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Barn Painting In Lane., York, Adams,
Harford, Baltimore, Carroll & Frederick
Counties
All work is guaranteed satisfactory.
“Call the Country Boys
with the Country Prices”
GEBHARts
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Agriculture - Industrial - Commercial
Box 145 A, R.D.4
Hanover, PA 17331
Ph: 717-637-0222
I
x The soil is a living system. How well we manage it may well determine if
I the soil remains alive or slowly dies.
You Are Invited To A
SOIL MANAGEMENT MEETING
Sponsored by: (JmBERGER'S OF FoNTANA
We'll Be Looking For You At Our Shop
RD#4 Lebanon, Pa. 17042 (Fontana) Along Route 322
On TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 27, 1981 at 7:30 P.M.
No Reservations Needed, Refreshments Will Be Served
GLENCOE, in co-operation with its distributors and dealers is conducting
a nationwide program on the relation of correct tillage to the green grow
ing plant.
■fir- “V
\ * V
" ' it?
Wickett
> s ;•&
A SYSTEM APPROACH TO TOTAL SOIL MANAGEMENT
We Carry a Complete Line
of Farm & Home Supplies
HESSTON
• ••«• >Ou*—w*
TUESDAY, OCT. 27,1981
€sV'••.;£*' &•:•*
SSg&»*C- v * v^^H-r-’-^
W. A. (Bill) Wickett, Manager of Tillage
Education, for the Glencoe Division, Portable
Elevator will present a slide and film program
showing the close relation and benefits of the
correct tillage system to the growing plant.
You can benefit from his wide range of
knowledge on this subject. Having worked with
many farmers and Extension people throughout
the United'States and Canada, Mr. Wickett, a
farmer himself, relates his thinking and ex
perience with the chemical, biological, and
physical actions within the soil. The tillage you
choose determines how well you will control your
decay system, your soil aeration, your capillary
water movement, and ultimately, your yield!
COME AND JOIN US!
_ _ FEED - GRAIN -
Umbergeß's qf Fontana farm equipment
Dial 717-867-5161 or 717-867-2613
RD#4 (Fontana) - Box 545 LEBANON, PA 17042
IMEW IDEA
Spent hens form alliance between
PACMA and Poultry Federation
BY SHEILA MILLER
CAMP HILL Pennsylvania
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ot our liquid organic fertilizer
scientifically applied by hydraulic pressure
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Ordinary inorganic fertilizers are feeding
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poultry prodilfers are turning over
a new leaf they’re becoming
marketers instead of schedulers
when it comes to selling spent
hens.
In a cooperative effort, Penn
sylvania Poultry Federation Egg
Council and Pennsylvania Far
mers’ Association’s marketing
affiliate, PACMA, are attempting
to revive the spent fowl marketing
cooperative started by PACMA as
, a service to members in 1971.
"The PACMA spent hen
program was dying out,” com
ments John Hoffman, executive
secretary of the Pennsylvania
Poultry Federation. "About a year
and a half ago, PFA asked the
Federation to get involved and
promote their program to the
industry through the Egg Council
which had endorsed the program.
Our association encouraged sign
ups.”
Under the old PACMA spent hen
program, only 2 million of Penn
sylvania’s 17 million birds were
signed up to be marketed through
PACMA’s agent, FACTS Far
mers Agricultural Cooperative
Trading Society.
FACTS is the marketing affiliate
of the .Massachusetts Farm
Bureau Federation and markets
spent hens for poultry producers in
Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Hamp
shire, Vermont, New York and
New Jersey.
"With only 2 million-birds under
contract in Pennsylvania, there
were insufficent numbers to
control the market place and put
producers in a position to demdnd
a higher price,” said Hoffman.
Now producers can contract
their hens with an exclusive
bargaining agent and can become
marketers rather than Schedulers,
Hoffman explained.
“Producers were only
schedulers before contacting
haulers which would come and
take the spent hens to the
processors. Those birds would go
out of the houses unpriced, and all
the fanners seemed to care-about
was that the trucks came on the.
right day. What they got for their
birds was not the primary concern.
