Category Archives: Mid Atlantic

by Sally Colby

Kevin Diehl has considerable experience in the cattle industry, starting with the steers he raised and showed in 4-H. “I bought my first breeding female in 1982,” said Kevin, who took over his dad’s Fairfield, PA farm in 1991. “When I was out of 4-H, I worked for Frank Darcy, one of the top Hereford breeders in Pennsylvania. In 1984, we took a small string of cattle to the National Western Stock Show in Denver and had the champion female.”

That’s where Kevin says his interest in Herefords started. He noted that since starting in the beef business, he’s seen a lot of changes in cattle type. “We almost ruined not only our breed, but other breeds, by single trait selection — frame size — because that’s what was winning the shows,” he said. “We know now that any time we select for a single trait, we lose other traits. Maternal and thickness went to the side, and all we had was big, tall beef cattle with not a lot of meat or maternal traits.” Continue reading→

by Steve Wagner

It should come as no surprise just how fast and widespread the tentacles of social media are spreading. Pervading nearly every aspect of our daily lives, it is doing so with relative suddenness. Yet it is happening with our permission, and isn’t exactly happening under our unsuspecting noses. It is here, it has been here and it will continue to be here, certainly for the short term — and likely much longer than that. For anyone interested in acquainting themselves with this phenomenon, Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association held a seminar at the Farm & Home Center in Lancaster, PA. The aim was to help attendees expand online awareness of their businesses, particularly agri-businesses, through the further sophisticated use of social media. Continue reading→

A five-member team of students from Carroll County, named Venturing Crew 202, is the winner of the 24th annual Maryland Envirothon — an outdoor natural resources competition that challenges students to identify and categorize living resources, perform soil surveys and solve other complex natural resource issues. More than 100 challengers from 18 counties across Maryland took part in this year’s competition. The event was held June 18-19 at the Camp Pecometh in Queen Anne’s County.

“It is great to see such a sincere interest in the science side of the environment,” said Secretary Buddy Hance. “With the strong leadership and scientific expertise of these students, the outlook for our natural resources and agricultural industry is indeed very bright.” Continue reading→

by Steven E. Smith

By Sept. 1, the U.S. dairy industry should have an entirely new USDA dairy policy in place. Once the new program rules of the Agricultural Act of 2014 are in place, gone will be decades old milk price support programs, the Dairy Exports Incentive Program and the limited MILC program. Without the weighty coexistence of the SNAP and other domestic food assistance, the 2014 Farm Bill, known as the “Farm Only Bill” includes the provision of federal margin insurance program for the U.S. Dairy industry in this era of global marketing expectations and a shift from disaster payments to risk management. Continue reading→