Urner-Bany Quotations
IContttHMd From P«|« 11
as a tool in egg pricing. He
said it didn't reflect the
retail carton price, the
wholesale price or the
producer price, and that at
present, the Urncr-Barry
quotation most nearly
matched the warehouse
delivery price for cartoned
eggs. The actual price to
producers, Carter noted, is
determined by competitive
factors in the marketplace.
Another eggman in his
question implied that the
Urncr-Barry price was
artificially lowered several
weeks before holidays, so
that buyers could pay less
for eggs which would be
stored for holiday sale.
“Why should we producers
mmmm
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have to foot the storage bill
for the packers?" the man
asked. "Why don't you hold
the price up before
holidays?"
Carter again said that the
price to producers depends
on the competition for eggs.
"And when inventories build
up, as they do before a
holiday, the price goes down.
It's the law of supply and
demand," he said.
Frank Urncr, who’s
presently chiefly responsible
for the Urncr-Barry price
quotations, Joined Carter
before the audience. Urner
plans to retire in the sum
mer, and Carter, who is
president of the 125-year-old
publishing firm, will take
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over the egg pricing
responsibility.
"I wont to soy that Urncr-
Barry has no connection at
oil with any producer, pakcr,
buyer or seller of eggs.
Except for our publications,
we have never had any
financial connection with
any part of the egg industry,
and we never will. We do not
benefit from our egg price,"
Umer said.
•‘We deplore the
deterioration in the producer
price as much as you do, but
there’s nothing we can do
about it. No matter what
base price you use, com
petition will always deter
mine a market price.”
Urner had previously
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displayed u graph which
showed how market prices
have changed in the past 20
years with respect to the
Urner-Barry quotes. In the
early 50’s, the base price was
fairly close to the price paid
to egg producers. But since
then, all prices - producer,
wholesale and retail ■ have
declined with respect to the
Urner-Barry price.
Urncr said they had
discussed methods of
arriving at a base quote
which would always reflect
some one segment of the egg
market, but that they had
never figured out how to do
it. As soon as any price is set,
Urner noted, producers,
packers and chain store
buyers begin to bargain up
and down from that point.
Carter pointed out that
while egg producers may not
- -
'
- -v m
'* 'T-r
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 8,1975
like the price they get at
times, they arc still
receiving a higher per
centage of the retail price
than do other producers of
food commodities.
Carter and Urner were
followed by Ixm Moore, Penn
State's extension economist,
who talked about the outlook
for the U.S. economy and
feed grain prices in the
months ahead. An in
teresting point Moore made
for anyone fearing a 1930’s
style depression was that
Americans who aren't
working now control a full
quarter of the country’s
purchasing power.
"Government programs like
unemployment insurance
and food stamps mean these
people are going to have real
purchasing power even
though they’re not working.
And with that much money
out there, there’s just no way
that we're going to fall into a
nightmare depression.”
depression.”
Inflation and recession
were still problems that
would plague the economy,
Moore said, adding that
whatever the government
did to cure the recession
would just add more fuel to
the fires of inflation. He said
some forecasters are now
predicting recession and an
unsettled economy well into
1976.
Moore struck a happier
note, for livestock producers
but not necessarily for grain
farmers, shen he said that
the 1975 supply of feed grains
should be more than
adequate, given favorable
weather conditions.
.Donald Daum, a Penn
State ag engineer, talked to
the group about OSHA
regulations. He said that
anyone who employs any
labor at all, other than
family members, would fall
under the provisions of the
Read Lancaster Farming
For Farm Women News
1970 Occupational Safety and
Health Act. OSHA in
spectors, Da uni said, hadn't
visited too many farms, and
they probably wouldn't be
getting on very many farms.
The number of inspectors is
limited, and agriculture is
not one of their top priorities.
One regulation Daum
urged the farmers to follow
was to post a copy of an
OSHA explanatory poster in
a prominent place so that all
their employees could read
it "If an OSHA man comes
on your farm, and if you hire
any labor, you’ll be sub
jected to an automatic $5O
fine if that piece of paper
isn’t displayed," Daum said.
"So maybe by coming here
tonight you’ve learned
something that will save you
$50."
‘ Another requirement for
employers of more than
seven employees is a record
of all employee accidents
and illnesses. If these
records aren’t kept, Daura
said, the employer would
again be liable for an
automatic $5O fine.
Daum commented that an
agricultural employer would
likely never have to report
anything to OSHA unless
there was a major accident
on his farm involving the
death of a worker or the
hospitalization of five or
more workers. Another
occassion might be if a
particular farm were
selected for one of OSHA’s
periodic sample surveys.
Daum also discussed the
new pesticide law which will
go into effect in Penn
sylvania in October, 1976. He
said the Keystone State’s law
met minimum requirements
set forth by the U.S. En
vironmental Protection
Agency, and that it would be
administered by the Penn
sylvania Department of
Agriculture.
25