AgScene

2010-12-20T10:07:00.000-05:00

Lancaster Farming contributor Troy Bishopp, "The Grass Whisperer," was out and about on a recent wintry morn in New York, took this photo and sent it in to grace the front page of our North edition.

   The Hendricks family could buy flowers from anywhere in the world, but they prefer to pick them in their own backyard. Their backyard is a 26-acre tract of land surrounded by the town of Lititz, Pa. Their fourth-generation retail florist business thrives with attention to detail, creative arrangements, science (Sue Ellen, one of the Hendricks family owners, has a masters degree in soil chemistry), and an excellent reputation for quality and service. Lancaster Farming reporter Lou Ann Good toured the business, talked to the people who make it work and wrote a story for our current edition.

   EPA inspections of farms in Lancaster County, the Delmarva Peninsula and the Shenandoah Valley began last week to determine if those farms have drawn up conservation and manure management plans. The inspections are part of a push by the Obama administration aimed at cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres looked into the issue and found out that the EPA was sticking to its guns with respect to a December 31, 2010, deadline for farms to have conservation and manure managment plans in place. His story is in our current edition, which you can see at lancasterfarming.com.

   In another TMDL story, Torres reports on a recent teleconference by ag industry groups who want the EPA to delay their TMDL requirements. In part, it's because the two lead agencies in the watershed cleanup effort - the USDA and EPA - use significantly different numbers in their calculations of just how much sediment and nutrients are carried into the Chesapeake from farmland.

What the real Farmville looks like.

Will the real Farmville please stand out? The Facebook version was created in 2007 and has a gazillion visitors/players every day. A real live Farmville has existed in Prince Edward County, Va., since 1798. It has actual people, streets, businesses and buildings, and if you want a cup of coffee and a piece of pie you pay with actual money. Denise Watson Batts and Jim Hall, reporters for The Virginian-Pilot, recently visited the physical Farmville and noted their impressions of the differences between the real and the virtual town. The AP picked up their story and it is reprinted in our current southern edition. One gets the idea that the Hall and Batts team preferred the real to the imaginary. A hearty second to that notion.

2010-12-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

An example of Suzanne Wainwright-Evans' sweet handiwork.

It's very clear that Suzanne Wainright-Evans is serious about her candy-making hobby. Clear toy candy was a Christmas treat for Colonial-era yougsters, and Wainright-Evans is a stickler for historical accuracy when it comes to making her modern-day versions. She eschews refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup, for example, in favor of organic sugar which she grinds by hand with a mortar and pestle. An entomologist by trade, she makes clear toy as a Christmas fund-raiser for the Upper Lehigh Historical Society in Schnecksville, Pa. Lancaster Farming reporter Lou Ann Good called on the bug lady/candy maker and wrote of her visit in our current edition, which you can see online at Lancaster Farming.com. For more information on Wainright-Evans, check out her website at BugladyConsulting.com.

Attendees at a Lancaster conference
on manure digesters.

   Manure digesters are a hot topic these days, and are considered part of the answer to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay watershed. And while large-scale on-farm and regional digesters costing many thousands of dollars are a focal point, small-scale digesters have been in use around the world for a hundred years or more. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres attended an anaerobic digester conference recently in Lancaster and discovered that Chinese farmers alone have 37 million small-scale digesters. They don't work as well as the scientifically designed and professionaly installed digesters on 500-cow U.S. dairy farms, but they provide biogas for heating and cooking. The story starts on page one of our current edition.

   Who gets the margin? If a consumer pays $3.20 for a gallon of milk, and the dairy farmer who produced it gets $1.20, what happens to the $2 that the farmer doesn't get? The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Justice have held joint meetings meetings in Alabama, Colorado, Wisconsion, Iowa and D.C. to help farmers - and not just dairymen - answer that question about milk and other food commodities. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres attended the Washington meeting and wrote about it in our current edition.

   Curious what we learned from the 2010 corn crop? Greg Roth, a Penn State agronomy professor active with the Pennsylvania Corn Growers Association, shares his thoughts about the subject in Corn Talk and Foraging Around, a special section in this week's Lancaster Farming.

A quarter-mile of cow munchies, captured by staff photographer
Stan Hall lining a farm lane near Ephrata, Pa.

2010-12-06T09:24:00.000-05:00

"Stay the course" was the message Pennsylvania farm organizations and dairy coops gave to the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board last week in Harrisburg. The groups were unanimous in their request to have the PMMB maintain an over-order premium of $2.15 per hundredweight on the milk produced by dairymen, as well as a fuel adjuster to run into the first half of 2011. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene M. Shupp Espenshade covered the meeting and reported on it on page one of our current edition.

Visitors size up the displays at this
year's Cherry Valley Farm Toy Show.

Farm toys are for kids, right? Well, some kids. But if you visited this year's Farm Toy Show put on by the Cherry Valley, N.Y., Fire Dept., you'd have seen a lot of big kids, more than a few of them with a streak or two of gray in their hair. Actually, the Cherry Valley show history began with a high school fundraiser in 1995. It was run by students until 2008, when no one wanted to get things organized. That's when Dave Cornelia stepped in. Cornelia's kids had been instrumental in many of the annual events, and he and they wanted to see the show continue. This year's show attracted 11 vendors, saw 74 table-top displays and drew more than 200 paying visitors. Lancaster Farming correspondent Marjorie Struckle was one of those who visited. Her report appears in page B17 of our current edition.

Adopt an Acre co-founder Sheila Miller
standing on the organization's first
farmland preservation success story.

Farmland preservation efforts usually focus on working farms with 50 or more acres. Smaller landowners, like Dean and Brenda Tice, with 16.6 acres in Wernersville, Pa., can be overlooked. The Tice's wanted to put their farm into a preservation program, but the bank holding the mortgage on their property balked because they feared a drop in property value would put their interest at risk. Adopt an Acre, a new Berks County organization focusing on of 20 acres or less, helped the Tices get their preservation easement. It was the first Adopt an Acre success story. Lancaster Farming correspondent Sue Bowman reports on that success on page B6 of our current edition.

Peace Tree Farm employee Stephanie Barlow shows off a opiary poinsettia

Peace Tree Farm is the largest certified organic transplant grower in the USA, and recently opened their greenhouse doors to people who may want to compete for their business. Greenhouse owner Lloyd Traven, a self-styled "hippie garden geek," started a conventional greenhouse business in 1983. A decade ago, he watched a customer tear a basil leaf off a plant in his greenhouse - a leaf recently drenched in pesticide - and decided to go organic. It was a good move. His business is wholesale only to smaller retailers, and he's developed niche markets for heirloom varieties, topiary plants and a recently developed table-top tomato plant that bears fruit for the Christmas season. Lancaster Farming reporter Lou Ann Good visited Peace Tree Farm, wrote a story and took a few photos for our current edition.

2010-11-27T17:24:00.001-05:00

Hundreds of buyers vied for thousands and thousands of trees.

Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas...OH! What's billed as the nation's largest Christmas tree auction - 70,000 trees, thousands of wreaths, countless holiday decorations - took place this year as in years past at the Buffalo Valley Produce Auction in Mifflinburg, Pa. Some 300 to 400 buyers from all over the East descended on Miflinburg and drove home with truckloads of trees. Lancaster Farming correspondent Liza Z. Leighton was on hand to witness the action and prepared a report for our current print edition. You can also catch it online at lancasterfarming.com

1959 Case 800 diesel from State College, Pa.

Do you like old tractors? On the fourth Saturday of every month, we feature reader-submitted photos of old iron. They come in all colors and sizes, and from all over our readership area. For the 20 stars of our November Classic Tractor Gallery, check out page A52 or our print edition, or catch it online in the e-edition.

Roger Hoy checks out tractors at the Nebraska Test Laboratory.

Speaking of tractors, here's the buzz on newer models. You're going to pay more but you're going to get more, at least in the way of pollution control Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres called on Roger Hoy, director of the Nebraska Test Laboratory, while he was in Lititz, Pa., to talk to the annual Binkley and Hurst customer classic bash. New technology, according to Hoy, will mean that anyone driving a tractor through smoggy Los Angeles will find that his exhaust pipe is putting out air that's cleaner than the air going into the engine. Of course, if you see a guy driving a tractor on a Los Angeles freeway, you might wonder what he's mixing with the air that's going into his lungs.

One of 122 creches on display in New Haven, Conn.

Creches in a dizzying array of styles from 22 different countries are on display in the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven, Conn. The exhibit of 122 different creches was organized and curated by the museum director, Lawrence Sowinski. The nativity sets are made from a wide variety of materials - cinnamon paste, for example, from Singapore, rolled newspaper from the Philippines, a Madonna and child of gold from Thailand. Lancaster Farming correspondent Suzanne Stahl paid a call on Sowinski and wrote a story for the food and family section of our current edition.

2010-11-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

What do YOU think about carbon credit trading? If you're like most of the 90 people who responded to a Lancaster Farming on-line poll, you're not too optimistic. Just about 80 percent of the respondents said they don't think the concept is ever going to be profitable. Less than 15 percent think it will be and about 7 percent can't make up their minds. (These figures add up to more than 100 percent because I never was real good at math. English came hard, too.) You can keep tabs on our latest polls - and even participate if you're so inclined - by checking out our home page. You can see the carbon credit poll full graphic here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Polls/Results/Carbon-Credit-poll

Lancaster Farming's Melissa Mazzocca
interviews Ken Diller for Ag Vids.

Also new on the website this week is the first in a series of Ag Vids, brief videos featuring the businesses and the support staff behind that guy or gal who drives down your lane every so often to check on how you're doing and to find out if you're in the market for seed, parts or a new combine. The first Ag Vid focuses on the well-known Hoober Inc. enterprise. You can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/video/agvids/agvid-hoober

Jaindl Farms is to turkeys as the Susquehanna is to your average trout stream. Jaindl is big, marketing some 750,000 turkeys a year in the Northeast, including one special bird headed for the White House kitchen every Thanksgiving. The 12,000-acre Jaindal operation is by far the largest ag enterprise in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres visited owner David Jaindl - a third-generation turkey man - to talk about the operation. One of the things he learned is that the whole enterprise started when Jaindl's grandfather bought five poults - for a buck apiece - from a neighbor in 1935. Check out the story in our current print addition or online at LancasterFarming.com.

Ed Hall heard cows mooing one evening while he was eating dinner with his family in their South Philly row home. It was 1968, he was in the eighth grade, and he was fascinated with animals. He lept from the table, caught the end of a TV news report about cows and heard the words "...a high school with cows." That scrap of information led him to Philadelphia's Saul High School, from which he graduated in 1973, then to Penn State for an ag degree, back to Saul as a teacher, and today as a sales rep for a meat company. Today, Hall and his wife, Patti, own a 13-acre mini-farm a few miles from Philadelphia, and they grow, among other things, turkeys. Every year, they invite 40-50 friends and family to their place to prep the turkeys for everybody's Thanksgiving tables, and to bake pies. Lancaster Farming food and family features editor Anne Harnish talked to the Halls about their turkey tradition and prepared a report for our current edition.

2010-11-13T10:26:00.000-05:00

Let's say you had an impulse to throw a pumpkin...oh, say, 500 feet down the line. You're not going to do that with your arm obviously, so you might want to confer with Dr. David Drummer and his physics students at Kutztown High School in Kutztown, Pa. The Doc and two of his students, senior Andrew Dietrich and junior Dustin Hoffman (No, not THAT Dustin Hoffman) built a trebuchet (TREB you shet) with the ability to hurl a pumpkin farther that you'd ever thought you'd want to see a pumpkin go. Their goal was to set a new world record at the annual Punkin Chunkin (PUNkin CHUNkin) contest in Bridgeville, Del. They didn't set a new world record, but their team, Stomach Virus, came in second with a toss of 653 feet, besting such teams as the fearsome Siege of Condor and the Wascaly Wabbits. There's a story about their efforts in the Kids Korner on page B10 or our November 13 edition. That's Dr. Drummer himself in the photo watching a test shot back in Kutztown.

Greengrow's co-manager Nina Berryman looks over
some of the CSA's late summer offerings

Start with a two-acre patch of concrete, truck in some topsoil, and you've got a farm in downtown Philly. The patch of ground, site of a former steel mill, is home to a 400-member CSA (community supported agriculture) group called Greengrow. Lancaster Farming correspondent Kristen Devlin and reporter Michelle Kunjapu joined a recent tour of Greengrow and two other urban ag facilities in and around Philadelphia. They wrote about the experience for the Rural Ventures section in our current edition.

Jim Hershey addresses a no-till tour.

No-till practices have taken root in Pennsylvania. Some 60 percent of the state's tillable acres are planted in no-till cover crops, reducing nutrient and sediment runoff and saving on fertilizer costs. But there's another reason for farmers to consider no-till practices, and that is the cash that might be generated with carbon credits. With cap-and-trade all but dead, there's still a chance that farmers could profit from the carbon captured in the soil with no-till, according to Jim Hershey, with the Pennsylvania No-till Alliance. Hershey hosted a field day on his Lancaster County farm recently to explain the benefits of the practice and the potential bonus from carbon credit training. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres was there and reported on the event in our November 13 edition.

2010-11-06T10:29:00.003-04:00

Take it for granted, a few western Pennsylvania farmers are investing for the future with grain-drying equipment that cuts fuel costs. Jesse Powell, a former steelworker, left his job in a mill to work fulltime at a 2,000-acre grain operation. With the help of USDA grants - obtained with the help of a professional grant writer - he installed his new equipment in time for this year's harvest. Lancaster Farming correspondent Carol Ann Gregg called on Powell and a few others in the area to find out more about their new equipment and the grants that funded the ventures. Her story is on page one of our current edition.

Manure injection is another process that's getting a lot of attention from farmers who want to preserve the soil nutrients in the inevitable byproduct of livestock farming. With surface application, much of manure's fertilizer value is lost to the air. At his annual cover crop field day, Lancaster County farmer Steve Groff invited LehmanAgService owner Steve Lehman to demonstrate his huge six-injector rig to the dozens of curious who turned out for the day. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres was there, and wrote a couple of reports for our November 6 edition.

"You gonna horn in on me?" "No, I'm gonna horn in on you!" The George family - Dolly, Lloyd and Jared - see a lot of this kind of action on their Catawissa, Pa., farm this time of year, which is breeding season for deer. For the past dozen years or so the Georges been operating a 160-acre red deer farm that today is home to more than 450 of this elk-like species. They are prized for their lean meat and impressive antlers. English royalty were so protective of their private stock that at one time a commoner faced a death penalty for killing a red deer. Lancaster Farming correspondent Sue Bowman paid a recent visit to the Georges' Rolling Hills Red Deer Farm and prepared a report for the food and family section of our current edition.

Cutie-pie kitties on this old Lotto game could be worth $40 to $50 dollars at auction, according to a story by Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Sarubin. The story in this week's edition - just after the Mailbox Markets section - delves into the history of board games, and how they became popular during the Great Depression, when people stayed home because they couldn't afford to go out. Hmmm...anybody for a game of Monopoly?

2010-10-30T08:57:00.000-04:00

Ann Adams operating a lightweight wheel hoe.

A woman's touch...isn't the same as a man's touch. Liz Brensinger, with a master's degree in nursing, and her friend Ann Adams, whose master's is in public health, had a wealth of professional knowledge about the physiological differences between men and women. When they started to grow vegetables for Adams' son, a gourmet chef, they went looking for the best farm tools they could find that were designed for use by women and they found...none. Zip. Zero. Nada. So they designed their own. And started a business. Lancaster Farming Regional Editor Margaret Gates interviewed the partners and wrote about them for our October 30 edition. It's in the food and family features section.

Some of the research apparatus
at the Stroud Water Research Center.

After more than 20 years of study into the effect of trees on streams, scientists at the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pa., can say that trees play an important role in maintaining a healthy and stable ecosystem. A riparian (fancy word for "streambank") buffer zone of 100 feet or so, whether it's covered with grass or trees, can help reduce erosion, sedimentation, and nutrient flow into streams. But trees work best, a fact staff writer Chris Torres learned on a recent tour of the Stroud Center which was sponsored by a couple of environmental groups. His report starts on page one of our current edition.

And now for a pop quiz...Why did 18th century Felix de Azara think popcorn tasted like hair? And what kind of guy was Azara, anyway, and what's the real reason he went to Paraguay? You'l find a whole page of fascinating popcorn history, science and lore on page B10 of this week's Lancaster Farming.

Ron Bingaman shows his granddaughter
Avery a restored IH tractor.

The thing about tractor people is some like red ones, some favor green, or yellow, or blue. But if a John Deere guy needed to borrow a wrench from an IH guy, the JD guy would have his wrench, with maybe a sly comment or two about why he needed a wrench in the first place. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all get along like that? Using our differences to build bridges instead of walls? That's the way the tractor community operates. You can get a look at the IH side of that community in Millville, Pa., where the local chapter of the International Harvesters Collector Club bought an IH dealership that it hopes to turn into a museum. Stay tuned to the IH collectors website (nationalihcollectors.com) for the grand opening in a year or so. And if you do make it to the museum, you might want to leave that green cap - you know the one we mean - in the truck. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lisa Z. Leighton paid a visit to the Millville IH folks when they celebrated the purchase of the dealership. Her report is on page B23 of this week's edition.

