VOL. 28 No. 30
Tour focuses
on farming
as business
BY DEBBIE KOONTZ
LANCASTER It was truly a
day "down on the farm” for the
more than 40 members of the
Lancaster County Chamber of'
Commerce who participated in the
Businessman’s Farm Tour,
Tuesday, exchanging the cor
porate structure for the farm life of
four different operations.
Whether the visitors expected a
remake of an old Green Acres
television show or a storybook
picture from Currier and Ives
wasn’t verbalized, but their
astonishment at the structured
management and efficiency they
experienced prompted members to
term the day ‘a learning ex
perience.’
And that, according to county
Extension agent Jay Irwin, was
the entire gist of the tour.
"We wanted to take the mem
bers of the Chamber mostly
businessmen, bankers and ad
agency representatives to the
farm so they could see the different
situations farmers face from day
today.
“1 think through this the
members have learned that far
mers are, and have to be, very
sharp businessmen,” he said.
But as Irwin will agree, it’s not
bard to be Impressed with Lan
caster County harms and fanners
since they’re located in an area
known as the nation’s Garden Spot,
consisting of the best non-imgated
farmland in the UJ».'Add to this
impressive distinction the fact that
Lancaster County is well-noted for
its ag diversification and you have
a tour that presented a very
overall view of farming, all
(T urn to Page A2B)
As Egg month closes,,.
Local businessmen donned farmer's caps, Tuesday, as they
visited four ag operations in Lancaster as part of the County
Chamber of Commerce's Businessman’s Farm -Tour. Here,
they had a chance to see the 40,000 layer poultry operation of
filehrtstMleg^ldft'm , i^ida'', ,t ,
Four Sections
Spreading the ‘Seal 9
Turn to Page AlO
for the first of Lancaster Farming's
Dairy Promotion Swap Shop ideas.
’And for more on milk promotion ,
don't miss next week's Dairy Issue.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 28,1983
Narvon Mine series of stories
wins Ist place writing award
LITITZ Lancaster Farming’s
senes of stones outlining the
personal impact on neighboring
farmers of the proposed location of
a hazardous waste dump in a
prune agricultural area in Eastern
Lancaster County has received a
first-place award in statewide
newspaper writing competition.
The four-part series of stories,
which was published in Lancaster
Farming last October and
November, was wntten and
photographed by Dick Anglestein,
editor. (See editorial, page A 10.)
The Narvon Mine stones won the
award in the Feature Series
category of the Weekly Newspaper
Division of the 1983 Keystone Press
Awards Contest sponsored by the
Pennsylvania Newspaper
Publishers’ Association and the
Pennsylvania Society of
Newspaper Editors.
It was the only writing award
won • by %*any .agricultural',
Dairy conference eyes
changes in marketing
UNIVERSITY PARK New promotional strategies, Ultra High
Temperature milk (UHT), and consolidation of the Northeast’s dairy
cooperatives, were just some of the changes in milk marketing
predicted this week by dairy industry experts. These predictions were
made to an audience of 250 persons from all factions of the dairy in
dustry who were on campus Monday through Wednesday at Penn State
to take part in the annual Pennsylvania Dairy Sanitarians’ and
Laboratory Directors’ Conference.
Over forty experts from the Northeast dairy industry spoke at the
three day conference, covering a wide range of current concerns in the
region. Everything from nutrition research findings to the future of
Northeastern dairy cooperatives to producing milk of high quality was
discussed.
Dr. Robert McCarthy, Penn State professor of food science, kicked off
the conference by presenting data from research he has been con
ducting on cholestrol and dairy products. His findings discredit many of
the commonly held myths about the health risks caused by cholestrol
intake through dairy products.
In a talk and slide presentation on UHT milk, Jack Hall of Dairymen
Inc. touched on some of the almost limitless marketing possibilities this
new product provides the industry. Hall aroused a great deal of interest
and discussion among conventioneers over the new ‘brick pack’ that
can be shipped and stored without refrigeration at half the price of
conventional dairy products. -
And what’s-.coming in future
The present and future status of the dairy industry were the subjects
of a series of speeches.
Dr. Lew Mix, economist for Agway, reviewed the present status of the
Northeast dairy industry, giving a summary of current trends and
statistics. Mix also made reference to research being conducted by
Penn State economists on funding by Agway. The study involves 350
Pennsylvania dairy farms, and pulls together DHIA records and farm
business records from Farm Credit, to see what affect specific
management practices have.
Further consolidation of dairy cooperatives was the prediction made
by James Roof of The Agricultural Cooperative Service. Large
cooperatives better equipped for the latest milk testing procedures will
be the way of the future.
Details of conference
in next week’s issue
publication throughout the state
and the only first-place award
received by any newspaper in
Lancaster County.
The competition is conducted
annually among- all newspapers
throughout Pennsylvania, with
various categories of competition
for daily newspapers of differing
circulation totals and weeklies.
BY HUSH WILLIAMS
(Turn to Page Al 2)
The series of stones, which
appeared m Lancaster Fanning on
October 23 and 30 and November 6
and 13, 1982, concentrated on the
fears and concerns of neighboring
Old Order Mennomte farmers
about increased traffic and
pollution of ground water if the
hazardous waste dump is located
at the Narvon Mine site.
To obtain the views of the far
mers, Anglestem spent a couple of
days working alongside, eating
and talking with four different
families living immediately ad
jacent to the mine.
Anglestem previously has won
similar writing awards in the
competition while working on the
staffs of newspapers m Lancaster
and State College.
The Keystone Awards will be
presented next Saturday night at
the annual awards banquet of the
Pennsylvania Press Conference at
theHamsburg Marriott Inn.
$7.50 per year