Pa’s Biggest Feedlot
(Continued from Pap 16]
they come in.
Although the equipment
represents a significant
chunk of capital, its
availability means that
Jerry Hatcher can say, “We
never have to buy feed.
Never.
“We have the equipment
we need to process these
byproducts, and we have the
people who know how to run
it It’s what gives us an edge
in file cattle business, and we
think any feeder in Penn*
sylvania, or anywhere else In
the Northeast, needs an edge
if he’s going to compete with
the Midwestern feedlots.
“Land and labor costs are
higher here than * in the
Midwest,” Hatcher con
tinued, “and the weather can
kill your business. In the
winter, you have to feed
cattle an enormous number
of calories just so they can
maintain their body tem
peratures. And if an Eastern
feeder has to buy feedgrains
trucked in from the Midwest,
he can be in a lot of trouble.”
Hatcher himself has only
been living here for the past
This separator is one of the pieces of equipment
used to process horticultural byproducts for use as
cattle feed. Things like apple pomace and cannery
wastes are run through this clean line separator to
remove cans, paper and other trash.
two years. He’s had a lot of
experience with feedlots
west of the Mississippi, and
is still associated with a
group that’s feeding 85,000
head on the West Coast. A
3000 head feedlot is smaller
than he’s used to, but Hat
cher says Lebanon Valley
has plans for expanding soon
to 5000 head and doesn’t see
anything to hold them back
from getting even bigger.
Presently, the company
has as assured supply of
enough byproducts to feed
5000 head.
Many of the feeders
Hatcher buys come from
Virginia. Virtually all breeds
have passed through the
Lebanon Valley Feedlot, but
Hatcher says their best
performers have been
Charolais, Holsteins and
Santa-Gertrudis. “We’d like
to buy more feeders locally -
especially Holstein bulls - if
we can find the right quality
at the right price,” Hatcher
said.
Finished animals are sold
directly to packing houses
locally and in Philadelphia,
Hatcher said. Very few go
John Graham, a transplanted lowa native, is
operations manager for the Lebanon Valley Cattle
Company. He’s shown here as he helped this week to
herd cattle through a loading chute onto a truck.
Every animal that went onto the truck was sold at a
$l5O loss. They were feeders that had been pur
chased at 60-cents a pound.
through the auctions.
Asked for bis opinion of the
future of the beef business,
especially in the Northest,
Hatcher spoke en
thusiastically, saying, “I feel
more bullish about the beef
business today than I’ve felt
in the past four years. We
have the feeders here, we
have the packing houses that
are willing ,to buy the
finished cattle, and we have
more consumers here than in
any other part of the coun
try. People may have
slacked off on eating beef in
the past year, but they’ll
come back. This is a beef
eating country, and that’s
not going to change over
night”
Lititz Manheim
4-H Club
The Lititz and Manheim 4-
H Club meeting and doggie
roast was held at Doris and
Linda Hershey’s home, July
11th.
4-H queens were chosen to
represent tiie club. Sr. Queen
Doris Hershey and Jr. Queen
Beverly Buckwalter.
The next meeting will be
Hathcher said he expects
retail prices to come down in
the months ahead, he thinks
consumption will go up, and
feels liveweight prices will
hover in the mid-40-cents to
50-cents per pound for the
forseeable future. “It costs
other feeders maybe 40 cents
to put a pound of gain on a
steer. Our cost is somewhere
in the mid-30’s. You can see
why I’m bullish.”
(Editor’s Note: Elsewhere
in this issue of Lancaster
Farming is a story about
some recent Penn State work
with horticultural
byproducts for cattle feed.
Its title is “Plant, Animal
Wastes “Recycled” for
Feed”.)
held at the Brethren Church
in Lititz at 6:30 p.m. August
8, it will be a covered dish
supper.
News Reporter
Beverly Buckwalter
Fur
Ale
Some people believed that
gold was begotten by the
sun and that the heat of under
ground veins wholly burned
everything they came into
contact with, turning those
substances into gold.
COMPLETE
FARM
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Estimates Write
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RONKS, PA. 17572
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