2010-10-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

Check out these news items and many more in our October 23 print edition, or online at lancasterfarming.com.

Bobby Prigel at his on-farm creamery.

Here's a new item to add to your list of farming hazards - lawsuits. Bobby Prigel, a fourth-generation dairyman from Glen Arm, Maryland, tends to a herd of 180 Jerseys. He and his family decided a few years ago that they'd like to develop a creamery and ice cream business on a patch of their preserved farmland. After they secured all the required permits, the lawsuits began. Was the operation permitted on preserved land? Did state health officials properly evaluate the creamery before issuing a license? Is their roadside stand legal? Prigel figures the family's $200,00-and-still-growing legal bill has paid off in publicity. Some 400 people showed up for opening day in September. Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres called on the Prigels to see how they're making out.

Chris Torres also attended a recent meeting in Lancaster, Pa., where the federal Environmental Protection Agency told an audience that included farmers and officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that their proposed steps to limit the state's flow of pollution to the Chesapeake Bay were not enough. It was, nevertheless, a quiet meeting, according to Torres.

Pennsylvania lost 14 percent of its dairy farmers between 2006 and 2009, according to a page one report byJames Haggerty, who writes for the Scranton Times Tribune. That means that about one in every seven dairy families emptied their bulk tanks for good in just a three-year period. The flight was thanks mostly, but not entirely, to a drop in the on-farm milk price from $20.26 in November, 2008, to $12.90 in June, 2009.

October, you probably already know, is National Pork Month. This week's Home on the Range page features a recipe for happy pork chops, and an easy pulled pork recipe that goes into the slow cooker. And eight other recipes sure to tempt the palate.

Writing from Moneta, Virginia, Lancaster Farming correspondent Jenneifer Merritt shares her own experience with bringing farmers, parents and school administrators together for a farm-to-school program. She was eager to see her sons, both students at Moneta Elementary, and their classmates eating cafeteria food grown on local farms. The good thing about local food is that it's fresh and flavorful. And, unlike some other cafeteria fare, you can always tell what it is.

2010-10-17T17:07:00.000-04:00

   A hearing room packed with raw milk producers and a few of their customers listened to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials propose an overhaul of the state’s milk regulations on Thursday, Oct. 7.
Five PDA officials presented their case to the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission, a five-member group charged with ensuring that new regulations are both legal and effective. In the end, after nearly 4-and-a-half hours of testimony and questions, the IRRC commissioners voted 3-2 to disapprove the PDA’s proposed rule change.
   Commission Chairman Arthur Coccodrilli, a businessman from Peckville, asked the department to try again. The proposed regulations are designed to bring the commonwealth’s rules in sync with those of the majority of other states, a move that one PDA official said was 25 years overdue. Read more at http://www.lancasterfarming.com/1016-Milk-hearing

   The director of the only tractor test lab in the Western Hemisphere will be talking tractor testing at Binkley and Hurst’s annual Customer Classic next
month. Roger Hoy, director of the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory, will be making two one-hour presentations each day of the Customer Classic,
which is being held Nov. 17 and 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the dealership in Lititz, Pa.
   The test lab is the country’s only officially designated tractor testing station. Tractors are tested according to the codes of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Twenty-nine other countries adhere to these codes.
   The lab was started in 1920 after a disgruntled Nebraska farmer found that three tractors he bought did not perform as advertised. According to Hoy, the farmer’s efforts led to the enactment of a state law requiring all tractors be tested on their performance before being sold. Early testing focused on the tractor competing against horse-drawn implements. Things have changed since then. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres prepared a report on the upcoming event for our print edition or the website at http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Tractor-Test-Lab-to-be-Featured-at-Dealer-Event

   Members of the Berks County Livestock Clubs exhibited and sold their 4-H projects at the 2010 Annual Roundup at the Reading Fairgrounds the end
of September. The sale featured 104 project animals grossed $77,225. For more details and photos check out our print edition or online at
lancasterfarming.com. http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Livestock-Sale-Grosses-More-Than--77-000-for-Berks-4-H-Youth

   When Russell Shaw started a small apple orchard 10 feet north of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1909, he had no idea it would still be there 100 years in
the future. The story of how that initial enterprise grew into a century-old agricultural enterprise is recounted in our current edition by Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Sarubin. To read the story and see the photos, click here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Family-Roots-Run-Deep-at-Shaw-Orchards

   Two Pennsylvania cows were named grand champions of their breed recently at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. Tex-Star Othello Peri, exhibited by Springville Farm and Fisher of New Enterprise, Pa., took grand champion and best uddered at the International Milking Shorthorn Show and also won the aged cow class. Hard Core Farms of New Enterprise was named premier breeder and premier exhibitor at the Milking Shorthorn show. For the story and photos, see http://www.lancasterfarming.com/Pa--Cows-Take-Honors-at-World-Dairy-Expo

2010-10-09T08:43:00.001-04:00

   Would you like to supersize that? These young french-fry cutters sliced their way through a ton of poataoes during a recent fund-raising auction for the Clinic for Special Children in Strasburg, Pa. The non-profit insitution focuses on children with metabolic disorders, and gets a funding boost from its annual auction. This year 1,700 registered bidders competed for, among many other items, 79 donated quilts. Lancaster Farming reporter Michelle Kunjapu attended the auction, ate a few fries and took this photo, which appears in our current edition.

   All dried up...that's a good thing. Food and Family Features Editor Anne Harnish spent a few hours recently in the kitchen of Janice Bowermaster, who has been putting up dried fruits and vegetables for more than 40 years. She's done everything from apples to zucchinis (although she's not quite happy with her zucchini efforts) until, has won blue ribbons at local fairs and state competitions, and plans to keep her dehydrators running for the foreseeable future. Anne's story on the master dehydrator is in this week's Section B.

   A gourd-ious time of year. Do our headline writers have a sense of humor? What do you think. Check out the photo of gourds and men on page one, then go to the Home on the Range feature for wealth of seasonally appropriate squash and pumpkin recipes.

   Also worth reading: Chris Torres' story on the impact of funding cuts on Pennsylvania's animal lab system; Andrew Jenner's take on an EPA TMDL hearing at James Madison University; and Charlene Shupp's story on the poultry industry's search for alternatives to antibiotics. See our print edition, or go to http://lancasterfarming.com.

2010-09-13T11:36:00.000-04:00

Growers look over samples of dozens of peach varieties at a fruit research open house held at Penn State's Fruit Research and Estensiion Center in Biglerville.

Peach growers left their tractors behind last week for a trip to Penn State's Research and Extension Center at Biglerville. Jerry Frecon, a Rutgers extension agent from Gloucester County, New Jersey, was on hand to share some of his knowledge and insights with the growers. He said Jersey's peach harvest is 10 days ahead of schedule. And he talked about the increasing role robotics is playing in the mechnization of fruit harvesting in general. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres attended the meeting and prepared a report for this week's print edition. Or you can read it online here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://lfg.live.mediaspanonline.com/assets/5051117/A01LFWE-
091110_1.pdf

Check out the latest farm market news every week in Lancaster Farming.

2010-08-30T20:57:00.000-04:00

If you pull something like this from
between your corn rows, keep it.

Take care of your soil and it will take care of you. Especially around Hiddenite, North Carolina. Ninety-year-old Renn Adams and his siblings own a farm there where every once in awhile you might plow up an emerald or two. There was a time when the Adams family charged folks $3 a day to wield their shovels and take away any green goodies they might find. Terry Ledford, described in newspaper reports as a family partner, pulled an emerald out of the dirt a few years ago, and he could tell right away it was none of those run-of-the-mill emeralds, fit more for show-and-tell than a jewler's setting. Ledford's stone was big and dark and, well...big. After some cutting and polishing, processes that removed more than four-fifths of the stone's weight, the end product was a 65-carat gem about as big as a quarter and as heavy as a AA battery. It was cut to resemble a similarly sized emerald once owned by Catherine the Great, empress of Russia. That stone sold at Christies in New York this past April for a cool $1.65 million, which even if the Adamses and Ledford split it a few ways, is a sight better than 300-bushel corn. So, next time you're picking rocks, you might want to look down now and then to be sure it's not just a chunk of flint in your hand. AP writer Emery P. Dalesio wrote a gem of a story about the find, which you can read here: http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_carolina_emerald.html

Lyle Klingaman talks to visitors about
his high density grazing methods.

High density grazing cuts feed costs and boosts profits for a Pa. cattleman with a herd of 20 Angus cows. By moving his animals from pasture to pasture, sometimes as often as twice a day, healthier grass, healthier cattle and a healthier bank account he told a group of about 25 curious farmers who turned out for a field day at his Mainville farm. The farmer, Lyle Klingaman, along with the Columbia County Extension Service and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service hosted the field day. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lisa Leighton covered the event and prepared a report which you can read in our current edition. Or check it out online at our website here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/High-Density-Grazing-Taking-Smaller-Bite-of-Farmer-s-Profits

If I ever get old, I want to be like Mary Maxwell. http://www.caregiverstress.com/2010/07/a-reminder-that-laughter-is-the-best-medicine/

2010-08-26T19:33:00.018-04:00

Infrared photo by Dick Wanner

Visit this tree if you ever get to Penn State's Southeast Area Research Center near Landisville. This wounded locust is beautifully isolated and hard to miss.

Speaking of Landisville, the center hosted a mini-field day this morning devoted to the subject of nitrogen management. How to keep it in your soil, how to get the most value from it, how to measure the effectiveness of your N application, whether in the form of manure, granules or liquid. A surprise to me was that manure loses 20% its nitrogen in the first hour after it's spread on the surface. Also news to me was the value of aerial photography as a tool for nutrient management. There'll be a story about the event in the September 3 (September? Already?) edition of Lancaster Farming, both in print and online.

Why I'll always be careful where I pitch my tent. Or maybe I'll just stay in the lodge. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/brown-bear-attack/269tm7de

2010-08-25T19:06:00.000-04:00

     American-style farming techniques are threatening to revolutionize the British dairy industry, and not everybody's happy about it. Nocton Dairies is seeking approval for an 8,100-cow facility near the village of Nocton in Lincolnshire. Nocton's owners say they will keep pollution out of their watershed, and they'll keep the cows clean and happy. (Britons are especially sensitive to animal comfort. PETA, the Humane League, et al are pretty much minor league players compared to British animal rights activists.) Nocton says they'll be adding 85 jobs to the local economy - which could use the jobs - and they'll be using manure digester technology to generate electricity to run the farm with enough left over to sell to the national grid. It would be the biggest of the UK's 13,500 dairy farmers, where the average herd numbers 114. Only 94 of the current dairy operations have more than 500 cows. There's a story in The Economist about the stir the plans are causing, and you can read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/16793059?story_id=16793059

     Using antibiotics to not just cure but to prevent livestock disease is a perennial hot button topic. at last week's Penn State Ag Progress Days, Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres sat in on a session with Penn State Extension veterinarian David Wolfgang as he explained what he feels are the pluses and minuses - mostly pluses - of treating sick animals and also of treating animals with subtherapeutic doses to keep them from getting sick. You can read the report in our current print edition, or check it out at our new website, which is here: http://lfg.live.mediaspanonline.com/assets/4940567/A01LFWE-082110_1.pdf

     Hoops at the White House. (Not what you think.) Saw this first on our new website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07vtMJgp0no

2010-08-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili

Camelicious Dairy camels await their turn
in the milking parlor in Dubai, Saudi Arabia.

A California camel dairy made AgScene about a month ago, notable because the sale of camel milk in this country is illegal, but if it were legal would sell for around $200 a gallon or $1,720 a hundredweight. That is, until all the neighbors started buying their own bactrians and dromedaries. Which may be somewhere on the distant horizon. Last month, European Union health regulators approved the importation of powdered camel milk from the United Arab Emirates. Ulrich Wernery, a veterinarian who works in Dubai, has been touting camels and camel milk for a decade. In 2003, with the backing of Dubai's ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Wernery started his Camelicious dairy enterprise, which today numbers 700 milking camels, producing 5,000 liters of milk per day, or about 105 cwt. Camelicious products, both in liquid and powdered form have been selling in the UAE for about the last four years and now, Wernery says, they're ready to expand into the 27-nation EU. And then maybe Asia and America. AP writer Brian Murphy paid a call on the Camelicious beauties. You can read his report here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/21/2417350/dubais-ruler-hopes-to-expand-popularity.html

Lancaster Farming photo by Anne Harnish

Crowds found plenty to see and do at Penn State's Ag Progress Days.

Lancaster Farming staffers spent much of last week at Penn State's Ag Progress Days in Rock Springs. The event never fails to entertain and educate. Food and Family Editor Anne Harnish spent a day there, trolling for story ideas and pointing her camera every which way. For the usual generous helping of recipes and more of Anne's Ag Progress Days' photos, see our current print edition, our check out our new web offering here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://lfg.live.mediaspanonline.com/assets/4940613/B03LFWE-082110_1.pdf

No matter how famous this blog may make me, I will never submit to a Steven Colbert interview.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/350636/august-17-2010/better-know-a-lobby---american-meat-institute

2010-08-23T18:47:00.001-04:00

Recalled.

   Do you buy eggs? Do you buy them one at a time? Does half-a-billion eggs sound scary? It sounds like all the eggs in the world to me and then some. This morning on the Today Show, Matt Lauer said the current egg recall involved nearly half a billion eggs, "...that's 'Billion' with a 'B'," he stressed, implying that absolutely the eggs in your fridge must be poison. In my opinion, the news reports are accurate, but they are overstating the case.
   The odds of getting sick from eating eggs are small, but make no mistake - this is a serious health issue and it's a serious challenge for the egg industry. A few bad apples, from what I've read, have put not only their customers, but their industry in peril. Did I say bad apples? I should have said "dirty, rotten crooks."
   I did some marketing work for an egg company a while back - a way while back, actually - at a time when the industry was struggling with S. enteriditis. I can tell you that the people I worked with had their hearts in the right place - it was food safety first and profits later. And I think they are the kind of people who dominate the egg industry.
   Collectively, they and their colleagues produce about 215 million eggs a day, or more than a billion eggs every five days. That's "Billion" with a "B." Or to put it another way, a way that is more understandable to the people who buy eggs, 18 million dozen eggs a day. About 41.7 million dozen eggs have been recalled so far, which is less than three days of the total national production. Those eggs were linked to 1,300 cases of salmonellosis, a disease that can make you sick and miserable. Or it can kill you.
   The FDA, the USDA and the CDC are working overtime to measure the danger and get it under control. The feds are looking for more staff, more money and more control to deal with and prevent future outbreaks of food-borne illness, and I hope they get it.
   But I think the industry needs to crack down on its own bad actors. The locavore movement has gained momentum because consumers want to know where their food comes from and who's producing it. They would not want to deal with Jack DeCoster, who runs Wright County Eggs in Galt, Iowa, and is believed to be the man behind the salmonella outbreak.
   He's the sixth-largest egg producer in the U.S., and has a history of paying fines for tainted product, pollution, and animal cruelty. His enterprise has also paid fines for sexual harassment of female employees. He's a bad egg, a black eye and a liability for the industry, yet restaurants, grocery chains and food manufacturers keep buying his product.
   If locavore consumers can be educated, and/or self-educated enough to check out their food sources, it seems to me that businesses, large and small, who are paying thousands and millions of dollars a year for eggs can check out their suppliers. If you are one of those buyers and a guy like Jack DeCoster comes knocking on your door, just say "No." Get rid of his market and you get rid of him.
   I believe government oversight is always going to be with us because there will always be bad actors in the marketplace. I also believe that a self-aware and self-regulated market can be much more than a mechanism for profit, and much more effective than all the government controls in the world. Honest people in a well-run industry can also be a tremendous force for good.
   I've seen it happen.

2010-08-20T16:23:00.000-04:00

Locavores are self-indulgent, self-defeating, dogmatic do-gooders who may or may not have jumped the sustainably raised organic-chub-fed shark. Whoa! Where did that come from? Was that Glenn Beck? A Sara Palin Rant? No, actually. The self-indulgent part came from Stepen Budiansky, an op-ed contributor to yesterday's New York Times and the author of a blog called liberalcurmudgeon.com. Budiansky, of Leesburg, Va., grows a lot of stuff in his backyard garden which is about as local as you can get. Just 42 steps from his back door and he's got a handful of spinach. He's annoyed that New Yorkers consider it a sin to buy a California tomato, but it's okay to buy one from a lavishly heated greenhouse in the Hudson Valley. He has no problem with the locavores' sentiments. He just wants them to get their math straight. He gives some examples, and you can read them here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/opinion/20budiansky.html?th&emc=th. The jump-the-shark goodie came from here: http://jcarrot.org/has-locavore-jumped-the-sustainably-raised-organic-chub-fed-shark. The jcarrot.org blogger was astounded when he read in yet another New York Times story that a company in San Francisco will actually come to your house to plant and tend to your garden throughout the growing season. The writer comments that "locavore" was named Word of the Year for 2007 by the Oxford New American Dictionary. His pick for the next word of the year? "Lazyvore."

