Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, January 18, 1975, Image 1

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    Library Bc'll Acriculture
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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