“Under this environment, no
wonder the pnce of spent hens
eroded. The farmers were
conerned with the price they got
for their eggs because they were
affected by that market every day,
but the spent hens were only
marketed once a year. It was easy
to slip into not caring about pnce.
They were more concerned with
having the house empty for the
new birds coming in. ”
I
At this year’s June 18 annual
conference of the Federation’s Egg
Council, forty producers,
agribusinessmen, and other people
associated with the industry met to
discuss the PACMA marketing
program and the Federation’s
involvement. “We took a tally of
the bird owners who voted to sign
up and the response was so
positive, we decided to go ahead
with the next step,” recalled
Hoffman.
The next step found Hoffman
teaming up with PFA’s Joe Buck
tor on-farm visits to producers
with over 100,000 birds. The pur-
pose of their visits was to explain
•Hhe advantages ot the marketing
w r contract and using PACMA as an
exclusive bargaining agent.
“We signed up (5,371,000 birds
during the months of July and
August,” Hoffman reported.
“Adding this to PACMA’s original
2,100,000 birds brought the new
total to 0,471,000 spent hens.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 24,-1981—C7
"That’s half the birds in Penn
sylvania. It we put all the birds in
one basket, the processors will
have to pay the price. They won’t
be able to get them anywhere else.
And, Capper-Volstead protects ag
cooperatives from antitrust ac
tions.”
Hoffman dis loaed the next step
in the plan tc improve the
marketing of spent hens through
PACMA will involve meetings
sponsored by feed company’s or
county associations to get smaller
producers together. The first
meeting is scheduled for October
27 at the Akron Restaurant and is
for the Wolgemuth Feed Company
producers with 30,000 to 60,000
birds.
What about producers with
smaller flocks? Can they sign up
with PACMA to market their spent
hens?
Hoffman assured there is no
flock size limitation, however he
voiced his conem if there would be
too many 500 chicken flocks signed
up. "We call these backyard
flocks, and if we get too many of
these it may present problems,
such as trucking. Luckily, there
aren’t too many small operations
of less than 15,000 birds.”
When a producer signs up under
PACMA to market spent hens, the
only thing that changes is that the
price of the birds will be negotiated
before the birds move, said Hoff
man. The fanner can use the same
trucker and catching crews if they
are preferred, or the fanner can
ask PACMA to schedule
everything.
For the services PACMA
provides, the farmer agrees to pay
4 percent of the gross proceeds,
hauling costs excluded. Of this 4
percent, 2 percent goes to FACTS
while PACMA keeps the rest to
covet operating costs. If more
money is taken in than is required
to run the program, farmers
receive a refund. FACTS has
returned a refund to its processors
6 out of the past 8 years, Hoffman
stressed.
“If, through PACMA, you can
market your spent hens for 10
cents a bird, your cost is less than 1
cent per bird,” Hoffman pointed
out.
Although he is enthusiastic about
the program’s potential, Hoffman
cautioned it isn’t guaranteed for
profits.
“1 think of it more as an ex
periment to get behind,” Hoffman
said. “We have to see if the old
system is too entrenched in the
industry to move prices up.
“It’s time to quit complaining anc
stand out in the rain, or get the
umbrella up. We’re going to give il
one year, and if it doesn’t work,
we’ll be the first to say ‘let’s scrap
it.”
Hoffman said'the goal of the
Federation is to move the price
range of spent hens up to 13-18
cents instead of the present 6-8
cent range. “Spent hen prices
should only be 10 cents below
broiler prices we’re a long way
below that now, and who’s to say
buyers won’t set the price at 2-3
cents in the future.”
What does the Federation get out
of this joint effort with PACMA?
Nothing, according to Hoffman
who confesses it’s costing plenty of
money and taking hint away from
other Federation business.
“The only thing is that, if this
tune next year , this program-is
working, we can take credit for it
and say we’ve performed a service
to our members. That’s what an
association’s for, anyway,” he
concluded.