Don McNutt, of the Lancaster
County Conservation
District, addresses
the hearing in Rock Springs.

Can farmers dodge the EPA hammer? Matt Ehrhart, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Pennsylvania office told a meeting Wednesday that his state's farmers have made tremendous strides in reducing the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He said the agency should not be treating every cleanup effort like a nail that needs to be hammered equally, and that agriculture has already taken more than its share of pounding. Pennsylvania ag sent a lot of its biggest guns to Ag Progress Days at Rock Springs for a joint hearing of the State House and Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs committees. Ag Secretary Russell Redding testified on behalf of farmers, as did Penn State Dean of Agriculture Bruce McPheron. They were joined by other commentators. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene Shupp Espenshade attended the hearing and wrote a report that will show up with your paper in the mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read it now in our online edition: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/APD-heading

The thing that puzzles me is: Why are numbers 43 and 44 smiling? http://www.flixxy.com/presidents-morphing.htm

2010-08-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

Can a company be too successful?

Deere & Company - they make those green and yellow tractors out there in Moline, Illinois - released its third-quarter earnings figures this morning. Sales for this year's third quarter were $617 million, compared to $420 million for the same period last year. So naturally the company's stock price dropped by 24-cents a share by 3:45 in the afternoon, just 15 minutes from the stock market's closing. Can somebody explain the stock market to me? Deere spokesmen said their sales improved because American farmers bought more than enough equipment to make up for lowered sales in struggling Europe. But their yearly sales are expected to be up 5-10 percent over last year's. CEO Sam Alllen did say that European sales could be down as much as 20 percent, but strong commodity prices in the US and Canada strengthened the company's income outlook. Which sounds good, but if they make too much money, who knows how far their share price will plummet?

John Pecchia talks about
Penn State's mushrooms.

Scientists are still in the dark about some aspects of mushroom growing, but they've learned a lot about bringing those tasty fungi to the table. About two-thirds of the U.S. mushroom supply is grown in Pennsylvania, and most of that comes from Chester County. But Penn State has a 40-year-old research facility where John Pecchia and his crew produce 75,000 pounds of shrooms annually in their 640 square feet of allotted space. That's a lot of fungus. Pecchia brought a bus to Pennsylvania's Ag Progress Days this week, and picked up a load of the curious for a tour of his facility. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres hitched a ride, and prepared a report for this week's issue. If you can't wait for Saturday's mail, you can read his tour reactions on our newly refurbished website by clicking here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/APD-mushrooms

Horsing around on that new website. http://www.lancasterfarming.com/video/Equine-Experience-AgPro-2010-Video

2010-08-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

Fresh from the tree and ready for a blast of hot air.

Does it take as much water to peel a peach as it does to grow it? Seems that way to me. But that may be about to change. Gour Choudhury, a specialist in food processing systems, is a professor at California State University, Fresno. He and his students developed a system that could reduce water used in processing by 80 percent for some fruits. The Wawona Frozen Foods plant in nearby Clovis, Calif., cut its water use for peeling peaches from 240 gallons an hour to 48 gallons with a prototype of Chodhury's system. His system uses a blast of moist air rather than a stream of water to remove skin from the fruit. The system could be adapted for other soft fruits, he believes, and he is currently working on a way to skin tomatoes. Fresno Bee reporter Robert Rodriguez looked into Chodhury's work and wrote a report, which you can read here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/16/2043782/fresno-state-profs-idea-saves.html

Doug Tomlinson cranks out a bale of hay
from his baler while his great-grandchildren
(from right) Kylie Barber, Anthony Barber
and family friend Becca Boshart look on.

At an age when many people are, quite frankly, dead, Doug Tomlinson is still riding his 1949 Massey-Ferguson into hayfields and putting up as many as 700 bales a day. Cheryll Borgaard, a reporter for the Longview, Washington, Daily News, took a ride out to see Tomlinson and to watch him at work. She watched him crank at least one bale out of his baler with a hand crank, but didn't ask him what kind of baler it was, nor she she ask if he cranked them all out by hand. My guess is probably not. It's a nice little story, though, on page A24 of our current issue, or you can read it on our new and very dandy website, here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/ Just click on the e-edition button and navigate to page A24.
Doug Tomlinson cranks out a bale of hay from his baler while his great-grandchildren (from right) Kylie Barber, Anthony Barber and family friend Becca Boshart look on.

I think I'd need an aspirin, like, every 10 minutes. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/worlds-most-massive-horns/p739nt6

2010-08-16T16:13:00.000-04:00

Mock meat pie - harbinger of the future

   There is a need to convert corn, soybeans and small grains into meat if the world is going to feed a population of 9 billion people by 2050. We have the tools to do the conversion today - they're called chickens, pigs and cattle - but a group of scientists report today that we're going to have to do it in vats. You know, put feedstuffs into the vat, take meat out. The scientists were 21 in number and prepared their reports for Great Britain's Royal Society, one of the world's most respected scientific organizations. The scientists foresee population growing by a third in the next 40 years, don't see more cropland being developed, but do see promise in the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. More CO2 from burning things like coal could actually help crops become more productive, but the researchers still think we'll (well, "you'll" and "they'll" since I'll have cashed my last Social Security check by then) still have to eliminate the middle-animal and convert plant life directly into something like meat. Kind of like what we do today with tofu. John Vidal, environmental editor of The Guardian in the UK wrote a report about the mock meat projections. You can read it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/artificial-meat-food-royal-society

   Not one, not two, but three crops a year are coming off Eli Weaver's fields in Leola, Pa. Weave is a small scale dairy farmer - 30 cows on 45 acres - but a large scale thinker who went from buying most of his forages and grains. His two-year crop rotation includes 94-day corn, tritacale/annual ryegrass mix, sorghum sudangrass and oats. He also uses pasture paddocks. He's gone from buying feed to selling forages to his neighbors, and is tinkering with ways to harvest his cover crops. And he's always on the lookout for new varieties. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene Shupp Espenshade called on Weaver to talk about his methods, and prepared a report for our current edition. You can also read it on our website:
http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3122

   Maybe Baxter Black should just stick to poems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuQ-DH2M4Y8

2010-08-13T17:27:00.000-04:00

Will cages be phased out in Ohio? This guy wants to know.

   Ohio farm leaders have agreed to settle their issues with animal rights groups who want producers to give chickens more room, take nursing sows out of gestation crates, and release veal calves from confinement. It was a surprise truce, spurred by farmer fears that a state-wide voter referendum in November would place them under tighter restrictions than those they agreed to. Governor Ted Strickland urged the two sides to negotiate an agreement. The Ohio Farm Bureau and the Humane Society of the United States were the main proponents of the opposing viewpoints. Kirk Irwin, writing for the New York Times, talked to a number of farmers who felt challenged by the changes affecting their operations, but seemed to be taking them in stride. The family of Irv Bell, 64, has been growing hogs in Zanesville, Ohio, since the 19th century. “I work with the hogs every day, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with gestation crates,” Bell said. “But I have to be aware of things on the horizon, the bigger things at work.” A spokesman for the United Egg Producers said following Humane Society guidelines could raise the cost of eggs by 25 percent. The story in the Times is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/us/12farm.html?th&emc=th

   Monday morning you'll be able to see the newest version of LancasterFarming.com. And it looks like it'll be a doozy. After months of preparation, our new website if finally ready with new and improved content. Readers will be able to access current editions, look up stories on previous editions and troll through our 500-plus ads a week by category. The website is designed to complement, rather than replace, our print edition, and some of the electronic features - particularly the Mailbox Markets section - will be available only to print edition subscribers. Staff writer Chris Torres wrote a downright exciting review of the new website, which you can read here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3120

   And you thought your house was old... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/digging-up-britains-oldest-house/6ratcl5

2010-08-12T17:24:00.005-04:00

PetroAlgae's Florida test facility.

A Florida company says it can wring fuel from algae, and compete with oil even if oil prices were to drop to $20 a barrel. The company, PetroAlgae, is planning an initial public offering of stock hoping to raise $200 million to bring its technology to the marketplace. Sounds like the kind of news that should make a lot of people happy, but the rest of the algae-to-oil crowd are feeling a bit cranky. The fact that PetroAlgae's revenue is actually zero isn't the biggest problem, according to analysts interviewed by Camille Ricketts for the VenntureBeat website. The real problem is that the algae market just isn't mature enough to sustain the kind venture that PetroAlgae is proposing. Their technology is intriguing, Ricketts reports. They grow algae in sealed plastic bags supplied with sunlight and CO2, an approach that can yield 10,000 to 14,000 gallons of fuel per acre. That's more than twice the industry average. If they succeed, we could all be driving our cars, tractors, planes and trucks on an actual green fuel. The VentureBeat story is here: http://green.venturebeat.com/2010/08/11/petroalgae-ipo/ And you can watch PetroAlgae's own cheery and upbeat video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-RyKyvWr3I

These are busy times here at Lancaster Farming, with the fair season ready to roar into full swing, Empire Farm Days this week, Ag Progress Days next week, and all the recipes, features, farm news and farm and food related news that keeps coming over our transom every week. (Does anybody remember what a transom was? And why it was?) Keeps the staff hopping. Look for coverage of everything agriculture in our print edition, and very soon expanded coverage on our revamped web site. Keep watching for our new presence on the web here: http://lancasterfarming.com/

Geneticists are working on a six-foot-long version of this critter. That's what I heard. They say it's just for fun. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-worlds-weirdest-creature/26m4ml1n

2010-08-11T15:29:00.000-04:00

Is this real estate up for grabs? No. Not really.

OK, so I know it's a climactic catastrophe, and it's going to cause problems, but let's think for a minute about this chunk of ice that's broken off from Greenland's Petermann Glacier. It's going to threaten ships (it was a Greenland iceberg that sank the Titanic, you'll remember). It could menace oil rigs, 14-year-old girls sailing solo around the world, and it could crash into Canada in a year or two. Meanwhile...what? It is a 100-square-mile iceberg, four times the size of Manhattan. It's too big to melt, blow up or to move in any direction other than the direction it wants to move. So here's my thought: ice tourists. Build hotels, motels, restaurants and shopping malls on the ice. Have snowmobile races. Ice boats. Huskies and sleds. Igloos. Fish from the edge of the ice - what could be more locavore? That sounds interesting, you might be thinking, but what about the permits, the licenses, permission from...whom? Who owns this ice? No one, really. It's adrift, just waiting for someone to claim it. A quick-thinking visionary. Someone maybe a little...off. And so, I, Dick Wanner, lowly scribe, do hereby claim this floating piece of the ocean as my domain. And this is your notice, world. Welcome to LouieVille, ye merchants and customers. Build. Sell. Buy. Party. Just don't forget to pay your rent.

Frank Zeager and daughter, Dot, with an old milk pail.

After half-a-century of collecting farm-related antiques, Frank Zeager is ready to part with his stuff. He and his late wife, Rhoda, put the fruits of their collecting efforts into a small museum on their Middletown, Pa., farm. More than 700 of those items will be sold by Morphy Auctions in Denver, Pa., on August 14 in an auction that has already drawn bids from buyer hopefuls around the world. There are milk bottles, farm toys, tractor seats and a host of other items, mostly farm related. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lou Ann Good talked to Zeager about his collections and his decision to sell the items after his wife died. She wrote a story about it for our current edition, or you can read it online here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/3099.

So...you always wanted a big family? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/sextuplets-3-wreak-havoc-on-today/66vnbs9

2010-08-10T16:27:00.000-04:00

HC&S sugarcane field in Hawaii.

Hawaii sees a sweet future with biofuels. That's because the feds have turned to Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar for help in developing biofuels that can power the planes and ships operating out of the islands. Some 90 percent of Hawaii's energy needs are met with imported oil. The Navy and the USDA - talk about politics making strange - are cooperating on a project with HC&S to use the company's 35,000 acres of sugarcane fields to test a variety of crops for their biofuel potential. The Navy hopes to supply half its energy needs with biofuels by 2020, and Hawaii is its focal point. There are lots of planes and ships on the islands, and the climate is conducive to growing crops. They'll be testing sugarcane, of course, as well as sweet sorghum, jatropha and other alternatives, like algae. Audrey McAvoy, writinng for the Associated Press, reported that while the technology is promising, HC&S is being challenged by indigenous Hawaiin groups because of its use of Maui's fresh water resources. Also, everybody is trying to figure out what the heck is a jatropha. McAvoy's story can be read here: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/business/article_85a37dac-7a01-5f1a-bb4a-6e7fe7490ca1.html

This old stone house on the Patterson farm is still in use.

Preserving history and paying the bills have come into conflict in Lower Makefield Township, Pa., a posh suburb 25 miles north of Philadelphia. The township father's bought the Colonial-era 177-acre Patterson farm for $7.2 million in 1998, and now its needs some work. According to Teddy Fedorchak, the township manager, the farm has become an expensive liability, and the historical buildings, some of which date back to the days of William Penn, need as much as $500,000 worth of maintenance. The board last month began a process that could result in a five-acre subdivision being carved out of the farm's 177 acres. Donna Doan, a township resident whose family once farmed the land, has mounted a campaign to make her fellow citizens aware of what she sees as a threat to the farm's future. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres looked into the issue and prepared a report for our current issue. Or you can read it on our website, which is here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3106

So you're looking for another source of farm income? I think this guy is serious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWb_amK812E

2010-08-07T08:12:00.007-04:00

Chinese farmers need to grow more corn, but are wary of
mechanization because it would eliminate farm jobs.

Chinese farmers can't grow enough corn to fill the country's growing demand for meat, milk and eggs. Hanver Li, a research specialist who studies Chinese agriculture, told the U.S. Grain Council's annual meeting in Boston that the country's domestic production is being overwhelmed by the demand for more corn. He predicted that imports would climb from 1.7 million tons this year to 15 million tons by 2015. Not only are the Chinese short on the land and water they need to grow corn, there is a resistance to mechanized equipment because it would take away jobs. Alexa Olesen and Michael J. Crumb, writers for the Associated Press, attended the grain council meeting. You can read their story here: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20100806_ap_usfarmershopetosoonsellmorecorntochina.html

Penn State's research farm is a riot of floral color.

A festival of color is yours for the asking at Penn State's research farm in Manheim. This year, the farm's flower trials included 1,225 cultivars grown from rooted cuttings that were sent to the site from plant breeders around the world. Come late July, the research staff hold a Flower Trial Research Dy for commercial growers, gardeners and anyone else with an interest in the nursery business. This year, some 280 people attended, but the public is welcome to wander around the gardens. You can wander by yourself until late fall, and self-guided tours are available on request. More information is available at http://trialgardenspsu.com. Among the attendees at this year's field trial show case was Anne Harnish, Lancaster Farming food and family features editor. You can read her report here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3100

Here's a fish I would rather release than catch. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/giant-death-ray/pagafae

2010-08-04T13:54:00.000-04:00

AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel

Russian wheat - first came the drought, now comes the fire

First the wheat dried up, then it burned. Drought and fires have destroyed one-fifth of Russia's wheat crop this year. Russia is the world's third-largest wheat exporter most years, but expects to cut wheat exports this year by some 30 percent. That news has sent wheat prices around the world soaring, but Russian farmers are expected to hold onto the wheat they do harvest in expectation of higher profits. Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva reported on Monday that uncontrolled wildfires raging through much of western Russia have spread to wheat fields. Pavel Grundinin, director of the Lenin State Farm, talked to a TV reporter on Monday and said that their crop had gone up in smoke the day before they planned to harvest it. December wheat futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange topped $7.00 a bushel earlier today, the highest they've been in more than two years. Growers in the U.S. and other exporting countries should be big gainers. American and European consumers may see a slight increase in the price of bakery products as the result of Russia's woes. People in other parts of the world will be harder hit. In Yemen, for example, the price of bread tracks more closely to the price of flour. You can read about Russia's wheat woes here: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20100802_ap_badrussianwheatharvestboostsusfarmers.html

Brian, left, and Russ Cotner.

Buying local - 3 million bushels at a time. The locavore movement resonates a little more loudly in Danville, Pa., where the Cotner family operates a soybean buying-processing-marketing facility that uses beans grown mostly on nearby Susquehanna River Valley farms. Their Boyd Station facility has 20 employees working three shifts six days a week year-round, and they really do go through a lot of soybeans. Don Cotner and three Cotner offspring - Brian, Shannon and Russ - started the operation in 2002 and have been rolling ever since. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lisa Z. Leighton called on the Cotners to talk about their buy-local-sell-local philosophy and prepared a report for our current edition. You can also read it on our website: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/3088. The Boyd Station website is here: http://boydstation.com/.

Helping Joey out down under. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/will-you-hold-my-joey/26id1ceq

2010-08-03T19:07:00.000-04:00

Fertilized salmon eggs.

