Benson Says Contract Farming ‘Most Potent Force In Agriculture Today ’ CONTRACT farming is “one important type of adjustment by which individual farmers, as well as farmer groups, farm in dustries, and marketing firms are changing their methods of operation to make the most of rapidly advancing technology,” USDA says in a new publication. Entitled “Contract Farming and Verti cal Integration in Agriculture” the publi cation points out that contract farming is a prominent feature of the vertical integra tion of agriculture and business. A farmer whose operations are vertically integrated shares some of his managerial decisions and risks in production and marketing with one or more related businesses—for instance, his supplier, processor or distrib utor. F. Finner and Gerald Engelman, Agricul tural Marketing Service. Farmer-businessman arrangements can extend from connections only a little closer than an open-market relationship to the complete ownership and operation of the farm by business, the new bulletin ob- ®‘ I %? l^^f l v I Deut r r °? o , ro y m- 20 ! ... e . , - 17:14-20: II Samuel 23.1-8; I King* EjftS It SM serves, but the area of contract farming Amos 6:11-15: Romans ' lipc hpfwppn ihpcp limits . Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian lies Detween tnese limits Dwrotlonri lUsdlnc Isaiah 9:3-7. who wu a sort of perpetual and For some commodities, the bulletin never successful candidate fo* states, contract farming and integration « . President, years ago, was talking have been long established. For others, llO¥6rillH6llt to » room fu ii of students for the including several kinds of livestock, verti- ministry. '‘Don’t use your pulpit cal integration of various types seems to Wesson for August 10, ms be developing rapidly. ~' go into politics, get out of the “To cope successfully with these new \ir7HEN a preacher tells the ministry at least for the time be developments,’’ the bulletin says, “farmers ’ ' truth about liquor from the and do y° ur fightmg m the will need good research, good extension P^P^, th »t isn’t news. But when a w “ _ . j ® i.» _ . preacher in a New Jersey church warning against a real danger. It guidance, and dynamic cooperative organi- took out a bottle of liquor from the IS true that what a minister is try zation ” pulpit, and told his congregation mg to do, and the way he tries to It cites as one example of vertical in- Where he got it, that was news. It do it, are different from what (let tegration the broiler industry on the Del- wa * a college town and there were us say) a good congressman is try marva Peninsula The broiler inrlnctrv on laws closely ree ' ing to do and the way h ® tnes *° marva I'enmsuia. me orouer mausiry on mating the sale do it. it is also true that most mm the peninsula IS an example Of two verti- of liquor, only the Isters are not trained in political cally-interated segments of an industry police paid little science and stai less fitted for the dealing With each other through an open attention to the sort of scramble that most legls market. In one segment, the contractor— the , pab ‘ lafave bodies the „ p , , ®, * t 11c paid rather minister, and the church generally, usually a feed dealer—supplies a grower lMfl . Pr eacher* ought to be able to see the moral with chicks, feed, medicine, fuel, litter and aren’t supposed issues involved m public affairs, Supervision. to know where il- problems and decisions. Most “po- The grower provides the broiler J” 3 *. 11 l?'i°f. can Ixs „ _ bticai” questions, local or national. had; but this one Dr. Foreman affect human beings; and what-i house, equipment and labor. Processing He made things so hot for the ever affects human beings is a con and distribution form the second ingrated police department that flnaUy he cere for all Christians, segment. The two segments deal with each w « offered the job of mayor other through the open auction of the East- h * took **• His congregation » n Thw* Fightins ern Shore Poultry Growers Exchange. S absence. and The church, as an organization. The bulletin <?urvev<? the evtent and V trying to get the ahould never turn itself into a po me DUlietm surveys me extent and avrs enforced. His enemies made htjcal pressure group. A church, nature of integration for 15 commodity It hard for him. He himself was no better than a political- party groups. Among them are vegetables for (as the detective Stories need not be surpnsed If it receive* canning and freezing (90 per cent inte- *lL d * y f”* 1 ni eht; if he drove no more respect than a political eratedl broilers (95 ner cent »bove the legal speed party. Nevertheless Christian graieuj, Droiiers (»p P e f cent