—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 26,1978 18 Strength in agriculture seen in farm coops By JOYCE BUPP Staff Correspondent BOZEMAN, Mont. - “Cooperatives are a nice in surance policy,” says Jay Hull, young dairyman from Westminster, Maryland. Hull, and his wife niona, were among 186 young farm couples who examined the farm cooperative system during the 50th National In stitute of Cooperative Education (NICE) held July 31 through August 3 at Mon tana State University. The annual convention, which draws attendance from hun dreds of the nations cooperatives, is sponsored by the American Institute of Cooperation. This year’s theme was “Cooperatives- People with a Purpose.” Breeders of registered Guernseys, the Hulls represented Maryland Cooperative Milk Producers of Baltimore. In addition to milking their herd of 50 cows, with an average of 11,400 pounds of milk and 545 of fat, the Hulls crop 150 acres in corn, barley and alfalfa. Although in the career far ming business only four 'years. Jay and Qlona are en thusiastic supporters of the philosophy of strength in agriculture through farm cooperatives. “Doing business with a cooperative that has 50-year success is a cushion against the sudden loss of a milk market,” Hull emphasizes. He also feels that in dividual farmers, especially younger ones, have too-little time to devote toward public relations tasks. Market bargaining and legislative lobbying are two valuable Young Farmers to meet STEWARTSTOWN - There will be a special young farmer meeting on Tuesday, August 28, at the Chemagro Demonstration plots at Stewartstown R 3, and several field corn demon stration plots near Chemagro plots. The tour will start just north of Stewartstown on Route 24 at the DeKalb plots. The group will then stop at The Pioneer plots and the tour at the Chemagro plots at Stewartstown. At the last stop the group will observe soybeans planted no-til, drilled and insecticide herbicide interaction plots. They will also see corn in secticide plots and alfalfa herbicide, insecticide plots and alfalfa herbicide, in secticide, and no-til plots. The tour will start at 7 p.m. Garber Oil Co, [texaco] Fuel Chief' { HEATING GIL i I OIL HEATING EQUIPMENT AIR CONDITIONING MOUNT JOY, PA Ph 653-1821 jobs also performed by cooperatives in a much more effective way than could be done by individuals. As members of several farm cooperatives, the Hulls felt that the NICE meeting reinforced their basic con cepts on the member-owned system of doing business. One key outreach program of the Institute is toward the increased involvement of women in all phases .of cooperative operation. “A woman's place is in the meeting room; we need to in volve more of them,” ad vocates niona Hull, an outspoken opponent of separate “social-type” meetings for wives. “Women can double the efforts and brain-power in cooperatives. They need to promote more and work less in the fields and barns.” Representing the Maryland-Virginia Milk Pro ducers Cooperative were Douglas and Evelyn Perrow of Lynchburg, Virginia. “The biggest challenge to cooperatives in the future is their very existence and con tinued growth,” warns Per row. He notes that cooperatives help to act as regulators within the economy, stabilizing prices paid by independent buyers, thus making them suspect by non-cooperative organizations. Perrow believes that broader commodity marketing should be a trend AROUND THE BARN PIPELINE *. “l \ '>f[ 0 ■ -'e