Next on your dinnerplate - GM salmon. A company named AquaBounty says it is nearing FDA approval for a genetically re-engineered version of the Atlantic salmon. Although altered genes have been part of the American diet for decades - particularly in corn and soybeans - no such animals have so far been approved for human consumption. Writing for the McClatchy news organization, reporter Les Blumenthal wrote yesterday that AquaBounty plans to sell only fish eggs, and that each egg would produce a sterile female. These fish would be raised in net-pens, would get about as big as unaltered salmon, and would grow to market weight in about 18 months, rather than the 18 months it takes to raise a regular salmon. Salmon growers would have a huge incentive to buy the eggs, but naysayers rebel at the introduction of yet another genetically modified organism into the world's food supply. To read more about the issue, check out Blumenthal's story here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/11/97277/fda-nears-approval-of-genetically.html#storylink=misearch

Beth Gugino talks veggies.

Sunny days and high temps put a clamp on crop diseases this summer, but growers need to stay vigilant according to Penn State plant pathologist Beth Gugino. She made her remarks at a twilight meeting last week at the Kutztown Produce Auction. Bugs are bigger problem this year, she told her listeners, and the right kind of fleeting weather conditions can spark an outbreak of many crop diseases. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres travelled to the meeting and prepared a report which you can read in our current edition. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3087

This could give you nightmares: http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/headbangin-parrot/1jrmoh8yx

2010-07-30T11:54:00.006-04:00

AP Photo

Here is a perfectly natural chicken. No added salt. No added water. Cut off its head and its feet, tear off its feathers and rip its guts out, then cover its corpse with ice, and it's still considered "natural" although, of course, altered. If you sell or package it from the ice, it's still a natural bird. And if you add salt, water, tenderizers, preservatives and other additives, up to 15 percent of the final weight? Still a natural chicken, according to current USDA standards. Some consumer groups and poultry industry insiders would like to change the rules. Perdue, for example, is part of a group called the Truthful Labeling Coalition, which is calling for chicken with additives to be labeled "chicken with additives." Perdue doesn't use additives. Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson Foods do. They think the current labeling system is just fine. Juliana Barbassa, an AP writer reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle, looked into the matter. You can read her story here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/30/financial/f001949D92.DTL

Penn State photo by Maryann Frazier

Honeybees are in decline. Still. Frustratingly so. Penn State, a world leader in the study of honeybee colony collapse disorder, hosted the first international conference on pollinator biology, health and policy the other week. Bee experts from as far away as Kenya, Israel and Brazil attended the three-day conference in State College, and they were all abuzz about CCD. Problem is, nobody really understands it, and the more scientists look into it, the more puzzles they uncover. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres sat in on the conference and prepared a report for our current edition. You can check it out at our website, LancasterFarming.com.

And here's some more about bees:

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/sweeter-deal-beekeeping-goes-green/xz0t3uw1

2010-07-29T16:19:00.000-04:00

Fish guts, kelp and rotten wood could help put a little more green in Alaskans' diet. While our far North cousins have got plenty of open space, trees, wildlife and - well, you-know-who - one thing they haven't got is good dirt. The kind you can grow broccoli in. Or spinach. Or, preferably, potatoes.
Why potatoes? "They're the only thing a moose won't eat," Jodie Anderson told Dan Joling, an AP writer who wrote a report published yesterday about a USDA grant program designed to help Alaskans cope with their anemic soils. Realistically, Anderson said, Alaska is never going to be self-sufficient in anything but mooseburgers. The green, leafy stuff has to be flown in and it's brutally expensive. The cold and the short growing season are challenges enough, but the soils are just as much of an issue. Anderson, pictured here in one of her test plots, is a community horticulture director for the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and is helping to direct the USDA's $48,500 grant money to five experienced rural gardeners who will use locally available resources, like waste from salmon processing, to build up the indigineous soils. You can read about the effort here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100728/ap_on_bi_ge/us_food_and_farm_alaska_soil

Wayne Newcomb, a cannery regular,
puts up a supply of tomato juice

Community canneries - as many as 5,000 of them - grew out of America's response to the World War Two Victory Gardens program. But as Swanson's, Campbell's, et al replaced home-grown with store-bought, the canneries closed. But they never went away entirely. The New London Community Cannery in Forest, Virginia, is still thriving, doing a brisk, non-profit business and even upgrading its facilities. Just last year, for example, they installed new cappers. The cannery held an open house the other week, and Lancaster Farming Virginia correspondent Jennifer Merritt stopped in for a tour. She prepared a report which will be in our Saturday edition, or you'll be able to get an advance peek Friday afternoon with a visit to our website at lancasterfarming.com.

They couldn't have planned that, could they? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKlucE-5nIM

2010-07-28T15:07:00.002-04:00

   You just never know who's going to show up in Times Square. One minute it's a California potato farmer named Brian Kirschenmann, the next minute it's The King himself. Kirschenmann was in New York City to man the Lay's Mobile Farm trailer, a 10'x70' by 14'-high trailer celebrating the farmers who grow potatoes for Lay's potato chips. Kirschenmann is the fifth generation of his family to grow potatoes, and probably the only family member to actually meet Elvis, who looks like he maybe ought to switch to broccoli for awhile. The Lay's trailer is on a six-city coast-to-coast tour that began in New York City on Monday, and ends in Dallas on August 24. Lay's has created a series of commercials featuring Kirschenmann and five other farmers. They are third-, fourth- and fifth-generation potato growers who have been selling potatoes to Lay's for decades. The mobile farm trailer is part of that promotion. The farmers in the spots are the same guys who'll be manning the trailer. They are really nice guys. They tell their stories about growing food to the people who actually eat the food. Who else tells that story these days? Next time you're at the store, pick up a bag of Lay's potato chips. Eat a few. Just not the whole bag. If you want to see Kirschenmann ad, it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7jH6kxLTc You'll find the other guys there, too.

   You can't stop change. Change is inevitable. But you can cope with it. That was the message long-time dairy farm consultant Robert Milligan (left) gave to a group of dairy industry professionals earlier this month at a meeting in Lancaster County. Dairymen in the throes of a losing battle with plummeting milk prices and soaring input costs go through the same kind of grief cycle that accompanies other major life changes, like divorce and death. Stages in the cycle, from outbursts of anger, agonizing heartbreak, and outright denial before acceptance settles in. Milligan told the people who work with farmers that the better they understand the grieving process, the better they'll be able to help their clients get through it, get to acceptance. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene Shupp-Espenshade attended the meeting and prepared a report for our current edition. You can also read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3082

   Goats are on the El Dorado payroll. Cheaper than lawnmowers tougher on weeds, and they bring their own brand of fertilizer. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/goats-help-nm-town-go-green/1d0jw6x48

2010-07-27T12:36:00.000-04:00

Cultivating bamboo is a little bit like cultivating dandelion. According to David Carter, a bamboo farmer from Brazoria County, Texas, people are afraid to plant bamboo because it can take over your garden, then your neighborhood, then the whole world, to which Carter replies, "So What?" Lisa Gray, a reporter for the Houston Chronicle, visited Carter to find out what makes him tick, and discovered that he loves bamboo in all its species and varieties, its different heights and colors and leaves. And he loves the way it sounds in the wind. Carter also grows vegetables at the Utility Research Garden - that's what he calls his business - but he mostly grows bamboo. He sells plants to landscapers and homeowners, and sells shoots at farmers markets. He likes bamboo's monocarpic philosophy. It lives. It blooms. It dies. That's a heroic way to live, according to Carter. It's what we should all do. Lisa Gray's story is here: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/gray/7120598.html The Utility Research Garden website is here: http://utilityresearchgarden.com/

"Organic No-Till" sounds like an oxymoron, but the folks at the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pa., are trying to make it work. Instead of pesticides to control weeds between no-till crops, Rodale's researchers are using winter cover crops, then rolling them as corn, soybeans, wheat or oats are planted. Each organic plot is compared to a no-till plot using conventional herbicides to control weeds. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres was on hand for the institute's annual field day on July 16. Organic no-till is a tough challenge, and in Rodale's studies, has yet to beat conventional no-till methods. But the folks at Rodale are nothing if not persevering. One of their organic-vs.-conventional trials has been going on for 28 years, and it looks like they'll be testing no-till methods for the long haul. You can read the story here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3081

Watch a baboon make a monkey out of a lion cub. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/baboons-outwit-lion-cubs-during-hunt/26kx8216

2010-07-26T21:06:00.000-04:00

   How do you make salami? I found this description http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/technology/details.aspx?item=14454 of the salami manufacturing process totally absorbing. Salami has fat, nitrites, salt and sugar and probably shouldn't be in anybody's daily diet, but I'm a salami lover. The photo used to illustrate this article looks to me like it could be Lebanon bologna. While Lebanon bologna is technically a sausage rather than a salami, it shares a lot of similarities with salami, according to a Wikipedia description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_bologna While most people eat Lebanon bologna in a sandwich straight from the fridge, the Wikipedia article says it can also be fried. I knew that. I thought I was the only person who did it.

   "Where the nose goes, so goes the steer." Ron Gill, a seasoned and well-travelled cattle handler delivered that simple truth to a group of Pennsylvanians during the Pennsylvania Cattlemen Field Day earlier this month at the Masonic Village beef farm in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County. Dr. Ron Gill is a professor and extension livestock specialist at Texas A&M, and has visited 38 states to demonstrate his techniques. Lancaster Farming correspondent Sue Bowman was one of the 100 or so onlookers who watched as Gill, in 90-degree heat and wearing a microhone, gently moved a group of 10 American Shorthorn and Maine Anjou cattle to where he wanted them to move. The field day story is in our current edition, or you can check it out online here http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3080 And for a 10 minute video of Gill in action, check this out on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gycWs6q1GBw

   A story about a car thief. I could bearly believe it. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/big-bear-steals-teens-parked-car/6fayfr0

2010-07-23T15:19:00.002-04:00

So now we're going to fight about bactrian and dromedary, instead of Jerseys, Guernseys, Holsteins, et al. That is, if a couple of Californians have their camel milk dreams fulfilled. Gil and Nancy Riegler own the nation's largest camel dairy near San Diego, and they'd love to sell you a gallon of their favorite drink, except that it's illegal. And they'd have to charge you $40 to $60 a liter, which is right around $200 a gallon. Sue Manning, an Associated Press reporter writing in the Los Angeles Times, tells us that the FDA may eventually develop a test to establish the safety of camel's milk - which, if it weren't safe, would there be any baby camels running around? - but until that day they'll have to be content with selling camel's milk soap. The Rieglers say that drinking camel's milk will give you everything but a 48-inch vertical leap, it's that nutritious, but the producers of milk from cows, goats, and even water buffalo (which got the FDA's nod in 2003) have nothing to worry about. A lactating camel produces only about a gallon of milk a day and it comes in 90-second spurts so you've got to be quick about it. And anyway, how many lactating camels do you know? And would you want to try hooking a milking machine up to a camel? If you're undecided, you might want to check out the LATimes report here: http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-food-and-farm-camel-dairy,0,2970136.story

Lavender rescued George and Patti Lyons from a year-'round hectic lifestyle that had them growing vegtables and herbs, with the help of 20 employees, for sale to nearby restaurants. They had a nice business, but it was draining them. Ten years ago they switched to growing lavender on one of their five acres. Now they work hard at tending their 3,000 plants and making soaps, lotions, bath products and other lavender goodies. They also sell live plants, dried plants and parts of plants. But they have only three part-time employees, and count January and February as downtime. Anne Harnish, Lancaster Farming food and family features editor, visited the Lyonses at their Bucks County farm/home/business and prepared a report for our current edition. Or you can read it here http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3072

Can't ever get enough watermelon! Been there. Haven't exactly done that. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZPcJ15Z6pY&NR=1

2010-07-20T13:02:00.001-04:00

The city of Maywood, California, fired everyone last month. The police. The crossing guards. Everybody at city hall. The street guys. The city planners. Everybody. Gone. Wiped out the payroll. On July 1, just a few hours after Maywood's paid employees hit the bricks, the husband of Mayor Ana Rosa Rizo got a parking ticket. Ms Rizo was delighted. It meant that law enforcement in the neighboring city of Bell was doing the work it had been contracted to do by the city before the layoffs went into effect. By outsourcing municipal services to neighboring jurisdictions and private contractors - many of whom had been on the Maywood payroll - the mayor and other elected officials figure they'll save millions every year. Consternation among the citizenry seems to have given way to mostly positive reactions, according to a story in yesterday's New York Times. The move was a tough sell in Maywood, but Maywood seems to be rolling in tough. Four years ago, a deputy city clerk tried to hire a hit man to kill a city councilman. The clerk was sentenced to a year in jail and six months of anger management counseling. Could your local government amputate its payroll, save tons of cash and still keep everybody happy? Probably not. But it's something to think about. The story from the Times is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/business/20maywood.html?ref=business

What makes a small farm successful? Nobody knows for sure, but a survey of small farmers in New York hopes to come up with some answers. Erica Frenay who, with Craig Modisher, is a small farmer herself, is the coordinator of New York's Beginning Farmer's Project. There's a definite lack of training and mentoring, according to Frenay. She and Modisher discovered that when, with little practical experience, they decided to start a pastured poultry business in Caroline, New York. The six-page survey she's overseeing has gone out to farmers in 11 Northeastern states. So far, just 110 of the surveys have been filled out and returned, but she hopes to have 400 by the fall. Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres did a story about the survey for our current issue. You can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/3067

Love watermelon! Been there! Haven't exactly done that! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZPcJ15Z6pY&NR=1

2010-07-19T17:36:00.016-04:00

When I read that Al Gore had invented biochar - it was in a recent edition of USA Today - I had a deja-vu-all-over-again flashback to the January 18, 1975, edition of Lancaster Farming. In the USA Today piece, a West Virginia chicken farmer is interviewed about his new practice of turning his birds' manure into biochar in an oxygen-limited incinerator. The process produces the carbon-rich, odorless biochar which is an excellent soil amendment. Josh Frye, the farmer, said he has sold $1,000 worth of biochar to farmers as far away as New Jersey, and commented that the chicken poop could someday be worth more than the chickens. That's when the deja-vu-slap-on-the-head thing kicked in. In that 35-year-old Lancaster Farming piece (I was the editor then) I wrote a front page article about a couple of dairying brothers from Berks County, Pa. They had bought a franchise from a guy in Tennessee giving them the Pennsylvania rights to the sale of deodorized liquid cow manure. They, along with farmers in 40 other states were selling the stuff for $2.89 a gallon at a time when their milk checks were based on milk at $9 a hundredweight. Part of their long-range plan was to buy manure from neighboring farmers, put it into tanker ships and send it to the arid Middle East to make the desert bloom. One brother predicted that their cows' manure would soon be worth more than their milk. I assume that venture never took off. You can read the 1975 story here: http://digitalnewspapers.libraries.psu.edu/Default/Skins/lancasterfarming/Client.asp?skin=lancasterfarming&AW=1279567758726&AppName=2
and the USA Today piece is here: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2010-02-10-cheap-carbon_N.htm And, hey, isn't it nice to know that Al Gore - unless I misread that newspaper piece - is still on the job?