integrated), hroit, some policeman was right people, helped bV their minister. hogs (integration slight but growing), mar- there to give him a ticket- But he them Arches oueW to bT ket eggs (about five per cent integrated), «“« iv ed the embarrassments and * re , there fightingfor bet cotton (some integration through credit V* undet y° rW ter government, juster laws, better arrangements) and milk production (part- f, y integrated through marketing coopera tl/es). again. People listened more than a „„„ Benson’s foreword is the strongest ttey toew Vention last year the most effect policy statement he has made on the proh- live speaker (many believed) was lem of integration. And it seems to point Pclitics and lltlieian non * ot thc visiting speu-bmdmg Up 'what Was Said here last week: “Govern- A vice president of the United P but ' to* Christian gov meat is not going to allow business to control farming so extensively that possi- J*££ thill rieads ' Christian men and women ble voters will be lost.’* one toe v!p! who WiM try to apply m public his news on a matter in the public Rffairs tb e sturdy faith that is m ~ 1 1 1 ■ ■ll l- - eye at the tune, but the high offl- them ‘ 2 dld not oblige. “I came here,’’- fHa»rd outlines copyrighted by % T 1? • he said, "to speak to a men’s Bible lha Dnrwioa of Christian Ednmtiou. 1 Lancaster Farming Class. Politics and religion don’t s. A e uSSSSt hr 2 . mix.” "Politics and religion don’t Commoaity rrest Sernce.) X County’s Own Farm Weekly mlx » ia what every sha a y char -1 Alfred c - Alspach, Publisher; Robert ac ter in or on the fringes of politics 2 E Best, Editor; Robert G. Campbell. S X , Advertising Director; Robert J. r Wiggins, Circulation Director. _ Established November 4, 1955 To TllO Ti m n Published every Friday by OCTORARO lv”** 1!) 111 C aXIIIC • e • NEWSPAPERS, Quarryville, Pa. - Phone SXerlmg 6-2132 or Lancaster, Express 4-3047. Developments in the Middle has m storage or nearing harvest Entered as Second-class matter at East have caused Washington to a supply of food sufficient to the pa., iHu look upon our S 8 billion stockpile mamtain an adequate diet for subscription ’Rates: $2 per year, jook upon our oiiuon stockpile more than tWQ We haye a thre years ss> Single copy pr , ce 5 of farm commodities as one of our four . year supply of brea d grains. cents> strongest assets instead of the The Communist Bloc has a burdensome liability of only a few population of almost a billion weeks ago people, nearly one half of whom In an area of the world where are farmers. But, the thirty mil hunger is always present, and i IO n American and Canadian starvation is a consant threat, an farmers have the capacity to abundance of food supplies gives produce more than almost half tnc Free Wor’d an advantage that a billion communists. can, m the long run, be more \y e Are Gaining decisive than nuclear weapons. Farm experts tell us that we Last summer Nikita Khruschev ave operating our agricultural told an American television audi- p] an t at only about 75% of capa ence that Communism would win C ity this year while producing an its contest with Capitalism when £ ii-time record supply of farm the Soviet’s per capita production products Our capacity to produce of meal, milk and butter surpass- 1S being expanded at a rate of ed that of the United States more than 5% a year He was reminding us that a Nineteen years ago, when nation is as strong as its agncul- World War II broke out m Europe ture, and that he was acknowledg- American farmers produced 2 y k mg that the balance of power be- billion bushels of corn on 88 mil- Uveon Communism and the Free hon acres This year they wil pro- World is in the hands of the Am- duce 38% more corn on 18% few encan farmer c r acres In 1939 we harvested 740 Communists Fear Hunger million bushels of wheat from 53 More than the great destructive million acres, but this year we power of our A bombs, the com- are growing 13 billion bushels, niumst leadeis fear hunger They almost twice as much, on 10 mil have been unable to build a de- hon fewer acres. fense against thc threat of starva- Cotton acreage has been cut by t,on in almost 40 years of strenu- more than half since 1949, but ous efforts total production is down only 5% In a foreword to the bulletin, Secre tary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson says: “Contract farming and other forms of ver tical integration are among the most po tent forces in our agriculture today. “Integration may vitally affect the role of farmers ... by shifting to others their responsibilities as managers. Farmers have every right to deride how far they want to go in sharing risks or assigning manag erial