Across the
Editor's Desk
Editor’s Note: This is an ex
cerpt from an article in which
swine breeders were urged to
improve the quality of their
animals through testing
programs. The item appeared
recently in The Drovers Journal;
In the purebred hog business,
“more customers every year are
demanding complete per
formance testing figures on the
boars and gilts they buy—we are
fast becoming to a day when we
will either test or quit raising
purebred hogs,” Robert Perry,
Missouri registered swine
breeder told hogmen attending
the Nebraska Swine Breeders
Seminar at Schuyler, Neb.,
recently.
He emphasized the need to
follow a “plan” on a testing
program, instead of using
sporadic testing with the aim of
boosting sales rather than im
proving the herd. “If a breeder
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really tests to prove his sires and
sow herd, the advantage of
selling more boars and gilts will
come automatically,” Perry
said.
In his own testing program,
Perry believes that the central
test stations and the Superior
Certified test pens, coupled with
a strict plant of testing, have
enabled him to make substantial
improvement in his Duroc
breeding animals over the last
five years.
What Tests Can Show
Tests results have shown that
several factors on a tested board
are highly heritable and such
things as body length, loin-eye
area, backfat thickness, feed
efficiency, growth rate and per
cent of lean cuts can actually be
proven in a test station.
If possible, Perry said, he buys
a boar that has been raised in a
test station or his litter has been
tested. “I feel this has kept us
from having to ship but one
higher priced boar after we got
his offspring tested,” he ex
plained.
Perry also noted that he tries to
breed a young boar to some
proven sows whose offspring
from a different sire have been
tested previously. This, he said,
has helped to find just how the
new sire will produce and “help
or hurt” the breeding program.
Editor’s Note: How well is the
farmer doing? As cost-price
pressures on farmers continue to
rise, as numbers of farms con
tinue to decline, and as con
sumers continue to fail to ap
preciate the bargain they’re
getting from the farmer, farmers
in general continue to find it
difficult to do as well as their
urban neighbors. But large
numbers of individual farmers
have found ways to overcome
these problems and to make their
farmers yield “the good life” for
themselves, as well as for the
nation. The following excerpts
from a speech by U. S. Secretary
of Agriculture Earl L. Butz at a
Press Club luncheon in
Washington, D. C., January 14
give some national farm income
facts and figures, and some
commentary on them:
You have asked me to say
something about parity and farm
prospects in 1972. The figures on
parity are well-known, as you and
others watch for the figure each
month.
Parity is important, but there
are some important things which
parity doesn’t measure, and
there are other very useful
measurements besides parity
that indicate how farmers are
doing:
Such as Income which is
what farm people have to spend.
Average income per farm
which indicates how much the
average farm has to spend.
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Lancaster 393-3906
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday. Feburary 12.1972
And average income of farm
people compared with the
average income of non-farm
people which measures how
well farm people are doing in
relation to non-farm people . . .
Farmers’ realized net income
from farming in 1972 will be
about $1 billion higher than in
1971, at around $16.7 billion—the
third highest in history. It would
also mean that farmers’ realized
net would average $16.2 billion
for the four years, 1969 through
1972—compared with $13.8 billion
from 1961 through 1968. That’s
progress; but it’s not good
enough.
It’s not good enough because
the per capita disposable income
of farm people is still only about
three-fourths as much as the
disposable income per person of
non-farm people. It has averaged
75 per cent over the last three
years. That is better than the 68
per cent average of the preceding
eight years.
In 1972 the average income per
farm from farming will be the
highest on record—an average of
about $5,900, or nearly $5OO
higher than in 1971. That will
mean that the average income
per farm from farming for the
four years 1969-72 will be about
ss,6oo—an increase of 37 per cent
over the previous eight-year
average. Still, this is not good
enough.
Farmers are a long way from
getting the average factory wage
for their labor and the average
percentage return on their
business investment.
City people want fair wages,
and the businessman wants a fair
return on his investment. I think
that they want farmers to have a
fair return, too.
We have quite a ways to go
before farmers do that well. And
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I intepd to do all that I can to see
that they make progress towards
that goal.
We would like to see farmers do
better so that more of them will
find enough opportunity to be
able to stay in agriculture. The
average decline in the number of
farms during the last three years
is 47,000 per year. That is con
siderably better than the average
loss of 106,000 farms per year in
the preceding eight years. But it
still isn’t good enough.
In 1972 farmers will take in
more money from livestock, due
mainly to somewhat higher
livestock prices than in 1971.
Farmers might take in a little
less money than in 1971 from the
sale of crops—but this will be
more than offset by higher
government payments as we try
to work down our grain supplies.
You are familiar with the fact
that industries seldom run at full
i capacity. Yet the cost of carrying
the excess capacity is built into
the prices that you pay.
And the 40-hour week isn’t the
full working capacity of people
(ask any farmer), but that is built
into wage rates and product
prices. Government farm
payments are the compensation
to farmers for carrying and
conversing an excess capacity—
which we will very much need in
the years ahead.
Government farm payments in
1972 will be higher mainly to help
feed grain farmers run their
“factory” at a slightly slackened
pace.
..Editor’s Note; The following is
the conclusion of an article on
“Careful Management of Inputs
Vital to Profits” in the recent
issue of New Holland News. The
article points out some of the
(Continued on Page 16)
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