mm ~ > Ml 1 ' I I - “ 01. 27 No. 20 AGRICULTURE: ITS YOUR HEARTBEAT, AMERICA AGRICULTURE DAY • MARCH 18,1982 Mmm Editorials, All); Now is the time, All); Ladies have you heard?- fi4; On being a farm wife, B 9; Garden Center, B 12; Ida’s Notebook, B 16; Fanning’s Futures, BSD; Ask the VMD, DIO; The Milk Cljeck, Dll; Brockett’s Ag Advice, DID. Dairy Berks DUXA, D 4; Dauphin DHJA, DB; Chester DHIA, Dl6; World Belief Bale, A2O; Milk and Cholesterol, A2l. *v_r. r Horn and Yaofh Homestead Notes, B 2; Hone on the Range, fid; Farm Women Societies, B»; Kid’s Komer, BIO; 4■ U news, BID andß44; FFA news, 810, 820, and 822; New Cattlemen Queen, B2t>; Quilting Guild, B 38; Philadelphia Flower Show, 842; Outstanding Young Fanners, BIS, B36andß4U. A fresh heifer, consigned by Leonard Stoltzfus of Douglasville, topped the Penn sylvania World Relief Heifer Sale, Thursday, with a price tag of $2,125. The Milestone daughter was purchased by Melvin Kolb, Lancaster. Manormead Milestone Loraine is PFA crusade takes farm message to D.C. BY SHEILA MILLER WASHINGTON, D.C. - More and more these days, farmers are trading in their overalls and donning their Sunday‘best" suits. Befittmgly dressed, they climb inside their pickup trucks or washed and waxed sedans and leave their farms behind for a crusade to our nation’s capital. These treks to the big city are not purely social missions, instead they are well-planned, purposeful trips to the home ofthe country’s lawmakers. And, once they’ve wound their way throughthe maze of concrete' streets that defy even the most direction-oriented pathfinder, these transformed farmers set out in the direction of the landmark dome that marks the place where political decisions are made each day. Realizing the consequences of joined in the sale ring by, from left to right: Leon Kurtz, Wilmer Kraybill, sale manager; Leonard Stoitzfus; Harold Shelienberger, leadsman; in the auction stand E. Hershey, Dale Hoover and John Umble. See story on page A2O. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 13,1982 Ag Day salutes farmers BY DEBBIE KOONTZ LANCASTER Agriculture Day 1902, a nationwide program to promote greater awareness of the contributions and needs of the American farmer and his oc cupation, will be celebrated this Thursday. The day, appropriately titled “Agriculture It’s Your Heart beat America,” is directed nationally by the Agriculture Day Foundation and administered by the Agriculture Council of America. According to Sam Smith, dean of Penn State’s College of Agriculture, the day is “an oc casion to remind other Americans of the strength of agriculture and of its needs.” It’s also a day to share with these legislative decisions (made for the most part by men and women who have seldom if ever set food in a plowed field) have a profound -impact' on their agricultural existence, these missionaries of the farming world attempt to bring their message to perhaps otherwise unenlightened, indifferent legislators. This week, more than 200 members of the Pennsylvania Farmers’ Association took part in such a mission. These Keystone State crusaders rallied here at the Quality Inn on Wednesday and Thursday to plan their strategies and to present the farming facts to Pennsylvanian Congressmen and Senators. or legislative aides when representatives were unavailable. The farmers didn’t go into the face-to-face meetings with legislators unprepared. They were briefed on the legislative issues consumers the facts about working in an industry that is absolutely vital for their survival a characteristic few other en terprises can claim. This year’s observance will employ certain statistics in its campaign to educate the con sumer: —Agriculture employs 22 per cent of the U.S. work force; 23 million men and women hold jobs in the U.S. food system, from the farmers who produce the food, to the businesses that supply them, to the processors and retailers who help get it to the consumer. —Agriculture is the number one inflation-fighter; Americans pay an average of 16 percent of their income on food, less than citizens of any other major industrial affecting the farm community by PFA and American Farm Bureau Federation coaches. “Today Washington is more a town of- questions rather than answers as it was in years before,” ; commented PFA Administrative Secretary Richard Newpher as be primed the farmers for an af ternoon r of persuasion. He _ described the nation’s capital as a place where farmers used to come to seek money, but said it is now the place of the “buddy system.” Laughing, be explained that the answer Washington gives now when people come looking for money has changes to “Not me, buddy.” This, new federalism attitude, stated Newpfaer, has been NMPF board approves self-help programs BY DONNA TOMMELLEO WASHINGTON, f).C. - The National Milk Producers Federation board of directors, last week, unanimously approved two self-help programs designed to increase dairy sales and stablize market prices, said NMPF spokesperson Doni Dondero. Both proposals, which require assessments, must , meet with Congressional approval, however, and Dondero reported that U..S. dairy farmers may be affected by at least one proposal as early as October 1,1982. The Price Stabilization program, targeted for the fall, is a two-tier pricing system, administered by a dairy board in consultation with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. According to Dondero, the program will be based on a beginning year estimated surplus level. For example, if the national surplus is estimated at 10 percent, fanners would receive full market price for 90 percent of their milk. The remaining; M) percent willr receive a reduced price, related to the world market price. $7.50 per year nation. In addition, it is the world’s most varied and highest-quality food supply. —Agriculture is the nation’s number one industry; last year it had total assets of $l.l trillion. —Farmers are so efficient that they feed 226 millon Americans and-still have enough to feed 144 million people abroad; last year Hfe U.S. exported about $45 billion in farm commodities cutting the trade deficit in half by paying for oil, automobiles, electronics, vital raw materials, and other major imports. \ According to the Agriculture Day Foundation, the day will feature hundreds of events, from special messages on the side of (Turn to Page A3B) the AFBF policy for years. He noted PFA supports .the Reagan administrations’ program to reduce federal expenditures and its deficit budget. -- Leading a group of 5 other far mers, Lancaster dairyman John Barley struck out for the Capitol to meet with Senator H. John Heinz HI. Lending their support to the legislative effort wore Elizabeth Collins, a mushroom grower from Chester County; Hank Swartz, a dairyman from. Susquehanna County; Harold Kulp, a dairyman from Chester County; Paul Mc- Pherson, a grain and fruit grower from York County; and Gilbert (Turn to Page A 23) The difference between the full market price and the world price will be collected into a fund. The money will be used to purchase the portion of milk not used in federal programs. “We’re trying to find some equitable way of breaking up the country,” Dondero reported. She said the program will take into consideration volume and geography. Through ownership of the excess product, the dairy board will seek to market the milk through foreign and domestic markets. The proposal requires maintaining the current support price of $13.10 throughout the year. Beyond that, said Dondero, the support level of parity will be provided for in legislation. The second program approved by the NMPF board is the Product Promotion proposal which requires a national referendum. Dondero said U.S. dairy farmers could vote on a five cent per hunderweight check-off, by early 1983. Generated funds will be used to (Turn to Page A 32)
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