Ag colleges are selling their cows, but hoping to continue dairy science research. It's the economy. The University of Vermont, for example, plans to sell its entire 255-cow herd, but will continue its research projects on farms with an even greater number of cows and often more modern equipment. The farmers would benefit from annual payments of $20,000 per farm, according to an AP story in the current edition of Lancaster Farming. You can read the story on our website, which is here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/

Maybe we can all learn something from city folks. How tape can solve your problems with left-over champagne, traveling jewelry and those brutal high heels. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/fix-anything-with-tape/61nklke

2010-07-16T18:11:00.001-04:00

No beaches have been closed because of an ethanol spill, is one of the ethanol industry's newest talking points. Even before the BP disaster, Growth Energy, an ethanol lobbying group, had launched a TV campaign touting "America's Sensible Fuel," a fuel that promotes peace, is economical, home-produced and renewable. It sounds, and is, too good to be true. Less efficient than gasoline, more corrosive to today's engines, a significant factor in higher food prices, and a production and distribution infrastructure that depends on government subsidies, all make ethanol less than a miracle fuel. Washington's policymakers agree that biofuels will be part of our country's energy future, but they generally agree that we will have to move away from corn ethanol, according to a recent story in The Economist. You can read that report here http://www.economist.com/node/16492491?story_id=16492491

Here's a fish that can belch and walk on land. Five fraternities have asked him to pledge. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/belching-african-lungfish/pqobdyc

2010-05-28T16:39:00.002-04:00

No moos is good moos, according to Belinda Parmar, who complained to her readers in The Times of London this week that Farmville gives her nightmares. Farmville is the Facebook phenomenon that allows gamers to exchange virtual gifts of, for example, cows, ducks, hay, labor and a dizzying array of goods and services that exist only in the minds and hard drives of the 80 million or so Facebookers who play it. About 20 percent of the Facebook community is hooked on Farmville, and about one percent of all the people in the world play it. And there are six female players for every four males, according to Parmar. Why's that? Because it helps women stay minimally connected when they don't have time to be fully connected. It's like saying, "You're not important enough for me to visit today, or to call, or to write a letter or a long email, but here...have a sheep." Parmar is a bit of a Farmville non-fan, and you can read her comments here: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7137288.ece

Crystal Yoder moved out of her comfort zone last year when she began her reign as dairy princess for Mifflin County, Pa. "I've become much more of a people person, more outgoing and less shy," she told Anne Harnish, Lancaster Farming food and family features editor. Yoder, the fourth youngest of 11 children, lives and helps out on her family's 170-acre farm, and traveled the county to talk about the virtues of the milk and milk products that start in the Yoder dairy barn, where 60 Holsteins are on a three-times-a-day milking schedule. You can read about Princess Crystal's year-long reign in Section B of our current edition, or you can see it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2978

How to move 40 tons of beef with just your voice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2EkaB139E

2010-05-27T08:29:00.002-04:00

New! From Monsanto! Healthy French Fries! The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given Monsanto a GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) notification on oil produced from its Vistive Gold brand of soybeans. The bean produces oil with less saturated fat and reduced or no trans fats according to a news release from the company. Consumers looking for healthier alternatives should welcome products made from the newly approved beans, and growers should benefit from premium prices from the companies that make those products. No word in the news release about how much seed for the new variety will cost. You can read the news release here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/37210420/Improved_Soybean_Oil_Achieves_Milestone_That_Will_Advance_Development_of_Foods_With_Reduced_Saturated_Fat_and_No_Trans_Fats_Milestone_Enables_Food_Companies_to_Develop_and_Test_Foods_Containing_Oil_from_Vistive_R_Gold_Soybeans

Before you torch that charcoal, you might be interested in knowing how the beef in your fridge was like before it became the beef in your fridge. A group of FFAers from Berks County's Conrad Weiser High School got to know more about beef one recent afternoon than most of us get to know in a lifetime. Christopher Raines, an assistant professor meat science at Penn State, used a side-by-side comparison of an Angus steer and a dairy beef steer, to demonstrate to the group the finer points of choice, prime, marbling, aging and other qualities. One surprising fact was the difference between the Angus and dairy beef carcass yields. Both animals had live weights of about 1,400 pounds, but the Angus cross carcass weighed 934 pounds, while the dairy beef animal came in at 764 pounds. Lancaster Farming correspondent Sue Bowman went with the students, and wrote a report about the experience for our current edition. You can also read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2970

A message for "LOST" fans: John Locke is coming, and he's coming for you. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/breaking-new-underwater-v_b_574170.html

2010-05-26T09:40:00.002-04:00

   A Canadian construction crew has been working like beavers for the past 40 years or so to build one of the world's largest dams. Actually, they are beavers, and their 2,800-foot-long dam is in Alberta's Wood Buffalo National Park. The dam might still be undiscovered were it not for ecologist Jean Thie, who was searching Google's earth imagery from cameras in outer space. Thie said two smaller dams have been spotted being built out from the main dam, and could eventually result in a huge dam structure more than half-a-mile long. Typical beaver dams are more like 30 to 300 feet long and rarely reach 1,500 feet. The Wood Buffalo park rangers would like to get a closer look at the dam, but its virtually inaccessible by foot, vehicle or horse, and there's not enough open water to land a plane. You can read more about the dam at
http://news.discovery.com/animals/beaver-dam-canada-space.html

   From dairy cows to zonkeys and pumpkins. When dairy prices plummeted last year, the Norz family of Somerset County, N.J., made the difficult decision to get out of the milk business and into the education/agritainment arena. Norz Hill Farm dates back to 1920, when it was begun by Rich Norz, Jr.'s, grandfather. At one time, there were 700 animals on the farm, with 300 cows milking. The family won awards and produced some outstanding AI sires, but the herd was in the red. Norz says their new mission is to educate their neighbors about agriculture through their agritainment venture. That's where the zonkey - a cross between a donkey and a zebra - comes in. And the llamas, alpacas, peacocks, pumpkins, the corn maze and and other ventures. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres visited Norz Hill recently, and prepared a report for our current edition. Or you can read it here http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2966

   Canine mother of the year, blah-blah-blah-etc-etc. If she's got enough milk for 21 pups, shouldn't a breed association be looking at her genetics? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/walrus-mom-baby-form-close-bond/263z29a4

2010-05-25T12:15:00.004-04:00

They're high on Highland cattle. Teri Eberhart grew up on a dairy farm a few miles south of Bedford, Pa., where she now lives with her husband, Greg, and 60 or so Highland cattle. When she began dating Greg, he'd have to help her feed the cows before they left for the movie, and for Greg, the chore soon became a labor of love. When the couple married, they bought a farm and few Highland cattle. They appreciated the breed's gentle nature, easy birthing and low maintenance. The Highlanders graze on just about anything and, thanks to their warm, shaggy coats, the fat they grow tends to marble the meat rather than insulate the body. Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Williams called on the Eberharts and told their story in our current edition. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2972

Another whey to produce power is being developed in, of all places, Greece. Georgia Antonopoulou, a biochemical engineer at the University of Patras, in the city of Patras, is working on a fuel cell that produces electricity from whey. Traditional fuel cells typically employ a catalyst, usually platinum, to oxidize hydrogen into water and free electrons. Microbial fuel cells, which is what they're working on in Patras, use bacteria as a catalyst. Bacteria within the anaerobic fuel-cell chamber metabolize the whey (or a wide array of other organic feedstuffs), which, in the absence of oxygen, creates an electrical current. Electrical output from the first microbial fuel cell experiments was dismal, with an efficiency rating of 2 percent. Dr. Antonopoulou and her crew discovered that there were microbes in the whey which interfered with the process. When they sterilized the whey, efficiency shot up to 25 percent. Amazing stuff. And they're just getting started. You can read a report of the work in The Economist here: http://www.economist.com/science-technology/technology-monitor/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16152385

Run for your life! It's Tyrannosaurus turtle! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwQ4hDsP_jg&feature=related

2010-05-21T18:10:00.005-04:00

There's a new bacterium in Craig Venter's lab. Its mom is a computer and its midwife is a goat. In a years-long, $40 million project, Venter and his team inserted an artificial genome made from artifical DNA into a bacterium that naturally infects goats. Maybe you recognize it in the photo to the right. The team bought strings of artificial DNA from a company called Blue Heron (http://www.blueheronbio.com/services), then, following a computer-generated sequence, combined them into a genome some 750,000 units long. (I'm not sure how long a "unit" is but I'm guessing it's a bit less than an inch.) Before they actually transformed the goat bacterium into what Venter is calling a new self-replicating life form, the team removed 14 pathogenic genes in case the new life crashed out of the lab and started chasing goats. Some people, like the Pope, think Venter is trying to play God. And President Obama wants a report on his desk within six months that will tell him whether or not the general populace needs to worry about new life forms, considering, perhaps, the problems we have with the current ones. Venter's news has caused hope in some quarters, despair in others, according to this report in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/science/21cell.html.
Venter says he doesn't want to play God, all he really wants to do is make gas from algae. Part of the news the Times didn't see fit to print was the fact that the researchers actually encoded words into their genome, words like the names of all 46 researchers in the project along with quotes from James Joyce and others. Nice to know that scientists playing God can have a sense of humor. I've often thought that if I hadn't ventured into factory work and journalism, I, myself, might have been a scientist. And, light years ahead of Venter, I've been converting frijoles into gas ever since I can remember.

Sod in a week? Seed to grass? You betcha! If you could cut a year out of the time it takes to grow 200 square feet of sod, and reduce the weight of the final product by more than a ton, you'd think the world would be beating a path to your greenhouse door. But Jim Anderson, a Utah landscaper who has more than two decades of experience with the heavy stuff, is finding it a challenge to convince the market of the merits of his roots-and-blades-only product. That's it, in the photo, ready to roll. The sod is grown on trays in greenhouses, ready to be rolled up and put down in about a week. Regular sod takes a year to produce. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres visited Marvin King, a Manheim, Pa., farmer who is currently working with Anderson to perfect the growing technique and to devleop a local market. You can read the report in Saturday's edition, or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2969

I don't know why this reminds me of a prom date. None of mine, of course. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/watch-man-and-gorilla-s-amazing-reunion/621j9tf

2010-05-17T16:05:00.005-04:00

Proposed remedies for global warming are like treating a nosebleed with a tourniquet around the patient's neck, according to Matt Ridley, a Brit who writes about science and money. He's written a book, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves, in which he says that human ingenuity will solve the problems bedeviling this planet with its growing population, limited resources and bumbling governments. There is one unlimited resource - human ingenuity - according to Ridley that will solve the problem of feeding an additional two billion people by the end of this century. And, he says, thanks in large measure to GMO crops, we could all be enjoying more and better food produced on less land and using less water and fertilizer than we use today. He thinks we could even return some current farmland back to wilderness. If you are looking for hope, and a reason to believe in the future, you may well find them between the pages of this book, which is available at Amazon.com. And if you're looking for a review of the tome itself, you can find it in the current edition of The Economist, here: http://www.economist.com/culture/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16103826

A raw milk producer in Lancaster County drew the attention of FDA inspectors who visited his farm in February. The farmer, Daniel Allgyer, turned the inspectors away. They came back with a federal search warrant on April 20, looking for evidence that he was shipping raw milk across state lines. It's an interesting cat-and-mouse story, and you think you know who's the cat and who's the mouse, but then again maybe you don't. There's a story about Dan and his early-morning visitors on page one of our current edition, or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2955

I think I could vote for this guy just to see what would happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0&feature=popt00us0f

2010-05-14T17:54:00.005-04:00

   Ben Allnutt's family has been farming since 1763 in Maryland's Montgomery County but, he told a county planning board meeting in April, "It just takes one bad business decision to slam the door, put the 'For Sale' sign up and you're gone." Allnutt's farm is part of the county's 93,000-acre agricultural reserve, one of the country's most successful farm preservation efforts. The photo shows one of their more picturesque pastoral vistas. Although the county's farmers are in a perfect position to take advantage of the farm-to-consumer movement, they must deal with the sometimes brutal realities of economic cycles. A county task force is looking into the increasing conflicts between farmers and suburban residents, according to reporter Morgan Tierney. You can read her report on the Washington Post website here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/AR2010051203032.html

   Corn planting is ahead of schedule from New York to the Virginias, thanks to a warm April and excellent conditions for field work. A cold spell and even some frosty nights put the brakes on a bit earlier this week, but growers throughout the Lancaster Farming readership area report a good start. Staff writer Chris Torres reports in tomorrow's edition that 54 percent of the Pennsylvania corn crop has already been planted, nearly double the 28 percent that was in the ground last year at this time, and well ahead of the 47 percent five-year average. In New York, 40 percent of the crop has been planted, and in Maryland and Delaware, the figures are 74 and 82 percent, respectively. And, as you can see from staff photographer Stan Hall's photo, haying has already commenced in much of the region. You can read the story online here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2957

   Yeah, but how good are they at fixing a top unloader? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/sky-high-roller-coaster-fix/26vawwmj

2010-05-12T16:21:00.002-04:00

   Health insurance. 401-K. Vision care. Paid vacation. Fresh tomatoes. As corporations continue to tighten their belts and cut employee benefits budgets, one of the newest perks is a company garden. In Purchase, NY, at the world headquarters for PepsiCo, the company garden is in its second year. Last year, 200 of the Purchase location's 1,450 employees signed up for garden plots, but so far only 75 have committed to gardening, and a lot of those plots are still weedy. Kim Severson, writing in yesterday's New York Times, visited Purchase and also talked to HR departments around the country about employee gardens. These corporate plots of dirt spring from growing attention to sustainability and a rising interest in gardening, Severson found. They also reflect an economy that calls for creative ways to build workers’ morale and health. You can read her story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/dining/12gardens.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

   Sew...you like pincushhions. Until the mid-19th century, pins and needles were expensive and treasured by their owners. Around 1850, steel prices dropped dramatically and mass production techniques made these sewing necessities commonplace. Victorian women were enthusiastic about their sewing circles and projects, and pincushions became popular. Antique pincushions available today show how committed, and even competitive, Victorian women were with the homes for their tools. Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Sarubin takes a look at pincushion collections in our current edition. You can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2935

   Hope takes a taxi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyXrSJpQ_tk&feature=popular

2010-05-11T16:03:00.002-04:00

If they call it a party, why is everybody so miserable? What you see here is a representation of a day in the U.S. Senate, in 1856, when Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina attacked Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner with his gold-handled cane. Things are not quite so physical anymore, but they're not much better, according to Joe Reeder, a Washington lawyer and former assistant secretary of the Army. Reeder, writing in the current edition of the AARP Bulletin, has a remarkably simple idea that he believes would help to soften the bitterness across the aisle in both houses of Congress. His solution? Get rid of the aisle. Seat everybody alphabetically either by last name or by state. And if Arlen and Olympia can't get themselves settled and pay attention to Senate business, then maybe Olympia will just have to switch seats with Richard. Or Arlen with Debbie. Or somebody will have to go sit in the hall until Joe comes along and gives them a talking to. Not that Joe doesn't have HIS problems, as we all know. It's actually a neat, common-sense, no-cost real solution to a real problem, so you know it'll never get anywhere in Washington. You can fantasize along with Joe Reeder here: http://bulletin.aarp.org/opinions/othervoices/articles/opinion_break_up_the_political_parties.html

WHAT'S FOR DINNER! Nicole Reynolds is a city-born-and-raised singer-songwriter who went to college and heard about all the horrible things farmers did to their animals and so she became a vegetarian. She's done well in the music world, with successful tours and four albums to date. It was while she was on tour that she heard of WWOOF, Worlwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The opportunities are to provide unpaid labor in exchange for room and board. Reynolds worked on several European farms, then came back to the U.S. to work on Three Cheers Farm in Northeast, Pa. Three Cheers has a small sheep operation, and Reynolds learned that it is possible raise animals in such a way that she's comfortable using them as a food source. She's no longer a vegetarian. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres went to New Jersey to visit Reynolds. You can read his story in our current edition, or check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2942
For a sample of Nicole's song stylings, go here: http://www.nicolereynoldsmusic.com/videos.html

The news business - there'll always be ups and downs. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/yo-yo-imposter-sneaks-onto-tv-show/6dgq8oq

2010-05-10T12:56:00.002-04:00

Jake Guest grows organic strawberries at his farm near Montpelier, Vermont. He hires about 20 local workers to help around the farm, but when it comes time to pick and weed the berries, he advertises for help in the local newspaper, plus one newspaper from each of two neighboring states, plus a newspaper in either Florida or Texas. He plans to hire two workers from Jamaica, spend $1,000 to transport them to Vermont, pay them at least $10 an hour and provide them with housing. The way Associated Press writer Lisa Rathke explains it, Jake Guest must be an awfully nice guy. And perhaps he is, and he might do all of the above and more even without the Department of Labor H2-A regulation covering the use of immigrant labor. Domestic workers, Guest says, won't do the work. He pays the price, he says, because..."If you've got strawberries to pick, you hire professional pickers." You can read Rathke's story here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-food-and-farm-farm-labor,0,6088431,print.story

Ancient White Park cattle are a threatened breed, but that's a big step up from the critical category they were assigned to earlier in the decade. Sandy Lerner brought 31 cows and a bull to her Loudon County, Virginia, farm in 2003, and now has a herd of 160, with 55 cows and two bulls producing up to 65 calves a year. The animals are self-reliant, can forage for themselves, and the cows are good mothers. You don't want to get close to a White Park calf, especially if you're a predator. Lancaster Farming correspondent Shannon Sollinger reported on her visit to the Lerner farm in our current edition, or you can read her story here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2944

Here's a deer little kitty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv_5M9LfSbc

2010-05-07T11:49:00.001-04:00

     This just in! It's about your brother-in-law! We have met Neanderthals, and they are us. That's according to a just-completed mapping of the Neanderthal genome. The genome, as we all know, is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information, and carried in the DNA (except for viruses, which use RNA). It took five years and $3.8 million to painstakingly tease the genetic information from bone fragments of three Neanderthal women who lived in Croatia some 40,000 years ago. Comparing the Neanderthal DNA with that of modern humans, the researchers discovered that as much as four percent of Neanderthal DNA still reverberates in the majority of modern-day humans. "It is tantalizing to think that the Neanderthal is not totally extinct," said geneticist Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who pioneered the research project. "A bit of them lives on in us today." Robert Lee Hotz, a reporter for the Wall Stree Journal, prepared a report on the project. You can read it here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703686304575228380902037988.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

   It takes a vision to join the burgeoning CSA movement. Blackberry Meadow Farm in suburban Pittsburgh is a Community Supported Agriculture enterprise that grew out of a vision shared by Jack and Dale Duff, brothers who bought a dairy farm in 1988 and, by 1992, had converted it to organic. They sold it to a group of dedicated-but-short-on-experience, but environmentally motivated Slippery Rock U. graduates who were looking for a place to sink their roots. Thanks in part to the Duffs' mentoring, Blackberry Meadow is a going, growing concern. You can read about it in the Rural Ventures special section of the Lancaster Farming edition due in your mailbox tomorrow.

   Four little puppies making piggies of themselves. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/pig-adopts-dogs/uf49a1gp

2010-05-06T15:11:00.005-04:00

   It was all things sheep in West Friendship, Maryland, last weekend as the 37th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool festival drew a crowd of 50,000 visitors, 250 sheep-friendly vendors and 1,000 sheep representing 42 different breeds. Lancaster Farming reporter Michelle Kunjapu paid a visit, strolled the grounds, talked to some people, tasted some lamb and, we don't doubt, bought a woolen thing or two. Two contestants in the festival's blade-shearing competition are seen in the photo. You can read Ms Kunjapu's report in Section B of the issue due in your mailbox on Saturday.

   I'll just have whatever grows in a tree. Way up. In the highest branches. Should you find yourself in the Mexican town Mixquiahuala, some 60 miles outside Mexico, don't drink the water, don't eat the carrots and don't swim in the irrigation canals. Those canals are filled with plant nutrients that help local farmers prosper, but their prosperity comes with a price. The "black water" - that's what they call it - is the untreated sewage from Mexico City's 20 milliion residents. It stinks, it gives you boils and the flu, and it's terrible, terrible way to deal with sewage from one of the world's largest, most teeming cities. But many of the local farmers were upset to learn that Mexico City is developing plans to build a billion-dollar sewage treatment plant that will take care of 60 percent of the city's wastewater. They want to keep it flowing to their fields. It's a curious, unlikely story, reported in the New York Times on Tuesday by Elizabeth Malkin. You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/world/americas/05mexico.html

   Did we say sheep seem to be riding a wave of popularity? http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1934500

2010-05-05T15:56:00.005-04:00

     First there was "Food, Inc.," now there's "Fresh." Director Ana Sofia Joanes is less judgemental than the folks who brought you Food, Inc., according New York Times reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis, but her movie is still an indictment of what many call industrial farming. Catsoulis says the "Fresh" is folksier than "Food, Inc.," and more focused on practical solutions. Will Allen, a Milwaukee urban farmer, is featured in the film for his attempts to broaden food choices in poor neighborhoods. And a name familiar to Lancaster Farming readers, Joel Salatin, is mentioned as a paradigm of small-scale agriculture. You can read the review here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/movies/09fresh.html?scp=1&sq=fresh%20movie&st=cse
The movie has its own site, which includes playdates, here: http://action.freshthemovie.com/p/d/freshthemovie/event/events-display.sjs

     A beef-fed marathoner and one-time dairy princess had an impressive finish last month in the Boston Marathon. Marcia Itle, who grew up on a dairy farm in Cambria County, Pa., was actually sponsored in Boston by the National Beef Council. She started running in high school, figuring her daily two-mile run to feed the family calves had given her a head-start in the conditioning department. But there was a hard truth to be learned. After finishing in the back of the pack in her first season of track, she put her heart into training and eventually wound up winning. Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Williams called on Ms Itle and prepared a report for our current edition, which you can also read here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2929

     An ode to the second-most important tool on the farm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZwa_WtSo8

2010-05-04T10:16:00.002-04:00

   We show a lot of cows, pigs and chickens in our regular pages, but once a month, that most photogenic of farm denizens - the horse, of course - graces the pages of the Mid-Atlanic Horse. Here's the front page off the May edition, featuring the photography of editor David Yeats-Thomas. Mid-Atlantic Horse is included in issues mailed to subscribers. Check it out in our print edition.


   Suppose you've bought a new refrigerator. Your new fridge has a regular handle, but it locks until you respond to messages displayed on a touchscreen on the door. The first message might be "Why did you buy this refrigerator?" Was it because: a - you liked the way it looked; b - you felt it was important to keep up with refrigerator technology; c - because a friend or neighbor recommended it to you; d - none of the above, please explain.
   My response would be: d - I just wanted to keep my stuff cold. And then the refrigerator might want to know where you bought it (as if it hadn't been there) and did you buy it from a retail store, mail order or from a vendor at a Phillies game? And do you want to buy all your milk from Walmart, yes-or-nor-and-if-no-why-not? And would you like fresh carrots delivered weekly to your door (offer not good in areas of high meat consumption.)?
Are you male or female or aren't you sure? What is your household income? How old are you, exactly. No, really, how old?
   See, that's silly. The kind of silliness I wish computer and software designers, engineers - I'll just call them software thugs - would learn to avoid. I'm on this rant after having spent a week trying to get a two-year-old Vista laptop to work and finally giving up, going to Staples and having a wonderful guy named Rick install Windows 7 on my machine. It was expensive. I also bought the anti-virus Norton 360 (which I installed myself), and a new router, because my old one had problems with Windows 7. And I needed no more problems.
   So I got the computer home, booted it up, got the router hooked up and scooted around some websites and a couple of email accounts. It was wonderful. Vista was like swimming upstream in a strong current. Windows 7 was like floating downstream. I loved it. And then the questions started popping up. Did I want to make Windows my sole media player for life? And my browser? Microsoft's browser? Huh? Did I want any of three-pages worth of Windows add-ons? Did I want Windows to hold my hand when I was troubled? To walk my dog when I was too tired?
   Switching computers and/or operating systems isn't the biggest problem in the world, but it can be one of the most annoying, especially when billion-dollar companies like Microsoft and Norton (which had it's own list of strong-arm queries) try to milk their customers for much more than they've already paid. Just give me the goods and forget about the sales pitch.

   Let's put a blankie down for baby, so he can take a little nap. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/baby-creates-chaos-in-time-lapse/1abyzm97g

2010-04-30T16:22:00.002-04:00

     Sustainable agriculture methods won't sustain African populations, argues Robert Paarlberg in the latest edition of Foreign Policy Magazine. Conventional farming methods, with the high-tech inputs familiar in the U.S., are what the continent needs to feed its diverse and growing populations. And is that bad for the environment? "No," Paarlberg claims. "Not only is organic farming less friendly to the environment than assumed, but modern conventional farming is becoming significantly more sustainable." He says the ruinous practices of the past, the ones Rachel Carlson wrote about in Silent Spring, have changed enormously since the 1960's when the book was published. He cites no-till planting, drip irrigation and precision fertilization as practices that both increase food production and do less environmental harm. You can read his article here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/04/26/attention_whole_foods_shoppers?page=0,3

   The White House kitchen garden, one year later, is a definite Obama administration success. Sam Kass, right, assistant chef for the Presidential residence, said the garden produced half-a-ton of food in its first season, soul-cleansing, hands-in-the-dirt work for volunteer staffers and lots and lots of positive PR. Lancaster Farming special sections editor Charlene M. Shupp Espenshade stopped by for a tour on a recent trip to Foggy Bottom and prepared a report for this week's edition. You can also read it here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2925

   Yeah! What she said. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/house-cat-attacks-bear/1abiotmlj

2010-04-29T14:54:00.006-04:00

   Ничто не будет работать, как олень. Or, as they say in Moline, "Nothing runs like a Deere."
Reuter's reported on Tuesday that the world's largets farm equipment maker is opening up shop in Russia with a half-billion dollar manufacturing and parts distribution plant near Moscow. It's not the first time Big Green has been to Russia. A century ago the company filled an order from the Pacific city of Vladivostock for 900 plows. You can read the Reuter's story here: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=37985&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+ChicagobusinesscomBreakingNews+(ChicagoBusiness.com+Breaking+News

   The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday about the rift between conventional and organic farmers over genetically modified (GMO) crops. A lower court has ruled against the sale of GMO Roundup-resistant alfalfa seeds. Organic farmers say their industry, particularly dairy, could be destroyed if non-GMO feeds became unavailable. Conventional producers want to have all the science and biotechnology they can get. Of course, Lancaster Farming was there in the person of staff writer Chris Torres, who prepared a report for the issue due in your mailbox Saturday. His impressions of the Justices? "There was a pole in front of me," Torres said, "so I could hardly see anything, but I noticed that Ruth Bader Ginsberg is really short, and that Justice Alito is a really down-to-earth guy."

   Speaking of Big Green... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/jason-aldean-big-green-tractor-not-a-slide-show/bd9d11cc9b5986d935f6bd9d11cc9b5986d935f6-55956733968

2010-04-27T16:24:00.001-04:00

   Detroit revolutionized the auto business, and could now be on its way to leading the way in urban agriculture. With 25,000 acres of vacant, often blighted, land Motor City officials and civic leaders are hoping to turn small-scale - and maybe large-scale - city farming into a resource for jobs, environmental enhancement and tax revenues.
   While other cities are looking at urban farming, reporter David Runk said Friday in the Washington Post, "...no other city seems to have as much potential for urban farming as Detroit, where land is cheap, empty lots are plentiful, and residents are desperate for jobs. The number of community gardens has been growing each year, and bigger, commercial agriculture could be coming as city planners draw up land use rules for farming."
   Nobody expects to be growing 1,000 acres of soybeans or corn at the intersection of Fenkel and Hubbell, but you might be seeing tomatoes, asparagus, strwberries and the occasional chicken. Runk's story is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042300467.html

   I stopped at a local Subway the other morning for a breakfast sandwich, coffee and OJ. The reason I stopped was because I saw a newspaper ad saying the Subway serves breakfast. "Something new," I thought. "I'll give it a shot." So while I was waiting for my Western omelette sandwich (pretty good, actually), I asked the young lady preparing it how the new breakfast business was going.
   "New?" she said.
   "Well, yeah, I just saw it advertised."
   "We've been doing it ever since I've been here, and that's seven years."
   I was shocked. First, because she looked like she'd have been in kindergarten seven years ago, and second because I had never known about it. Until I read it in the newspaper. A print ad. Ink on paper. Is this a shameless endorsement of my medium? You betcha.

   Did aliens from outerspace actually visit our ancestors? Of course. And they brought unearthly, sometimes disgusting things with them. How else would you explain kiwi fruit? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/ancient-astronaut-theory-did-aliens-visit-our-ancestors/265bucfm

2010-04-26T16:01:00.001-04:00

   Pennsylvania's famed Star Barn will probably be saved from destruction, but traditional barns across the country are disappearing. Rural areas are dotted with the skeletons of round barns, bank barns, crib barns, tobacco barns, rice barns and just about any other kind of barn you can think of. They've been replace by by big sheds, silos and steel-sided storage structures. Writing last week in The Economist, a reporter told of a visit to Thorntown, Indiana, where a local FFA chapter had spent part of their week restoring an old barn for the Dull family. It was one of the lucky structures. Iowa, for example is losing 1,000 barns a year, according to ag preservationists. If you'd like to read the story, you can find it here: http://www.economist.com/world/united-states/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15954270

   Meat industry trade groups have convinced the inspection arm of the USDA to extend the deadline for comments on tough new rules that would hit processors with higher costs and vague guidelines. Jay Wenther, executive director of the American Association of Meat Processors, said the proposed rules were "...widely vague and widely interpretable." Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres wrote a report on the situation, which appears in our current edition. You can also read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2921

   Farmer John is a little wacky. But I think I'll rent the movie.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/the-real-dirt-of-farmer-john/a2fe5d6bddf188828521a2fe5d6bddf188828521-1650461967629

2010-04-21T15:36:00.002-04:00

Hippy Cuban activist harvests top plant prize. That would be Humberto Rios Labrada, a guitar-playing-raunchy-song-singing-bureaucracy-defying-no-nonsense guy who thinks practically non-stop about seeds. That's Labrada, wearing the plaid shirt in the photo. The 47-year-old scientist's passion for seeds and crop improvment earned him a 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the "Green Nobels."

Labrada takes his guitar and his sustainable agriculture gospel on more than 300 farm visits a year. His gospel is this: Cuba needs to become self-reliant in food production. He's been preaching his gospel ever since the Russians pulled out of the island nation, abandoning their big tractors, and stopping their shipments of fertilizer and pesticides. Their high-input approach to massive agriculture was just not suited to the kind of small-scale food production that the Cubans actually need, Labrada feels.

Associated Press writer Will Weissert tagged along with Labrada on a couple of recent farm visits, and prepared a report which you can read here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/slideshow/ALeqM5h92l-SyIZ91huXWEPwYazw0Fve_gD9F674780?index=0

Nay is a Black-and-Brown Swiss yearling who survived a barn fire and went on to garner showring honors competing against some of the top animals in the country at this year's New York Spring Dairy Carousel. Black-and-Brown? Nay was in her home barn in Belchertown, Mass., according to Sara Gauthier, her owner, when an electrical fire broke out, destroying six 4-H animals and Ms Gauthier's goats. The fire singed Nay, leaving black marks and splatters on her hide. But since color isn't a show-ring issue with Brown Swiss, she's been doing quite well in shows. Lancaster Farming Correspondent Meagan Crandall paid a visit to Nay and prepared a report you can read in our current edition. You can also see it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2908

No more arguments about who has to wash the frying pan... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/paper-fried-egg/1absihqtg

2010-04-20T16:11:00.002-04:00

The Senate Ag Committee wants to clamp down on financial derivatives. Committee chair Blanche Lincoln, right, has proposed regulations so stringent, that even that raging socialist (if you believe raging Tea Party rhetoric) Barack Obama has balked at the language in her bill, scheduled to be taken up tomorrow by her committee. More than 1,500 lobbyists, executives, bankers and others have made their way to ag committee members to give their views on legislation that would introduce transparency and control into the complicated and murky world of financial derivatives trading, according to reporters Edward Wyatt and Eric Lichtbau, writing in yesterday's New York Times.
According to the duo...
Now wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Are we to understand that Blanche Lincoln, the Senator from Arkansas, is going to wrestle that gang of Wall Street robber barons to the ground and make them behave? Can she do that? From the ag committee? The Ag Committee?
Apparently, she's got them scared. They can hear that lasso whistling over their heads. If Blanche has her way, they'll have to duck to escape her rope. They''ll have to run bent over double. Crawl on their hands and knees. Slither on their bellies.
You know, I don't understand Wall Street, but I've seen enough, heard enough and read enough to know that there are too many people there who've become rich by stealing from me. And from you. And everybody we know and all their friends and relatives.
Hooray for Blanche. Hooray. Hooray.
To read the New York Times story, go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/business/20derivatives.html?dbk

The sagging economy has thrown some serious speed bumps into plans to relocate, rehab and rejuvenate Pennsylvania's famed Star Barn, possibly the most photographed, sketched, painted and admired barn in the country. Built in 1872, the barn's impressive architecture - the soaring cupola, the gables, the five-pointed stars on each end - would have made it a standout in the middle of nowhere. When I-283, connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg opened in 1972, hundreds of thousands of drivers yearly could not help but notice this magnificent structure just outside Harrisburg. As the decades rolled on, it became obvious that the barn was deteriorating.
Robert Barr took special notice, and, in 2006, bought the barn through Agrarian Country, an enterprise he founded to relocate it. He was in the process of recruiting volunteers, grants and donors when the economy happened. Barr is bowed but not beaten, according to Lancaster Farming reporter Chris Torres, who wrote about the project for our current edition. You can also read his story here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2911

Middle-aged fool attacked by puppies. Wife orders a case of dewormer. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/golden-retriever-puppies-attack/1ab1g5zvx

2010-04-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

   How about a nice soap salad? And a noxious insect entree? Not to your liking? Well, then, maybe you're one of those people hopelessly averse to the flavor compounds in cilantro, aka coriander. According to an article last week in The New York Times, many people are repelled by cilantro's aroma, which is caused by a class of fat molecules, called aldehydes.
   Aldehydes are found in soaps, and some bugs use aldehydes to either attract or repel other creatures. People who don't grow up with cilantro are often repelled. But some cuisines - among them Asian, Latin American and portugese - call for the generous use of cilantro, and people in those cultures are fond of the herb. One of the world's most famous cooks, Julia Childs, couldn't stand the stuff. Nor could she abide arugula. "Throw it on the floor," she said. So if you're thinking of supplementing your milk check with profits from a field of cilantro, maybe you'd better look for a less devisive vegetable.
   Reporter Harold McGee looked into the cilantro matter in the last Tuesday's edition. You can read his report here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html

Big sea fisherman Gaylord Clark is hoping to someday reel in a profit from his pastured poultry operation in Stevenson, Maryland. Clark, who makes a living as a commercial fisherman in Alaska and on the West Coast, spends most of the year on his small farm just outside Baltimore. His wife, Lee Ann, contributes to family finances with income from a calligraphy business. Lancaster Farming Maryland correspondent Laurie Savage visited the Clarks to talk about their unique lifestyle, and prepared a report for the issue due in your mailbox Saturday. Gaylord and his daughter, Madelyn, are shown here on the shore of Alaska's Bristol Bay, along with one that didn't get away.

