16—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 11, 1971
4cross the
Editor's Desk
Editor’s note; The national egg
bust has been a fact of life for egg
producers for about 18 months.
With prospects that the bust will
continue for at least several
months longer and with the
economic squeeze on individual
egg producers steadily building,
attention of industry leaders has
increasingly turned to ways of
improving the situation. Almost
inevitably, among those under
fire Is Urner-Barry Publications,
the national egg market price
setter. The Poultry Times
recently carried the following
report under a Manchester,
Conn., dateline of Frank Urner’s
views on the durrent egg industry
situation:
The trend to bigness which has
characterized the U S egg in
dustry is the chief reason for
eggmen’s failure to adjust
production in time of poor prices
That’s the opinion of Frank
Urner of Urner-Barry
Publications, Jersey City, N J ,
who addressed a meeting of
Connecticut poultrymen from
Tolland and Hartford Counties
Urner noted that in the past
when flocks were more numerous
and smaller, a condition of
overproduction led one, and then
another, producer to quit egg
production and concentrate on
other plases of agriculture or
change completely to another
vocation
“Under present cir
cumstances, however, with the
larger production units,
frequently complete with a feed
operation and cartoning
facilities, terminating egg
production in favor of production
of other commodities is prac
tically impossible and ter
minating with the idea of en-
sustain top
production
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tenng other employment is
equally unrealistic,” he said.
“Therefore, we find today
overproduction in relation to
demand and the desired reaction
that would occur with low prices
is so slow that it can hardly be
measured,” Urner pointed out.
“There are sizeable production
units that cannot cut back
because financing then has to be
settled, so these units continue ,n
production, completely inflexible
so far as market conditions
dictate. They continue only with
the hope that they can outlast
their competitor.
“Even when one of these units
goes bankrupt, the facilities are
not liquidated but are acquired
by someone else at a lower in
vestment and the production is
maintained practically intact ”
Urner said that one can con
clude that the law of supply and
demand operates with much
greater difficulty under today’s
conditions
The speaker went on to outline
how his firm issues a base price
series and then told how prices
are paid in relation to this
quotation Noting the erosion of
premiums over the years to the
present situation where good
producers in the Northeast do
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well to receive five or six cents
below the top Urner-Barry
quotation for large whites, Urner
chided those who see as the an
swer to the situation a higher
base quote
“If the quoted prices do not
accurately reflect trading con
ditions, the market will find its on
level by some means. This may
come about by a swing to more
direct negotiations, by wider
discounts in relation to the quotes
or through a combination of bids
and offers,” he said
“But find its level it will and
any theory that assumes that
merely raising the quotation will
answer the producer’s problems
is absolutely untenable,” he
added “Fortunately, we feel
most elements of producer
organizations agree with us and
only a few diehards still insist
that the industry would be irt
clover if Urner-Barry would
simply publish higher
quotations ”
Urner also discussed the role of
United Egg Producers and its
affiliates, stating
“UEP effectiveness appears to
have suffered some under in
ternal dissension, particularly as
regards the need for the proper
methods of involvement in efforts
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to affect market prices. We found
a considerable dissatisfaction
with the recent UEP activities in
the Chicago futures market.”
The speaker said that the first
cutback in production advocated
by UEP was quite effective. “In
fact, if other areas of the country
had followed the guidelines to the
same degree as the Northeast
and Southeast the egg market
report today would be more
pleasant to read.”
In closing, Urner urged more
effort to uncover the role of
cholesterol and to correct
misconceptions in this area. He
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sumers should be made aware of
the cost per pound of eggs, noting
that at 59 cents a dozen the cost is
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