The Pennsylvania Association of County Agricultural Agents installed new officers and directors at the annual meeting Nov. 17-18 on the Penn State campus. Officers seated left to right are Jacob Guffey, Treas., David Fowler, Vice-President, Robert Hetrick, President arid William Messersmith, Secretary; standing, left to right, William Kelly, Past-President, Gordon Walker, William Shuffstall, Blaine Schlosser and Alton Homan, Directors. UNIPELI3-34-10 fertilizer can get your com crop off to a super start: It has a high concentration of water-soluble Phosphorus that gets to young seedlings quickly. Helps plants establish a good root system - the starting point for top yields. Its quick-acting and long-lasting Nitrogen team up to feed the young plants for full yield potential, continually from sprouting to harvest. This is the Starter Special that com growers know from good experience. It’s highly effective as a banded starter. And it’s SAFE... no chance of ammonia damage to tender, young seedlings when used as a “pop up” and applied directly with the seed at 50 Ibs./acre. Owvrm How can we fit UNEPEL 13-34-10 into your com fertility program? P. L. ROHRER & BRO., INC. SMOKETOWN, PA County ag agent officers T M s ORTHO Chevron ai d design UNIPEL Peg U S Pat OH s Ortho FERTILIZERS Helping the World Gmw Bettor PH: 717-299-2571 If multinuilion-dollar corpora tions can merge and find some mutual advantage in that arrange ment, why can’t farmers do the same thing? You read in the business press quite often about corporate mergers, but whoever heard of farm mergers? That’s because it seldom happens. Oh sure, some farmers buy out other farmers as they retire, or perhaps father and son or two brothers decide to join their operations for mutual benefit, but the standard business merger seems almost un thinkable to the fiercely indepen dent American farmer. At least that’s the way things us ed to be. Times are changing, even in rural America. Farmers are seeking other kinds of business organization besides the tradi tional one-man family farm. More and more conversation these days centers on the larger-than-family farm organizations that seem to be gaining strength. These units are using a variety of business techni ques to provide the economic leverage they need to be pro fitable. So why can’t some of these larger-than-family farm units be made up through mergers? Two North Carolina farmers have done just that. They took two smaller units and legally merged them into what quickly became a big operation. Ronald Hawkins and Bill Toney were neighboring farmers who traded work and shared equipment now and then and finally realized that their philosophies, goals and interests were quite similar. So they sat down and plotted a formal merger that would take advantage of the strengths of both farming units for the mutual good of the overall operation. Both men started farming on a part-time basis in the early 1970 s without inherited land or equip ment and without the advantage of working into existing farms. Both were expanding their fanning operations and know-how gradual ly, but neither felt they were mak ing progress rapidly enough. Before the merger, each was far ming about 300 acres of corn, soy beans and wheat. But after throw ing their equipment inventories together and purchasing a couple of additional items, they were able to expand to a total of 1,400 acres. Not only did they gain the HENRY K. FISHER INC. SANDBLASTING AND SPRAY PAINTING Aerial Ladder Equipment 667 Hartman Station Rd. Lancaster, PA 393-6530 CHV 677 £2N Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 3,1983—C5 / 71tSS*«7 or 717 626 1164 V la jf Farm Talk Jerry Webb Delaware Extension economic advantage of more equipment without more invest ment, but they gained the moral support of each other. That allow ed them to make some rather bold business decisions that might have otherwise been almost overwhelm ing. Maybe it’s as simple as having someone there every day whose judgment you trust-a counselor, a listener, another expert to react to your ideas. However you categorize that moral support, it allowed Hawkins and Toney to take some big steps. In addition to renting another 1,000 acres of cropland, they bought a new 125-horsepower tractor and several other pieces of equipment. They purchased a 217-acre farm and are currently developing a 100- sow feeder pig operation. They also leased a 22,000 bushel grain storage complex and a local repair garage where they maintain their own equipment. The advantages of merger are many, including increased buying power, improved selling power, the ability to use larger equipment and to spread an equipment in ventory over many more acres. Of course the disadvantages include some Joss of freedom, shared decision making, restrictions of prearranged merger agreements, and the complexities of operating a much larger farm involving two families. For the North Carolina fanners the merger was fairly easy because of the amount of rented land involved and the fact that both had similar equipment in ventories. As a result there wasn’t a lot of haggling over who was putting the most in or who was getting the most advantage. Other farmers have merged for somewhat different reasons. For instance, a grain farmer and a dairy farmer merged to give the grain farmer an outlet for his crop and the dairy farmer a source of much needed feed. Two dairy farmers merged so that one could grow crops while the other tended livestock. The list of combinations and options on this farm merger theme is virtually endless. And who’s to say a merger has to be just between two farmers? Maybe three or four could pool their resources and knowledge in a legal way and thus strengthen the farming positions of all of them. SADDLE UP! To Bettor Equipment... Find it in Lancaster Farming's CLASSIFIEDS!
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers