ancaster L arming F An edition of LNP and LNP MEDIA GROUP, Inc. Vol. 60 No. 12 www.lancasterfarming.com Regulatory Proposals Dominate 2014 $49.00 Per Year Saturday, December 27, 2014 Six Sections $2.00 Per Copy The Silent Season Charlene M. Shupp Espenshade Special Sections Editor As 2014 draws to a close, the yearlong debate over food production, food safety and the Farm Bill continues. The Farm Bill, which finally passed last spring, challenged the USDA to implement a slew of new programs as quickly as possible. Disaster relief was an early priority after massive cattle losses in the Dakotas last year. New conservation and riskmanagement programs followed throughout the year, including the Margin Protection Program for Dairy. The rules for MPP-Dairy were released in September, and farmers had until this month to sign up. Genetically engineered food crops and ag technology also dominated headlines in 2014. In January, the American Farm Bureau Federation stepped up its efforts to help protect farm data that producers are generating as they start using precision agriculture systems. The technology debate heated up when Dow AgroSciences applied for and received permissions to use 2,4-D-resistant corn and soybean seeds under its Enlist brand of herbicide. Several states became involved in the labeling debate over genetically modified food ingredients, including the Pennsylvania House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, which held a hearing on the issue this fall. In Vermont, which had passed a GMO labeling law, food manufacturers filed suit to overturn the measure. Similar ballot issues were defeated in Oregon and Colorado. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee took up the GMO issue in December to consider a national law that would override state measures in favor of rulings by government scientists. The Food Safety Modernization Act sparked a yearlong debate as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took comments on regulations it has proposed, and then amended, to implement the law. Most dairy farmers enjoyed a good year in 2014 with record profit margins that allowed them to catch up on the debt they acquired from previous downturns More YEAR IN REVIEW, page A2 Photo by Philip Gruber Large corn shocks stand quietly in a field in Earl Township, Lancaster County, emblems of harvest’s completion in the rural landscape as the year comes to an end. Transition Team to Review Ag Priorities Philip Gruber Staff Writer Gov.-elect Tom Wolf will soon have a list of recommendations for working with agriculture written by people from the agriculture industry. “We know the pressure’s on the next two weeks,” said Russell Redding, dean of agricultural and environmental sciences at Delaware Valley College and chairman of Wolf’s ag transition team. By Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 at the very latest, the ag team will have a concise list of recommendations related to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, or PDA, and the state’s ag industry, Redding said. The ag team is one of many the governorelect has organized to help Russell Redding guide him as he takes office. “These transitions teams are really there to make a pretty broad assessment of what’s working,” Redding said. The 14 members of the ag transition team represent diverse interests, from production agriculture and conservation to academia and rural electricity. Redding said Wolf has not asked for input on specific policy areas. He has kept the charge pretty simple, focusing on statutory responsibilities, budgets and stakeholder needs. “He’s asked us to be thinking about the jobs and economic development components,” Redding said. After talking with senior people on Wolf’s team, Redding said he More TRANSITION, page A5 Teen Taking Two Extremes to Farm Show Linda Williams Southwestern Pa. Correspondent NEW ENTERPRISE, Pa. — Whitley Furry, a sophomore at Northern Bedford High School, loves her farm animals. She, along with her mother, raises English sheep dogs, Clydesdale horses, goats, guinea pigs and chickens. This year, the slender, athletic blonde is taking two extremes to the Pennsylvania Farm Show. She will be showing Lenny, a 2-year-old Clydesdale, and several guinea pigs. Lenny will be judged on his stature only. “At 2, he is really just a teenager without a lot of common sense,” Whitley Furry said, laughing. Her mother, Tammy, and father, Derry — short for Derrick, will Photo by Linda Williams Whitley Furry will show Lenny, a 2-year-old Clydesdale, at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. join in showing three other Clydesdale in the cart-pulling competition. They took home the championship in this competition several years ago. The teen will also enter the guinea pig competition. Last year, she won best of show and hopes to do it again. At present, she has 62 guinea pigs and laughed as she admit2015 ted that is a few more than she had planned on. Poultry Industry Tries to Keep Pace With Reovirus Philip Gruber Staff Writer EAST EARL, Pa. — An old disease with new tricks is challenging poultry growers and vaccine makers alike. Eva Pendleton, a Penn State avian pathologist, spoke about reovirus at the PennAg Poultry Council’s annual meat and egg meeting on Dec. 16 at Shady Maple. Reovirus — short for respiratory enteric orphan virus — has been around since the 1950s, and “it was well-controlled, really, for decades,” Pendleton said. The disease can cause tendon problems, immune system suppression and a host of other problems. Chicks are particularly susceptible for the first two weeks of life, and birds become more resistant as they get older, Pendleton said. “Culling can be very, very high in these flocks” that get infected, up to 15 percent, she said. Surviving birds lag in growth, which is where the real economic harm is done. About 10 years ago, strains of the virus that withstood the industry-standard S1133 vaccine started to emerge, Pendleton said. U.S. farmers started recognizing the disease three years ago. The new versions of reovirus are now found in Pennsylvania and AGRICULTURAL Directory More TEEN, page A3 More REOVIRUS, page A6 A complete listing of agricultural decision-makers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Compiled by Lancaster Farming • Section F • December 27, 2014 6 77490 86000 Pa. Granger 3 A22 Health & Wellness B16-17 Pennsylvania Farm Show Section E 2015 Ag Directory Section F
© Copyright 2024