PFA opposes OSHA toilet regulations CAMP HILL The Penn sylvania Farmers’ Association (PFA) is opposing a proposal by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require placement of toilet and handwashing facilities within one quarter mile of each agricultural employee working in the field. In comments submitted to OSHA Pa. Dairy Promotion Services Inc. to hire state program director ALTOONA The board of the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Services Inc. (POPS Inc), the newly formed organization that directs and manages the state’s dairy princess program, this week announced its plans to hire a fulltime program director. The program director will act as coordinator of the entire princess program and will chaperone the Pa. Dairy Princess. She will assist the county dairy promotion committees in implementing their programs by obtaining their promotional materials and sup plying them and their princesses with information and incentive. The program director will also work with the board in planning the Training Seminar in July and the State Pageant in September. “We’re looking for someone with the initiative and creativeness to broaden the princess program,” said Mim Kauffman, co-chairman of POPS Inc. “She should be a role model for the girls in appearance and have a congenial personality warn MODEL L Westfalia technical advances abound with the CODATRON Model L The Model L includes and greatly expands the F 26 features through the use of a cow calendar for breeding management also contains General Coding Systems The Model provide the following 1 Daily Automatic Cow Feed and Breed Exception 4 Herd Breeding 2 Individual Cow Check listing 5 Individual Cow Report by Lactation Period 3 Feed Station Usage/Feed Bin Monitor The systems handles up to 22 feed stations with two feeds per station and a memory capacity for up to 560 cows The Model L provides daily management information on individual cows as to Days in lactation fIL . \ V calving interval calving date breeding dates sire code advance warning of cows coming into heat fll m pregnancy date dry period lead feed concentrate prior to calving and cow health data H Additional Options • Data Recorder • Expandable to foreseeable future needs A defined assistant for your herd feedmg/breedmg/health management programs l Wo Wont To Help You Maximize Your Profits. Coll Us Tor FREE Consufiotion FISHER & THOMPSON ASSOCIATES Milk Equipment Sales & Service 21 E. Woods Drive, Lititz, PA PH: 717-627-1530 24 Hr. Service this week, PFA said the proposed regulations would, “...seriously alter work procedures for the sake of satisfying imagined and un supported claims of detrimental health conditions...” PFA stated; “Pennsylvania is a clear example of the illusory nature of the assumptions made in drafting the proposed rule. In the northeastern part of the state, as well as being affluent in public speaking.” Applicants are asked to send a resume and references to Pa. Dairy Promotion Services Inc., R.D. 3, Box 360, Altoona, PA 16601 before May 15. At its recent meeting, the board drew up a job discription for the program director, discussed outlines for the Incorporation’s bylaws and reviewed plans for the Training Seminar to be held at Lycoming College, Williamsport, July 18 to 20. The dates for the State Pageant, which will be held at the Marriott Inn, Harrisburg, are September 23 to 25. Members of the POPS Inc. board are: co-chairmen Judy Diebold, Blair County, and Mim Kauffman, Lancaster County; Rita Kennedy, Butler County, secretary* Pat Miller, Dauphin County, treasurer; Jeanne Peifer, Brad ford County, seminar coordinator; and Bev Minor, Washington County. MODEL F 26 CODATRON Systems have performed remarkably well under many varied conditions worldwide The Model F 26 computer features the most modern microprocessing capabilities Up to 24 feeding stations with two feeds per station the capability of dispensing a wide variety of concentrates and a memory capacity for 999 cows is available in the F 26 model The Model F 26 will provide the following reports I Daily Automatic Cow Feed Exception FEATURES • Maximum feed allotted is adjustable • Maximum feed intake during any one interval is adjustable “The Pennsylvania fruit growing industry, which also employs many seasonal employees in its operation, would also have serious problems with the proposed rule as drafted, not only in terms of compliance but also in terms of interpretation of the rule. Whether the operation utilizes a series of scattered and non contiguous orchards or utilizes a large single land tract, the fruit grower must depend on the ability to quickly and easily locate his ATRON mputer ng Systems 2 Individual Cow Check Listing • Battery back up power • Data Recorder option available • Expandable to future needs many producers of fresh vegetables do not grow their products in concentration on large land tracts. They must rather grow their produce on a series of small, noncontiguous, two-to-twenty acre land tracts spread over a distance of fifteen to twenty miles. “To comply with the rigid requirements of the proposed rule in these operations, toilet and handwashing facilities would need to be transported several times during the course of a single day, resulting in the utilitization of considerable work time to perform such duties. 3 Feed Station Usage/Feed Bin Monitor personnel where harvesting is needed the most, so that severe losses from excess ripening do not occur. “The proposed rule’s mandate for centrally located toilet and handwashing facilities within one quarter mile of all employees would undermine the normal harvesting procedure which have become acceptable to both em ployers and employees in the fruit industry. To require these em ployers to pack their employees within one quarter mile of each other would not only reduce the rate of fruit harvesting but also may seriously frustrate the efforts of the individual employees receiving wage incentives to harvest the fruit in accordance with their employees within one quarter mile of each other would not only reduce the rate of fruit harvesting but also may seriously frustrate the efforts of the in dividual employees receiving wage incentives to harvest the fruit in accordance with their capabilities, causing lower total wages to be paid and, very WITH ECI SOFT Crown Inc DESIGN INFLATIONS J PO Box2,fi Ve,non Nv 13476 I Name __ ___ I Address TTWHI Dairy Supply Dealer P.O. BOX 216, VERNON, NY 13476 • Mail Coupon for Catalog Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 5,1984—A5S possibly, rising labor unrest.” PFA is recommending that if OSHA’s proposal is adopted as a final rule, states with established field sanitation regulations should be granted primacy in en forcement. PFA stated, “There are few states where regulation of agricultural employers for em ployee safety, housing and operation is more stringent than Pennsylvania. Agricultural em ployers in this state are subject to state regulations which are often tougher than their federal coun terparts.” However, PFA noted, state regulations are flexible, requiring farm employers to provide employees’ access to toilet and handwashing facilities at least once every four hours. “Such option would more than fulfill the intended purpose of the proposed rule without burdening the em ployer with additional costs in purchasing or renting such toilet and handwashing facilities or with cumbersome procedures in daily hauling and placing of such facilities,” PFA stated. Slate z»p 1