate professor of agrono my, advises farmers not to panic, but to follow a few simple tips in ap proaching later plantings this year. “Yield losses are not that great due to later planting,” Roth said. “In fact, sometimes when planting has been completed quickly in recent years, we’ve had low yields, so farm ers should wait until soil conditions are right. Weather patterns should grow more summerlike as the jet stream begins its retreat during the next few weeks.” When soils finally dry out after wet-weather planting, Roth said, fur row sidewall compaction can hamper com growth. So farmers shouldn’t panic and begin planting in inappro priate conditions. Roth has several other tips for dealing with the wet weather as well. First, don’t delay planting because of tillage or spreading fertilizer. Consid er no-till planting and sidedressing of fertilizer. One should also consider THE EXILE Background Scripture: Ezra 1. Devotional Reading: Isaiah 52:7-12, Beth, her daughter, and son-in-law are estranged. The son-in-law has told Beth she is never welcome in his house again ever! Turner and his wife, Anita, live to gether in the same house, but they each go their own way and they are husband and wife in name only there is a wide gulf between them. Vickie has been recuperating from a rare ailment for almost a whole year. Her job and her office have been given to someone else and, while she has been welcomed back, it is not the same. Art wanders the city streets, holing up in a warm alley at night and scrounging food from the leftovers of other people. Once a successful mer chant, he succumbed to the escape of alcoholism. All of the above have something in common: they are all in exile. According to my dictionary, it means Lancaster Farming An Award-Winning Farm Newspaper • PDA Friend of Agriculture Award, 2003 • Keystone Awards 1993,1995 • PennAg Industries 1992 • PACD Media Award 1996 • Berks Ag-Business Council 2000 • Recognized for photo excellence throughout the years by the Northeast Farm Communicators using Bt hybrids. Recent research has shown com planted later in May or in early June often encounters more second-generation corn borer damage and has a more consistent yield response to Bt than earlier planted com. Reconsider the use of starter fertil izer on later planted com. Starter benefits are generally small on many manured soils and they decline as planting is delayed. Plant the seed 1.5 to 2 inches deep. Shallow com planting is more risky later in the season when conditions in the seed zone can quickly change to hot, dry, and cloddy. To Evaluate Direct Cutting Of Barley For Ensiling Dairy and livestock producers suf fering from the effects of two consec utive years of poor forage production are looking for alternative forage supplies to meet forage and feed needs until the 2003 corn silage crop is harvested. Penn State Capitol Region agrono my agent Paul Craig reports one al ternative that is being considered in many areas is direct cutting of barley for ensiling. In some areas last year, custom harvesters modified existing forage harvesters to speed up this process. Early users have reported highly acceptable feed production and now others are looking into this alternative. What is direct cut barley? It is bar ley that is harvested with a small grain head mounted on a forage chopper and then placed in a silo or trench. Cutting height is about 6 inches and there is no wilting of the crop. Harvest is at the proper mois ture level for different silo types. Farmers with trenches should shoot for 65 to 70 percent, upright silos at 63-68 percent, and sealed silos at 55-60 percent. This is usually around the soft dough stage, when milky kernels can be easily crushed in your fingertips. Moisture monitoring and determination is critical. Yields range from 3 to 4 tons/acre of dry matter. Unlike rye which rapidly increases its level of indigestible fiber and lig nin after heading, wheat, oats, and barley actually produce more energy and protein per acre after the crop is headed. In studies at Kansas and prolonged separation from one’s home or country. People may be sent into exile, but many of us, like the prodigal son, manage it without any help. Into Captivity In 722 BC, the Assyrians devastat ed Israel. Most of the captors were carried off to Assyria and no one knows what happened to them. By the sixth century BC, the Assyrians had been superseded by the Baby lonians, both situated in today’s Iraq. In 598 BC the Babylonians overran Judah and many of the people were carried into captivity. This was espe cially hard for the exiles, because their religion had been totally cen tered in the Jerusalem temple, which lay in ruins. It was in the Babylonian exile, however, that their religion showed its adaptability. Bereft of the temple, the exiles focused on the scriptures which were collected, edited, and dis tributed among the exiles. Then, in the middle of the sixth century BC, the Babylonian Empire eventually gave way to another, Persia (today’s Iran), under the leadership of Cyrus. Jewish messianic hopes began to rise and Cyrus was sometimes regarded by the Jews as a messiah (“anointed one”) by whom Israel would be re stored. (See Isaiah 45:1; Daniel 9:26). Cyrus, unlike his predecessors, fol lowed a policy of tolerance and wis dom. In 536 BC. “. the Lord stirred up toe spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclama tion throughout all his kingdom ” (Ezra 1:1.) Cyrus also encouraged them to return to their homeland so that the temple might be rebuilt. And Mississippi State, barley was rated the best choice because of higher grain yields and good digestibility. In general, barley silage quality is good, with energy levels slightly lower than corn silage (TDN 64 percent vs. 69 percent for corn silage) and a protein level slightly higher (9-11 percent vs. 8 percent for corn silage). Stage of maturity, variety, fertility, and har vest management can greatly affect forage quality. Everyone recom mends using forage testing to ensure its proper substitution in a ration. Small grains mature much faster than com silage. The proper harvest window will be very narrow, at most 3 to 6 days, depending on weather. This requires close monitoring of the crop, coordination with harvesters, and large capacity equipment. Be cause of hollow stems, a shorter cut, often 3 /s inch, is recommended. How ever, to optimize fiber in the silage, do not overchop. Good packing, rapid fill, and prevention of air ex change are especially important this time of year because of warmer sum mer temperatures. Producers with larger acreage may choose to start harvesting earlier, but harvesting silage too wet results in the loss of plant nutrients and pro duces undesirable, unpalatable, high butyric acid silage. Harvesting too dry causes oxygen to be trapped in the silage, prolonging the aerobic phase of fermentation and results in a poorly fermented product. Some have suggested mixing higher mois ture alfalfa haylage with barley silage that’s too dry. Either way, monitor ing moisture is critical. Harvesting barley as silage also provides an opportunity for earlier double cropping. This usually leads to higher corn silage yields. Dr. Greg Roth at Penn State estimates that planting corn silage following barley silage harvest in our region would yield about 83 percent compared to full-season corn silage. Waiting until grain harvest, yields were only 65 percent. Quote Of The Week: “This isn’t a Keynesian recovery produced by big-spending bureau crats. Instead, the recovery was created by the incentives of tax rate reductions, which shifted resources away from government back to American producers, savers, and investors. ” —President Ronald Reagan (1984) he backed up his invitation with the provision of funds for that purpose. Making Changes When we experience exile, like the Jews, we can adapt our faith to meet the challenge of change in our cir cumstances. When you can’t change the conditions that surround you, you can change the way you react to them. Take a look at your own life. Are you in exile and, if so, what changes do you need to make in order to maintain your faith? Secondly, often the possibility to return from exile appears in an unex pected form or place. God continues to send us people like Cyrus who present us with the opportunity to end our exile. Third, when we have the opportu nity to end our exile, we must grasp it. We must seize the chance to be reconciled with someone, to undo the harm we have done or that has been done to us, to return humbly to that which we have neglected. God permits us to make the deci sions that lead us into exile, but it is his will that we return. “Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, every one whose spirit God had stirred ” (1:5). It happened there with them, and it can happen here with us. But first, an exile has to realize that he or she is an exile Lancaster Farming Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 —by— Lancaster Farming, Inc. A Steinman Enterprise William J. Burgess General Manager Andy Andrews, Editor Copyright 2003 by Lancaster Farming
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers