—Lancaster Farming, Saturday. Nov. 20. 1976 16 Pa.’s questions on com market answered By. H. LOUIS MOORE Penn State University University Park - Com is now and has always been the dominant crop in the United States. Until recent years com was grown as a crop to be fed to livestock, often on the farms where the com was produced. But today com has become very im portant to people living elsewhere in the world. As the export market has grown sharply, more fanners are now raising com as a cash crop. The trend toward selling more corn rather than feeding it to livestock has caused frustrations for some of Pennsylvania’s corn producers. They see changes taking place and ponder these questions: (I) Have the growing export markets been good for local producers? (2) Do Penn sylvania producers have any impact on the market? (3) Can Pennsylvania producers compete as price premiums decline? Cora Production Increases A record 5.8 billion bushels of com were produced in the U.S. in 1975. Mid-year estimates place the 1976 crop at 6.2 billion bushels, up 7 per cent from 1975 and 32 per cent larger than the drought reduced crop of 1974, The United States is one of the few nations which produces com greatly in excess of domestic needs and it provides over 70 per cent of the com which enters world trade. When it comes to producing and exporting com the U.S. has no peer, accounting for about 45 per cent of the world’s com production. Pennsylvania ranked 14th among the states in com Introductory Sale Continental Farm Building 30 ARCHES, 1 ENDWALL WITH A 24 x 14 ALUMINUM SLIDE DOOR, GUTSHALL’S SILO REPAIR production in 1975, with a crop of 88.5 million bushels. The 1976cr0p is projected at a record 95.8 million bushels. In the 1962-66 period, Penn sylvania ranked 15th with an average production of 47 million bushels. Despite Pennsylvania’s relatively high ranking as a com producer, with production exceeding the combined production of New York and Virginia, the Commonwealth accounted for just 1.5 per cent of the U.S. com crop in 1975. In the 1962-66 period Pennsylvania produced 1.2 per cent of the national crop, a slightly small share than at present. With such a minor part of the crop produced in the state, it is evident that local producers have little impact on the market. A changing industry In the 1950’s and 1960’s the com industry was charac terized as one which'con stantly overproduced, received low 1 prices, and depended on the Commodity Credit Corporation of the USDA for survival. The CCC bought com, provided loans, and controlled acreage to support prices at levels felt necessary to maintain an adequate supply of com and to reduce the number of foreclosures of faims. Cora production grew in spite of the various programs designed to reduce production. In 1964 the Commodity Credit Cor poration had under loan or owned 1.3 billion bushels of com. In the 1958-62 period U.S. farmers averaged just $1.07 per bushel for the com they sold. During this period of low prices, farmers maximized returns from the com crop by feeding the grain to livestock or poultry. Consumer demand for meat 40x60 1 SOLID ENDWALL *4750.°° RDI Womelsdorf, PA Frystown, 717-933-4616 was growing and producers received favorable returns on livestock in most years. But 1972 brought a new era to the com industry. Surplus stocks of com had finally been reduced to manageable levels. Then severe drought hit the Soviet Union, forcing them to buy large quantities of grain from the West. Buoyed by Russian pur chases, the U.S. exported 35.8 million metric tons of feed grains in 1972, up 73 per cent from 1971. New export records have been set every year since 1972 except 1974. From a record 1.3 billion bushels of com in govem- ment hands in 1963, the dropped to a mere 8 million bushels in 1973, and the government now holds no feed grain stocks. Since 1972 supply and demand factors, rather than government programs, have been establishing the price of corn. U.S. fanners averaged $l.OB per bushel in 1971, but prices increased sharply in the following year, and reached $2.95 in 1974 before dropping slightly to an average of $2.70 in 1975. These high prices brought abvious farmer reaction: (1) it became fashionable