A32—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, April 16,1983
What
BY IRISH WILLIAMS
LANCASTER Providing there
are no court restraining orders or
injunctions, the Secretary of
Agriculture will start collecting
today, the controversial 50 cents
assessment per hundredweight on
all milk marketed. The assessment
has been the focus of much
discussion and criticism among
dairymen, milk handlers, and
legislators across the nation.
In attempt to evaluate what the
immediate affect will be on local
dairymen, Lancaster Farming
asked four Lancaster County
dairymen for their comments.
The dairymen who share their
thoughts with us on these pages
are, Tom Denlinger, John Barley,
Glen Burkholder, and Ken Zurin.
By choosing operations of various
size and style, we hope to have
obtained a small representative
sample of dairymens’ opinions and
intentions.
First, let us introduce you to
each dairymen.
Tom Denlinger is a young far
mer, with a small herd on his
rented farm in Bareville.
Denlinger did not come from a
farming background, his father
was a plumber. He feeds his 50 cow
herd in one group, in a free stall set
up, obtaining a herd average of
17,000 pounds of milk, with a 3.6
test. He farms 70 rented acres and
has been in the business three
years.
John Barley is in partnership
with his brother Abrahm, they own
Star Rock Farm in near
Washington Boro. The Barleys own
Glen Burkholder milks 6t cows on his farm near
Washington Boro.
m* •.
Ken Zurin with son, Michael and daughter, Nickey.
effect will the 50 cents
600 acres and farm a total of 1650
acres, with 1200 in com, 200 in
alfalfa, and 100 in small grains.
Employing eight full-time
workers, the farm has a herd of
1300 dairy cattle. The milking herd
usually runs are 500 in number,
with 450 cows milking. Barley
raises both heifers and bulls,
selling the bulls for breeding stock
to other farmers or fattening them
for the meat market. Last year he
merchandized 90 heifers.
Glen Burkholder also farms near
Washington Boro. Burkholder’s
oldest son Jeff now works full-time
with him to run the 65 cow dairy.
Their herd is housed in a 59 tie stall
bam and has a rolling herd
average of 20,178 pounds milk, and
743 pounds of fat with a 3.7 test.
Farming 193 acres, owning most of
that Burkholder feeds com silage,
haylage and ground ear com,
supplemented with soybean meal.
Two other children working part
time are also on the payroll.
Ken Zurin farms about 1000
acres near Sailings. He started
farming in 1980 with a herd of 80.
At that time he bought the farm,
built a 200 stall free stall barn, and
put up silos and a machine shed.
His herd has grown to 250 cows in
the milking string with a rolling
herd average of 15,250 pounds of
milk, and 572 pounds of fat. Zurin
employees three full-time workers
and two part-time workers.
Each farmer was asked for their
comments on the 50 cents
assessment, by responding to four
questions.
Here are the questions and
responses:
What affect do you think the 50
cents assessment will have on your
fanning operation?
Tom Denlinger - With what we
are shipping now, we figure it will
take $3OO per month off our milk
check. So that is $3OO we won’t
have toward paying notes, or feed
bills, or anything else. But we can
adjuk for that much.
In the short run I don’t see where
it’s going to hurt us too much,
maybe it will for a month or two til
I get readjusted and use to it. It
won’t put me under, if it goes to one
dollar, then we face some hard
management decisions.
John Barley - It will create more
of a cash flow problem. We will
have less dollars coming in, and
we’ll have to cope with it. For
tunately, our operation is
somewhat diversified, although
the dairy is the mainstay. So there
are areas where we can com
pensate for the 50 cents
assessment. We’ve been in the
business for twelve years now, and
are in a better position than
somebody who has recently
started dairying.
Glen Burkholder -At our present
production it will knock about $6OOO
per year off our milk income. I
imagine it will depress the heifer
market as well, so I figure that will
probably cost me another $2OOO per
year.
Ken Zurin - In dollar terms, the
first 50 cents will costs me $l5OO
per month. That’ a little rough, as
you might imagine our monthly
payments are pretty demanding.
Right now I would like to continue
to expand my herd, the 50 cents
assessment will make that harder.
Do you plan to make any changes
in your farming operation in
response to the 50 cents
assessment?
Tom Denlinger - We did add four
cows to the herd. Our neighbor is a
cattle dealer and wanted to put
these cows in the herd. We agreed
to lease them in order to increase
our milk flow. 1 don’t think I would
borrow money to add cows on right
now.
