Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Jan. 17, 1976 68 Lehigh Valley co-op revitalized Lehigh Valley Cooperative Farmers has become a viable enterprise. It has strengthened its operations, improved relations with its producer members, ex panded its product lines, vitalized its marketing and sales activities and in creased its volume of business. Lehigh now is stronger and is moving forward as a leading factor in the dairy food business in Solar heat studied for grain drying WASHINGTON - The federal government recently announced financing of new studies to determine whether low temperature solar heat can be substituted for fuel burning high-heat devices now used for grain drying. Scientists and agricultural engineers in 11 states will be involved in the research which will follow through on 1974 tests which indicated solar heat could supplement or possibly replace present high-heat drying techniques which consume fossil fuel. Scientists particularly want to find out how solar heat can be used to overcome poor New birdsfoot trefoil tolerant to BELTSVILLE, Md. - For the first time, successive generations of selection have been used to develop her bicide tolerance in a forage plant. The plant, a new strain of birdsfoot trefoil, is tolerant to the herbicide 2,4- D say USDA’s Agricultural Research Service agronomists Thomas E. Devine and Deane L. Lin scott, and Cornell University researcher Robert R. Seaney. Birdsfoot trefoil is a forage crop grown mainly in the Northeastern and North Central States. Competition from weeds often severely limits the establishment and main tenance of pastures seeded with birdsfoot trefoil. However, development of the new, 2,4-D tolerant TRY A CLASSIFIED AD! ; HOG PRODUCERS! 'Get Top Price for Hogs m jHB New Holland Sold m sorted lots the auction way See them weighed and sold and pick up your check SALE EVERY MONDAY 9:00 A.M. NEW HOLLAND SALES STABLES, INC. „ , .. Phone 717-354-4341 Daily Market Report Phone 717-354-Z2BB Abe Diffenbach Manager its area of operations ac cording to a company news release. Lehigh's financial con dition was studied to evaluate the effectiveness of its accounting controls. Other studies were made of the status of Lehigh's position with its customers, potential customers and competitors. Internal studies covered operations, marketing and sales ac- drying conditions in late fall and early winter. The studies will be funded by a $300,000 grant from the federal Energy Research and Development Ad ministration. Two U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies - Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Cooperative State Research Service - will coordinate the research. In one study, agricultural engineers will compare drying grain by natural air supplemented by solar heat, by drying with natural air only and by drying with natural air plus electric or gas heat. herbicide strain, T-68, offers promise that 2,4-D, an inexpensive and relatively safe her bicide, can be used to ef fectively control weeds in fields of trefoil. T-68 was developed over five generations of selection. The new strain is 3 to 5 times more tolerant to 2,4-D than Viking, one of the most commonly grown varieties of trefoil. Though 2,4-D slightly damages the leaves of T-68, it recovers quickly whereas Viking does not. 2,4- D is relatively safe to use, effective, and inexpensive, and there is only a short waiting period before livestock can graze treated pastures. The new trefoil strain, released jointly by the Agricultural Research Service and the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, will be used by plant breeders to develop new varieties of herbicide resistant trefoils and to study mechanisms of her bicide activity. tlvlUes. The survey and evaluation was all-inclusive. The mammoth task completed, the findings were compressed into recom mendations which newly elected president, Robert Barry, molded into a plan of action which, with proper significance, he titled “Lehigh H.” His first task was to build an organization, which he did by bringing in new people with depth of experience in the dairy field. He consolidated operations into four departments • sales, administration, operations, and financial - each headed by a vice president. Each vice president was given the responsibility of organizing his department and in stituting recommended changes. A major change in operations involved decentralizing production operations by setting up a general manager for each of the production facilities at Allentown, Lansdale and Schuylkill Haven. Others involved hiring a materials control manager to establish a computerized program for control of all raw materials and finished products and a research and quality control manager to maintain the Cooperative’s Quality Assurance Program. Research studies were also undertaken on new products of high volume potential and improved packaging to extend the ihelf-life of Lehigh dairy products. What particularly ap palled Barry was the disarray of the sales department where inadequate staffing and slack management made solicitation of new business and promotional activity virtually non-existent. This department was im mediately beefed up, districts assigned and procedures for customer calls established. Account managers were assigned to service the Cooperative’s largest accounts. For the first time, assistance in preparing proposals for existing or prospective customers was made available to salesmen. As a result, considerable new business has been gained. A new promotional program with retail customers was also initiated and has been effective in pushing sales of Lehigh Valley branded products. New programs and procedures were also in stituted in the financial department. Accounting functions were centralized and new controls adopted; data processing procedures were improved and added, a budgetary section was set up to develop logical budgets and sales projections. The Cooperative’s pricing methods also came in for overhaul to assure that reflected in the selling price fluctuating costs were being on a current basis. 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