&
* '' **
A good-size crowd turned out recently at the question U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
i-Col dairy farm of Chris and Dennis Wolf to Bergland, at left.
COMPLETE
FARM PAINTING
We Use Quality
PAINT
AERIAL LADDER
EQUIPMENT
• Modern and Efficient
Method
• Reasonable Prices
• Spray-On and Brush-In
Method
• Sandblasting If
Necessary
FOR FREE ESTIMATES
WRITE:
ESH SPRAY
PAINTING
(Darnels Esh C Ralph Miller)
SPRAY-ON AND
BRUSH-IN PAINTER
Bo* 350 A
Roriks;PAT7s72
or call this number
717-687-7007
or 717-687-8262
INDUSTRIAL
COMMERCIAL
RESIDENTIAL
k 'VSNN * ‘ *• '
"Ww V> AV> A •. Vw <A / v\
ALUMINUM BULK FEED BODY
Blue Ball, Pa.
***-
Bergland interview
(Continued from Page Al)
With operators who take
other jobs to supplement
their income. That group of
1.7 million provides about a
tenth of the nation’s food
supply.
USDA plans to offer
assistance to them through
programs of rural
development, production
diversification, FmHA
lending policies, water and
sewerage systems, and aid
to industries desiring to
locate in rural areas.
Large farms are the ones
that Bergland warns are in
the most trouble right now,
with credit problems.
They’re the group that
produces half the food
supply. But they’re also the
group, according to the
Secretary, that perhaps
least needs the aid of
government programs,
while collecting almost half
of the support pricing
assistance.
But, is it fair to those full
time farmers trying to make
a total living from,
agriculture for the govern
ment to give so much aid to
. H. IBY, INC.
Manufacturer of All Aluminum Truck Bodies
Livestock, Grain & Bulk Feed
smaller ones subsidizing
their production costs with
an off-farm job?
Well, that’s not completely
fair, either, allows the
Secretary; and the ad
ministration will examine
and carefully weigh the
needs of all groups. “We’ll
have to identify those
programs that are fair, and
(hose that are unfair,” he
reflects.
As Bergland told farmers
at various stops throughout
the day, there simply are no
easy answers. In fact,
earlier during his visit to the
Beshore operation, one
farmer' admiringly com
mented that it “really took
guts for him to come out
here, with the way farmers
feel about inflation and the
interest rates.”
“When I took this job,
against the recommendation
of my dad,” the Secretary
grins, “he warned me that
‘no matter how hot the hen, it
still takes 21 days to hatch
the egg.’ There will be no
quick solutions to the
complex problems of
agriculture.”
Distributor of IliiiMililJ] Trailers
Sales & Service
- %1
Standing on the firing
facing a cluster of frusf'
fanners doesn’t seem
fluster the articulate
business-like USDA
who knows his answers
pulls statistics from im
to back them up. He 1«
you feeling that he
does care about f
families, and what’s
peningtothem.
Born and raised a fanner
In Roseau County, Min
nesota, near the Canadian
border, Bergland still owns
his 600-acre grain operation
there. His great
grandparents immigrated to
America itom south Nor
way. As a boy, he helped
milk the family’s eight cows,
by hand, and separate the
cream for sale to the small
creamery nearby. When the
area’s creameries started to
fold, the family parted with
the dairy animals.
At the age of 21, he started
farming “with nothing but a
wife and a rented farm.” In
1970, on his second try, he
won his seat in Congress,
defeating the Republican
incumbent of several years.
The Berglands have six
chidren (“I’ve got three in
college at once,” he noted),
with one operating the
ALUMINUM GRAIN BODY
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 26, 1960—A27
family farm along with a
farm machinery business.
Bergland’s philosophy
about credit probably traces
back to that modest start in
Roseau County’s grain
country. He strongly advises
young farmers to “start
carefully,” citing the
example of one neighbor
back home who “started
first class and is now m
trouble.”
“Finance what you must
have and buy what you want
only when you can afford it.
Borrow carefully.”
Questions on the gram
embargo against Russia
were usually some of the
first tossed to the Secretary
in meetings with fanners
and the press. Just what had
the embargo done to grain
prices, and what about
recent news reports that
Argentina is selling to the
Soviets at above market
prices?
“Grain sales are booming.
Sales have increased to
Mexico, China, Japan,
Australia, Canada, Eastern
Europe and France,” was
his assurance, although he
acknowledged that it’s
definitely a time for sellers
to hold and buyers to stock
up due to the prices.
“The left hand in
Argentina doesn’t know
what the right is doing, and
reports from there are
conflicting. If they are
selling to the Russians, then
they’re doing so at the ex
pense of their regular
customers, like the Italians,
Japanese and Spanish. If
they abandon those regular
customers, we’ll get’em.
“I’ve already been in
contact with some of those
customers and made a
proposition to them. We’re
telling the Argentinians,
‘You can have the Russians’.
“We know that milk
proauction is down five
percent in Russia in the past
several months and there's a
heavy culling of livestock
with no expansions as was
planned. Pork and poultry
output is being curtailed; we
guess meat production will
- • % " 1! 7, J
V.A v \v%ww -.V., Ass^v^^MA^A-uMWyy^ l . X v \ s sv. „ I
fv
*
1980 TIMPTE TWIN HOPPER
Weighs Under 9000 lbs.
717-354-4971
be down five to ten percent.
It’s a major economic
problem for them.”
Reports of third party
sales of grain and technology
to the Soviets are largely
unfounded, Bergland added.
“The Commerce Depart
ment has very good control
and I cannot imagine any
leakage of anything im
portant. And we’ve never
sold them anything military
since the war. When a ship
leaves, we know where it’s
going; we have very good
cooperation from the grain
companies on this.”
What about those grain
companies? We hear con
flicting reports, but how
much of the gram reserves
are they controlling, I
wondered?
“Grain dealers aren’t
holding enough grain to wad
a shotgun,” was his graphic
description. “Farmers are
holding it. Dealers can’t
afford the cost of the in
ventory of large amounts of
grain.”
Restructuring of the farm
taxing system is one area on
which Bergland plans to
concentrate. Estate taxes,
the “sell the farm to pay the
tax” syndrome, will con
tinue to get administrative
attention in those long range
ag policy plans.
Another tax category
Bergland expects to use the
scissors on is in the in
vestment credit laws.
Investment credit, he
says, is another of those
subsidies that favors the
large over the small
operator. Business capital,
for instance, has used it to
build huge hog set-ups,
dragging down not only pork
prices, but other meats, too.
The current situation, with
prices below the cost of
production, worries him.
But the worst thing that
could happen, he warns,
would be the wholesale
abandonment of beef, pork
and poultry production,
inevitably leading to shor
tages.
“I’m recommending a
(Turn to Page A2B)
' v * *
\ N *