Library Bc'll Acriculture X SI i'r'.vice i^X(!l(^» U.iiv r;j ty Ir.rJ:, In? 10PO2 i . i Vol. 20 No. 10 Richard Hoppes, right, and his brother Roy, Hamburg RD2, are partners in a liquid cow manure operation which they expect to be Monfort on Beef - What Lies Ahead? (The following address was delivered by Kenneth Monfort to the 56th annual meeting of .the American Farm Bureau Federation, held recently in New Orleans. Monfort -is president of Monfort of Colorado, Greeley, Colorado, and one of the largest beef feeders in the country.) My suggested topic, “Where is the beef cattle industry headed in production and marketing?” assumes an expertise that I do not feel. Most of the knowledge I presumed to possess has proven awfully impotent during the last 15 months as we suffered continuous and continuing losses feeding cattle. So, rather than posmg as some sort of an expert on the cattle business, let me pose some of the questions and problems I see in our industry and then, as best I can, provide my Own non-expert answers to the questions. Question No. 1. Experts on food and nutrition tell us that beef cattle are the most more profitable than milking. Much of the product is sold in gallon bottles, but bulk deliveries will soon be made via barge to the Arabian desert. ' inefficient converters of grain to protein there is; so why should cattle be fed? Non-expert answer No. 1. The experts are at least partially right. The cattle feeding industry has been notoriously wasteful of grain. After all, our con versions of 9 pounds of grain PFU Annual Meeting Voting delegates for the Pennsylvania Farmers Union held their annual conference on Monday and Tuesday of this week in Harrisburg. They met primarily to formulate policy for the coming year, but also heard from Tony Dechant, president of the National Farmers Union, Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture James McHale, and William Mattson, general manager of the Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association. On Monday, the delegates discussed policies, and on Tuesday subnutted each to a Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 18, 1975 to 1 pound of cattle, 20 pounds of grain to 1 pound of edible meat are very wasteful. But, let us look at why the cattle feeding business even started. We don’t have to go back too many years to when there was no cattle feeding [Continued on Page 20] final vote. Among the policy statements adopted were:' - Reinstate REAP for 1975, giving county ASC com mittees the authority to implement practices at the county level. In favor of government payments for liming according to soil tests, and favored lime and fertilizer for three years on new seedmgs. -Favored grain reserves on farms, to be released at 115-percent of parity, with a resealing program. Favored government payments for on-farm storage of surplus grains, and facility loans for farm people. More Profit From Manure Than Milk At a time when milk is selling for a blend price of around $9 a hundredweight, Richard Hoppes, a Berks County dairyman, is getting $27 a hundred for the liquid manure from his 60 cow herd. Manure production from Hoppes’ herd totals 70,000 pounds per month, a figure which includes waste water from the milk house, the parlor and a little rain. The cows produce about as much manure as they do milk, which means Hoppes is getting three times as much money for his herd’s manure production as for their milk. Bottled for sale, “Nature’s Own Deodorized Liquid Cow Manure” retails for $2.89 a gallon. It’s a topsy turvy world, and Hoppes and his brother Roy, a partner in the franchise, expect to profit handsomely from their liquid manure business. “I wouldn’t sell my franchise now for a million dollars,” Richard Hoppes told Lancaster Farming this week. The franchise he holds is a lifetime contract for all the cow manure in Penn sylvania sold under the Nature’s Own label. The Hoppes brothers bought the franchise in 1973 from R. J. Briggs, Woodbury, Ten nessee. The secret to selling liquid In Diis Issue FARM CALENDAR 10 Markets 24 Sale Register 47 Farmers Almanac 6 Classified Ads 25 Editorials 10 Homestead Notes 34 Home on the Range 37 Organic Living 41 Junior Cooking Edition 38 Farm Women Calendar 40 Sales Reports 51 -Opposed an increase in the price of food stamps. Favored an expansion of the food stamp program. - Favor restrictions on food imports to insure that they meet U.S. health restnctioms. Favor the imposition of variable duties when dairy imports are less than 110-percent of parity. Also voted for a restriction that would require imported food products to bear a label stating their ' country of origin.- - Favored three federal milk marketing orders in stead of the present 61. Also | Continued on Page 32| cow manure, according to Hoppes, is in the deodorizing agent. “The deodorizer that we buy from Briggs, actually RJB Sales, takes care of the smell,” Hoppes said. “It also keeps methane gas from building up in the bottles. If we couldn’t control that gas buildup, we wouldn’t be able to sell liquid manure. Our contract with RJB gives us a guaranteed price for the deodorizer for the next 15 years, and it guarantees that nobody else in Pennsylvania Alan and Nancy Mays Local 4-Hers Win Entomology Honors by: Melissa Piper Entomology is one of the most interesting, yet time consuming projects offered in the 4-H program. The project involves hunting for and capturing insects, pinning and mounting them and displaying the best of a collection. Two Lancaster County youths who are brother and sister, have spent many Alan Mays prepares an insect for mounting as his sister, Nancy, observes. The 4-Hers reside at 1212 Nissley Rd., Lancaster, with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Mays. $2.00 Per Year will be allowed to produce or sell cow manure under the Nature’s Own label.” There are now franchised dealers in 40 states, and all indications are that this is a fertile market The market potential is such, in fact, that Hoppes expects to be buying manure from neighboring farmers in the near future. And although he’s been a diaryman for 12 years, ever since he was 19, he said he foresees the time when he [Continued on Pace 21] hours collecting insects for their entomology projects and have been rewarded for their work by winning several awards at local and State level. Alan and Nancy Mays have both exhibited their collection of insects in county competition as well as at the State Farm Show. Alan is a sophomore at | Continued on Page 231
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers