AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 21,2003
OPINION
Editor’s note for all Guest Editorials: Please keep in mind that
the opinions of the writers don’t necessarily agree with the edit
or’s. For the benefit of our diverse readership, we strive to provide
a balance of opinion in Lancaster Farming,
An Institution At Risk
Guest Editorial By
Dr. Thomas A. Fretz
Dean, College of Agriculture And Natural Resources
Director, Maryland Cooperative Extension And
Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station
University of Maryland
The future of Maryland Cooperative Extension is at risk. Faced
with a fiscal crisis, University of Maryland administrators are unfairly
targeting Extension for excessive cuts that could seriously impair our
ability to serve Maryland residents with the strong, research-based
programs that they have come to expect from the state’s 1862 land
grant university.
Even in times of plenty, Extension has fared less well than the Uni
versity of Maryland as a whole. For example, between 1995-2002,
when the university saw a 70 percent increase in funding to its state
unrestricted accounts, increases to Maryland Cooperative Extension
were significantly lower about 26 percent. To put it bluntly, we did
not receive our full share.
I think it ironic, therefore, that in the budget crisis we now face, Ex
tension is being asked to cut into its budget deeper than the rest of the
campus community. While proposed reductions are planned for all
units on campus, the current strategy is to more heavily tax those
units (that is, Extension) that do not have an associated fee structure,
such as tuition, and benefit learners and clients across the state rather
than students in degree programs on campus. This suggests to me that
the outreach mission of the university is not on an equal footing with
its research and instruction missions.
By placing a disproportionate fiscal demand on Extension, the cam-
Saturday. June 21
Pedal to Preserve 2003, Donegal
High School, Mount Joy, 8
a.m.
Adult National Holstein Conven
tion, Adam’s Mark Winston
Plaza, Winston-Salem, N.C.,
thru June 24.
Wine Growers Canopy Manage-
Editor.
For the first time ever, we
dairy farmers have the opportu
nity to develop apd implement
our own program that can lead to
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
nght to edit the letter to fit and
is not responsible for returning
unsolicited mail.
(Turn to Page A 33)
ment Seminar, Linden Vine
yards, Linden, Va., 10:30 a.m.-
4 p.m.
Family Farm Safety Day Camp,
Bart Fire Company, Lancaster
County, (717) 290-5945.
Aquaculture Field Day, South
Centers, Piketon, Ohio, 1
(Turn to Page A 36)
milk price improvement. The Na
tional Milk Producers Federa
tion’s (NMPF) Cooperatives
Working Together Program, or
CWT, is really about dairy farm
ers, from across this country,
coming together to take care of
the excess milk supply that has
pushed our milk prices to intoler
ably low levels. I believe CWT
can dramatically improve our
milk prices, and do so in a very
short amount of time.
While all dairy farmers don’t
agree with all of the concepts of
the CWT program, it is the only
game in town. There are no other
proposals out there with the
broad national support of dairy
farmers which is necessary in
order to enact a national dairy
program without the assistance
of the federal government.
(Turn to Page A 33)
Editor’s note; Because of prior
commitments, Leon Ressler has in
vited a guest columnist for Now Is
The Time this week.
Guest Column By
Tim Elkner
Lancaster County
Horticulture Agent
To Scout For Bagworms
As I travel around the county, I’m
often surprised by the number of
damaged evergreen trees I see from
the feeding of bagworms. Damage
from these easily-controlled pests can
cause unsightly bare spots or even
death of mature trees and shrubs.
While limbs on broad-leaved trees
such as oak and ash are able to grow
a new set of leaves after insect feed
ing, most evergreens cannot.
Therefore, if a spruce tree has all of
it’s needles eaten by bagworms on a
branch, that branch will die. And an
evergreen totally consumed by bag
worms will die. Favored host plants
for this pest are spruce and arborvi
tae.
