tie most efficient way to that’s ever going to happen.
1 more than 200 million At least not as long as
encans and millions Americans chng to the
•e foreigners would be principles of democracy and
n the production of a few free enterprise.
;e farms, but I don’t think You can look around in
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Serving Cen'ral PA
and Maryland
RD 4 Box 34A. Gettysburg, PA 17325
Ph 717-334 2168
Serving Eastern PA
and New Jersey
Box 126
Phillipsburg, N J 08865
Ph 201-454-7900
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
123 Pennsylvania Avenue
Avondale, Pa. 19311
Telephone: 215-268-8222
Hours: Tuesday thru Friday 12 - 5 and 7 - 9
Saturday 10 - 5
Dealer Inquiries Invited
■lHHHwto£ a<^£2S9Bll
I NAME
{ ADDRESS
Serving North Serving Virginia
Central PA Area PO Box 529
PO Box 937 133 W Davis St
State College PA 16801 Culpepper VA 22701
Ph 814 383-4355 Ph 703 825-3633
some other industries and
quickly realize that a hand
ful of companies produce
virtually all of the products.
Auto manufacturing is a
good example. There
probably aren’t more than 20
companies worldwide
manufacturing virtually all
of our automobiles I read
something recently where an
expert was predicting that
no more than seven of those
automakers would survive
into the next century.
Auto making, like so many
other industries, started out
as a backyard business with
a lot of shade-tree
mechanics tinkering around
with old buggies trying to
make them self-propelled
As they succeeded and in-
dustry grew, it was
characterized by fewer and
fewer brands.
Today, in this country, we
have the big three and a
couple of smaller firms and
some of them won’t make it
into the next century.
But in agriculture, things
are different An economist
could probably demonstrate
how a few large farms, well
managed and highly
mechanized, would be more
efficient and would in fact
produce more food. On
paper, that plant might look
quite impressive, but in
practice I don’t think it
would work. And, in fact, it
has no chance to work
because of the millions of
Americans who cling to a
built-in, burning desire to
farm
They farm despite
economic adversity and
better opportunities They
farm long past retirement
age even though they don’t
need the money because
they’d rather do that than
anything else. They even
struggle to get into farming
at a time when land prices
are outrageous and farm
profits are minimal.
Small farmers are here to
stay even though their ever
expanding big farm
neighbors would like to have
their ground and some
theorists think the farm
system would work better
without them. They’re here
to stay because they like to
farm and they’re willing to
make the sacrifices
necessary to stay in it.
In our area farmers have
the best of both worlds and
maybe at the same time the
worst of both. They can cling
to their relatively inefficient
farming activities by
working off-farm jobs that
are usually available within
relatively easy commuting
distance And while they
complain about the en
croachment of surburbia,
they enjoy the inflated land
prices caused by non-farm
demand
When it get right down to
it, many of the small far
mers are pretty much im
mune to the adversities of
agriculture in general Sure,
they suffer in a dry year and
their prosperity goes up and
down with the futures
market But 10 bad years in
a row and you’ll still find
them out there farming,
getting what they can from
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the land, and paying the bills
with off-farm employment.
They have no intention or
desire of giving up the land
and moving to town, even
though they may spend most
of their waking hours in
urban employment and job
related travel.
Given a choice between a
run-down farm 50 miles from
where they work and a nice
home m a development right
across the street from the
plant, they’ll stick with the
land.
When you consider sources
of income, farming is a
parttime business
throughout this country
because farm families ac
tually earn more from off
farm sources than they do
from farming. That’s a
documented fact, and it
simply means that farm
families with one or more
members working away
from the farm and con
sidering investments,
savings accounts, and other
sources of revenue actually
earn more from those other
sources than they do from
the farm.
Maybe that helps explain
why in some of the past
disastrous farm years,
farmers have been able to
get themselves together and
go back again for another
try.
Some fanners do fail, and
some do give up and move to
town, and others retire and
go to flonda, but at the same
tune there is a growing list of
USDA to
price before calling
gram reserve
WASHINGTON, D.C -
Secretary of Agriculture Bob
Bergland has announced a
change in the farmer -
owned reserve program
which will give the Secretary
discretion to consider short
term price aberrations
before calling reserves
“Until now, reserves
would be called
automatically if the five-day
moving average price ex
ceeded the call level for five
consecutive days. With this
change, the Secretary has
the discretion not to call
reserves if the daily adjusted
people who would like to
farm. Many of them have
had no previous farm ex
perience. These would-be
fanners have their hopes
and dreams and they’re out
there scratching around
trying to figure out how to
get started. And I’m con
vinced that some of them
will make it.
Big-time farming may be
the dream of a lot of people
in agriculture, but it’s a
reality for a relative few
The 5000 acre spreads are
fairly rare, especially in the
mid-Atlantic area, and some
that do exist aren’t all that
profitable There also seems
to be a point of diminishing
return when it comes to
agriculture. A farm can’t
just continue to grow and
continue to be more ef
ficient
Maybe that growth con
cept works m some other
industries, but not in
agriculture.
So don’t expect super
farms to take over in the
next couple of decades.
Small farmers will have to
be reckoned with for years to
come They may be
producing a decreasing
share of our food, but they’ll
contmue to be an important
factor in future farm policy
and other rural con
siderations. And I wouldn’t
be at all surprised to see a
strong resurgence of small
activity during the next few
years.
consider
average price for any of the
previous five days is below
the call pouit, “Bergland
said. “This applies even /
the five-day moving average
price exceeds the call level
for the required five days ”
“This will give additional
flexibility to avoid calling
reserve loans in cases when
erratic market forces push
up market prices tem
porarily,” Becgland said.
The regulations making
this change were filed with
the Federal Register on the
morning of December 8.