On The Farm Newsletter of the Bucks County Farm Bureau Serving Bucks County and Eastern Philadelphia County Affiliated with Pennsylvania Farm Bureau & American Farm Bureau Federation pfb.com Spring 2018 Baby Cows! You can call a baby cow a calf. MOO! After a baby cow is born, it becomes known as a calf. The mother cow is excited to see her young baby cow and is committed to taking care of him or her and raising them into a big strong cow! A group of cows is called a herd of cattle. Cows actually celebrate when another cow is born! You can tell that cows are celebrating when other cows come to protect the mother and her newborn baby cow. All of the grownup cows will keep the newborn baby safe and warm. Just like other mammals including us, the mother cow carries her calves in her womb for about nine months. Interestingly enough, the mother cow is pregnant with a female calf longer than she is with a male calf. All baby cows are born with fully developed organs and though very weak, the mother cows do everything possible to help these baby beauties. Just after a cow is born, they begin to make the familiar moo! sound we know and love! Calves can communicate with their mothers through mooing sounds and get to know each other better. After just a few days of getting used to their big new world, they love to jump and play around! It s amazing how they have so much energy after just being born! Calves have teeth when they are born, but they are very small and soft. The mother cow chews their food before giving it to the baby cow so they have an easier time and can start practicing. Calves are very interesting pets and some people enjoy bottle-feeding them when the mothers are not available. It evokes emotions to see them suckle the milk from the bottle just like the human babies though larger in size! Cow Facts Facts About Baby Cows Cows have 32 teeth Dairy cows provide 90% of the world s dairy supply The first cow to come to America arrived in 1611 Until the 1850s, almost every family in America had their own cow! Cows cannot vomit Like people, cows are pregnant for 9 months with their young A cow can smell something up to 6 miles away! Cows produce up to 125 pounds of saliva each day. Interested in being a part time Ag on the Go teacher? Please email letters of introduction & resumes to: Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Personnel, PO Box 8736. Camp Hill, PA 17001 or as an email attachment. Go to pfb.com If you haven t done so, please renew your Farm Bureau membership. Please contact: Ken & Sandy Herstine at 215-795-2385 or by email ksherstine@verizon.net 1
UPCOMING EVENTS Weikel Farm Open House 718 Callowhill Rd., Perkasie 18944 Sunday, May 6, 2018 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. (rain or shine) There will be a variety of farm animals to see and activities for the whole family to participate in. Come out & join us for a fantastic time! A-DAY at Delaware Valley University April 27 29, 2018 Come and join the fun! See various agricultural displays & exhibits. There will also be a Livestock Show. This is a wonderful 3 day event for family & friends. FARM-tastic Book Program 2018 Book: Tyler Makes Pancakes $10.00 Past books also available. Please contact Glenda Wismer 215-766-0675 or pamperedchefglenda@gmail.com Grange Fair August 15 19, 2018, Wrightstown 2
Hello to my fellow Farm Bureau members: President s Message I would like to talk to you about the crisis in agriculture. Some of you may know of the dairy issues that farmers are facing right now with low milk prices and some dairy farmers are being told that they won t be able to ship milk to their producers soon. Farm Bureau is working the best that they can to help our farmers. We have sent letters to the Secretary of Agriculture to reopen many of the milk markets and to increase the demand for our dairy farmers milk. There are now concerns that President Trump s tariffs on steel and aluminum, that countries will retaliate by decreasing or banning agricultural products into their countries. In Pennsylvania alone, we export $2.2 billion annually with 59% of those exports being AG. We hope these won t affect farmers. Time will tell. I wish all of you a wonderful Spring & Summer. Sincerely, Mark Scheetz, President MEMBER SPOTLIGHT (published by the Government Affairs & Communications Division) Save on Family Fun at Hersheypark The sweet deal for Pennsylvania Farm Bureau members at Hersheypark is back for the 2018 season. Farm Bureau members can save up to 48 percent off the price of admission when the park opens for its summer season later this month. Members can also get an early start on the season by saving on tickets to Springtime in the Park, during which the park will be open weekends through April 15. For the summer season beginning with weekends April 27 and kicking into full gear the last week of May PFB members can buy tickets for a discounted price $35.50 for regular tickets and $27.50 for junior or senior. That s close to $120 in savings for a family of four, enough to completely cover the cost of Farm Bureau membership and then some.and families can get even more value out of their tickets by taking advantage of Hersheypark s preview plan. Simply present your ticket up to 2 ½ hours before the park closes the night before you plan to visit, to get a free evening of fun before coming back for the full day. New for 2018, PFB members can also buy discounted, pre-paid meal tickets to save more than 30 percent on food at locations around the park. For Springtime in the Park, PFB members pay a discounted price of $32.80 for regular tickets and $22.80 for junior or senior. Hersheypark is home to more than 70 attractions including, 14 roller coasters and more than 20 kiddie rides. The fun continues with Hersheypark s 40 games, which include those in two indoor arcades. Cool down with a splash at The Boardwalk at Hersheypark, which is full of fun with more than 16 water attractions, including two new rides for 2018: Breakers Edge, a first-of-its-kind water coaster, and Whitecap Racer, a mat racer with six lanes and two sets of looping tunnels. Also included with admission is access to ZooAmerica, an 11-acre walkthrough zoo adjacent to Hersheypark, which offers tours and shows. Get three parks in one with your discounted admission. Tickets must be purchased online through the Members Only section of www.pfb.com. For more information, visit www.pfb.com/hersheypark. New Pa. Congressional Map Will Stand Pennsylvania s newly drawn congressional districts are here to stay. Federal judges declined two separate requests by Pennsylvania Republican leaders to stop the new maps established by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from being implemented. That means that the new districts will be in place for the upcoming primary election and many Pennsylvania voters will find themselves in new districts. After ruling that the previous congressional map was unconstitutional and had been crafted to unfairly favor Republicans, the state court gave Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the GOP-led General Assembly a limited time to agree on new districts. When that failed to happen, the court implemented its own map. 3
Farmer s Care Day raised $16,710.00 National Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference The Pennsylvania delegation consisting of five members from Delaware Valley University s Collegiate Farm Bureau attended the National Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference in Reno, Nevada on February 16-19, 2018. The theme of the conference was Agriculture, The Biggest Little Industry in the World. Those attending learned a lot through the various keynote speakers and breakout sessions. The information will be brought back to Del Val, Farm Bureau, and the agricultural community as a whole. Those attending include Ryan Herstine, President (Bucks County); Amanda Rees, Treasurer (Montgomery County; Tarrah Freund (Butler County); Heather Oeltjen-Bruns (Bucks County); and Amanda Goslee, Vice President (Maryland). Approximately 900 people from around the country attended. 4
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