Bagworm eggs have begun to
hatch in Lancaster County. The
small caterpillars will immediately
start to feed on needles and weave a
protective bag of needle pieces and
silk. This bag protects the caterpillar
from both natural pests and spray
materials. The caterpillar will en-
HOW DO WE
STACK UP?
Background Scripture:
Zechariah 8.
Devotional Reading:
Psalms 48:1-14.
From time to time I read in the
local newspaper of a periodic poll
taken to determine which cities in
the U.S. are the most livable for their
citizens. The cities that consistently
place high in the polls are generally
those that provide the best living
conditions for their population.
The Prophet Zechariah did not
take a poll, but received from God a
vision of what Jerusalem would be
like if the exiles all returned. It is an
idyllic painting he paints with his
words: “I will return to Zion, and
will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem,
and Jerusalem shall be called the
faithful city and the mountain of the
Lord of hosts, the holy mountain”
(Zechariah 8:3). The new Jerusalem
would be a city to which God himself
returns. But how can the people
know that God has returned?
The evidence for the new Jerusa
lem will not be tall, impressive build
ings or monuments, a high level of
commerce or gigantic facilities for
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large its bag as it grows and the bag
will eventually reach up to 2 inches
in length.
Upon maturing, the caterpillar pu
pates inside the bag. Adult male
moths emerge in late summer and fly
to the females, which cannot fly.
After mating, the female lays her
eggs in the bag and dies. The eggs
overwinter in the bag and hatch the
following season.
Control of this pest is easier when
the caterpillars are small. If you only
want to make one application of pes
ticide to control this pest, the trick is
to wait until all of the eggs have
hatched but before the caterpillars
are more than an inch long. This
year that time will be late June or
very early July. There are several
materials labeled to control bag
worms. Select the one that suits your
needs and be sure to read the label
and follow the use directions careful
ly-
To Prevent The
Outbreak Of Serious
Fly Problems In
Livestock Through IPM
Flies are a common pest in live
stock fanning operations. Like any
other pest, they need to be controlled.
Dr. Gregory Martin, Capitol Re
gion poultry agent, wrote the follow
ing on using Integrated Pest Manage
ment procedures to manage flies on
the farm.
Integrated pest management or
IPM is not really a new concept.
Farmers who have adopted IPM con
trols in their crops have been success
ful at controlling insect pests while
reducing the overall cost of pest con
trol. Livestock producers too can use
this program as well to help both in
reducing the amounts of chemicals
used to control insects while timing
the use of spraying and other control
methods to optimize their effects in
reducing fly populations. The cor
nerstone of this approach is to use
best management practices (BMPs)
on the farm that actually helps keep
populations from growing out of
hand. •
A key feature of fly IPM on the
farm is the use of scouting to de
termine the types of flies and number
of flies present. “Spec” cards are 3 x
5-inch white cards that can be hung
throughout the livestock building to
help determine fly outbreaks. Fly
spec counts that reach more than SO
on 50 percent of the card are consid-
sports events. While all these add to
the luster of a municipality, there is
something much more important for
a city in which God is to dwell. No,
the Lord looks for two telltale signs:
“Old men and old women shall again
sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each
with staff in hand for very age. And
the streets of the city shall be full of
boys and girls playing in its streets”
(8:4,5).
The Very Young And Old
I’m sure mat.what the Lord is
looking for is the last thing that most
of our city councils would look for.
The new Jerusalem, as God sees it, is
the city in which both old people and
children are happy and fulfilled.
Most of our cities are in a tight fin
ancial pinch. Tax revenues are down
because people, many of them out of
work, are spending less. Some serv
ices formerly provided by file federal
government have been laid on file
backs of the states. The states, in
turn, have passed on these tasks to
the cities. And what is first to be cut
from the budgets? Services for the
young and the old!
In Texas the criterion is “no new
taxes” so that hundreds of thousands
of children and elderly people will be
denied vital health services. 1 suspect
it may be happening in your state,
too.
