VOL 28 No. 3 Milk support reduction is ‘go 9 for Dec . 1 BY DICK ANGLESTEIN STRASBURG While glancing back more than two and one-half centuries at the Sixth Annual Century Farms Banquet at the Historic Strasburg Thursday night, Lancaster County’s ag and business community took a deeper look at the more immediate past and the coming near future. in a nutshell, here’s some history and some history to-be-made that came out of the banquet: -Ranking GOP member of the NOTICE Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Lancaster Fanning announces the following deadlines for the Nov. 27 issue: sales register, 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22; public sales, 5' p.m., Monday; display ads, 5 p.m., Monday; classified ads, 9 a.m. Wednesday; Nov. 24; news, 5 p.m. Wednesday. Dairy farmers petition for “50-cent”delay BY JOYCE BUPP Staff Correspondent YORK Write more. Milk less. That was the nutshell message heard by about 30 York and Lancaster dairy farmers who turned out last Friday for a Penn sylvania Farmers’ Union public alertedness concerning the proposed 50-cent-per-hundredwe ight milk price deduction to begin Dec. 1. Before the meeting at the York Extension offices ended, most of the dairy farmers had affixed their signatures to a Congressional petition urging the passage of Paul Sacia, Washington lobbyist for the National Farmers' Union, told farmers last Friday evening that national legislators are embarrassed by the dairy program calling for assessments and he predicts a “good chance" of a delay on the milk price deduction. Other participants in the protest meeting held in York County, seated at the head table from left, were: Al Garber, meeting chairman; Albert Bentz, York Co. Farmers’ Union president; Attorney Marian Furman; and PFU Vice President Barbara Woods. Four Sections House Ag Committee and a dairyman. Congressman James M. Jeffords, of Vermont, stated emphatically that the SO-cent support price reduction will begin as scheduled on December 1. -He also touched on a new grain program being considered in which fanners can buy back storage grain in exchange for cuts in acreage. -And in the background of the current news making were.the six Lancaster County families with Century Farms whose ag news making has been up to 265 years in development. Individual stories on the Century Farms are scattered throughout this week’s Issue of Lancaster Funning. See the Index on Page A 3. Featured speaker for the evening, Jeffords - one of the Republican survivors of the past election - took the mixed business (Turn to Page A 32) alternate dairy legislation. Earlier in the week, National Farmers’ Union representatives had delivered a stack of petitions, bearing more than 21,000 names, to the USDA offices of Secretary of Agriculture John Block. Details of that petition presentation, and other efforts by Farmers Union to thwart the dairy deduction to begin in two weeks, were given by the group’s Washington lobbyist, Paul Sacia. Also on hand for what had been billed a “protest” meeting were a trio of elected officials, York County state legislators Donald Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, November 20,1982 Congressman Jeffords says: Surrounded by more than a millennium of ag heritage at Lancaster County Century Farms Banquet are Congressman James M. Jeffords, of Vermont, left, and Pa. Ag Secretary Penrose Hallowell. Distaffers from Century Farms include, from left, Lorraine Cassel, Kathryn Herr, Frances K. Shenk (front), Joan WHmer, Elizabeth Brenneman, M. Isabel Ferree and Jane Brenneman. " During PFU protest meeting Dorr and A. Carvill Foster, and Lancaster County Commissioner Jim Huber. A representative for York County Commissioner Bill McKinley also attended. Rep. Dorr read to the group a resolution adopted last week in the state House of Representatives. That resolution urged Congress to take action to delay im plementation of the Dec. 1 assessment to allow the dairy industry and Congress sufficient time to develop a program to more realistically deal with the milk surplus. Attorney Marian Furman, head of the Farmers’ Union Political Action Committee, briefly reviewed the history of the dairy legislation passed in August, aimed at cutting milk surpluses and government purchases of dairy products through two in crements of 50-cent deductions on the milk price. In October 1980, support price for milk was frozen at $13.10 for five years. Farmers Union studies show the average blend price for milk at that time was $12.80, while cost of production was $ll.BO per hundred, leaving a dollar margin. By contrast, the cost of Johne’s update, awards highlight Guernsey banquet BY DONNA TOMMELLEO REFTON Pending legislation in Wisconsin, regarding Johne’s disease, may dictate the movement of cattle through that state, Pennsylvania Guernsey Breeders business manager Lee Yost said Thursday. In his address at the annual meeting of the Lancaster County Guernsey Breeders, Yost reported on an all-breed Johne’s seminar, sponsored by the American Guernsey Cattle Club during the recent North American Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky. “Everyone should take a hard look at this, regardless of breed," Yost said. “The biggest problem is getting fanners to admit they have it.” $7.50 per year production for 1983 is estimated fay Farmers’ Union at $14.50 per hundred, and estimated-price after the two proposed 50-cent assessments is $ll.BO, a deficit per hundredweight of $2.70. By law, the Dec. 1 assessment is to be triggered if the Community Credit Corporation buys 5 billion pounds of milk equivalent, a figure already surpassed. The second assessment of 50-cents, scheduled for April 1, 1983, will be triggered by a 7.5 billion pound CCC pur chase. Market experts predict that purchases will exceed that limit, (Turn to Page A 39) The disease is characterized by severe scouring and rapid loss of flesh terminating in prostration and death. Appetite remains good until the animal goes down and some animals may have in termittent diarrhea for a period of time. According to a fact sheet provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the disease begins appearing in cattle at two years of age, peaks at three years and drops off rapidly with relatively few cases noted after five years of age. The disease is spread by fecal contamination of feed and water and can be spread through natural (Turn to Page A2O)
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