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
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77490 86000
Pa.
Granger
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A22
Health &
Wellness
B16-17
Pennsylvania
Farm Show
Section E
2015 Ag
Directory
Section F