Here's an idea for your home-schooled kids. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/shadow-toys-with-math-teacher/1abefax9d

2010-04-13T12:46:00.005-04:00

Although he receives $200,000 a year in farm subsidies, Tenessee congressional candidate Stephen Fincher tell his Tea Party supporters that he wants to phase out farm subsidies. That's Stephen to the, uh, right. In a Washington Post story last Thursday, reporter David Weigel said the size of his subsidies puts Fincher in a class of his own, but he's not the only candidate on both sides of the farm payment issue. Indiana Senate candidate Marlin Stutzman received a total of more than $170,000 over a period of 10 years, yet tells the Tea Party faithful that "...we should get out of the subsidy business...and let the free market work." You can read Weigel's report here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/04/not_ready_tea_party_candidate.html

Meet our new editor, Dennis Larison. Dave Lefever has decided to close out the Lancaster Farming chapter of his life to cultivate new fields. The staff has wished him good luck and Godspeed on his new journey. We have warmly welcomed Dave's replacement, who's had some interesting jobs - e.g., building stage sets in New York City - on his way to the editor's desk here in Ephrata. Our intrepid correspondent Lou Ann Good interviewed Dennis for her page one story, which you can read in our current edition, or at our website, which is here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2902

Would you believe - Rent-A-Goat? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/338473403/farmcycle-0

"No Go" GMOs in Africa

2010-04-12T13:13:00.003-04:00

Africa isn't Indiana, if we follow the thinking of Dennis Keeney and Sophia Murphy, staff members at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. And GMO crops designed for the wide open acreages in our Midwest are definitely not suited for the small-scale farms, often less than an acre, common in most of Africa. Keeney and Murphy take none other than Bill Gates, arguably the world's most ambitious philanthropist, for his support of efforts by Monsanto et al to sell GMO seed to farmers in Africa. The IATP duo feels that Gates should spend his foundation's hundreds of millions on efforts to improve Africa's indigenous crops. They made their comments in yesterday's edition of the Des Moines Register, which you can see here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20103200306

Our nuttiest feature story ever. John Herbert of Gettysburg has a passion for nuts, and thinks nut trees and their flavorful, healthful fruits. He thinks his fellow Pennsylvanians could find both satisfaction and profit in growing one or more of the many species that grow in the commonwealth. Lancaster Farming food and family editor called on Herbert to talk about his favorite kind of tree, and reported on the visit in our current edition.

Wonder what you'd get for $772? http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/338473403/farmcycle-0

2010-01-21T17:12:00.001-05:00

One way to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay is to put more land into agriculture, according to a new report just out from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. This is a surprise. Chesapeake Bay supporters have long contended that agriculture is the bay's biggest problem. And it is. In spite of the huge improvements in the past decade, most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment still choking the life out of the bay comes from farm runoff.
The report issued jointly Wednesday with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture says that a switch to biofuels crops could help clean up the bay, provide 18,000 jobs in the bay watershed and produce 500 million gallons of USA-grown fuel, enough to supply the Washington metro area for six weeks.
Winter cover crops like rye and barley, permanent stands of switchgrass and plantings of fast growing trees like willow and poplar could be used as feed stocks for ethanol production. The problem right now is infrastructure - processors aren't going to build expensive plants without a steady supply of feedstocks, and farmers aren't going to plant feedstocks without a steady market.
The Associated Press reported on the new way of thinking in a story published yesterday. You can read the New York Times version here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/20/business/AP-US-Chesapeake-Biofuels-Maryland.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=farming&st=nyt

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the farm pond. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/on-the-hunt-for-a-mega-shark/5dy5z238

2010-01-19T17:36:00.005-05:00

   Quick - What's the net present value of each cow in your herd?
   Say...what...??
If you plan to keep a cow in your herd for three years, what's she worth today? How much would she be worth if you kept her for six years? What's she worth today if she's milking 20,000 pounds of milk and milk is selling for $16.50/cwt? What if you're getting $10.00/cwt? $15.47?
Net present value is one way financial geeks set the worth of an annuity. Dr. David Galligan (we're not going to call him a geek here, but take a look at his website) is a veterinary economist at the University of Pennsylvania - he has both a veterinary degree and an MBA. He DOES think of a cow as an annuity, something that has an initial cost, operating expenses, and a residual value at the end of a given period of time.
Galligan has developed a fascinating website to help farmers answer questions like these, and he's posted it online where anybody can use it for free. I spent about 20 minutes with the site. I was, frankly, bewildered, but stumbled around enough to see that I could put a dollar value on a cow by taking into account a mind-numbing number of variables. I think it would take a week or two or more to become proficient at using what he calls the net present value of a dairy cow. That website is here: http://dgalligan.com/cownpvnew.html
You might also want to check out Galligan's regular website here: http://dgalligan.com/
The Economist ran a story earlier this month, cleverly titled Ecownomics, on Galligan's work which you can read here: http://www.economist.com/business-education/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15207866

   The little winery that could took top honors - the Governor's Cup - with a 2008 gewurztraminer that bested 327 other entries in the 2010 Pennsylvania Farm Show wine competition. Tod and Jean Maspeaker own and operate Briar Valley Vineyards and Winery in Bedford, producing just 4,000 gallons of wine annually. Their winning entry had a spicy note, a touch of fruitiness and a good mouth feel. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres wrote a report on the winery, which you can read in our current edition, or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2743


   Dude...what if your prescription changes? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/behold-the-permanently-bespectacled-man/1abjjzeb1

2010-01-15T17:48:00.002-05:00

   Petri pork promises pigless meat. There's a consortium of of publicly funded research institutions in the Netherlands that are working on turning pig stem cells directly into meat without the bother of that whole raising-the-pig-feeding-the-pig-hauling-manure-slaughtering-the-pig-and-cutting-up-the-pig thing. According to Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University who is involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, their nascent technology has produced a meat-like substance that's more like a scallop than a pork chop. It's firm, but a little squishy and wet.
The stem-cell technique could also be used on other meat animals - chickens, turkeys, cattle and sheep, for example. Or you could grow your own tiger meat. Maria Cheng, a medical writer for the Associated Press wrote a story about petri meat for the Seattle Times. She aske dPost what the artificial stuff tastes. Actually, he said, nobody's eaten it yet. Cheng's story is here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010802371_apeumedpetripork.html

   Milk price up $4/cwt this year? Could be, according to Dr. Mark Stephenson, a Cornell University dairy economist who sees hopeful signs of an industry turnaround. But good news in the milk check might be partially offset by bigger numbers in the feed bill. Early indicators were that corn annd bean harvests were hindered by bad harvest season weather, but the USDA on Tuesday said total harvest volume was considerably higher than expected. So, who knows? Stephenson made his comments in a conference call with farmers, lenders and academicians all over the Northeast. Front page news for Lancaster Farming readers, of course, and you can check it out in the edition due in your mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2748

     Udder nonsense. Or: one more reason Woody Allen is no longer relevant.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/01/18/100118sh_shouts_allen

2010-01-14T17:34:00.002-05:00

Some Iowa legislators are behind a move to amend the state constitution to remove the word "idiot" from the document. They also want to get the plow out of a soldier's rear, said plow mandated by a section of the constitution which says that the Iowa state seal shall embody "... a field of standing wheat ... a lead furnace and pile of pig lead ... the citizen soldier, with a plow in his rear, supporting the American flag and liberty cap with his right hand, and his gun with his left ..."

In the constitution, people with mental disabilities are referred to as "idiots," and Iowa voters are being asked to change the constitution in the fall election to remove the offensive language. Former lawmaker Darrell Hanson would also like to get that plow out of the soldier's rear. It's been there for more than a century, and he feels it's about time.

The "idiot" part, for some reason, made me think of a number of our insanely partisan lawmakers here in Pennsylvania as they went through the latest budget debacle. It also made me think of a great use for a plow. A four-bottom. At least.

If you haven't been to the Pennsylvania Farm Show yet, you've got just tomorrow and Saturday left. I was there last night to cover the auctioneer's bid calling contest and the antique tractor pull. The tractor pull was noisy and colorful and I got some pictures. I was glad I didn't get a number for the bid contest, because I was on the verge of buying just about everything. Got my baked potato on the way out. Got some cider and a maple sundae, too. And a grilled portabello sandwich from the mushroom growers. It was barely okay, and made me regret not going with my first impulse, which would have been a big cup of those deep-fried thingies, or my second impulse, which would have been the mushroom salad.

Your First Amendment at work. Did somebody mention "idiot?" http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/haitian-ambassador-responds-to-pat-robertson/6lzybvm

2010-01-12T17:17:00.002-05:00

   If you want to know everything about the science and the art of growing lavender, there are any number of books you can consult. This isn't one of them. If, on the other hand, you want a fascinating and sometimes scary tour of the female psyche, then pick up The Unlikely Lavender Queen, a memoir by Jeannie Ralston. The glamorous Ralston was leading the glamorous life of a freelance writer in glamorous New York City when she met a rough-hewn sturdy guy by the name of Robb who was a freelance photographer with glamorous assignments for National Geographic. That meeting was pretty much when the glamour stopped and love began.
   Seems that between his globe-hopping assignments, Robb wanted to go back to his native hill country Texas, turn an old barn into an architectural showpiece and oh-by-the-way grow lavender by the acre, a crop on a par with speared tobacco when it comes to hand labor.
   Unlikely is a tale of perseverance, a sometimes desparate search for knowledge, astute marketing with a focus on getting to know the customers, and a dastardly neighbor or two. Although she was born in the South, Ralston became a hard-driving, fast-living, career-minded New York City woman who thought tough, acted tough and talked tough. The tough talk, in fact might be a little much for some Lancaster Farming readers, but I know there are others who, like me, will enjoy this story.
   You can buy it at any online book seller. I found a used copy on Half.com for about $8 including shipping. Or, you can actually get this book for free. If yours is the first email to reach me with your name and address, I will send you this book with my compliments. This offer does not apply to anybody who works at 1 East Main St. or 8 West King St.. (You know who you are.)

   I'm going to the Pennsylvania Farm Show tomorrow night. I'm going to have a baked potato for supper. And I'm not going to leave the potato growers' stand until they give me their secret recipe.

   Would I do this just to get into the Consumer Electronics Show? It Depends... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/tased-for-fun-at-ces/1abql3wt3

2010-01-11T16:37:00.000-05:00

   Newspapers aren't dead. They're just kind of right-sizing. Here at Lancaster Farming, with our 55,000-and-growing subscription base, we think we're right-sizing upwards, but a lot of daily papers are shrinking. With the Internet pulling ad dollars and attention away from print, dailies have cut budgets, staffs and capital expenditures in hunkdered-down survival mode.
But they're still doing the best job out there at gathering and delivering the kind of local news that the country absolutely needs. People still look to print for local police reports, job openings, city council battles, obits, grocery ads, gallery openings, teen-of-the-week features - just about any kind of local coverage you can think of. Look on the Internet for that kind of coverage and you'll find a black hole.
Or you might find something on the Net, say, about a hot zoning issue, but you won't know whose axe the "reporter" is grinding, and you can be almost certain that the story hasn't been vetted by an editor who's seen it all a dozen times or so.
And when the Net does get a story right, chances are it was picked up from a newspaper.
But don't take my word for it. Michael Liedtke, an Associate Press writer reporting from San Francisco, published a story this morning abouut a study last year by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study monitored 53 media outlets - newspapers, television and radio stations and Web-only operations. The study said what we in the newsroom have pretty much known all along. If you'd like to read about the study, go here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011100546.html?wpisrc=nl_tech

   Want a hot cup of something hot for these frigid days and nights? Not sure what you want? Check out the hot stuff in the Home on the Range recipe feature in Section B of our current edition. I'm going to try the caramel apple cider because it's got cream in it and whipped cream on top. Yes, I have made a New Year's Resolution, but I never really specified which year.

   Like...dudes...what in the world were you thinking?
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/surfers-catch-biggest-wave-ever/1ab0g6f1u

2010-01-08T17:39:00.000-05:00

Wanna shoot a pig? Go West, young man. Wild pigs live in 56 of California's 58 counties, and the open season on wild pigs is 365 days a year. The bag limit is as many as you can kill.
Feral pigs are a problem all over the state, but there are some limited hunting areas in state forests and wildlife areas. One such is the 2,150-acre wetland in the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area in Solano County.
The state's fish and game department is issuing permits to allow for limited-entry hunts as a way to control the population. They are scheduling a drawing for 24 two-day permits, but you need a valid California hunting license, you can only hunt with bow-and-arrow or a shotgun with slugs, and there's a pig-a-day bag limit. You have to apply by postcard no later than February 12.
I doubt if many Lancaster Farming readers are going to be heading to California for a pig hunt, but the state's approach to feral pigs might be something to think about as the numbers of these pests grow in parts of the East.

Do my eyes deceive me? No. That really is a Spotted gilt there under the Sumpreme Champion banner last week at the annual gilt show and sale at the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex. The show was held a week early this year, because of concerns that visitors to the show might deliver a human-to-pig dose of the H1N1 virus to the stars of the show. Lancaster Farming editor Dave Lefever paid a day-after-New Year's visit to the show and prepared a report for our edition due in your mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read his story here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2731

I always think I'm something when I climb a silo to take a picture. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/base-jumpers-leap-from-dubai-tower/6h1iu15

2010-01-07T17:24:00.001-05:00

   Over the last three decades, many of Afghanistan's farmers have perished in wars or they've fled the land. Their skills have gone with them. Once a major exporter of dried fruits, nuts and exotic crops such as pomegranates, Afghanistan is now known mainly for growing poppies for the opium trade.
   The U.S. Army is trying to teach Afghan farmers how to better manage their tiny farms, often just an acre or less, as well as introduce farming concepts to people who've never tried to produce their own food. One surprising find, according to Col. Martin Leppert, who oversees the Army National Guard agribusiness effort, is that yields were being drastically reduced by over-fertilization.
   The soldiers pictured here, many of whom grew up on Midwestern farms, are showing Afghani farmers how to whitewash the trunk of a fruit trees as a pest control measure.
   An Indiana National Guard unit recently returned from an 11-month mission to Khowst province, on the Pakistan border. They trained 50 farmers in each of Khowst's 13 provinces in things like pruning techniques, drip irrigation, and seeding practices. The goal is to help subsistence farmers actually sustain their families, then develop the expertise to grow and market things like apples and wheat beyond their needs.
   There's a story about the Army's work in yesterday's Washington Post by AP writer Rick Callanan. You can read it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/06/AR2010010600282.html

There was another farm show this week in York, Pa., a week ahead of the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. With no livestock, no commodity queens, very few kids and food that made it easy to stick to your New Year's resolutions, the annual Keystone Farm Show was nevertheless a big draw for farmers who wanted to see lots of big equipment under one roof. Which was actually six roofs at the York Expo Center, plus a lot of stuff outside. Yours truly drove to the show, talked to some people, took some pictures and wrote up the experience for our issue due out Saturday. The combine shown here was one of the bigger draws.

Shouldn't these kids be doing their homework? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/gundam-stop-motion/20bnh38e

2010-01-05T04:57:00.002-05:00

   And then there was this story in the New York Times about...about...what was I saying? Now they're saying that middle age stretches from your 40s until sometime in your 60s, so I suppose that I'm still middle aged, but just ever so barely. And actually, if forgetfulness, distraction and an occasionally fuzzy connection with reality are hallmarks of advancing age, then I've been a really old guy since I was about 12.
But even though I might forget your name, or what I had for lunch, or whether or not I had lunch, my brain is okay, according to Barbara Strauch whose book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, will be out in April. Strauch covered some of her main points in an article in last Thursday's New York Times.
What she says, I think, is that you don't really forget all the stuff you think you forget, it just gets tucked behind other stuff, and if, for example you forget Brad Pitt's name, it might come rushing back to you if you get into a conversation about cherry pits, tar pits, or armpits. Or if you forget Angelina Jolie's name...well, who could forget Angelina Jolie?
One suggestion Strauch has for the next time I "forget" something is to go silently through the alphabet until I come across a sound that unlocks the thing I'm trying to remember. (Okay, I just tried that trick to try to remember Einstein's first wife's name - I recently read Walter Isaacson's excellent biography of the genius who was in a class of his own for forgetfulness - and I couldn't come up with her name. Went all the way from A to Z. But I remembered that his second wife was his first wife's cousin, and that he had to promise his first wife all the money from his Nobel prize - this was years and years before he got the prize - if she'd agree to a divorce. I remember the juicy parts.)
Anyway, I took heart from Ms Strauch's thoughts, and if you're the average 57-year-old farmer, I thought you might, too. And I'm going to buy her book when it comes out. If I can remember.
The article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

   72,000 beef cattle could be headed for Oswego, New York, and the community is concerned. Colorado-based Bion Environmental Technologies envisions a closed-loop system for the herd, which would minimize odors and water usage. Manure from the herd would be used to produce ethanol, and the enterprise would create 600 new jobs. Opponents are concerned about the effects on the land, the nearby fishing streams, whether the jobs would go to local people or to low-wage workers from other places, and the impact on the community in general. Lancaster Farming correspondent Jeanne Sergeant wrote about the issue in our current ediition, or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2723

   This guy should stay off Red Bull. Forever.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/pastrana-sets-world-record-backflips-into-harbor/1ab7838iw

2010-01-04T15:34:00.001-05:00

   European Union farmers have long enjoyed more generous subsidies than any other region in the world. Trade negotiators find this frustrating, as do some of the EU countries themselves. In its fifth decade, the agricultural subsidies program is a bedrock of European Union spending, now totaling 55 billion euros ($79 billion), almost half of the group’s budget. The pie chart shows how they split up the largess.
It amounts to a huge redistribution of income to farm interests from taxpayers. But most farmers get the crumbs because payments are typically based on land size: 80 percent of beneficiaries receive only about 20 percent of the payments. Put another way, the top 20 percent of rural enterprises (they're not all farmers or even agricultural) get 80 percent of the take.
The current formulas were decided upon in 2005 by French president France, Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder behind closed doors. They conspired to protect the subsidies from any cuts until 2013, which left British prime minister Tony Blair hopping mad.
We're a lot closer now to 2013, and a lot of EU folks are thinking it's time for real reform in ag subsidies. New York Times writers Stephen Castle and Doreen Carvajal were in Brussels recently to report on the issue. You can read their story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/business/global/30subsidy.html?scp=5&sq=farming&st=cse

   What do you think of spreading manure on a frozen, snow-covered field that slopes towards a stream that empties into a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay? Not a good idea, really. One of Lancaster Farming's letter writers witnessed such an act and told us all about it in a very literate and civil way. You can read his letter on the editorial page of our current edition.

