Periodicals Division
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But Some Dairymen Won’t Notice .. .
Falter Milk Checks Coming
Some dairy farmers in Pennsylvania will
notice fatter milk checks by mid-April as a
result of the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing
Board decision to raise the Class 1 milk
price by 92-cents a hundredweight. Many
more dairy farmers, especially those m
Lancaster and surrounding counties, won’t
notice the increase at all.
Locally, a number of dairymen were
concerned that their milk checks hadn't
grown with their mid-March payments.
This concern was voiced after danesdnh
- creased their retail prices to
three to four cents a quart on home
deliveries and two to three cents for
wholesale customers. This price increase
was effective March 12, or one day before
the 92-cents increase for farmers went into
effect.
Dairymen who ship to local dairies, such
Evan Gress, Reinholds, proudly displays'
two of the most colorful pheasants from his
gamebird operation. The popular golden
Birdman of Reinholds
Evan Gress has a bird
operation that could give
nightmares to most poultrymen.
His hens might do nothing but eat
and drink for two to three years
before they lay a single egg. And
then they’ll produce fewer than a
dozen per year.
Fortunately, Gress doesn’t
have to live on the income from
selling eggs. He’s a gamebird
breeder, and he specializes in
exotic pheasants.
A retired carpenter Gress lives
near Reinholds, and maintains a
miniature bird zoo in his
backyard. He has close to 100
birds, and some 30 different
varieties. There are two kinds of
golden pheasants, Reeves
pheasants, quail, doves, wood
ducks, Mandarin ducks, silver
pheasants and even some
ringnecks.
“I started raising pheasants in
1927,” Gress recalled, “and I
raised them for many years for
sale to the Pennsylvania Game
Commission. They stocked them
in hunting areas all over the
state.”
Gress now sells chiefly to
gamebird fanciers who want to
try their luck at rasing and
breeding the exotically plumed
creatures. The most expensive
breed Gress handles is the
shimmeringly purple Impeyan
pheasant, which came originally
from the Himalya Mountains
Tmpeyans sell for $125 a pair
Rarity, of course, is one of the
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 24, 1973
as Moore, Graybill and Cloister, will receive
the 92-cent increase in the checks they
receive before April 20. The reason for the
lag is that the dealers must wait for March
utilization figures from the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture before they can
compute each farmer’s milk check. The
agriculture department is expected to send
utilization figures to dealers by April 13,
and dealers are expected to send milk
checks to producers beginning April 16
and in no case later than April 20. Under
Pennsylvania law, all milk checks must be
mailed by the 20th of each month.
Farmers who are their milk to
Federal Market Order 4 dealers will not be
getting a 92-cent increase in their class 1
price, and they may not notice any dif
ference in their checks. The reason for this
is that the federal order price now stands
pheasant is to the right, while the rarer
Ghigis yellow golden is to the left,
things that helps keep the Im
peyan price pegged somewhat
higher than the broiler futures.
One of the reasons they’re rare is
that Impeyans are not prolific
breeders. Like many pheasants,
the female produces six to eight
eggs a year, and they don’t
always hatch.
Other pheasants, like the silver
and the ringnecks, are more
prolific and much less expensive.
Gress said he remembers selling
a pair of female ringnecks to a
grower who later told him that
the two birds had produced 100
egg apiece during the month-long
breeding season A wild
ringneck, Gress noted, might
only produce 18 to 20 eggs a
(Continued On Page >0)
It«,uca»t#r Farming Photo
at about $8.25 a hundredweight. The milk
marketing board action increased the
Pennsylvania minimum for milk sold
outside the federal orders to $8.19 in the
ten-county Southcentral Area 4, which
includes Lancaster, Lebanon and York
counties. The previous Pennsylvania
minimum had been $7.27 per hun
dredweight.
Most local farmers do ship their milk to
federal order dairies. At first glance, it
might seem that they had been doing much
better than those shipping to local dairies,
but this is an incorrect assumption. Ac
tually, dairymen here and throughout the
Commonwealth have been getting about
the same blend price for their milk whether
they ship locally or to federal order
markets. The reason is that local dairies
(Continued on Page 24)
King is Tops at
Octorara Meet
Six production contest prizes
were awarded at the Octorara
Area Young Farmers Association
annual awards dinner recently,
and Paul King won five of those
contests. He walked away with
the awards for grain com, corn
silage, haylage, high cow and
fcgh dairy herd.
During the meeting, the group
elected officers for the 1973-74
year. The new president is Aldus
King. Larry Hershey, Atglen Rl
was elected vice-president; Jerry
Hershey, Cochranville Rl was
named treasurer; Glen Engle,
Parkesburg was named
secretary, and Elmer Mast,
Parkesburg Rl is the new
director of public relations. The
group’s advisor is Ivan Stauffer,
vo-ag teacher at Octorara.
The next meeting for the group
will be Monday, April 2, which
will also be the last meeting for
the year.
Production award ceremonies
started with the presentation of a
first place trophy to Paul King for
his 197.03 bushel per acre yield on
grain com. Second place went to
Larry Hershey, Atglen Rl, 196.4
Farm Calendar
Saturday, March 24
Pennsylvania Landrace
Association State Show and
Sale, Farm Show Building,
Harrisburg; Show, 9 a.m.;
Sale, 1 p.m.
Monday, March 26
7:30 pm. 4-H County Council
meeting, Coca Cola Bottling
Plant.
County Grange Visitation, Fulton
Grange, host.
Tuesday, March 27
6:30 p.m. Manor Young
Farmer Annual Banquet,
Willow Valley Motor Inn
(Continued on Page 2Q)
$2.00 Per Year
bu-acre; Third place-William
Engle, Cochranville R 1 - 191.81
bu-acre; Gideon K. Stoltzfus-
Atglenßl -191.62 bu-acre; Elmer
Mast Parkesburg KD - 183.35 bu
acre.
The corn silage contest was
also won by Paul King with a
yield of 9.18 TIA of T.D.N. Second
place went to Ernest Lantz, R.D.
4 Coatesville, 6.84 T-A; third
prize went to Elmer Mast,
Parkesburg, 6.5 T-A. Fourth Carl
Horst, R.D. 1 Atglen, 6.5 T-A.
Fifth Nathan King R.D. 1 lincoln
University.
First place hay award went to
David King, and second place to
Elmer Mast, Parkesburg.
First place Haylage went to
Paul King, Cochranville.
The high cow contest was won
by Paul King with a 305 day
production of 28.335 pounds of
milk at 3.4 percent and 972
pounds of butterfat.
Second place went to Vemon
(Continued on Page 24)
Paul King holds one of the
five production awards he
won at this year's awards
dinner for the Octorara
Young Farmers