Al2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 4,1982
(Continued from Page Al)
said he was surprised that the PUC
“ruled for the fanners after the
law judge ruled against us twice.”
Mills, who has been in the dairy
business for eight years and milks
30 head of Holsteins in a stall barn,
said stray voltage almost “wiped
me out.” He first noticed the un
welcomed current on his farm in
1977 after a new milk pipeline was
installed. “But I was too ignorant
to know what it was,” he admitted.
He said he began to notice lus
cows would not drink water out of
their bowls. Then the number of
mastitis cases began to increase
and the temperament of his cows
worsened with each milking.
Finally in October 1980, Penn
State’s Steve Spencer positively
diagnosed stray voltage flowing
through Mills’ barn. Meter
readings, recalled Mills, measured
roughly 4 volts in the stanchions
and 7 volts from the floor drain to
bulk tank in the milkhouse. (Stray
voltage should not exceed 0.5 V,
otherwise humans and animals
can feel discomfort.)
That same month Mills con
tacted West Penn Power about his
stray voltage problem. “They tried
to tell us that it was our problem
and that they were not going to do
anything,” he recalled.
After the problem failed to
disappear, the utility company
agreed to separate the neutral
ground on their electric line
feeding the farm in order to
determine if the stray voltage was
originating on or off the farm. This
was done in February 1981 and
immediately stray voltage on tlie
Mills farm was brought down to
tolerable levels.
Nine months later, West Penn
electicians returned to the Mills
farm with orders to reconnect the
neutral grounds having them
disconnected was in violation of
the safety codes. And so Larry
Mills found himself once again
confronting the phantom
phenomenon stray voltage.
That’s when he contacted Louis
, how come whenever I see you lately,
f JaK
sitting on your rocu
Luke, I’ve made up my mind to
r sit tight until the December
of Lancaster Farming comes.
* * "T
PUC
rules
Glantz for legal help.
He also decided to eliminate the
intolerable stray voltage by
purchasing an isolation tran
sformer for $7OO to separate his
farm from the commercial lines.
He paid an additional $6OO to have
the transformer installed and his
barn rewired m January 1982.
Since then, Mills noted, his cows’
milk production has “increased
substantially."
Co-complainants Joel and
Larson Wenger who operate a
father-son dairy farm, Weng-Lea
Farms, m Greencastle, West
moreland County began to notice
stray voltage symptoms in their
herd of 120 Holsteins about the
same tune as Mills did. Joel
Wenger, a veteran dairyman with
25 years experience, explained
how he noticed a change in his
cows’ dispositions and production
soon after he installed a new
milking parlor in 1978.
In April 1980, Penn State’s Steve
Spencer found stray voltage
lurking in the Wenger setup after
taking readings of 2.5 volts from
bulk tank to dram and in other
areas of the barn.
Wenger recounted how he
contacted West Penn Power, and
praised the positive efforts made
by the local engineer to help. But,
said Wenger, when the local
engineer could do no more without
getting help from the “higher
ups,” West Penn’s decision
makers said “no.”
In Wengers’ case, the power
company eventually disconnected
the neutral grounds on their line to
determine where the stray voltage
was coming from; and like Mills,
the Wenger’s problems stemmed
from off-farm sources. The dairy
farmers respite from the traumas
of stray voltage ended after a year
when safety necessitated the hook
up of the neutrals again.
As the Wengers watched their
herd’s production drop by 10 to 15
percent, they decided it was tune
to invest $1,500 in an isolation
transformer. Since this past
to catch all them b
BINKLEY & HURS
' ?cial Flyer for
& CARRY DA
rting Dec. 1
:er?
January when the transformer
was installed, Wenger said he’s
seeing a slow rise in cow
production.
“I’m having better luck in
production now; my cows are
milking out better. But cows don’t
forget bad experiences right away.
It’s like electric fences once a
cow knows one’s been there and
gets shocked, you almost have to
chase her through even after
you’ve taken the fence down,” said
Wenger.
Although Wenger had not been
notified officially by PUC on the
Nov. 19 decision when he talked
with Lancaster Farming on
Tuesday, he said if PUC had ruled
m favor of the farmers “it's time
they admitted the problem.”
When asked if he felt the fight
was worth all the time and money,
Wenger commented, “We didn’t do
it just to benefit ourselves. There
are other fanners out there who
are having the same problem we
did.”
Oops
In last week’s Dec. 4 issue, the
million dollar-selling cow,
Allendairy Glamourous Ivy,
selling from the Greenleaf, Wis.
farm of Tom' Pearson, was
described as being bred at the
farm of Ed Doebereiner. It should
have read, “the Allendairy farm,
formerly of Mechanicsburg.” It
was bom and raised at the
Doebereiner farm.
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Mushroom growers
(Continued from Page Al)
against the quota on Sept. 30 were
influenced by their feelings on
liberal free trade.
“They didn’t want America to be
accused of being trade restric
tive,” scoffed Kooker. “There’s a
difference between free and fair
trade, you know.”
Why did China target the U.S.
mushroom industry for its export
trade which doubled from 1980-81
through marketing strategies
keyed to undercutting domestic
mushrooms and other imports in
price? According to Kooker, their
reasons included the foreign ex
change factor, and the fact that the
mushroom industry was already a
viable, established business in the
U.S. Along with that, Kooker noted
the mushroom business is highly
labor intensive, and the Chinese
have cheap labor.
The end result of the increasing
amounts of canned mushrooms
flooding into U.S. markets since
1979 is the thinning out of U.S.
mushroom growers to the tune of
25 percent. And, when more
mushroom growers quit, which
Kooker predicts will be a common
occurance during the next 18
NOW AVAILABLE AT
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ELL
months, the loss will be felt by
many other businesses.
Kooker, who admits he is
disappointed but vows he will not
be discouraged by the mushroom
industry’s defeat, insists he will
“keep fighting” and will continue
to pursue every avenue for import
relief. The next step for mushroom
growers, he said, is to unite in
support of a fresh market
promotion program.
“That’s going to be hard for
growers to do, though, because it
will take voluntary contributions.
The $15,000 we spent trying to get
import relief during the past five
months has drained the well dry
AMI has no more money left to
continue the battle. ”
Kooker described the nation’s
mushroom growers as being
“down on their knees” and “kicked
in the teeth.” He recounted his
early morning meeting with three
growers Thursday during which
grown men cried when they
realized their last straw for sur
vival had finally broken.
“Perhaps the best way to get a
guy up and fighting is to kick him
when he’s down,” Kooker said
angrily.
I