Product registration decision expected next year BY CURT HAULER HARRISBURG - probably will be late At present both J&J and January before any decision the Department of is made on whether the Agriculture are waiting for Pennsylvania Department of transcripts of the hearing Agriculture will grant and exhibits entered as registration to Agrispon. testimony in the hearings. „ ... , ~. . . , Agrispon, manufactured But the local distributor of by Sn Corp, a Texas * Agrispon, J&J Agn- distributed locally by J&J. PI S U !? sI^,, J BSOS ?2 st ?S Principals in J&J Linde product will be registered f ormer Governor Milton for sale in the state they Shapp; his former Secretary recently purchased a 50.000 of A g ricult ure James square foot warehouse to M cHale; and McHale’s seryeas a office, warehouse, f orm er deputy, Jane and distnbution center. Alexander. The quasi-judicial hearing j&j has purchased the old Attention Beef & Perk Raisers CUSTOM BUTCHERING iif HESS’ BUTCHER SHOP 2635 Willow Street Pike Ttfff Willow Street, PA 717-464-3374 s ♦ —We Process the Old Fashioned Way— | • Pudding • Hams • Bologna t • Scrapple • Bacons • Dry Beef We also Specialize in Beef For Your Freezer, Sides of Pork, 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. It is a seed, able to grow because it has the ability to take on moisture Likewise, it can be kept in a state of preservation by removing the moisture already in 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. Then it 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 AIRFRAME'” and AIRFLOOR™ the gram 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 gram, 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 GRAINLAMPS’" to make use of free, natural air. on Agrispon concluded earlier this month. Sides of Beef. Agrispon hearings Gettysburg Shoe Factory in Dillsburg to serve as its headquarters. It will lease extra space. The Department hearings were to determine whether Agrispon should be registered under Penn sylvania's fertilizer and soil additive law. Registration was denied in September by State Agriculture Secretary Penrose Hallowell. SnCorp and J&J requested a hearing on the decision. The hearing began in early November, and because of the number of witnesses appearing and the in tervening Thanksgiving holiday, the hearings did not conclude until December 6 at 10 pm. While the Department of Agriculture has no official position on the hearings, a number of department employees say they feel hearing examiner Joseph Klein, who acts as judge on the matter, will rule with the Department. Klein is a Harrisburg attorney. McHale said Wednesday he felt the hearing went well forAgrispon. “As far as I'm concerned, we proved beyond a doubt that Agrispon generates nitrogen,” McHale said. One of the central points of the hearing was whether or not a gallon of Agrispon, which is 99 percent water, can indeed provide any nutritional benefit when 2. TU 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 IVa KW hrs. per bushel. Compare that cost to other systems that use increasingly expensive fuels to get disappointing results. 4. The grain 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 grain storage, you owe it to yourself to look further into HARVESTALL GRAIN CHILLCURING”. Check With Us For Our Early Season Discounts applied over 10 acres of field crops. The Agriculture Depart ment maintained at the hearings that Agrispon had not presented evidence to prove the 26 claims made on its label. The nitrogen claim was among the 26. Agrispon relied heavily on the testimony of E.H, Lloyd. Jr., a North Dakota scientist working for Agvise. Other witnesses for Agrispon during the hearing included Dwayne Vance of North Texas State University and Robert W. Fisher of Virginia Com monwealth University. Agrispon also presented several farmer witnesses during the hearings. In cluded were Albert Bentz, Thomasville, York County, who distributes Agrispon locally; Claude Reinheimer, Berwick; Albert Garber, York County; Keith Nichols, Spartansburg; and CUnt Richards, a Maryland farmer. Nichols had served in the Agriculture Department under McHale as a regional director. Much controversy revolved around the reliability of testimonial statements as opposed to scientific data. And the Agriculture Department’s witnesses often questioned the reliability of Agrispon’s scientific witnesses. Included on the Ag Department’s list of wit nesses were Edwin “Bud” Advanced Ag Products RD 2 Box 174 Elverson, Pa. 19520 215-286-9118 THE FACTS l.You can’t beat Nature. HARVESTALL GRAIN CHILLCURING™ uses the same elements that ripen and preserve gram if left to itself: free flowing air and infra red rays (sunshine). Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 22, 1979 Wallis, Jr., director of the Bureau of Plant Industry; Lyle Forer, chief of plant pathology; and Tony Grigor, chief of the Bureau of Foods and Chemicals lab division. Richard Fox and Dale Baker, two Penn State agronomists also took the stand. Baker’s lab assistant, Christine Hunt, was sworn in to talk about the ex perimental procedure used in the controversial Penn State tests which included Agrispon. But she gave no testimony. Among other witnesses at the hearing was Robert Miller, an Ohio State University microbiologist. Both sides seemed to feel Miller justified their position. Eddie Albert, an actor from the Green Acres TV show, appeared as a witness for Agrispon. He has been active in promoting the product. Once representatives of both sides receive the transcripts now being prepared they will have two weeks to write a proposed finding of facts and legal brief. Klein, the attorney who is serving as hearing examiner, will then review all of tile evidence presented him and will decide whether to advise the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a registration for the product. Klein’s decision is not binding on the Secretary, but v\' *1 Agriculture Department officials said for the Secretary to go against the Hearing Examiner's recommendation would be extraordinary. Klein said be hopes to have the final decision prepared in a matter of weeks, not months. The Department of Agriculture said it expects the final decision by the end of next month. Waiting in the wings is a second proposed registration forAgrispon. Ibis registration contains only two of the original 26 claims listed (Hi the product label now in dispute. But it includes the claim that Agrispon produces nitrogen. The Department of Agriculture has taken no action on the new label awaiting Klein’s decision. Should Klein recommend Agrispon be labeled and his decision be accepted, there would be no need for the new label since both of its claims are already included in the original 26. Should Klein’s decision go against Agrispon, the new proposed label will move. But the Agrispon people may take the old label along with them to a higher court in an attempt to overturn the hearing board’s decision, if it goes against the product. For several hours Dale Baker’s research plots were tbs target of extensive cross examination. Baker hin)°°if (Turn to Page 122* 30f 121