I have been working with feed
company representative on im
proving our feeding program to
bring our butterfat test up and the
herd average along with it. It’s not
a fast process, but it helps. I also
plan to make some changes in the
cropping program. I’ll probably
follow corn with rye to get more
protein. The more we can grow the
less feed we’ll have to buy.
John Barley - Abrahm and I have
talked about this and we have
adopted a policy for this year that
we simply just are not spending
any money for capitol outlays, as
far as any major real estate im
provements, building, major
equipment replacement. We
simply have said, no, not this year,
because of the 50 cents assessment
and because the whole dairy
situation is uncertain.
The assessment is one of the
reasons we put 150 acres of com in
the PIK program. PIK is a way to
keep some expenses down, we
don’t have to buy any fertilizer or
seed com for those 150 acres.
Glen Burkholder - At 50 cents we
probably will make no major
changes. Of course we’re always
trying to be efficient. I do plan to
increase haylage and buy less
soybean meal, while keeping our
production up.
We are farming 20 more acres
this year, so we hope to grow more
of our own feed, and buy less. This
year we are going to grow ten
acres of soybeans, roast them and
feed them. That should help the fat
test. If the fat test comes up just
one point that will increase the
price per hundredweight about 17
cents.
If things get real tight, we’ll
probably pay less principal off.
The last four years have been good
for us, so we can afford to do that,
assessment have?
Tom Denlinger owns a small herd near Leola.
John Barley farms 1500 acres near Washington Boro.
we’re a little ahead on it now. I
won’t build the machine shed I
wanted.
Ken Zurin - I’m definitely going
to ship more milk to keep my cash
flow up~ We were going to sell half
of our 75 heifers that will
freshening between now and
September. Now with the 50 cents
assessment we plan to milk them.
We are shipping 300,000 pounds per
month, we’re going to increase to
350 - 375,000. My goal is 400,000.
How will the 50 cents assessment
affect the dairy industry as a
whole?
Tom Denlinger - It will force
everyone to manage a little har
der. Some fellows are sitting on a
fence now, the 50 cents assessment
could be enough to push them off.
Maybe it was time they got out
anyhow, but that’s easy to say
when you know you can make it. It
seems like the younger guys will be
hurt the worst. They’re the ones
who are trying to build or improve
their herd. I think if the
assessment does anything, it will
create more milk.
John Barley - On April 16
something is finally going to
happen; it is the first time that
something has actually happened.
Up to that point we’ve talked about
this plan and that plan. It may
draw some of the differences of
opinion together and get us to rally
behind some kind of proposal that
will be acceptable in Congress and
pass.
I think it is going to be difficult to
seperate the affects of higher feed
costs caused by PIK from the
affects of the 50 cents assessment.
PIK will cause higher feed costs,
the higher the feed prices go, the
less grain will be fed. That will
reduce production. The 50 cents
may, get credit for lowering the
supply of milk when in fact it may
be the price of grain that is really
lowering it. With these two things
coming back to back, work
together, we may see the situation
turn around in a relatively short
period of time. The surplus may
dwindle rapidly. I think it will
cause some farmers to go out.
There is a popular theory that
many dairymen are going to add
on cows, to replace the amount of
dollars lost in milk income. To do
that you'll more than likely have to
borrow the money, that will mean
additional interest for someone
who may already be leveraged
rather heavily. The milk from
these additional cows will be sold
at a surplus price, less the 50 cents
assessment, so you’ll be getting
only about $ll or less per hun
dredweight. With the cost of grain
going up, I don’t think you’ll be
able to even produce milk at that
price, so I’m not too concerned that
that will happen. It may be a good
time to upgrade your herd, by
selling beef cows two for one for
good replacement heifers ready to
enter the milking string.
Glen Burkholder -1 don’t see the
50 cents assessment having that
much of an affect. It’s not enough
to change things that much. I think
it will take a dollar or a dollar-and
a-half to cut production across the
country. It may force some
dairymen out of the business, but
that’s kind of how the American
economic system is set up. In other
words, the thrifty and the efficient
survive.
Ken Zurin - Right now it’s going
to make more milk, because dairy
farmers have to keep their cash
flow up. Guys who are getting
started or growing are going to get
hurt.
What alternative to the 50 cents
assessment would you be willing to
support as a measure to correct
the dairy surplus problem?
Tom Denlinger -1 would back the
plan propsed by the National Milk
Producers. It is a good plan
because there is an incentive to
decrease production, You can
decrease production by ten percent
(Turn to Page A 33)