VOL. 25
York County Dairyman E. Wayne Beshore, left, welcomed U.S. Secretary of
Agriculture Bob Bergland on his first official visit to Central Pennsylvania.
Ag Secty. Bergland
tours area farms
BY JOYCE BUFF
Staff Correspondent
NEW CUMBERLAND -
■U .S. Secretary of
Agriculture Bofa Berglaiui,
on a pre-primary swing
throilght the farmlands of
Pennsylvania Thursday and
Friday, made no pretense of
why he was here.
“The interest of Penn
sylvania’s dairy industry
and ' the .re-election of
President Garter are the
reasons I’irihere,’’ Bergland
told farmers and. newsmen
during bis stop at York
County’s E. Wayne Beshore
farm on Old York Road, New
Cumberland.
Following the meeting at
Beshore’s, Bergland met
over lunch with fanners and
representatives of the state’s
farm organizations.
He then headed to
Columbia County to the
father-son dairy operation of
Chris and Dennis Wolf.
Prom there he went to State
College to meet-with Penn
State Ag College Dean
dames Beattie in the
evening.
Western Pennsylvania
was on the'Friday schedule.
Packers and farmers
beef about market
BY SHEILA MILLER
NEW HOLLAND - It was
standing room only for some
the nearly 500 formers,
'*ef feeders, butchers, and
meat packers that crowded
mto the New Holland Sales
“table on Wednesday
Evening
What created this great
mterest on an evening when
jjfcre was no scheduled sale?
“«ef—and information on
with stops at the farm of
State Senator Patrick
Stapleton, - Representative
'Paid Yahner’s vegetable
operation,.-and: the, Weat
morelaad County ‘ dairy
setup of Boyd Wolf.
Bergland noted the im
portance of the state’s milk
production industry, second
largest business in Penn
sylvania, and said be was
especially pleased to be on
the Beshore dairy farm.
“Hie dairy industry needs
to be assured and
reassured,” he told a heavily
milk-oriented audience of
125 'gathered outside the
Beshore stall bam.
But Bergland hedged on
the industry’s most pressing
threat, the Community
Nutrition Institute’s
proposal to hold hearings on
allowing the reconstitution
of powdered milk for fluid
sales.
Acknowleging that over
8000 letters against the
proposal have poured into
USDA, most from the
nation’s dairy farmers,
Bergland promised to try to
announce a decision on the
issue by the end of April.
raising and marketing the
four-legged Porterhouses.
Abram Diffenbach,
president and manager of
the sales stables, sponsored
the meeting. He said the
purpose of the get-together
was to meet the challenges
of the ’Bos and to .develop an
atmosphere of mutual trust
between farmers and
packers.
(Turn to Pace A3S)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Apr;! 19,1888
“We have no intention of
wrecking or eroding the
of the federal
milk marketing order
structure,” ; assured:-
-fartners wiSh' v 'tiinß' < ~ v tbe>
question was raised.
But. the' issue rankling
most farmers was the
mushrooming cost of money
for production.
<)ne Beshore neighbor,
grain producer Geary
Huntsberger, fitters,
quizzed the Secretary on
assistance for some 200,000
large farmersnow in trouble
due to increased interest
rates.
Terming them “the fair
haired boys who balance this
nation’s trade deficit,”
(Turn to Page A 32)
Fourth quarter egg upturn seen
BY CURT HAULER
LANCASTER -
Producers of both white and
brown eggs are in for
another six months of lean
times before there is any
solidmarket upturn.
In fact, a panel of experts
at the North Atlantic Egg
Marketing Association
meeting held in Lancaster
Thursday, agreed that any
price strength between now
and the last three months of
1980 could be bad pews for
the egg industry.
Among the highlights -of'
the meeting was a specific
monthly price prediction for
the coming year by NEMA
Economist Gary Bradley.
NEMA President Allen
Wenger, Rheema, said while
the white egg market is
dismal, producers in Penn
sylvania, Maryland and
Delaware are in good
Pseudorabies spreads
into Southeastern Pa,
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
LANCASTER -
Pseudorabies, an in
creasingly serious disease
problem in western hog
producing states the past
few years, has arrived in
Pennsylvania.
Three cases of the highly
contagious disease have
been confirmed in
Southeastern Pennsylvania,
according to Dr. John W.
Cable, Chief, Swine Health
Division, Bureau of Animal
Industry, Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture.
The pseudorabies-infected
herds which have been
quarantined include:
—A feeder pig operation in
the southeastern comer of
Dauphin County.
- A bog breeding operation
in the East Earl area of
Lancaster County.
