Banner Graphic, Volume 20, Number 162, Greencastle, Putnam County, 15 March 1990 — Page 17

Putnam Patter

Being good to ground farm secret

By DAVID BARR Banner-Graphic Civic Editor Be good to the ground and it will be good to you could well be the creed of the conservationist, however, those dedicated to these services are, in large part, repairing the damage which has been done through misuse and, too often, perhaps, greed. Since I am one who had dirt under his fingernails long before he got involved with printer’s ink, I can go back to an era when being good to the ground was the fanning way of life. THE PRINCIPLE was simple: When you take something out of the ground, you must put something back in order to avoid a serious minus situation.

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Our family was always on a rented farm and the landlord was a banker with some well-established conservation ideas, long before this term came into common usage. It was a horse and livestock farming operation and, according to the lease, all manure or other animal waste was collected during the year and spread over the ground before plowing began. SINCE CORN, WHEAT and oats were the adaptable crops, they were to be rotated from field to field. There was no such thing as growing the same grain on the same field year after year until the nutrient for this crop was used up. With all small grain crops, there was a legume called sweet clover to be seeded in. After the harvest, this

AG WEEK March 18-24 When Your Farming

cover crop would be almost as tall as the horses and had to be plowed under. What the poor hard-working farmer didn’t know was that he was in the organic fanning business of putting “life” back into the soil and so improving its texture that the maximum of moisture could be retained during growing season. IN AN EARLIER DAY, there were pioneers who did have a concern in the future of farming and the chance remark that the land wasn’t being farmed, it was being “mined” told the story painfully well. Science and technology have done wonders in the area of agriculture, however, there is one thing that is sure: The base product is the

Mark Timm slated for two Ag Week speaking occasions

Guest speaker at two functions of Putnam County’s observance of Ag Day will be Mark A. Timm, who is a 1989 graduate of South Putnam High School and president of the state unit of Future Farmers of America (FEA). On Tuesday, March 20, of Ag Week, Timm will speak at the annual breakfast in the Community Building. THE FOLLOWING day, he will speak at the joint meeting of the Greencastle Kiwanis and Rotary clubs at a luncheon sponsored by the Putnam County Cattlemens’ Association. Different presentations have been planned. Son of Larry and Ruth Timm of Fillmore, Mark is involved in various athletic, community and school activities. His supervised agricultural experience programs consist of custom planting and cultivation of more than 350 acres of com and soybeans as well as hoeing, roughing and the detassling of seed com. Some of Timm’s FFA accomplishments include being a state winner in the Leadership and Job Interview contests, as well as being selected as the Section 111 Star Agribusinessman. AFTER COMPLETING his term in office as state president of

Hoosier farmers part of national ag survey

WEST LAFAYETTE (AP) A national survey on production costs and farm financial conditions will include nearly 700 Indiana fanners. The sixth annual Farm Costs and Returns survey of 24,000 producers began Feb. 13 and will conclude March 31. INTERVIEWERS collect data on 1989 production costs, assets and debts, earnings, capital expenditures, production practices, and other characteristics of the farm operation. Fanners selected for interviews will be notified by letter. “The information we collect is used to update cost-of-production

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soil. There is no way to increase it, and, to the extent it has been abused, the penalty is certain. In an earlier day in our neighborhood, there lived a man with two horses, a few cows, two strong arms and 40 acres of ground. He not only made a living for his family but he could also make small loans to neighbors who hadn’t done that well. HIS SECRET WAS not all hard work and management. Neighbors pretty well hit the nail on the head when they remarked that “Johnny’s acres were more like a garden than a farm.” Repeating the theme when this piece began: He was good to the ground and it was good to him.

MARK A. TIMM Ag Day speaker FFA, Timm plans to attend Purdue University to major in agricultural economics, with future plans of pursuing a law degree. The major thrust of his programs at the Ag Week functions will be: “What is the FFA, and what does it stress to its members?”

estimates for various commodities, measure farm income and assess the financial health and well-being of our fanners,” said Ralph Gann, who heads the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service. “A good response will ensure that Indiana farmers are fully represented in the national picture,” he said. RESPONSES TO the survey questionnaires are confidential. The survey is being conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, which is part of the Department of Agriculture.

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March 15,1990 THE BANNERGRAPHIC