When the exiles began to return to
Jerusalem, probably those who first
returned were the age groups that
could stand the strain of the un
healthy conditions and the daunting
task ot rebuilding. So, the old and the
young would be likely the last to re
turn, waiting until the work of recon
struction had progressed enough to
meet the requirements of young and
old. The arrival of children and eld
erly people would be a signal that
this Jerusalem was ready to be the
New Jerusalem.
ered high. These cards should be
changed weekly and tallied so that
fly numbers can be monitored on the
farm on a constant basis. The use of
sticky tape exposed for short dura
tions also can be used to determine
fly counts as well as the type of flies
that are in the area.
Controlling the environment is
crucial to the success of a Livestock
IPM program. Flies that do not have
food or water resources will quickly
die out or move on. Since most feed
stocks contain some forms of protein,
there are many potential feeding sites
on a farm. By controlling water and
feed spillage, along with drying the
manure or litter, managers can go a
long way toward fly control. Other
areas to watch are the compost areas
and feed bins near livestock housing.
Manure and bedding materials
should be handled to help reduce fly
numbers prior to spreading. The use
of tarping manure piles for 14 days
prior to spreading and the use of
stacking sheds to lower moisture
counts have been successful in poul
try operations. Spread materials
according to your nutrient manage
ment plans and try to get the manure
into the growing zone. Spot check the
fields to determine if successful in
corporation of the materials has been
achieved.
When it is time for fly population
control, try to match the severity of
the cure to the level of the population
encountered. At times a “knock
down” spray may be called for, while
with lower populations natural insect
predators could be used. With flies in
the household/backyard, it is impor
tant to read and use controls appro
priate to location. Fly traps are very
effective in catching insects but are
best used 30-50 feet away from the
house to help draw them away. Fly
electrocution devices are best used in
closed housing (“zappers”). With any
controls, please read, understand,
and follow all instructions that come
with your fly control sprays and de
vices.
Good IPM doesn’t require extra
ordinary efforts, but you will get out
of it wliat you put into it. As with all
other management programs on the
farm, the better you are at it, the
more it pays in the long run.
Quote of the Week:
“A society grom great when old
men plant trees whose shade they
know they shall never sit in. ”
' Greek proverb
“Make your city a haven for young
and old, and I will be in the midst of
her,” says God. But, instead of mak
ing our cities more congenial to chid
den and the elderly, we often make
them hostile environments. Not only
do we overlook these people in our
planning, but there is often a hostility
that makes diem unwelcome. I see it
in the letters to the editor section of
our editorial page. It has somehow
become “OK” to look down on those
who cannot help themselves.
Our Nuisances
When James T. Clcland wrote his
exposition of the Book of Zechariah
for The Interpreter’s Bible about 50
years ago, we lived in a more sympa
thetic and charitable age. So his ob
servations on Zechariah 8 are even
more pertinent today: “In the hurry
and bustle of city lUe, the very old
and the very young, who cannot look
out for themselves and who serve no
productive social oreconomic func
tion, are to apt to be considered a
nuisance, to be brushed out of the
way.” (Vol. VII, pp. 1085 and 1086).
God was calling the returned
exiles to a higher spiritual sensibility,
just as he calls us today. The prom
ises, if we respond to that call, are ex
citing: “For there shall be a sowing of
peace and prosperity; the vine shall
yield its fruit, and the ground shall
give its increase, and the heavens
shall give their dew; and I will cause
the remnant of this people to posses
all these things” (8;12,13).
So how do you and your city stack
up?
Lancaster Farming
Established 1955
Published Every Saturday
Ephrata Review Building
IE. Main St
Ephrata, PA 17522
—by—
Lancaster Farming, Inc
A Siemman Enterprise
William J. Burgeaa Ganaral Manager
Andy Andrewa, Editor
Copyright 2003 by Lancaster Farming