Farm strike has minimal effect on dealers
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By JOYCE BUPP
Staff correspondent
YORK - Is the farmers’
strike affecting area farm
equipment dealers? Yes and
no, but problems aren’t
necessarily being blamed on
the strike.
“We have been affected,”
indicated George Smeltzer,
who manages Neuhauses,
Inc.' of Loganville. “Far
mers just aren’t buying as
much,” he explained, adding
that he felt the late Fall
weather conditions, in
conjunction with current low
grain and livestock prices,
may be a large part of the
problem.
“I think a lot of it is due to
/'lie whole agriculture
v economic situation,”
Smeltzersaid. “We could see
it coming in early Summer
already,”
One of the targets of the
current farm strike has been
to stop purchases of
machinery. Rapidly clim
bing costs of equipment have
aggravated fanners, who
hope to pressure Washington
lawmakers through political
clout wielded by large farm
equipment -manufacturing
corporations
Most dealers contacted by
Lancaster Fanning agreed
that the rising demands of
organized labor is a prime
factor behind machinery
price increases. Another key
reason is increased raw
materials costs; and one
dealership owner felt that
the fast rising rates on all
kinds of energy deserve a
share of the blame.
Austin Strausbaugh, of
Gus’ Farm Equipment in
Seven Valleys, agreed that
sales of new machinery have
been off, and worsening
somewhat since the onset of
the farm strike. He doesn’t
expect to see any machinery
price declines, although
companies are coming up
with a variety of buying
incentives, such as interest
free delayed payment
periods and cash and trade
in rebates.
“I’ve never seen the cost
of a complete machine come,
down; but 1 do remember
when parts have been
lowered in price,”
Strausbaugh recalled. “The
company lowered parts
prices after the price freeze
was lifted the other year.
They told us parts prices had
been jumped because they
were afraid they were going
to be frozen at a level where
they couldn’t meet
production costs.”
Although he prefers not to
work under govemmentally
controlled prices,
Strausbaugh indicated that
one of the “best” times he
could remember was during
the presidentially-imposed
controls period, when far
mers and dealers could
figure on the cost of a certain
item from one week to the
next.
A spokesman for Airville
Farm Service in Airville did
not feel that the strike had
affected their business in
any way. However, in
ventory has been increasing
with both new and used
equipment sales falling off.
Blaming the situation on the
general trend of all costs
going up, he felt that dealers
need to be selling more
machinery, while fanners
must have higher prices to
enable them to buy it.
Lancaster County
equipment businesses
contacted have not seen the
strike affecting them in any
way thus far.
“Farmers in our area
haven’t suffered quite as bad
from the drought,” figured
Tom Yohe, sales manager at
C.B. Hoober and Son of
Intercourse. Like others, he
cited labor and materials as
the main villains in the cost
increases.
“Business is only as bad or
as good as you think it is,”
added Yohe. “It has
definitely become much
more competitive.”
Customers are .talking
about the strike while
visiting the dealership of M.
M. Weaver and Sons of
Leola, but that’s as far as the
subject has gotten yet, ac
cording to Ervin Weaver,
manager.
“There’s been no change
in business. Our customers
are quite diversified and
most people just aren’t going
along with it,” he noted.
“There are a lot of in
centives on buying new
machinery now, and good
late model tractors are
always in demand.”
Emerging now onto the
farm machinery picture are
growing numbers of im
ported tractors. As
domestically-producted tr
actors continue to increase
in price, dealers expect to
see more of the overseas
dicated that Deere and
Company has a large in
stallation in Germany where
utility tractors are being
made. The White tractor
company also has two
models being produced in
Italy by the Fiat cor
poration, while all White and
Massey-Ferguson combines
are being manufactured in
t?andada, said another
representative. Prices are
competitive and work
manship is reported to be
excellent.
“Farmers should have
struck against George
Meany when he interfered
with grain shipments a few
years ago,” is one dealer’s
analysis of the current farm
strike. Then maybe they’d
be getting a decent price for
their products.”
Fruit winners
named
HARRISBURG - The
Franklin County Hor
ticultural Society won the
Gabriel Heister Award for
the best collective exhibit in
fruit classes at the 62nd
Farm Show. The Franklin
County Society has been a
consistent winner at
previous Farm Shows.
The State Horticultural
Association Award for the
best bushel of apples was
won by Hausman Fruit
Farm, of RD #2, Cooper
sburg, Lehigh County.
The best county exhibit of
apples also was shown by the
Franklin County Hor
ticultural Society.