118—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 24,1979 Big Maryland corn crop creating price anomaly COLLEGE PARK, Md. - For the third consecutive year, Maryland corn prices seem to be obeying the general economic law of supply and demand for in dustrial raw materials rather than agricultural commodities. With the total 1979 com crop expected to break all previous records both in the U.S. and the Delmarva area, Maryland farmers are currently being favored with market prices about in line with the short-crop year of 1973. By contrast, in 1977, when Maryland farmers har vested their smallest com crop in four years, seasonal average prices fell to their lowest level since 1972, which was also a short-crop year. According to statistics compiled by the Maryland Crop Reporting Service, these reversals of form have occurred in eight years out of the past eleven. So what has happened to the college classroom theory which teaches that large supplies of an agricultural product automatically bring lower prices? This theory assumes that demand remains constant - a condition which is supposed to typify the U.S. farm marketing scene, except when federal government control regulations in terfere. By contrast, prices for many industrial raw materials vary directly with demand - not supply. An explanation for com market prices in the state during the past three years has been offered by John L. • BARN PAINTING • ROOF PAINTING • BIN PAINTING • We sandblast barns before painting them so that paint will stick to them and last longer. • Also, RESTORATION ON BRICK AND STONE HOMES - sandblasting, repomtmg and water proofing. All work is guaranteed satisfactory. “Call the Country Boys with the Country Prices” GEBHfIRIS_ Vl °rat/on & Box 199. R.D.4 Hanover, PA 17331 Ph: 717-637-8183 or 637-0222 Crothers, Jr., an Extension marketing specialist and agricultural economist here at the University of Maryland. Crothers notes Maryland farmers harvested 57.96 million bushels of com in 1976. That was the largest crop in the state’s history until this year’s estimated 58.6 million bushels on 50,000 fewer acres. By mid-October of 1976, all available com storage space in the entire Delmarva area was chock-full. Many of these storage bins remained full into 1977, when un favorable growing con ditions and a rash of aflatoxin contamination dealt a double blow to Maryland’s com crop. So 1977 com became a glut on the Maryland market, especially in view of total U.S. com production being at a high level that year. By 1978, Maryland com bins were finally being cleared out, and the market was better able to ac commodate a much larger com crop at more favorable prices. This rush to fill empty bins has continued into 1979. Crotbers notes by Oct. 1, 1978, commercial holdings of com in Maryland were so low that there was concern about public reporting for fear of divulging individual trade operations. Where has all this com gone? The Delmarva broiler industry currently consumes about 43 million bushels each year, Crothers reports. So there is a clear in terdependent relationship between com and broilers on the Eastern Shore. A thriving dairy cattle industry consumes con siderable com and other feed grams in Maryland’s north central Piedmont area. Maryland crop farmers are fortunate in having a ready-made demand for com from both the broiler and livestock industries in the Old Line State, Crothers observed. And they have a safety valve in the world export market through the Volume-Belt:® by JAMES WAY® ■ fYSSt'Cft US Simple design gives you big-capacity performance at a lower cost per foot than other feeders in its class. Few moving parts to cause feeding slowdowns. Takes only 1 hp to load up a 190 ft. bunk, so you save on power costs while you save feeding time. Fast, quiet and dependable, too. See us for systems and service that help make the good life better. AGRI-EQUIP. RD4, Farmersville, Ephrata, PA 717-354-4271 I. G.’s AG. SALES Rt 113, Box 200 Silverdale, PA 215-257-5135 ERB & HENRY EQUIP., INC. 22-26 Henry Avenue New Berlmville, PA 215-367-2169 DEPENDABLE MOTORS Honey Brook, PA 215-273-3131 215-273-3737 nearby Port of Baltimore. Speaking of exports, the Maryland Extension specialist notes that only 7.9 percent of U.S. com supply was exported during the 1962 crop year. By 1970, this figure had risen to 10 percent. In 1975 it jumped to 28 percent, and it has been holding close to that level ever since. Com exports for the 1979 crop year are projected at 29 percent of a record-large U.S. production. Exports have thus become cattle feeder a major influence on the nation’s com prices. This factor has softened the big unpact formerly made by trends in livestock prices and breeding cycles. Even though the over-all com crop situation is looking good this fall in Maryland, it is not so rosy in the Midwest where the bulk of the U.S. com crop is produced. One major Midwest railroad, Rock Island Lines, is slowly resuming operations after a monthlong strike, while another railroad, Milwaukee Road, was shut down by court order on Nov. 1 because of bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, the Port of Duluth-Superior was hampered much of the summer by a dock workers strike, and a recent bridge fire at Pekin, HI., closed barge traffic for a time on the Illinois river. HENRY S. LAPP ROVENDALESUPPLY RDI, Cams, Gap. PA 17527 rd 2, Watsontown, PA 17777 717-442-8134 717-538-5521 M. S. YEARSLEY & SON 114 E Market St West Chester, PA 19380 215-696-2990 HARRY L. TROOP Rt 1 Cochranville, PA 19330 215-593-6731 TAM SYSTEMS CORP. RDI, Mountain Rd Dillsburg, PA 17019 717-432-9738 Finally, Lock and Dam 26 on the Mississippi river near Alton, 111., .has become a notorious bottleneck for barge traffic because it is antiquated and in bad repair. As a result, storage bins in the Midwest are over flowing, and large outdoor piles of shelled corn have been reported at many locations. Unlike lowa and Illinois however, Maryland this year appears to have sufficient on-farm storage space to handle its bumper com crop. He said there is a move afoot to try getting separate government crop estimates for the Delmarve peninsula. This would speed up the tedious task of ferreting out official statistics from three states in order to arrive at a composite which is meaningful to the big Delmarva poultry industry. jsi Jtr***' SOLLENBERGER SILOS RFD 2, Chambersburg, PA 717-264-9588 J. A. SWOPE Box 121, RDI Myerstown, PA 717-933-4758 DETWILER SILO REPAIR Rt 2, Newville, PA 717-776-7533
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