D24— Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 2,1984
B Brackett's Ag Advice
By John E. Brocket!
Farm Management Agent
Lewistown Extension Office
A Farm Manager’s Job
A farm manager’s job has never
been easy. The hours are usually
long ?nd with the mixed up spring
we’ve oeen having, those hours are
even longer. Some people are
trying to put 36 hours into every
day. Risks are high and becoming
higher. It used to be that some of
the risk was borne by the lending,
service, and supply people. Due to
economic problems of their own,
they have shifted much of the risk
back to the farmer via interest
rates, surcharges, and reduced
periods of time for payments. The
stress level on farm managers is
high at all times, but during a
spring like this it has gone even
higher. Anyone who thinks that
farm life is easy and casual today
should think how they would feel
with $30,000 of seed and fertilizer
sitting in a shed doing nothing. Or
that same amount in the ground
with nothing coming up after two
or three weeks. That’s stress.
What Can You Do?
Farmers are often victims of
circumstances over which they
have little if any control. Things
like political action (you can
sympathize with the Olympic
athletes to some degree), weather,
the futures market speculators,
adverse publicity for both over
production and under production,
competition with products from
other coutries, and lack of quality
control at the export level can all
reduce farm profits. However
there are things you can do to help
yourself.
Be Prepared
When I was a Boy Scout many
years ago the motto was “Be
Price Reduction
Permatran 111
Universal Transmission & Hydraulic Fluid
For use in transmissions, hydraulic systems,
power steering, torque converters.
fit
■
tjm.
Quality oil at a reduced price
2 1 /* Gal. Was SIJL
Container $19.15 NOW I
Prepared”. That should be a
farmers motto. Be prepared to
take advantage of breaks in the
weather. Have equipment ready to
go - don’t wait until the day is
bright and sunny to change the oil
in your tractor. Keep an eye on
fields so you know how far along
the hay is right now, whether in
sects are starting to work on it,
whether a field is suitable for corn
planting.
How much feed will you need for
this next year? Which fields should
be top dressed or sprayed right
after first cutting is removed?
What are your alternatives if you
can’t get 10 acres planted to the
com variety you have on hand?
Can you use 10 acres of
Sudan or put in an earlier com or
go to soybeans. If you were going
to plow up a hay field for com, is
there enough hay on it so that you
could wait a year before plowing it.
Keep Records
Farmers who keep us liable
records then use them are always
ahead of those who don’t. Crop and
field records can help you make
some of those very valuable
decisions such as insect control or
fertilizer amounts especially if
your budget won’t stretch to allow
you to go 100 percent with soil test
results. Dairy and livestock
records are invaluable for culling
and economical feeding decisions.
Some dairymen who use records
carefully for culling purposes can
increase milk sold and reduce feed
costs. Financial records are too
often kept solely for tax purposes.
That is a waste of an extremely
valuable resource. How many of
See us today!
Plan Ahead
Farmers to receive $12.36 for
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Dairy
fanners who supplied milk plants
regulated under the New York-
New Jersey marketing orders
during April 1984 will be paid on
the basis of a uniform price of
$12.36 per hundredweight (26.6
cents per quart).
Market Administrator Thomas
A. Wilson also stated that the price
was $12.55 in March 1984 and $12.85
in April 1983. Hie uniform price is
a marketwide weighted average of
the value of farm milk used for
fluid and manufactured dairy
products.
The seasonal incentive fund
removed 30 cents per hun
dredweight from the dairy far
mers’ uniform price for April, a
total of $2,983,436.29. Deductions
will continue through June and will
be returned in the August through
you would allow your best 40 acres
to lay idle every year? or shoot
your best two year old cow? Yet
those of you who do not keep and
use financial records for other than
tax purposes are committing just
as great of an atrocity.
Change
There is nothing wrong in
changing your mind or your
direction or your decisions if you
have a valid reason. Too many
farmers become “bull headed”
about change. Decisions that were
“right” last year may be wrong or
only partially right this year.
Perhaps less com more hay would
be a good solution to the rather
erratic spring we’ve had so far in
1984. Give it some thought.
Reduce Stress
Consider this: To survive thru
the 1980’s, you need the Courage to
change those things you can
change, the Serenity to accept
those things you can not change,
and the Wisdom to recognize the
difference.
JUNE DAIRY MONTH
SPECIALS
wS|
\M DKwfh E
• Rite Air 24” Two-Stage Circulating Fan*
(We Service And Repair Circulating Fans)
• We Repair And Replace Chains For All Makes Of
Barn Cleaners And Silo Unloaders
• Galvanized Steel Columns -
Sizes: Every 6” From 6’6” to 10’
• Rubber Cow Mats Available In Most Sizes
• Ask About Our Complete Package For Dairy Barn
Installations, Buildings And Equipment. CALL US
!uiM 'tmmt
November uniform price
calculations.
A total of 16,901 dairy farmers
supplied the New York-New Jersey
Milk Marketing Area with
994,478,762 pounds of milk during
April 1984. This was a decrease of
1.9 percent (about 20 million
pounds) from last year. The gross
value to dairy farmers for milk
deliveries was $126,027,570.79. This
included differentials required to
be paid to dairy farmers but not
voluntary premiums or deductions
authorized by the fanner.
Regulated milk dealers (han
dlers) used 360,911,807 pounds of
milk for Class 1,36.3 percent of the
total. This milk is used for fluid
milk products such as
homogenized, flavored, low test
CROYDON Miller Analytical
Services announces its new soil
and plant tissue analysis
laboratory. Complete testing ser
vices catering to the agricultural,
horticultural, and landscaping
v ':;rTrr < s‘ j "m offered. Samples
(Continued from Page D2O)
fellow hobbyists in touch with one
another and abreast of current
finds, prices and events.
Through that publication, ad
vertising in hobby-trade
magazines, a ten-times-yearly
mailing to his customers, and of
course his Shrewsbury shop,
Robinson constantly changes his
inventory through purchases, sales
and trades.
For bottle collectors like
Robinson and his fellow members
of the Baltimore Antique Bottle
Club, the “Milk Route” annually
DON'T
BE
SLOW
Call Now To Place Your
CLASSIFIED AD
Ph: 717-394-3047 or 717-626-1164
You Can Count On Us
STOP IN TODAY FOR FREE CATALOG
INQUIRE WITH US FOR SILO PRICES
April milk
and skim milks. For April 1984,
handlers paid $14.31 per hun
dredweight (30.8 cents per quart)
for Class I milk compared with
$14.84 a year ago.
The balance (633,566,955 pounds
or 63.7 percent) was used to
manufacture Class II products
including butter, cheese, ice cream
and yogurt. Handlers paid $11.98
per hundredweight for this milk.
The uniform price is based on
milk containing 3.5 percent but
terfat. For April 1984, there was a
price differential of 16.4 cents for
each one-tenth of one percent that
the milk tested above or below the
3.5 percent standard.
All prices quoted are for bulk
tank milk received within the 201-
210 mile zone from New York City.
New lab reported
from the home gardener to the
large grower are quickly and
accurately analyzed.
For further information write:
Miller Analytical' Services, P.O.
Box 57, Croydon, PA 19020 - 0907.
Milk shed
sponsors a national convention of
dairy related collectors.
Held in June at Ballston Spa,
N.Y. that convention coincides
with the annual opening of the
National Bottle Museum, at the
Verbeck House, Church Avenue, in
Ballston.
To anyone interested in learning
more about the history of the dairy
industry Robinson recommends
reading “The Dairy Industry In
America,” a rather large volume
by Ralph Selitzer, and published
by Dairy and Ice Cream, Field
Books for Industry.
p§l