Vol. 20 No. 29
Paul Hess, Sr, one of the founders
of the Plain & Fancy Egg Ranch, is
Excellent Cattle Prices
Here Seen Continuing
Eastern cattle have been
enjoying excellent markets
in the past few weeks, and
William McCoy, president of
the Lancaster Stockyards,
thinks the market might
continue strong through the
summer.
“I hate to make leading
statements,” McCoy said on
Friday morning, “because
the market has a way of
doing things we don’t expect.
But I am encouraged by the
market now, and I think our
feeders here in the East can
look forward to a good
summer.”
McCoy said most of the
producers selling on the
current market are making
money with feeders they
purchased last fall. “They’re
coming in at good weights,
and they’re bringing good
prices,” he said. “Their
memories aren’t short. A lot
of them remember two years
ago when the market went to
60-cents and everybody was
holding out for 85-cents.
Their cattle got too heavy,
feeder prices went through
the roof, they couldn’t afford
to buy replacements, and the
market fell apart/"
There’s no similar disaster
in sight. McCoy feels,
barring government in
tervention or a serious dry
spell that could force a lot of
range fed animals onto the
market.
Local feeders are
benefiting from the fact that
many West Coast packers
have been forced to reach
into the Midwest for their
supplies because of a
shortage in their home
states.
If the nation’s fanners pull
in a normal corn crop this
shown here with part of his collection
of eggs from around the world.
year, McCoy expects to see
feed prices dip, another plus
sign in the cattle feeder’s
future.
The wide spread between
high choice and lower grades
is something McCoy expects
to continue, along with a
strong demand for good
cattle.
This could change, though,
if the government’s proposed
change in beef cattle grading
goes through. That change
would redefine the grading
criteria, making lower
quality animals eligible for
die choice stamp.
“If the change is made,”
Garden Spot Student Will
Head County FFA Officers
by: Melissa Piper
As the newly elected
president of the Lancaster
County FFA, LaVem Martin
will have a great deal of
responsibility within the
coming months. The young
man has been well prepared
for the task however, having
been active in FFA for the
past three years.
A member of the
Grassland FFA Chapter at
Garden Spot High School,
La-Vem has been assistant
treasurer and on several
committees over the past
few years and has served as
president of the chapter for
this school year.
For his project work,
LaVern has taken dairy,
corn, hog fattening and
alfalfa production.
Along with his leadership
duties, LaVern has also been
Serving The Central and Southeastern Pennsylvania Areas
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. May 31,1975
McCoy said, “we’ll suddenly
have a lot of so-called
’choice’ animals on the
market. Although many of
them would have been
graded good under our
present regulations. That,
naturally, could tear down
the price for choice
animals.”
There’s been no final
decision on whether or not
the change in beef grading
will be made, but the
decision is due in late June.
At the moment, according to
McCoy, the industry
throughout the nation seems
[Continued on Pace 7]
involved in many FFA ac
tivities. He has been a
member of the chapter’s
meat judging team and has
attended FFA Days at Penn
State on the dairy judging
team for which he received
recognition for being in the
top twenty individual
placings.
A member of the
Grassland Parliamentary
Procedure team, LaVern
served as chaplain helping to
place the team third in
regional competition.
Along with FFA activities,
LaVern has also been active
in 4-H. As a member of the
Lancaster County Holstein
Dairy Club, the young man
has shown his dairy animals
at the County round-up and
regional shows.
He is also a member of the
Weaverland Mennonite
Promotion, Efficiency
Spur Egg Co. Growth
“The only way to survive
as an independent in today’s
egg market is to do
everything yourself,” Paul
Hess, Sr. told Lancaster
Fanning this week. “That’s
why we grow our own
pullets, process our own eggs
and handle our own
distribution.”
This philosophy of self
sufficiency has worked well
for Plain and Fancy Egg
Ranch, the Elizabethtown R 3
firm which Hess founded
with two partners in 1966.
That year, they began
operations with 15,000
layers. Today, Plain &
Fancy is marketing the
production of some 450,000
layers, with another 150,000
pullets being reared to join
the flock.
The other two founding
partners are John Snader
and Claude Hess. Two years
ago, Paul Herr, Jr. joined
the firm as marketing
manager.
Pullets are grown for the
company by four local
In This Issue
FARM CALENDAR 10
Markets 2-6
Sale Register 26
Farmers Almanac 8
Classified Ads 30
Editorials 10
Homestead Notes 38
Home on the Range 45
Junior Cooking Edition 41
Sale Reports 59
Farm Women Calendar 40
Country Corner 38
Organic Living 24
Carriage Auction 22
Fair Schedule 18
Church youth group and will
be attending the PAFC coop
conference in Shippensburg
this summer for placing high
individually in the coops
exam contest.
As president of the County
FFA, LaVern will be
responsible for presiding
over the meetings as well as
assisting in the county-wide
activities and committees.
The young man has some
definite ideas on what he
would like to do as president
and shared them with
Lancaster Farming this past
week.
“Hopefully, through my
presidency, I can help other
members to get involved in
FFA work, I’d like to en
courage more members to
j oin .»
When asked if there would
(Continued on Paje 8]
farmers. Day-old chicks
arrive on the farms and are
fed until they’re 20 weeks
old. “We like to control the
growing of our own pullets,”
Hess pointed out. “That way,
we know what goes into each
bird and we know what we
can expect to get our of her.”
Plain & Fancy produces
about two-thirds of their own
eggs with company-owned
birds in company-owned
houses. The other third
comes from local farmer
contractors. John Snader,
the partner who’s in charge
of production, said that he
likes to see 75-percent
average production in the
hen house. “If we can get 75-
percent rate of lay instead of
70-percent, we’ll see a 60 to
75-cent difference in the
income per bird during the
laying cycle,” Snader said.
“And we get that without any
increase in the cost of
production. Sometimes that
extra income is the dif
ference between a profitable
cycle and one that loses
money.”
Snader noted that they
generally add a new batch of
chickens to the flock every
five weeks. That means that
the laying cycles of the
different parts of the flock
are staggered, so that
there’s a fairly steady flow of
all sizes of eggs.
One of the production
innovations Snader is most
pleased about is the cart for
transporting eggs which
Plain & Fancy pioneered in
this area a few years ago.
“All the eggs from our
contract producers used to
, ... ... .
LaVern Martin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde W. Martin,
East Earl Rl, was recently elected president of the
Lancaster County FFA.
$3.00 Per Year
go into cases. Now they go
onto carts that hold 450 dozen
eggs on flats. The producer
no loner has to worry about
cases, he just puts the eggs
on the cart and rolls it out of
the way until our driver
comes to pick it up. The
driver just rolls the cart onto
(Continued on Page 15)
W. McCoy
Reelected
President
William G. McCoy,
president of the livestock
commission firm of the
McCoy Cattle Company was
recently re-elected to his
third term as president of the
Lancaster Stockyards, Inc.
James C. Dunlap president
of Walter M. Dunlap and
Sons and Robert Heilbron, a
partner in S.L.Heilbron and
Sons elected as vice
presidents. Serving as
secretary - treasurer will be
Robert Stauffer.
In a report of the livestock
facilities, McCoy noted that
the feeder pig division has
been expanding to handle up
to 3000 head of animals.
Salable receipts have in
creased at the facility by 16
percent in the last year.
It was also noted that the
stockyards ranked fourth in
percentage increase of
salable receipts among the
25 major livestock markets
in the United States.