and profitable to sell cash com rather than feed livestock for many farmers, and (2) farmers planted more acreage in an effort to in crease production and profits. The nation’s com producers harvested 66.9 million acres of com in 1975, up 2% per cent from 1974 and 8 per cent above 1973. Farmers planted 84.1 million acres to com in 1976, up 8 per cent from 1975 and the largest acreage since 1949. The 1949 acreage yielded a crop of 2.9 billion bushels, less than half the projected crop for 1976, demonstrating the technological advances made in com production in the past quarter century. Implications of the' export boom The world’s hunger for animal protein is partly measured by its purchases of U.S. feed grains, mostly com, to feed to their ex panding livestock herds. Most countries prefer to import livestock feed rather than meat, thus developing their own livestock in dustries. In the two decades 1955-75 com. exports from the United States showed more than a 14-fold increase. The leading export market for U.S. com in the past marketing year was the USSR which took 29 per cent of the exports from the 1975 crop. Soviet com imports have been unusually high because of their 1975 crop failure. Com use in the USSR has expanded sharply in recent years as livestock production was expanded. Yet the Soviets have limited ability to produce com for grain. Only 5 per cent of the grain produced in the USSR is com, whereas com ac counts for about two-thirds of total grain" production in the U.S. The short growing season in the USSR sharply limits the acreage which can be used to produce com for grain; therfore, about 85 per cent of the Soviet com acreage is used for silage. Com imports by the Soviets are likely to grow as they move into large scale AMERICAN BREEDERS SERVICE 29H2389 lllin FOND BILLY 1541533 VG PQ 9/75 DSDA 10/76 +S94 +IOI9M +33BF FOND BILLY is one of the top proven sons of No-Na-Me Fond Matt. FOND BILLY inherited the ability to transmit good confirmation and lots of milk. FOND BfLLY’s dam averaged (at 7yr sm) 23.217 M, +BO9BF with an average test of 3.54 percent. FOND BILLY sires tall cattle with excellent strength and capacity, and good loin strength. His daughters also have good teat shape and placement with strong udder center support. FOND BILLY is recommended often in our Genetic Mating Service Program. If you want well-bodied cows that stand on good legs and feet, call your local ABS Representative for FOND BILLY. Bangor, PA Denver, PA Gap, PA Holtwood, PA Landisville, PA Manheim, PA Port Murray, NJ Reading, PA Richland, PA BBS Slewartslown, PA Thomasvilte, PA Vmcentown, NJ West Grove, PA production of livestock and poultry. Exports of U.S. com have grown beyond all ex pectations in recent years and have become an im portant factor in supporting prices. On the surface, it would appear that increased exports would assist Penn sylvania producers in ob taining better markets for their com. Pennsylvania is located nearer to important ocean ports than are the states in the Com Belt, in cluding the 'ports of Philadelphia and Baltimore. As the volume of grain CUSTOM BUTCHERING Hogs Processed the old fashioned way, Sausage, pudding, scrapple. Hams and Bacon cured. WE ALSO SPECIALIZE IN U.S.D.A. GRADED SIDES AND QUARTERS. Coll (717) 464-3374i0r Home 464-3127 Eric Hemsohn Damn Yoder Lynn Gardner Paul Herr James Charles Lamar Witmer Robert Kayhart Robert Greider Paul Martin Marvin Jomes Ira Boyer Gerald Hall Maurice Stump exports has grown, the ports; have had to make changes to handle a larger number of ships, which are of much greater capacity than in the mid-1950'5. Two decades ago a typical grain ship had a capacity of 10 to 12 thousand metric tons of com (394,000 to 472,800 bushels at 39.4 bushels per metric ton). Many of today’s ships have a capacity of 25 to 40 thousand metric tons (985,000 to 1,576,000 bushels). A 40,000 ton capacity ship would require 400 rail cars of 100 (Continued on Page 20] For Home Freezer PAUL A. HESS 215-588-4704 215 267-3423 717 656-6509 717 284-4592 717-898-8694 717-898-8694 201 689-2605 215 374-7798 717-866 4228 717-9932281 717-225 3758 609-463-3783 215-869-9187 n
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers