—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 15,1979 32 BEAR, Del. - When Shirley Steele trained as a research assistant at the Wilmington Medical Center, she never dreamed that one day she’d be business manager of a thriving egg farm. That was before she and husband Ken became partners in his father Jacob Steele’s small farm based business, Red Bird Egg Farms in Bear, De. At the time, Red Bird had about 2500 laying hens. The couple added 5000 more as part of their investment in the partnership, and the number has been going up ever since. Today, 9 years later, the Steeles have nearly 3/4 million hens, 12,000 of them located on the home farm in Bear, the rest on farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania Somewhere along the way, Shirley found herself han dling the marketing end of this thriving family business. She also keeps the books and supervises per sonnel. Red Bird’s rapid growth makes all this very challenging-especially for someone without any previous commercial ex perience to fall back on. One of her biggest headaches is just keeping the eggs moving. During an Grain exports hit new record WASHINGTON, D.C. - American gram exports have set a new five-week volume record, proving that the country’s gram elevators can move huge amounts of grain safely, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman said Monday. Leland E. Bartelt, ad ministrator of the depart ment’s Federal Gram In spection Service, said from the week ending Oct. 18 through the week ending Nov. 15, more than 100 million bushels of gram were exported each week. “This was the first tune on record weekly gram exports needed 100 million bushels for five weeks in a row,” Barteit said. “Each week was also a substantial in crease over the corresponding week for last year, and we also set a new record of 110,051,000 bushels exported in a single week.” The exact export figures m bushels for the period are: Week ending Nov. 15, 115,272,000; Nov. 8, R.D. 1, NEW PROVIDENCE, PA PLET US SHOW YOU THE ADVANTAGE OF PENNFIELD'S NEW DRY COW FEED pennfield feeds Del. egg farm keeps eggs rolling average week about 2 1/2 million eggs pass through the grading station in Bear. Each one needs to be washed, candled, graded, packed and sent promptly on its way to one of Red Bird’s many clients. Customers range from small businesses like restaurants that need a case or two, up to hospitals and grocery store chains that take a truckload at a time. When Red Bird went from It took him about two one to two eight-hour shifts weeks to assemble the in their packing room last historical production data year, the logistics of mat- needed to develop the basic ching up all those eggs with model. Then, with the help of customer orders became too University program analyst complex. That’s when Sarah Dennis, he plugged in Shirley Steele called specific information on the University of Delaware age and number of birds in extension farm management each flock at Red Bird. specialist Dr. Don Tilmon for some advice on dealing with some of these management problems, including improving product flow through their grading station. When you’re dealing with a commodity like eggs, freshness is essential. At Red Bird, turn-around time from hen to customer is 48 hours. This poses problems you don’t encounter with a less perishable item. To fill client orders, grading station supervisors 119,051,000; Nov 106.735.000, 107,851,000; 110.102.000. Bartelt said these export figures show that U.S. elevators are not being unduly hampered by the new requirements that all export gram be officially inspected and weighed before it is shipped to foreign buyers. “We are pleased to have been a part of this record, and we are especially pleased that these records are being set in an at- Oct, Oct The inci ELMER M. SHREINER Full Service Dealer T/A Good’s Feed Mill A complete line of animal health products and supplies. Rohrer's Garden & Flower Seeds Ortho Lawn & Garden Products need to Know which flecks are laying which size eggs. Size and quality vary con siderably with the age of the hen. So knowing their age makes it easier to decide which flock’s eggs to run in filling a particular order. It can get pretty com plicated, trying to keep all that information inside your head. So Tihnon offered to develop a computer program which would do this job for them. The result is a program which provides the company with a printout that tells management the percentage of eggs of any given size or grade that can be expected from an individual flock at any age during its produc tion cycle. This has greatly simplified grading procedures. Besides its help as a production tool, the model developed by Tilmon and Dennis also has value as a marketing tool in that it tells Shirley steele what size eggs mosphere of improved safety,” Bartelt said. 25, 18, Bartelt noted that although there have been 16 elevator explosions so far this year, resulting in two deaths and 18 injuries, none the explosions has oc curred at export elevators. He urged all elevator operators to continue to be alert to the dangers mvolved m moving large amounts of gram quickly, and to give special attention to con tinued improvement of housekeeping practices. dibleel ile egg. PHONE: (717) 786-2500 Shirley Steele, business manager of Red Bird Egg Farms in Bear, De., and U. of D. extension farm management specialist Don Tilmon go over computer readout that helps rapidly growing company speed over 2Vz million eggs a week to its waiting customers. she’ll have to sell over a three-month period. This permits her to plan ahead for a special promotion sales when the she sees there will be an excess of a certain size egg For example, if she knows there will be a lot of medium coming up six weeks from now, she can let customers know. Perhaps a grocery chain will decide to run a special on mediums as a result. There’s nothing miraculous about what the SMUCKER'S SALES & SERVICE • Good used diesel engines Install a blower fan for better diesel & refrigeration cooling. Longer life on diesel. LET ME BREATHE! FOR PROMPT SERVICE CALL 717-354-4158 OR IF NO ANSWER CALL 717-354-4374. computer does for Red Bird, explains Tilmon. It’s just that it does it so fast. In a few seconds it can do calculations which would take a whole week to do manually. When a new flock comes on, it only takes a phone call from Shirley to update the model. In a few minutes another printout is in the mail. The computer is used a lot in production agriculture these days, notes the specialist. He says this particular model could RD #2, BOX 21 NEW HOLLAND, PA 17557 DISTRIBUTOR FOR: LISTER, PERKINS & SLAHZI DIESELS easily be adapted to similar production systems on other' farms. For Shirley Steele the readouts have solved a big management headache. With all the other demands on her time, she could never work out this kind of detailed production schedule herself. And Red Bird isn’t big enough yet to hire someone else to do the job. So the program is saving her both time and money. It’s also making it possible for them to keep on growing. • New Sputnik wheels and parts We mount diesels on balers, crimpers, cornpickers, etc. “1 For lower cost per hour power, rely on DIESEL POWER
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