I&—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. Jan 24. 1976 Lancaster Young’s nutritionist given 10-year service award ROARING SPRING - Earl Umble of Ijincastcr recently received an award marking his ten years of full-time service as a “Man from Young's ” in Lancaster County The attractive gold lapel pin was presented to Umble at the 1976 Penn- First 4-H beef exhibitor presents 50th banner By DIETER KRIEG HARRISBURG When this year’s grand champion 4-H steer was chosen at the Farm Show, the much sought after purple and gold banner was presented to the winner (James Greider of Columbia R 2) by the man who exhibited the very first grand champion 4-H steer at the Farm Show 50 years ago. He is Francis Murren, now 67 years old, of Hanover R 4. The Adams Countian was a member of the first beef club east of the Mississippi River and served as a leader within that organization for more than 20 years after he himself became ineligible for competition. In On best dressed list York County 4-H members Rd., Dover; captured produced the top entries in Reserve Champion Honors the 4-H Dressed Capon class while her sister, Joyce, had at the 60th Farm Show. Roy the 3rd place capon. Thompson of R. 1, East Other placmgs were; sth - Berlin, who last year Kerry Zinn, Davidsburg produced the Reserve Rod, Dover; 6th - Pearl Champion, exhibited the Kneller, Rl, Brodbecks; 7th - Grand Champion bird at this Wanda Kneller, Rl, Brod year’s show. Emily becks, and Bth - Lisa Hoover, Livingston, Davidsburg, Rl, Mt. Wolf. CALL US FOR INFORMATION ON YOUR REI sylvania Farm Show, Umble represents Young's Inc., a marketer of high quality mineral-vitamin supplements for livestock. In the field he serves as a ration programmer and feeding consultant offering his services and Young's remembering the show of half a century ago, Murren noted that all of the entries were Hereford steers from Adams County. No other county had a beef club and the number of breeds was rather limited too. Organized by Adams County Agent, Russ Underwood, members of the beef club chose and exhibited animal* which best met the criteria set by Penn State’s College of Agriculture. That’s still the way it’s done, basically, but the traits looked for have changed drastically. The steers of today are much longer, leaner and rangier, says Murren. “Back in ’26 you couldn’t get a steer lUIREMENTS products to the dairy, beef and swine industry. Umble has had extensive experience in the dairy in dustry having been a well known registered Holstein breeder for many years prior to his joining Young’s in 1965. too fat, Penn State taught,” he remembered. The win ning steer he showed was a blocky and fat 1,066-pound Hereford. “I believe the steers we have today will gain faster,” he said, adding that he still farms 85 acres and maintains a beef herd consisting of Angus, Herefords, and crossbreds. This year’s show had 140 entries making the competition and judging anything but easy while the 1926 version had 49 contestants. Not only has the size of the show grown, the prizes paid have risen considerably too. Murren sold his grand champion for 25 cents a pound, for a total of $266.50. By comparison, Greider sold his champion for $6.40 per pound for a whopping total of $8,256. Commenting on the prices being paid for champion animals today, Murren says the spread today is too much. He notes that there was only a dif ference of 12 cents between Russell F. Brown, president of the Earl Umble, right, representative Roaring Spring based company which from Young’s Inc. for parts of the manufactures nutritional sup- Garden Spot area, recently received plements for livestock. his Ten Year Service Award from his high of 25 cents and the average price paid per pound for all of the other steers in the show. Nowadays the champions bring close to six dollars more per pound than animals which didn’t place at or near the top. The same holds true for swine and lamb sales. In fact the spread in prices is even more pronounced at those sales. This year, for example, the grand champion market hog was sold for a record smashing $lO per pound. The reserve grand champion brought $2.70 per pound, with lower placing animals going for close to open market prices. Murren’s point in this is that, generally speaking, and allowing for an ex ception or two, all of the kids in the contest have worked equally hard and their ef forts should be rewarded more evenly.
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