It’s that time again…to spring ahead into longer days and warmer weather!
By: Matt Kirdahy
At 2 a.m. Sunday participating regions of the United States will spring ahead, moving clocks forward one hour in accordance with daylight-saving time.
Contrary to what people might believe about why daylight-saving time was adopted in the United States, it was not so farmers could lengthen their work day. However, local farmer and Committeeman Alan Danser still thinks it makes his day a little easier.
"I know it’s not much, but I’d rather get up at 6 a.m. rather than 5 a.m. in the morning if I have to work until sundown," Mr. Danser joked.
"It’s less painful."
Mr. Danser grew up on a farm and began working with his father as a farmer once he was old enough. Currently he harvests grain on the Barclay tract and a farm on Plainsboro Road in Cranbury. He also farms another parcel in Monroe.
Mr. Danser said those crops are sent to feed mills in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Larry Jacobsen is a Monroe farmer that sides with Mr. Danser.
"You do benefit from having a longer work day," Mr. Jacobsen said.
He owns a vegetable farm on Route 522 called Farmer Al’s. It’s been in his family since 1924.
Retired Monroe farmer George Allen said he didn’t mind the time change much either way. He used to own a tree farm before he sold it to a housing developer. He said he still wondered why the government uses the time change anyway.
According to the Web site www.webexhibits/daylightsaving.com, the United States first adopted the time change in 1918 along with most of Europe during World War I to conserve energy.
It was just another way of making sufficient use of daylight.
A year later it became a state option until Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstated the rule during World War II. Since it was not made federal law, not everyone had to abide by it until 1966, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Act of 1966. Americans had to put their clocks ahead one hour on the last Sunday in April and back an hour the last Sunday in October.
In 1986, the federal law was amended to begin daylight-saving time on the first Sunday in April and end the first Sunday in October.
Since then, the United States has adjusted its clocks on the second Sunday in April and the second Sunday in October.
Cranbury farmer Clifford Reinhardt said the time doesn’t bother him either. He farms two tracts on Plainsboro Road.
"I’m usually up at the same time anyway," he said. "My biological clock is already set."
But in the winter, crops freeze over and the only farmers who need to continue the same productivity year-round are those who tend to livestock.
Monroe horse farmer Warren Barnes said he welcomes the lengthened day every spring. His farm is on School House Road.
"It’s no help at five o’clock when it’s dark," he said about trying to keep up in the winter. "We get more done with the hired help in the spring and summer."
According to Mr. Reinhardt, sometimes livestock runs on a different clock and farmers can’t even think about daylight-saving time. He was a shepherd before he farmed vegetables.
"You feed the sheep when they’re hungry," he said. "That’s basically how it works. So it’s got little to do with the time."

