*2o—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 23,1980 BY DICK WANNER stewartSville - With egg production costs running 10 cents per dozen higher than the on-farm market price, Jim Wolf expects to see a “blood bath” before the industry straightens itself out. His words should bear some weight. President of the Pennsylvania Poultry Federation, be has been an egg producer since he was old enough to tend chickens. In his Southern York i -# ~ V v m*» Although Wolf Farms' outlet store busy, with a big run on cracked eggs, potatoes, other key ingredients in the Butler fnimuleit Buildings SEE BEFORE YOU L - - ■ > ; ; i P. E. HESS, BUTLER MFC. CO. Box 337, Oxford. PA 19363 Dealer Inquiries Available in Pennsylvania Counties - . Clear,icld, Venango, Mercer Lawrence, Beaver, Butler, . C & M SALES INC. KNOXVILLE Clarion, Armstrong, Indiana, Jefferson, Forest New Jersey R D #1 CONSTRUCTION Counties - Sussex, Somerset, Morris, Passaic, Atlantic, Honesdale. Pa 18431 Knoxville, Pa 16928 Cape May j PH 717-253-1612 pH 814-326-4188 Name Addresi County City This independent pan County office recently, Wolf talked about the current state of the egg market. He spoke with a quiet intensity and a very serious manner, like the captain of a ship in a howling, savage sea. Wolf is vice-president of Wolf Farms, Inc., an in dependent egg producer and marketer. With bis brothers, George, Dan and Dave, Wolf has built a brand-name image for Wolf Eggs in York County, and Wolf potatoes. vjr ’s*jr •* * v FARMSTED® I BUTLER State Theirs is a ship that will weather the current marketing storm. But Jim Wolf can’t help worrying about the people - par ticularly the independents - that he knows will go under. “The small producers will most likely go first,” Wolf said. “The ones who have their buildings paid for, and who don’t depend on eggs as their primary source of income. is off the beaten track, customers keep it The store aslso handles chicken meat and Wolf Farms success story. I A. E. ENGEL. INC. KAFFERLIN SALES I PO Box 216 & SERVICE I Marlton, N J 08053 RDI2 i PH 609-983-4404 Union City, Pa 16438 | PH 814-438-3180 as well. They also sell broilers. * BUILDINGS “A lot of people will want to get out of the egg business, but they won’t be able to. The farmer who’s borrowed money to put up a 60,000 bird house in the last three or four years, and with all his birds on contract to his feed company, can’t get out of the egg business. He’s got to stay m as long as his feed company holds out. “His feed company will be hurting, but most of them have the capital to see it through. The producer might not get paid anything for his labor, but he’ll have enough to pay the bank and he won’t lose any money. “The guy who’s an in dependent, either by choice or because he can’t get a new contract, is going to have a tough time making it. If a guy has a big chicken house and a big mortgage, he’s in trouble. Whenever the market is severely depressed like this, the in dustry becomes more concentrated in fewer, but larger, hands.” Wolf can’t say whether or not the egg industry will go the way of the broiler in dustry, where 95 percent or more of the birds being grown today are grown under contract to the companies that own and feed the chickens. Broiler BARGAIN V-' FEBRUARY 'S - -■ .. '..m I *4,705.35 * fob . m FARMSTEAD® I BUILDING w/GALVANIZED WALLS and ROOF 40’x50’xl4’ with 20’xl3’ ds Door * ALL BUILDINGS F.O B * VARIOUS SIZES ANNVILLE, PA HEIGHT & WIDTH * (Buildings not equipped as shown) AVAILABLE • Prices Based On Independant Survey o( Agri-Builders * Price Could Vary With Each Agn Builder FOR THE FARMER WHO'S IN BUSINESS TO STAY! B.T. CONTRACTOR LEROY E. MYERS, INC. W. R. MOODY, HASCHEN P O Box 535 Route #x. Box 163 CONTRACTOR AGRICULTURAL Biglerville, Pa 17303 Clear Spring, Md 21722 113 Walnut Lane SYSTEMS PH 717-677-6121 PH 301-582-1552 West Newton, Pa 15089 PO Box 505 PH 412-872-6804 Chestertown. Md 21620 H 301-778-5800 ORVILLE MACK AL MAURER GREENSIDE P O Box 47 p O Box 78 CONTRACTING Nazareth. Pa 18064 Cambra, Pa 18611 Parkton, MD 21120 Rndeevilk PH 215-759 1331 PH 717-864-3135 PH 301-472-9161 ph 3, Poultry Federation try Marketing Wolf Eggs is a long hard road, and not one that every producer should follow, Jim Wolf feels. He arid his three brothers produce and market the output from 100,000 layers in York County. producers supply labor, management and buildings. The feed companies supply everything else, including a guaranteed income. Layer contracts operate much the same way. Without a contract, most people would find it im possible to get into the egg business. A 60,000-bird caged layer house, a common size ED pro today, can cost half-a million dollars or more, and the pullets to fill it will cost at least $2 each. Lenders can finance the house if the producer has a contract from his feed company guaranteeing income to meet the mor tgage payments. But to give the guarantee, most feed companies want their own birds m the house. And while most layer houses are financed for seven years, most contracts run out after three years. The lending-marketing cycle will keep a lot of egg producers from ever becoming independents, Wolf feels, and even if that weren’t the case, he thinks many of them would never be ready anyway. “Farmers for too long have paid too much attention to efficient production and not enough to marketing. They have to leam how to tie production and marketing together, and unless an egg producer learns how to market his product, I don’t think he’ll be able to survive as an independent.” Wolf has been with the family poultry business since graduating from high school m 1962. Wolf Farms has been marketing their Ag-Master ” ►resident t u&er si own eggs s after more t plugging a\ isn’t sure dependent n is a game should play. “We used run eggs to < packed our them to ma doing all r system, bu marketing \ real money w “We found is more eh more stable money comes and the mar consistent. Bi risky. If our ( than the cost >t’s ourmone; the packer is rea thanaproduc But feeling lessened Wol for the marl would be anybody in 1 who hadn’t Eggs. Om strations at 1 newspaper a< remember W( An egg eati a radio chic make them ur The egg-e lured partial BUILDI NEKTON •& soirco. Delaware 19933 '2-337-8211
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