Farm earnings can hardly be grouped
By JERRY WEBB
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. - When
farmers start talking
collectively about how “we
aren’t making any money" I
have to wonder. No doubt
things happen that affect the
pocketbooks of virtually all
farmers-things like low com
and soybean prices and high
fuel costs.
But wait a mmute-not-all
farmers grow com and
soybeans and not all farmers
use a lot of expensive fuel. So
how can you lump them all
together and conclude that
“farmers aren’t makmg any
money?”
So many differences exist
between types and sizes of
farms, management
abilities, traditions, at
titudes and so on, that, it’s
impossible to deal with
fearmbrs as a group.
The Pennsylvania dairy
farmer who keeps a high
producing, home-grown herd
on five acres can’t be
grouped with the Delaware
crops farmer who tills a
thousand rented acres with
highly financed machinery.
The confinement swine
producer who owns his own
brood sows and feeds his own
com is in a different posture
than the guy who buys both
com and feeder pigs and
tries to show a profit through
shrewd buying and selling.
Even the farmers who
seem to operate the same
way are so different as to
defy grouping.
Farmers are generally
pretty strong-willed in-
YOU’VE HEARD
THE TALK.
There’s a better way to dry grain. It’s called
CHILLCURING'" because it means CURING
without heat. Here’s what the talk is all
about.
THE GRAIN
Every kernel of grain is alive when it comes out of the field
Ir is a seed, able to g r ow because it has the ability to take on
moisture Likewise, it can be kept in a state of preservation by
- removing the moisture already m it
But by heating the gram to dry it, the seed life is destroyed
By removing heat and moisture from the gram, it becomes
dormant, and stays alive. Thenjt can ripen to full weight,
losing only water while keeping valuable protein, starches
and sugar
THE SYSTEM
It’s simple. Gram goes from the field right to the bin With
the unique AfRFRAME" and AIRFLOOR “ the grain rests on a
solid bed that allows maximum ventilation
Clean dry air is the best curing medium for the gram
GRAINLAMPS" provide electric sunshine, cleaning and
drying the air beneath the floor, before it passes through the
gram
Fans force air under the floor. Rising through the grain, this
dry outside air carries away moisture and heat
At the peak of the bin a jumbo 40” turbine, the
WHIRLCOOLER", puts nature to work for you. Wind and
rising air keeps it turning, venting the system naturally
A special HARVESTAT" Control System monitors the
curing process, A simple setting controls the GRAIN LAMPS'"
to make use of free, natural air.
dividuals who manage their
businesses the way they see
fit. They make decisions that
create nice profits or cause
great losses. So how can they
be bunched together in
common complaint 9
Maybe in North Dakota
where dryland wheat
production is the only en
terprise it’s a little easier for
farmers to compare notes.
Here in the Mid-Atlantic
states'it’s almost impossible
Consider the different kmds
of farmers from the large
scale com and soybean
producer to the small
specialty crops operator. We
have dairy farmers, broder
producers, swine growers,
and cattlemen. We have
farmers who grow only com
and others who have some of
almost every crop that will
sprout in this climate. We
have the mushroom people
and the potato farmers and a
couple of guys who
specialize in horseradish.
Then there are sod farmers
and turkey farmers, and
greenhouse growers and
table egg producers. The list
of specialists goes on and on.
You also have the fellows
who choose to diversify-they
grow com and soybeans and
feed them to their own dairy
cows and their own feeder
pigs. They raise vegetable
crops too and it’s not at all
unusual for them to have at
least one broiler house.
Now try to compare far
mers who are just starting
out with lots of rented land
and heavily financed, highly
productive farm machinery
with the older fellows who
will then own acies with ten
year-old machines paid for
with cash.
One guy will tell you he
can’t make any money on $2
a bushel corn. He’s no doubt
telling the truth. Look at his
production costs-maybe $BO
an acre for land, $9O an acre
for fertilizer, seed, fuel,
pesticides, and the other
direct costs of production
Add another $3O an acre for
machinery, $l5 for grain
storage and you come up
with a production cost of $215
an acre. Raise a hundred
bushels of corn per acre and
sell at $2 a bushel and it's a
losing proposition. No
matter how many acres are
tilled, with -those economics
you lose.
