up: Timm nro nlmojt ono million tprcint o( miorts PFA officer requests milk price hike HARRISBURG - A spokesman for a general farm organization on Tuesday requested a milk price increase of 90-ccnts per hundredweight for farmers in Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Area 2, Zone 2. This marketing area covers 13 counties in northcentral Pennsylvania. Richard E. Denison, manager, Farm Management and Business Analysis Service (FM BAService), urged the board to hike the Class I price paid to farmers to meet in creasing cost. Presently, the Class I milk price is $lO 30 per hundredweight. Denison made the request in testimony delivered at a hearing held there by the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board. FMBAService is a member service company of the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Association. The actual price increase would bring the farmers $11.20 per hundredweight of Class I milk, versus actual farmer cost of $lOl5 per hundredweight "Many times," Denison told the PMMIi, "When various groups speak of farmers, they act as if some magical shroud surrounds these families. They have the feeling that economic factors affecting business, government and consumers do not affect farmers." He explained that when taxes, labor costs and other costs go up, the dairyman suffers the same economic squeeze “Farmers’ utility bills show the same fuel ad justment clause as do ours,” he remarked. “But, dairymen use five to seven times as much electricity as you and I do in our homes. “To compensate milk producers for their costs and to provide them with a fair margin of profit, diary fanners need a Class I price return of $11.20,” Denison testified. A Schuylkill County far mer supported Denison’s suggested Class I milk price Lancaster Farming, Saturda of $ll2O, but urged the PMMB to take into con sideration young people getting established m the dairy business. Carl W. Brown of Pine Grove said that “If the young arc not able to enter or must leave the dairy industry for economic reasons, the consumer . can look forward . to exorbitant prices in the future.” Brown also pointed out the adverse weather conditions suffered by dairymen for cing them to purchase much of their feed requirements rather than growing it as is the tradition Another dairyman, Mike Jarret of Lycoming County, cited production cost in- Potato grade standards proposed WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed establishment of the first U.S. grade stan dards for potatoes used to make potato chips. If adopted, the standards would provide a uniform method of determining chipping quality of potatoes and a basis for establishing prices between potato growers and chip manufacturers. The proposal would provide an optional requirement for determining fry color of the finished product, one of the most important factors in establishing prices for the raw potatoes. Officials of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) said contracts between growers and chip manufacturers are now based partly on “satisfac tory chipping quality,” but this term has no standard meaning. The proposed standard would establish two grades - U.S. No. 1 and U.S. No. 2 - with minimum size requirements of I- 7 /* and 1 -% inches in diameter, respectively, unless otherwise specified. Tolerances for defective CUSTOM BUTCHERING Hogs Processed the old fashioned way. Sausage, pudding, scrapple. Dried beef and bologna WE ALSO SPECIALIZE IN U.S D.A GRADED SIDES AND QUARTERS For Home Freezer Call PAUL A. HESS (717) 464-3374 or Home 464-3127 lIISKET 2J 4 lbs August 14.1976- creases of 12 to 47 per cent ofr 1976 “I believe they (increased cost figures) arc good in dications of the inflationary prices a farmer must con sider when making management decisions on his future farming prac tices," Jarret testified ‘The milk producer of the past has looked at his profession as a way of life, I plan to make my decisions as a businessman. The hearing covers milk prices in 13 counties, in cluding Potter, Tioga, Bradford, Sullivan, Lycoming, Clinton, Uniln, Montour, Columbia, Nor thumberland, Snyder, Schuylkill, Carbon and a portion of Luzerne. potatoes and objective methods of scoring defects would be provided. AMS officials said the proposal is the result of two years of extensive studies and collaboration with representatives of potato growers and chip manufacturers. Although a substantial portion of the national potato crop is used by the potato chip industry, U.S. grade standards for raw products for processing currently do not include potatoes for chipping. In addition to the requirements for satisfactory chipping quality, chip manufacturers for years have used the requirements of the U.S. No. 1 grade for potatoes for fresh market in establishing purchase contracts withi growers, with specifications for size and specific gravity (a measure of solids content which indicates the total amount of chips that can be obtained from the raw potatoes). An optional requirement for specific gravity is provided in the proposal. In addition, an official USDA visual aid showing five color classifications of the finished product, with corresponding colorimeter indices, would be available for purchase. 73 ROUND' 'un lbs
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