   If I could do this, I wouldn't.   http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/guy-blows-up-balloons-with-ears/uf7mk72j

2009-12-31T18:12:00.001-05:00

Indiana bats, desert tortoises and fringe-toed lizards are just a few of the endangered species threatened by wind and solar power projects. Wind turbines kill birds and bats without regard to their endangered status, and developers of these renewable energy resources are required by law to take into account the number of animals that will die so we all can have electricity. The cute little guy shown here is an Indiana bat, and he'd stand absolutely no chance against a wind turbine blade.
Beech Ridge Energy, to its corporate embarassment, paid scant heed to the law when it proposed a 122-turbine project on a windy West Verginia ridgeline. Judge Roger W. Titus of the Federal District Court in Maryland, put a speed bump in the way of the project by requiring the company to apply for an incidental take permit. An ITP is an acknowledgement of the effect a project will have on wildlife. An independent study of the project site estimated that some 6,500 bats would be killed annually, and that many of them would be Indiana brown bats.
Whether or not that's too many bats is a question that the ITP process tries to answer.
“This is a case about bats, wind turbines, and two federal policies, one favoring the protection of endangered species, and the other encouraging development of renewable energy resources,” wrote Judge Titus in his ruling earlier this month. “The two vital federal policies at issue in this case are not necessarily in conflict.”
Solar projects in the Southwest also have endangered species to contend with, including desert tortoises and lizards.
New York Times writer Todd Woody took a look at this issue that's sure to strike more sparks as concerned environmentalists consider the impact of more and more green energy projects. You can read Woody's story here: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/judge-halts-wind-farm-over-bats/

The Carey girls - lots of love for their lambs and each other. Madison, Chandler, Delaney and Brynlin, who range in age from 12 to 18, have all been showing market lambs - and collecting awards for their efforts - for years. They're Farm Show bound and hope to pick up more ribbons in competition with other contestants, including each other. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres visited the girls at their Montoursville, Pa., home and came away with a story you can read in our current edition. Or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2721

And I'm afraid to ski... http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/on-location-shaun-white-snowboarding/17wgv6nqh

2009-12-29T15:36:00.002-05:00

     RFD...Detroit? John Hantz, whose $100 million net worth could buy up half his home town, has an ambitious plan for turning Detroit into an agricultural phenomenon. Where others see abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a hopeless future, Hantz sees abandoned neighborhoods, crumbling infrastructure and a unique opportunity to turn the city into a miracle of urban farming.
And he's willing to put up a third of his net worth to make the miracle happen. Hantz drives a Volvo, but he's not giving up on Detroit. He lives in the city and his company, Hantz Financial Services, is headquarterd in Southfield, a northern suburb on the far side of Eight Mile Road (whose most noted homey is Marshall Mathers III).
It takes Hantz 30 minutes to drive to work, and along the way he passes blocks and blocks of blight, likes the photos here. The once bustling city of two million people now has 900,000 residents, and urban planners expect the eventual population to sink to 700,000. Hantz wants to farm abandoned land, and he wants others join in. He wants zoning breaks, tax breaks and preservation easements. It's about money, of course, but maybe not all about money. If he does wind up owning downtown farmland, he's told his 21-year-old daughter, his only heir, that she's not allowed to sell it.
Hantz is creating a stir. Some people like him, others think he's headed nowhere. But he expects to have seed in the ground this coming spring.
It's a fascinating story, reported earlier today by Fortune Magazine editor-at-large David Whitford. You can read it here: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm

   Dreaming small about the meat business. Justin Severino would like to have a small business with a core of dedicated customers who appreciate the artistry and the history of charcuterie, a method of cutting and curing meat that goes back to Roman times. He's a chef now, in Pittsburgh, but has other dreams which he shared with attendees at a PASA-sponsored pastured pork field day in October. There's a story in our current issue, or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2706

   Revenge of the prairie dog. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/dramatic-prairie-dog-breaks-out/1abgbi77f

2009-12-22T15:16:00.001-05:00

   The robots are coming! The robots are coming! And they're going to pick your apples, your oranges, your grapes and even your strawberries. Machines like the greenhouse tomato harvester being worked on at MIT will be more expensive than your kids, but maybe not as expensive as hiring outside help. That's the MIT tomato farm to the right.
   A story in the December 10 edition of The Economist takes a look at agribots and the challenges they face under actual field conditions. Factorybots have been on the job for decades, but they don't have to deal with swaying branches, sliding in mud or figuring out if a strawberry is ripe-red or just red.
   Farmers who buy bots will definitely have to tailor their operations to accommodate their mechanical helpers, which have had significant impacts already on some crops. California raisin growers, for example, once needed 50,000 seasonal workers. Now, partly because of declining acreage but mostly because of mechanical harvesting, only 20,000 to 30,000 workers are needed.
   To read The Economist report, click here: http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15048711

   Every Friday is jinglebell day in Bristol, Vt. That's because Pat Palmer of Thornapple Farm comes 'round with his pair of four-year-old Percherons to pick up the trash. Jake and Jerry - they're the horses - pull a wagon through town to service the only known horse-drawn trash route in the country. Elizabeth Ferry, Lancaster Farming Vermont correspondent, paid a visit to Pat, Jake and Jerry and wrote a report for our current edition. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2692

   You should see the hare-brained idea they came up with for the dwarf kangaroo. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/troubled-zoo-makes-its-own-zebras/ufer54nq

   You will enjoy good health; that is your form of wealth. That's what the fortune in my cookie said today. Okay, but I could do with a case of the sniffles now and then.

2009-12-21T18:38:00.001-05:00

   The USDA awarded a $25 million contract to Unisys last Thursday that runs for five years, with with an indefinite amount of work to be done and no definite time for it to be finished. Unisys, headquarted in Blue Bell, Pa., has 26,000 employees, works around the world and consults with government agencies and businesses on information technology issues - hardware and software and all the people and processes that are involved in IT.
   This latest contract is for Unisys to operate, maintain and enhance the USDA Reural Development Guaranted Loan System, and Guaranteed Underwriting Systems, which process billions of dollars in loans each year for rural businesses and individuals. Unisys was on board in 1999, when GLS and GUS were first started. The new contract includes a base year, with four one-year options, which are renewable at the discretion of the USDA.
   The agency also awarded Unisys a five-year contract to maintain and enhance the USDA's Program Funds Control System, which is a key component of the American Recovery and Reinvestmen Act.
   Apparently there's a lot of paid consulting going on in Washington, and not just at the USDA. It's a bit bothersome to think that these kinds of management tasks are handed off to private firms. But then, if the private companies were'nt doing the work, government employees would shoulder the tasks. That could be more expensive in the long run, because government employees don't operate with five-year contracts, they tend to stay around for 25 or 30 years.
   Unless they're elected, then they stick around for life.

   Bats eat bugs. Lots and lots of bugs. So, in spite of the mystery, the mythology, the mistakes surrounding these flying mammals, they are actually a valuable part of the ecosystem. And they're dying by the hundreds of thousands. They're succombing to a fungal disease, white nose syndrome, in a plague which has wildlife experts very worried. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres talked to bat experts about the problem. You can read his report in our current edition, or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2697

   What's really amazing is how fast this guy moves.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/amazing-3-d-paper-design/1ab2lao1a

2009-12-17T18:24:00.000-05:00

   One out of every 10 acres of Iowa farmland is owned by a single woman over the age of 75. Michael Duffy, an Iowa State economist said that fact, plus the aging of the state's working farmers, should see some change in land ownership over the next several years.
   For 2009, Iowa farmland prices dropped by 2%, spurred in part by declines in corn, soybean and livestock prices. The average price for an acre of Iowa farmland is now $4,371, the first drop since 1999. In the past decade, that price had risen by 145%, significantly more than the 128% increase posted by the consumer price index.
Duffy said the drop wasn't a surprise, but noted that earlier in the year he thought the drop would be closer to 5%. The price of farmland is especially important in Iowa because it is the state's largest single asset. Duffy made his comments to Dan Piller, a reporter for the Des Moines Register.
He said the future is a ttough nut to crack, and a lot depends on whether or not inflation kicks into the US economy. For Dan Piller's full report on Iowa land prices, click here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009912170349

   It's like acid on his soul, John Hines, told a group of agribusinessmen, describing his feelings about the mainstream media view of farmers and the environment. Agriculture is not the issue he told the monthly meeting of the Ag Issues Forum in Lancaster. Hines is deputy secretary for water management at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and has been particularly watchful of the state's agricultural community as it struggles to deal with Chesapeake Bay pollution. He told the group that Pennsylvania's monitoring stations have, with one exception, recorded drops in the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment being borne by the Susquehanna River to the bay. A report on Hines's remarks by yours truly appears in the Lancaster Farming edition due in your mailbox on Saturday.

   So you say you like your fish already frozen, eh? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/wacky-ice-fishermen-go-to-extremes/1ab87nln3

2009-12-15T12:42:00.001-05:00

     And you thought you knew everything about leafcutter ants. Well, you didn't, and you're not alone. Lots is known about them because they are one of the most intensely studied of all insect species. They have complex societies, they create and maintain underground fungus farms, and they look cute carrying around those bits of leaves. Unless the leaves happen to come from your tangerine tree.
   Using their expertly farmed fungi for food, leafcutters have become one of Earth's most successful species.
Scientists have published thousands of papers about the leafcutters' farming success, but until recently, nobody had ever asked the question, "What do they use for fertilizer?" There are about 250 ant species that live on farmed fungus, but most of them live in colonies of a few thousand individuals, and their garden plots are small.
Leafcutters inhabit colonies with millions of individuals, and can have farms that produce a ton or more of edible fungus in a year. This puzzled scientists. For humans to farm on a comparable scale, we need to load up our fields with nitrogen, a limiting factor in plant growth. Scientists who looked into the question discovered that leafcutter fungus farms are inhabited by a microbe, Klebsiella, that fixes nitrogen from the air and makes it available to fungi. Rhizobia bacteria perform a similar function with legumes.
Cameron Currie, a University of Wisconsin bacteriologist who participated in leafcutter studies, says the ants' tricks could help humans develop more efficient ways to get nitrogen to commercial crops. There's a story about the study, written by Brandon Keim, at Wired Magazine's web site. You can read it here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/ant-gardening/

   Is that asparagus local? Sure. In Santiago. A 260-seat Washington, D.C., restaurant called Founding Farmers received tons of good press, including enthusiastic mention in Lancaster Farming, for its commitment to buying from local farmers. Turns out the restaurant wasn't living up to its commitment, and was busted by the Washington Post. That upset some people, including our regional editor, Tracy Sutton, who took a look at the situation and wrote an editorial for our current edition. Be sure to check it out.

   Santa's going to be bringing this guy a huge electric bill. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/guitar-hero-holiday-light-display/1ab3c6wp5

2009-12-14T13:03:00.002-05:00

   We'll know by Thursday whether or not Wisconsin's state legislature will go ahead and name Lactococus lactis the state microbe. Representative Gary Hebl, one of the lead authors of Assembly Bill 556, said when he was first approached about adding the microbe to the state's officially sanctioned symbols, his first reaction was, "Uh...why would we do that?"
Uh, because, Gary, without L. lactis, (that's the little charmer shown here) there would be no cheese, and without cheese, the market for those hats that cheeseheads wear to football games, backyard picnics, Sunday school and funerals would just totally fall apart. We can't have that. Not in Wisconsin.
Actually, the Badger (official wild animal) State has reason to boost the cheese business, and agriculture as a whole. The Honeybee (official insect) State has as its official domestic animal the Holstein cow, and the Trilobite (official fossil) State even has a state soil, which is Antigo silt-loam. The Red Granite (official rock) State, also known as the Galena (official mineral) State, has thousands of jobs, millions of dollars worth of infrastructure and $18 billion in sales every year coming in from cheese.
So let's give a cheer and raise a glass of the Polka (official dance) State's other favorite beverage (courtesy of Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in a toast (courtesy of GE) to everything cheese in Wisconsin.
And actually, I have a suggestion for the Assemblymen the next time America's Dairyland (official license plate slogan) is looking for a symbol. My suggestion is...the holes in Swiss cheese. They could call it Wisconsin's Official Nothing.

   Speaking of which (Wisconsin cheese, not "nothing"), our food and family features editor, Anne Harnish, included The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin in a roundup of suggestions for the farmer's bookshelf in our current edition. There are books about canning, cooking, gardening, gophers and a whole tome devoted to Ice Cream U, which, if you have to ask where that is, we're not about to tell you. Buy the book. You'll find Anne's suggestions, just in time for Christmas, in our current edition.

   If Santa likes cute, he's going to bring this little guy whatever he wants. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/i-m-yours-by-jason-mraz/5x7hh2f

2009-12-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

   The New Zealand government and the country's Federated Farmers group are at serious odds over bringing cows in from the cold, or their mountain pastures, and housing them in "cubicles." Prime Minister John Key said putting cows into tie stalls for eight months of the year could tarnish the country's international free-range dairy brand. And Agriculture Minister David Carter is seeking advice on how keeping cows in barns fits in with New Zealand's animal welfare code.
   Federated Farmers is backing a plan that would see 16 new farms in the central South Island's MacKenzie basin, with a total of 18,000 cows in stalls. Farmers are saying their "factory-farming" methods cut costs, produce happier, healthier cows and are environmentally friendly.
   Not so fast, say the government and, it seems, an overwhelming majority of New Zealanders. A Facebook page for opponents of the cows-in-stalls idea has 9,142 members. TV New Zealand has a story about the dustup here: http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/govt-farmers-odds-over-factory-farming-3242481?page=9&pagesize=5
   If you'd like to see what the Facebook crowd is saying, go here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=220398793091

   "It depends." That was the answer again and again to farmers' questions about conservation easements at a recent meeting in Richmond, Virginia. Lisa Anne Hawkins, a Harrisonburg attorney who specializes in conservation easements, led a workshop on farmland preservation at the annual meeting of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. Turns out there are so many variables in preservation that definite answers for an individual situation are hard to come by. Lancaster Farming correspondent Andrew Jenner covered the workshop, and his story is in our current edition. Or you can read it online here: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/2419

     I just want to see what their spacesuits look like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3lcgYNyCvU&feature=topvideos

2009-12-08T16:33:00.000-05:00

   G. Why didn't I think of that. Chris Jagger, who owns and operates Blue Fox Farm in Applegate, Oregon, has turned a 1940s Allis-Chalmers Model G tractor into an all-around electric powered workpony for his approximately 20-acre organic setup. Even with a gas engine, the G isn't exactly a work "horse", but Jagger likes the small tractor's nimble ways around row crops.
   It's clean, quiet, can run really slow and doesn't burn fossil fuels. He does have a conventional tractor for heavier work.
   Jagger isn't the only organic farmer to turn to an electrified G. And he's not the first. Ron Khosla started the trend in the winter of 2001-2002 in his farm shop in New Paltz, New York. He said his interest was driven purely by efficiency and economics, rather than an overwhelming desire to save the planet, but he's happy to do his part. After he posted his methods on the internet, other farmers converted their Gs and told him about it. He stopped counting the conversion stories after he got to 100.
   Jeff Bernard wrote an Associated Press story about Jagger and took the photo you see here. You can read his story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/08/AR2009120800205_2.html
   The Blue Fox Organics website is here: http://bluefoxorganics.com/about/
   I couldn't find Ron Khosla's original instructions, but these guys seem to have covered the subject fairly well: http://www.flyingbeet.com/electricg/

   A little more light in the henhouse, figuratively speaking, should result from new USDA rules that call for more transparency and basic protections for poultry growers who operate under contracts with feed companies. Which is just about everybody. Ag Secretry Tom Vilsack announced the new regulations from the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) would take effect on January 4. You can read about the announcement in our current edition, which also gives a website for the new rule, or you can read about it online here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2420

If you don't care at all about cars, don't click on this link: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=1795775623405767594