A36—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 7,1981
The Milk
Check
TOM JUHCHAK
County Agent
The uniform price to producers
shipping milk to Order 2 handlers
in September was $13.83 a hundred
for 3.5 test milk at the 201-210 mile
zone. That was an improvement of
15 cents a hundred over last month
and 52 cents better than September
of last year. Ten cents of that
improvement over last month
came from your Louisville Plan
pay back.
In August it was 35 cents and in
September, 45 cents a hundred.
The other mckel came from an
improvement in your Class 1
utilization from 39.9 percent to 49.9
percent. A jump of 10 percent was
due to an mcrease of 11 percent in
Class I sales from 11.5 million
pounds a day in August to 12.8
million in September. You also
dropped* production slightly in
September by about 420,000 pounds
a (toy under August.
That big jump of 11 percent in
Class I sales was the first mcrease
you’ve shown m fluid milk since
March but still slightly below the
13 million pounds a day you were
selling last September.
The changes in hauling charges
in Order 2 that started September
Ist are already showing their ef
fect through recaptured sales from
other nearby Federal Orders.
Your best month in Order 2 in
Class 1 sales m recent years was
January 1979 when you sold 13.6
million pounds a day and you’re
not too far from that already.
Md. releases new
tobacco variety
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - After
18 years of genetic development
and testing, the University of
Maryland Agricultural Ex
periment Station and U.S.
Department of Agriculture have
released a new tobacco variety for
farmers that promises high
disease resistance.
The new variety—Maryland
341—is the second variety released
by MAES and USDA in recent
years that has proven to be highly
resistant to the volatile tobacco
disease “Wildfire,” according to
Marvin K. Aycock Jr., a professor
of agronomy for the University and
research scientist for MAES at its
experimental farm in Upper
Marlboro, Md.
In addition, Maryland 341 meets
high quality and yield criteria
established by MAES and USDA,
said Aycock.
Tobacco companies interested in'
THE CLASSIFIED LIVESTOCK SECTION
HAS BEASTLY SELECTIONS!
UNIMPROVEMENTS
The jump in your Class I
utilization was the one bright spot
in Order 2 last month. After that
there wasn’t any improvement.
Even that increase of 11 percent in
fluid sales should have earned you
more than five cent increase in
price (after allowing for the
Louisville Plan pay back) but your
Class prices dropped suice last
month from $14.84 to $14.78 on
Class I and from $12.57 to $12.52 on
Class 11.
This was a reflection of the
falling Minnesota-Wisconsin price
since March. On top of that you had
the highest production in 19 years
in Order 2 for September.
Stripping away all the Louisville
Plan payments—what you put in
last Spring and what you’re getting
back in the Fall the milk price is
lower now then it was last
January. The 52 cents over the
price of last September is an in
crease of less than four percent
and you know how far that goes
with double digit inflation.
It gets harder and harder to find
good news to talk about in the milk
business. It appears that it will
continue to get worse before it gets
better and it won’t get better until
dairy farmers bring production
down to the level where they have
control of the market.,
Some people say that will take
two or three years but I’m not so
sure. You won’t do it voluntarily so
Maryland T4l—most of which are
European—have found the variety
acceptable for two quality tests:
smoke and aroma.
MAES and USDA unveiled the
new variety at the University of
Maryland’s Tobacco Research
Farm field day last Wednesday.
There, more than 600 Maryland
tobacco growers bnd other in
dustry-related officials saw an
assortment of tobacco research
projects conducted by the
Agricultural Experunent Station.
Projects on display included a
study of the effects of air pollution
on early tobacco growth; a com
parison study of leaf harvesting
(priming) with conventional stalk
cutting; ongoing studies of tobacco
diseases such as Wildfire, An
thracnose and Blue, Mold; a
summary of four years of “top
ping” studies; and, herbicide
testing.
I'M
NOT
L10N...
it will only liappen with dramatic
changes in feed prices, beef prices,
crop failure or increased demand
through advertising and
promotion. Any. or all of these
things could happen at anytime
or never.
NEW YEAR
The new marketing year for the
dairy price support program
started October Ist and with it a
new support price of $13.18 up 38
cents to reflect a 75 percent parity
price required by the old
legislation because no changes
were made by Congress.
The Commodity Credit Cor
poration .was doing business as
usual buying more butter the first
week of the new year than it had in ’
the last two months. Buying it, of
course, at the new support of $1.53
up four cents from last year. The
new support price for powder will
be up 2.5 cents to 96.3 cents and
cheese mcreased 3.75 cents to
$1.4325 a pound for 40 pound blocks.
It isn't likely that this will have a
great impact on the Mmnesota-
Wisconsin price because the
manufacturing grade milk price,
on the average, has been lagging
by 46 cents a hundred behind the
M-W but hopefully there will be
some increase in October and
November.
By then the Congress may have
agreed on some new legislation
that will probably drop the support
price back to $12.80 where it was
last year.
FARMER FRIENDS
Whatever happens in Congress
before a new farm bill is finally
passed dairy farmers should know
that they hdve some strong friends
in the House.
This is where the Livestock,
Dairy and Poultry Subcommittee
decided to challenge the ad
ministration proposal for dairy
price supports and won the ap
proval of the entire HouSe by a vote
of 400 to 14 on what is called the
Bedell amendment which included
other commodity price support
programs in addition to milk.
The administration and the
Senate wanted to leave the support
pnce at $12.80 for another year
then go to 70 percent of parity after
that if the CCC didn't have to spehd
more than $750 million. If costs
went over that the support pnce
could be dropped below 70 per cent/
In 1980 CCC spent $1.2 billion so you
can guess it would' go over $750
million even in 1982.
- The Bedell amendmentalso left
the $12.80 price for another year
then raised it to 72.5 per cent in
1982 and 75 per cent after that, to
1985 unless government purchases
exceeded 3.5 billion pounds of milk
equivalent.
Then it would drop the price to 70
per cent of parity. You could still
end-up with 70 per cent of parity
but you would have another year to
make some changes m production.
The 3.5 billion pounds of milk
equivalent isn’t much compared to
8.8 billion that CCC bought in 1980
but it would be more helpful, 1
believe, to have your trigger on a
milk equivalent basis than on a
dollar basis because as paces
increase the dollar figure
represents a smaller and smaller
volume of milk.
Anyway, I thought you should
know that the House is opposing
the administration farm bill and
trying to get you something a little
better. It also means that it will be
some tune before a farm bill gets'
through Congress and unless they
pass a separate bill reducing the
support pace to $12.80 while they
make up their minds you can go on -
“enjoying” 75 per cent of panty for
an extra couple of months.