D€—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 20,1981 -
More foody less drugs
Knowledge and technology are
gaining over land as the key fac
tors to better agricultural
production in the years ahead.
“We’re becoming less dependent
on land as the limiting factor of
productivity,” according to U.S.
Department of Agriculture
economist Leroy Quance.
The need for continuing
productivity gains is apparent
from a look at world population
figures and the distribution among
the “have” and “have not”
countries. By the year 2000, the
current 3.3 billion population of the
developing countries may reach 5
billion; the developed countries
will rise only from 1.2 to 1.4 billion.
To feed these people, annual food
grain production must increase
from the current 1.3 billion metric
tons to about 2.0 billion. And the
U.S. will produce a significant
share of the needed increase in
food and feed grains.
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
This task isn’t impossible. On the
average, one American farmer
produces enough for 68 people—4B
at home and 20 abroad. Forty
years ago, a U.S. farmer produced
only enough for 11 people. But such
dramatic gams in productivity can
be found only in recent history.
Many experts worry that
comparable gains won’t
materialize fast enough to keep
food production in balance with
growing consumption. So what’s
the immediate outlook for gams m
productivity? There’s no clear
consensus.
Some analysts contend that
we’ve already pushed current
technology to its limits, and they
see no new miracles m the next few
years.
Quance’s figures show annual
productivity gams have slowed to
about IMi percent since 1960, down
from an average of 2 percent per
year m the previous two decades.
Nevertheless, he disagrees with
both the prophets of doom who
predict that food needs will soon
outstrip productivity and the
peddlers of a technology fix
(money will solve any problem.)
“For future prospects,
productivity will vary with the
weather and the economy,” ac
cording to Quance, “but, on the
average, will likely increase IVz to
2 percent per year.”
He supports the belief that the
laws of supply and the demand
will, through proper public and
* private management, generate
enough productivity growth m the
next few decades to keep the vital
food equation in general balance.
« 41 41 * * *
Can livestock and poultry
producers afford to do without
antibiotic feed additives to
promote growth and prevent
disease?
Extensive use of drugs in animal
; rations is suspected by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration of
contributing to human health
problems. FDA has proposed
restrictions that would ban the use
' of penicillin m animal feed and
eliminate certain uses of
tetracycline.
Action on the proposal has been
delayed pending further study, but
farmers are worried about the
impact any further restrictions
could have on the economics and
management of their livestock and
poultryproduction. ~~
Although restrictions would not
necessarily prevent the use of the
drugs for treatment of sick
animals, many operations depend
on continued, low-level doses in
animal rations to enhance growth
and prevent disease.
Producers with confinement
operations, where animals are
under stress and more vulnerable
Introducing to tlfe Mid Atlantic Area
The Nitterhouse
Featuring a single component design
for fast ejection and completion. The
sections boit together and the tongue
and groove creates a sealed wall
surface
The sections may be dismantled and
re-located, customers may select any
length or width i n i ncrements of 5
feet 2 inches.
In addition to silage storage, these
upright units may be used as
' '’"retaining walls or manure pits.
MANI
_ l#Ba . Concrete Products Inc.
Nll ter house Farm Products Division
Box N Chambersburg, Pa. 17201
717-264-6154
to the spread of disease, could be
especially hard-pressed. Many
consider antibiotic feed additives a
necessary tool for large-scale,
high-density production.
Smce antibiotics were first
employed as feed additives about
30 years ago, their use for this
purpose has increase dramatically
from about 265,000 pounds in
1951 to 2.3 million in 1962 and 12.3
million in 1978. - ;
Almost half of the antibiotics'
produced in this country are now
used for low-level additions to
livestock and poultry feed, and
about half of this is penicillin and
tetracycline, according to U.S. -
Department of Agriculture's Clark -
Burbee.
Economist William Henson says
,use of these drugs has helped
maintain relatively low production
Pa. Horse
re-elect
KENNETT SQUARE - Mar
shall W. Jenney, owner of Derry
Meeting Farm in Cochranville,
has been re-elected to a third term
as president of the Pennsylvania
Horse Breeders' Association.
Jenny’s well-known commercial
Thoroughbred operation is
primarily involved in the
marketing of yearlings, with the
European champion, Mrs. Penny,
one of its most distinguished
alumnae.
. Re-elected’ to the post of vice
president was Richard D. Abbott, a
West Chester attorney and a
partner in Charlton Bloodstock
Agency. Also named to serve again
were Paul p. Mills as secretary
Upright Bunker Silo
?J *
TONGUI
JOINT
costs and food prices par
ticularly in the poultry industry.
The drugs reduce animal sickness
and mortality and improve animal
growth and feed conversion ef
ficiency.
Antibiotics also improve feed
efficiency, reducing the amount of
feed needed for weight gain or egg
production although nobody
understands exactly how.
Laboratory tests have shown
feed v efficiency for broilers fed
antibiotics increased 6 to 12 per
cent compared with birds that did
not receive antibiotics. Egg
production increased 5 to 10 per
cent among birds that were given
tetracycUne'in their feed.
In addition, use of feed additives
also enhances reproduction rates
and improves quality of the final
meat product-
Breeders
Jeriney
and Truman C. Welling as
treasurer.
Mills, who has been the leading
award recipient from the JPenn
sylvania Breeding Fund program,
operates Willow Tree Farm just
outside of York. Welling is a
retired duPont Company executive
and breeds for the sales at his
Scarlett Thicket Farm in Kennett
Square. - ■
_ Named to the JPHBA’s Board of
Directors were' Kathleen M.
Crompton, Christiana; Bernard J.
Daney, Wilmington; Grace El
Falkenberg, Reading; Robert. K.
Fetters, Westtown; Bill J. Henry,
Grantville; and' 1 Anne F.
Thorington, Malvern'. ' 5 . "
) \\j
' TONNAGE TABLE FOR 8 FT. SIDEWALLS*
■> 30 40 lo 4wi'«o
WIDE WIDE Wipp-K '.WIDE
"■OISiF 323 432 540 * 646
-- 4 376 504 630 753
KJm 431 576 - 720 - 862
f,-.< 485 648 808 - Vi
♦ > 539 720 ’ 900 1078
593 792 989 1187
. 648 864 1080 - 1296
kjMttO; 688 936 1170 -1376
755 1008 '1260 1510
808 1080 '1350 - 1 1616
‘BASED ON LEVEL FILL WITH
45 LIS PER CU FT