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Vol. 19 No. 18
Lancaster Countians were welt
represented at Thursday’s Pennfield
Dairy Awards Banquet in York
bounty. Seated, left to right, are Joel
! Habegger, Pennfield’s feed marketing
Pennfieid Awards to
High Milk Producers
Avalong Dairy
Restaurant, York Cbunty,
was the site for the Third'
Annual Pennfieid Dairy'
Awards Banquet held
Thursday. ' T he feed firm
awards prizesto those of its
customers who own or
manage herds with out'
'standing records.
Joel C. Habegger, Penn-
field Feed marketing
division manager, served as
master of ceremonies and
introduced special guests.
Featured speaker of the day
was Dr, Richard Peacock,
Raymond Long feeds about 5000 head of steers
every year on his Berks County cattle farm. He sold a
successful trucking business in 1969 to buy the farm.
manager, J. Harold Musser and Jesse
Balmer. Standing are James Musser,
Earl Stauffer, Clarence Stauffer, Ray
Young, G. Hershey Hosteler and Ed
Snavety.
Peacock, director of
technical * services for
'Pennfieid, discussed the
company’s computerized
total rations program. He
pointed out how it has be
nefited dairy farmers in the
past year and projected
future plans for CTR.
Robert E. Gregory, dairy
and livestock marketing
manager, introduced this
year’s winners and awarded
each with an engraved
' tron’ , plaque or silver
plate. The 1973 categories
{Continued from Page 17)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 23, 1974
Conservation
Law Meeting
Announced
For Ephrata
Farmers in the nor*
theastem portion of Lan
caster County will have an
opportunity to learn more
about Pennsylvania’s Clean
Streams Law and its effect
on agriculture at an evening
meeting set for Monday,
April 1.
The meeting is being
sponsored jointly by the
Cocalico Watershed
Association and the Lan
caster County Conservation
District. It will be held at
Ephrata High School and
will start at 7:30 p.m.
Ray Long’s Glad He Switched . . .
From Trucks to Cattle
In 1969, Ray Long sold a thriving trucking business for
enough money to do nothing for the rest of his life. Long isn’t
a man who can do nothing, though, so he bought a beef farm
in Berks County. “I was glad I did, too, until last Sep
tember,” the cattleman told Lancaster Farming this, week in
the kitchen of his Bechtelsville RDI farmhouse. “This
business was good to me up until the market went bad. I don’t
see it getting any better for another six months.”
“The people who stick it out, though, will be okay in the
long run,” Long said. He has a big investment in the cattle
business and he does plan to stick it out. Besides his 300 acres
in Bechtelsville, Long has another farm in the Hamburg area
and a 750-acre spread in southcentral Virginia with a cow
calf operation.
Last year the former trucker ran some 5000 steers through
his feedlots. “I like to feed heavy steers. I buy them when
they’re at 900 to 1000 pounds and finish them to a choice 1200
to, 1250 pounds. Some, like the angus, go out a little lighter,
but I usually get more for those anyway.”
“It costs me about 50-cents for every pound those animals
gain. I sold a load yesterday for 43.5-cents a pound. Nobody
can keep on doing that for too long.”
Long feels that the cattle market would be a lot better off
Feedmen Look At
Fuel and Finance
“The government has
turned minor scarcities into
major shortages,” H. Lou
Moore told a Pennsylvania
feed industries conference in
Harrisburg on Wednesday.
The conference was a
cooperative effort by
PennAg Industries
Association and Penn State.
Moore is a professor of
agricultural economics at
Penn State and a vocal critic
of government price con
trols. “Washington started
price controls because of
pressure from consumers,
but that hasn’t helped our
mflatio' problem one bit.”
“They’ve also increased
social security payments,
minimum wages and social
welfare programs. Last year
they spent $3 billion on the
food stamp program. That
had more of an effect on
inflation that ’ the Russian
wheat-deal that, got so much
publicity. I think the
government has given up on
the inflation fight.
Everybody talks abput in
flation but nobody wants to
do anything about it.”
In This Issue
FARM CALENDAR 10
Markets 2-4
Sale Register 50
Fanners Almanac 6
Classified Ads 31
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 34
Home' on the Range 38
Organic Living 18
Lancaster Co. DHIA
Correction 22
Youth Conservation
Program 43
Thoughts in Passing 44
Lebanon Co. DHIA 12
Moore said 1973 was a good
year for farmers, with net
incomes up some 32 percent,
but he doesn’t expect 1974 to
be as good. Moore feels
agriculture will solve its fuel
and fertilizer problems this
year'and predicts an even
bigger export market this
year for American crops.
FARM
TRENDS
Farm Financial Outlook
For 1974 Is Good
Most farm operators are expected to close out 1974
.in very favorable financial condition as a result of
continued high net farm incomes and relative ease in
obtaining loan funds to finance capital purchases and
production expenditures, according to the USDA
Outlook and Situation Board.
As of January 1,1974, total farm sector assets were
valued at $459.8 billion, total debts at $81.7 billion,
and farmers' and landlords’ equities at $378.1 billion.
The debt-to-asset ratio on January 1,1974, was 17.8
percent -- down from 19.6 percent on January 1,
1973.
Annual capital formation for the sector in 1974 is
forecast at $12.3 billion, and uses of funds to pur
chase real estate from owners leaving the sector are
estimated at $12.7 billion. These two uses of funds are'
expected to be financed by using $13.2 billion of
current income from farm and norifarm sources and
by increasing total by $ll.B billion.
The balance sheet forecast for January 1, 1975,
shows total assets reaching $521 billion, up 13
percent. Total debts are forecast at $94 billion, up 14
percent. The ratio of debt to assets will therefore rise
modestly from 178 percent to 18.0 percent.
today if the government hadn’t slapped price controls on beef
last summer. “A lot of feeders held their cattle off the
market, back then, waiting for higher prices. Some of them
are still waiting. I heard about a feeder in the Midwest a few
days ago who took a load of 1600-pound steers to the auction
and sold them for 31-cents a pound. There are still a lof of
heavy steers out there and the market’s going to be rough
until they’re all sold.”
Cattle are sold from the Long herd almost every business
day. He sends many of his animals to a local butcher, and
what -the butcher doesn’t buy go to local auctions. “I’ve
always got cattle ready to sell. That way I can take'ad
vantage of temporary swings in the market. During the truck
strike, we moved 12 loads of steers out.”
'“'One man works almost full-time in trucking Long’s cattle
to market. He uses three big tractor-trailers for the work.
Another full-time man helps with trucking, feeding and other
chores, and a part-timer works evenings. Long’s wife, Mary,
helps out whenever she’s needed.
Labor is kept to a minimum by the no-roughage feeding
program. “I buy com from farmers wherever I can get it,’
Long said, “and I mix it with supplement and feed it. The
| Continued'on Page 16)
“We grow 43 percent of the
world’s com and 74 percent
of the world’s soybeans on 12
percent of the world’s land,”
Moore said. “We have the
climate and the soil to
continue to be the world’s
largest exporter of
agricultural products,
[Continued on Page 9]
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[Continued on Page 13]
$2.00 Per Year
by Dick
Wanner