- Another feeder pig
operation in the Myerstown
area of LebaowtCounty. _
In addition to these three
berds,the state.quartotine
'hacJaeen-extendedto nine'
other hog operations which
YYND: poultry precautions
HARRISBURG - A
statewide alert concerning
Exotic Newcastle disease,
WND, is being continued by
the Pennsylvania Depart
ment of Agriculture.
Three cases of WND, one
in Camp Hill, Pa., have been
diagnosed in pet birds,
yellow-naped Amazon
parrots. The other two cases
have been confirmed in
Near term outlook bleak
position to recover late in the
year.
Although expansions this
immediate area has been
blamed by poultrymen
across the nation for in
creased output and the
depressed market, Wepger
said there are good reasons
why expansion took place
where and when it did.
He pointed out it used to
cost two cents per dozen to
SECTION A: Editorials, iu; lop aunmentai cow, 10;
Dairy leaders meet, 18; Letters to editor, 23;
Conococheague FFA, 26.
SECTION B: Estate planning, 2; equipment leases,
3; Cereal Research Center, 4; Fine tune cropping, 6.
SECTION C: Flying farmer queen, 2; Joyce Bupp, 5;
Home on range, 6; Lehigh FFA, 13; Pork King, 15;
Shattercane, 28; The Milk Check, 35; York DHIA, 37;
Trout breeder, 38; Apple referendum, 46.
SECTION D: FFA speaking contest, 2; Cumberland
DHIA, 6; Franklin DHIA, 8; Dauphin DHIA, ll;,Fann
Talk, 15; Birth 'of the broiler-industry, 24; Ask the
VMD.27.
received animals in recent
months from the Lancaster
County breeder. Among
areas involved in these
additional quarantines are
the Manheim and Ephrata
areas of Lancaster County,
Fleetwood, Berks County;
Phoenixville, Chester
County; and Montgomery
County.
The disease is very con
tagious and can be tran
smitted quickly to other
animals, such as Cattle,
sheep, dogs, cats, rodents
and even some wild animals.
In th° Lebanon County
infection, five heifers which
were running with the pigs
were lost very quickly within
a 12 to 72-hour period, Dr.
Cable said.
A number of young pigs,
reportedly about 200, died in
the Lancaster County
breeding operation.
Also, some cats, which had
eaten tissue of the dead
animals, died within a 21 to
48-hour period, Dr. Cable
added: ' ' '
-Mere thnn JOO feeders and
Alexandria, Va., and Norco,
Calif.
Thus far, ten pet shops in
six different Pennsylvania
locations are under
quarantine in efforts by a
joint state-federal task force
to prevent additional ex
posure.
Poultrymen are advised to
take the following
ship eggs up from the South
where today the price is
seven to eight cents.
But, Wenger said, there
needs to be a transition
period when displaced eggs
find homes and the less
efficient producers are
shaken out.
John Ricca, the vice
president of NEMA, said the
brown egg market is as bad
as the white. He has 500,000
Trc this issue
$7.00 Per Year
breeders were told of the
pseudorabies outbreaks at a
special meeting on swine
health problems Wednesday
night at the Farm and Home
Center.
Dr. Larry Hutchinson,
Penn State veterinarian,
cited the three cases and a
brief discussion of
pseudorabies was given by
Dr. Neil Becker,
veterinarian from the
University of Florida.
“In a county like this
where you have wall-to-wall
bogs, this could get going
and be a real problem;” Dr.
Becker said.
He particularly stressed
the possibility of spread of
the disease through stray
dogsand cats.
Dr. Becker said the best
measures to follow are herd
testing, absolute isolation of
sick pigs to control the
spread and avoid outside
animal exposure, such as
dogsand cats.
Young affected pigs can be
(TuhitoP^»A3o)
' precautionary steps to
protect their flocks.
Don’t keep caged pet birds
on poultry farms and make
certain employees don’t
have such birds as pets.
A strict program is needed
to keep stray poultry or
birds, dogs, cats, rats, mice
and other vermin off poultry
premises.
Cura to Page A 33)
layers at home in
Massachusetts.
Ricca said many Maine
poultry buildings today are
empty and never will come
back to production.
He pointed out the upswing
in fowl sales but added that
Campbell’s Soup, purchaser
of over half of toe country’s
spent fowl, is said to have
frozen storages with four
tones as many pounds of
chicken as last year.
He noted that prices in
New England for toe first
quarter last year averaged
about 71 cents per dozen.
This year toe average is 62 to
63 c«ts. And, be added,
costs are up about six cents
per dozen.
So, the overall spread
farmers need to make up is
14 cents in <me year’s time.
Cary Bradley’s price
summary showed little hope
(Turn to Page A 36)