responsibilities, but they should care fully consider the benefits to be gained in exchange for the responsibilities trans ferred. “The next decade will bring more in tegration to agriculture. I am concerned that farmers themselves reap the rewards of integration. When farmers pass on to others the responsibility of decision mak ing, they frequently pass on the extra in come that results from good decisions and management.” Benson cited sound farmer coopera tives as one of the ways by which farmers may enjoy the benefits of integrated oper ations. “Through cooperative organiza tions,” he says, “farmers can share risk and management decisions and yet extend the range of decisions for which they have responsibility.” The bulletin was prepared under the direction of a special USDA committee. Its members- were Orlin J. Scoville and Ron ald L. Mighell, Agricultural Research Serv ice; Martin A. Abrahamsen and Kelsey B. Gardner, Cooperative Service; and Winn Davidson intelligence reports from be- M.lk production is up 25%, but hind the Iron Curtain re\eal that cow numbers are down by 20%. Kussia China and their satellite Total farm production is up 40%, nations ha\e a food reserve of but the number of farmers is less than 90 da\s Some estimates clown by one-third. American pro plote the lesene as low as 60 duction per acre is double that of dajs . Russia, and per farmer it is eight In contrast, the United States tunes the Russian average THIS WEEK —ln Washington With Clinton Davidson The Balance of Power Voice of Lancaster Farms Dear Sir: I want to mention that I am sorry that V. 0. Keichard’s column is missing. I looked forward to it each week. I had been cutting some out to save. Phares Hurst, R 1 Denver, Pa. WHAT RECESSION? With the wailing politicians still crying “recession” and many citizens joining in the chorus, Leyden district resi dents must look at the local picture before swallowing the dismal reports and tightening up their purse strings. Last Saturday members of the Whatcom County Dairy men’s Association, the major industry in the Lynden district, were told that dollar sales had jumped from about six million five years ago to 10% million. And they are still going up. Lynden (Wash.) Tribune 4—Lancaster Farming, Friday, August 8, 1958 By MAX SMITH County Agricultural Agent TO CONTROL WEEDS This is a beneficial practice on any farm at any time and it should be the aim of all land owners to eradicate the weeds This is especially true in recent veais when some of our land has been put into the Soil Bank and kept out of crop production It is observed that some of these idle acres are permitted to produce a good crop of weeds. This practice is to be condemned and all owners are urged to control the weeds on their land. Under the Soil Bank program acreage reserve payments will not be made unless noxious weeds, or hard to control weeds, are controlled. Max Smith TO USE CERTIFIED SEED In many cases bargain prices on un certified seeds result in very costly experiences. The use of toj quality seeds m summer seedmgs 0 f alfalfa and clover will surely result in better stands of the desired kind of forage In the case ol winter grains certified seeds should give assurance of seeds free from disease, weeds, and of the high producing strains desired. Be sure you get what you want and what you pay for. TO CLIP STUBBLE In many cases this summer it will be neces sary to clip and remove the growth from the new hay field. The fre quern rains have resulted in fast growth of weeds and legume and it is advisable to clip the area in order to keep weeds from taking over If the stubble was clipped soon after combining, it may be pos°- sible to mow the new growth later this month and remove for a hay crop The important thing is not to permit the weeds to shade out the grass legume plant. would Bit* us all to believe. M« who view public office as a cfaanee to build up their private fortuned are only too glad If the church people win look the other way. Religion that is worth anything, religion that resembles and id drawn from the religion of the Bible, is interested in political questions. We cannot escape from government of some kind. TO ENTER HAY SAMPLES The southeast dis trict hay show is to held on Aug. 21 to 23rd at Hershey in connection with the Penna. Dutch Days. Lancaster County farmers are urged to secure an entry blank from our office and enter the competition. Quality hay should be cut young, be leafy, green in color, and free from weeds and other foreign material. There was a lot of good hay made this year, our county would benefit from extra interest in this event.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers