Sheep producers seek uniform
By Laurie Oobrosky
STATE COLLEGE - A
recommendation to have the
United States Department of
Agriculture develop a set of
uniform grading standards for the
Eastern Seaboard was approved at
the recent Eastern Lamb ard Wool
Marketing Conference at the Penn
State Sheraton Hotel.
Speakers informed the more
than 150 conference participants,
including sheep producers from 10
states, about new and different
methods to market both lamb and
wool. Marketing was defined by
opening speaker and chairman of
the event, Clair Engle, as
“creating value or performing a
service for which someone is
willing to pay.”
A resolution was passed to
initiate a uniform grading system
for market lambs, based on the
Virginia-West Virginia system.
This resolution was approved after
lamb packer, Fred L.C. Stapf, of
Stapf Packing Company, com
mented that he will not buy Penn
sylvania lambs due to the lack of a
uniform grading system.
In addition to grading systems,
producers learned various
methods to market both lamb and
wool, including cooperatives, wool
pools, and direct marketing of wool
to handspmners and craftsmen.
Systems of lamb marketing were
a major part of the conference.
Auction markets, were discussed
by Abe Diffenbach, manager of
New Holland Sales Stables, New
Holland.
James Diamond, Penn State
professor of ag education,
discussed his personal experience
with the direct marketing of lamb
to the consumer, relying on local
media advertising and word-of
mouth to spread the word about his
freezer lambs.
The final methods of lamb
marketing discussed is a relatively
new and highly advanced system,
called a teleauction. This method
mvolves allowing the sheep on the
farm until the buyer has purchased
the pre-graded lambs - through
the use of a computer and the
telephone. Buyers call in to the
auction and the computer keeps
track of the bidding. After the
lambs have been purchased buyer
and seller arrange for delivery.
Another one of the main
problems discussed during the
conference was product unifor
mity. This is particularly involved
with trying to keep a uniform
supply of lambs on the market all
yearlong.
Packer Douglas Conti, Conti
Packing, New York, stated that
“seasonal lamb supplies are the
most important problem facing the
sheep industry.” \
Uniform size on lamb carcasses
is another factor. Packers have the
best - market for carcasses
weighing from 50-60 pounds. Most
lamb feeders, however, have not
been supplying these lambs.
The final topic of major concern
was lamb and wool promotion.
Various .employees of the
American Sheep Producers
Council (ASPC) spoke on the
programs initiated to do the job of
promoting lamb and wool. Such
programs include supermarket
features and tours promoting the
sheep industry employed to
increase the demand for lamb and
wool.'
Having supermarket chains
feature lamb as their weekly
special has been the most
promising promotion of all, ac
cording to Walter Streightiff,
manager of the regional lamb
promotion for the ASPC. This helps
to save on money and promotes
lamb where consumers will be
more likely to notice the ad
vertisement, he said.'
Streightiff was honored at the
" Family farming con- " One lime, up there, I
sutures really, a culture Peo- saw them strip-plowing about a
pie whose farms are on Ihe out- — forty-acre field There must
skirts of a growing town, who jfea have been two hundred teams
want lo farm, and for whom , ibv-Jkm plowing that field, one behind
farming is the tie lo their another—all colors, all sizes,
ancestors and children, have to <*SO , » horses and mutes, their skirts
deal with a strange, disruptive T just a-wavmg along with the
problem Can a stable hale m motion of the double tree, as tf
way of life that is the basis for ' they were floating on the water
health and order in community * I can get goose-pimples on me
and government be exchanged from just sitting there thinking
for monev’’ about U
“ / feel a bond between us and a dependence on each
' other, and I know I have a horse I can be proud of ”
/
The
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 5,1981—833
grading standards
&
a
Robert Hoy, president of Woolknit Associates, addresses
150 participants in the Eastern Lamb and Wool Marketing
Conference at Penn State recently.
t> «
Walter Streightiff, regional manager for lamb promotion
and sales for the American Sheep Producers Council, was
honored for his 25 years of service at recent Eastern Lamb
and Wool Marketing Conference.
banquet for 25 years of service to
the sheep industry in the Cast.
“It’s tune to say we will wear
sweaters and they will be wool,”
stated Robert Hoy, featured
speaker and president of Woolkmt
Associates. Hoy’s speech, in
terlaced with humor, dealt with
topics ranging form the Pitt-Penn
State game, to the economy and
wool promotion.
“We haven’t taken advantage of
exporting,” Hoy said in his efforts
to stress the promotion of the sheep
industry.
“Neither have we as sheep
producers put pressure on the
market or been talking about our
product.”
The conference was sponsored
by American Sheep Producers
Council/National Blueprint
Program; Pennsylvania State
University, College of Agriculture;
and the Pennsylvania Sheep and
Wool Growers Association.