And then there’s the guy
with 400 productive acres
given to him by his father 50
years ago. He has smaller,
older equipment. He gets
better yields and he makes
money-production costs $9O
an acre, machinery $2O,
storage $lO, taxes and land
maintenance $lO. It’s hard to
get his costs over $l3O an
acre. At 120 bushels an acre
and $2 a bushel he still gets
$llO and acre of $44,000
return for labor and
management, and his land. '
Give some farmers $2.50
com and $8 soybeans and
they do quite well. Others,
fmd it hard to break even.
The same is true for the hog
man who raises his own feed.
It really doesn’t matter to
hirti when com sells for $2.
He’s not selling corn, he’s
feeding it His production
costs and income costs are
figured on pounds of pork
produced and price per
pound at the market If he
has low feed costs because
he’s a good producer and
because he has low land and
machinery costs-and if he
has low pig costs because he
raises them hunself-and if
the market is strong as it is
nght now, he can do fairly
well.
Out of all this wordage
Md. 4-H public speaking
WESTMINSTER, Md. -
Two girls from Montgomery
and Somerset County and a
boy from Harford County
took top honors in the
Maryland 4-H public
speaking event in West
minster, on May 5. Thirty six
4-H members from across
the state competed-in the
three divisions of the con
test. The event is the top
state honor in the 4-H public
speaking program, which
includes county and district
competition prior to the state
event.
In the junior division, Jill
Hudson of Gaithersburg,
Montgomery County,
demonstrated her superior
public speaking ability
among nine to 11 year olds in
a talk op “Family In
volvement in My 4-H
Project ”
Advanced Ag Product
RD 2 Box 174 Elverson, Pa. 19
215-286-9118
THE FACTS
l.You can’t beat Nature. HARVESTALL GRAIN
CHILLCURING “ uses the same elements that ripen and
preserve grain if left to itself: free flowing air and infra red rays
(sunshine).
2. has been tried and proven in 17 states on
over 3000 farms. The research is in; CHILLCURING™ WORKS!
3. The CHILLCURING™ system uses only the electricity to
power fans and lights, using about I V2 KW hrs. per bushel.
Compare that cost to other systems that use increasingly
expensive fuels to get disappointing results.
4. The gram goes from the field to the bin and stays there till
you need it. Save time and money at harvest with the one step
HARVESTALL CHILLCURING™ and Storage system.
5. If you’re in the market for graSftStorage, you owe it to
yourself to look further into HARVESTALL GRAIN
CHILLCURING™
Lancaster Farming; Saturday, May 19,1979—141
come a few fairly obvious
truths:
, Not all farmers are in the
same boat;
There are more ways to
gam and lose money than
with com and soyeans;
The farmer who owns his
land and has his machinery
paid for is in a much
stronger position to fight the
price squeeze;
Diversification is still a
pretty important word in the
farm prosperity picture.
winners selected
Cindy Twining, champion
from the 12 to 13 year old
division, voiced support for
the International Year of the
Child in “A Plea for the
Children”. The intermediate
champion is from Princess
Anne R 3, in Somerset
County.
The new state champion in
the senior division is Barry
Traband of Forest Hill in
Harford County. The Har
ford County youth took the
top award in the senior
division 14-19 year old with a
speech, titled “DNA, A Key
to the Future”.
Junior reserve champion
honors went to Kelly Shaw of
Fair Play. The Washington
County youth’s speech was
titled “Farmers Daughter”.
Intermediate reserve
champion was Ginny Miles
What dbes this all mean? I
think it means that if a
fanner tells you he isn’t
making any money he’s
probably not lying. But he’s
also not speaking for all
farmers. There are as many
variations on the
profitability of modern
agriculture theme as there
are fanners. That’s why
Uncle Sam has such a hard
time setting up government
programs that work.
The public speaking
program is one of the many
Maryland 4-H programs
conducted by the Maryland
Cooperative Extension
Service to promote youth
development.
With offices in each countyi
and Baltimore City, 4-H
programs are open to all
Maryland youth. Persons
interested "in more in
formation should call the
Extension office in their
county.
r '
of Darlington for “Tibetan
Alternative”, and senior
reserve champion was Jack
Girod of Dayton. He spoke on
the “Perils of Chicken
Fanning”.
Winners in all divisions
received trophies, courtesy
of the Maryland State Fair
Board.
V> * -