LANCASTER Meeting here
late last week, members of Penn
sylvania Egg Marketers
Association wre updated on egg
industry actions and objectives by
W. Robert Park speaking for the
American Egg Board and
Christine Bushway, general
manager of the Northeast Egg
Marketing Association.
Park told the group to expect
several new major thrusts in the
work of A.E.B. First, there will be
more concentration on the job of
building stronger producer
relations aimed at making
producer-supporters actively
aware of efforts now going forward
to promote eggs. There will be
close cooperation between A.E. B.
and United Egg Producers on this,
and increased field contact with
egg producers to give them a fuller
understanding of fresh compaigns
to sell eggs in tomorrow’s markets.
Park gave his listeners an op
portunity to hear tapes of a “break
out the eggs” round of new com
mercials employing the talented
multi-voiced impersonator, Rich
Litttle, all designed to press home
the point of the “goodness” of
eggs. Park stated that 87 percent of
egg producers support A.E.B.
Referring to recent negative
statements in “Time” magazine
on eggs, Bushway said, “Op
ponents of eggs are geared up for
serious attacks and they are not
going to fade away. We have to be
ready to answer them.” She sees
U.E.P. NEMA and the other
regionals as carrying a unique
responsibility to respond to these
assaults.
As the only egg organization
representing producers interests,
solely, U.E.P. will continue to zero
in on strong legislative efforts in
Pa. Egg Marketers meet
Washington on behalf of eggs.
U.E.P. aggrees that government
sponsored study of the cholesterol
issue needs to be closely monitored
and not made a vehicle for unfair
and misleading health in
formation.
“There is certainly room and a
need for more public diet
research,” Bushway emphasized,
“Much spade work has been done,
but we have to be concerned with
how the results of that work are
interpreted, and that it be
presented to the public fairly.”
Bushway noted that 150,000 cases
of foreign eggs per month have
flowed from American breakers in
the last three months at low prices.
A host of foreign countries export
eggs to us, yet the U.S. is barred
from moving its eggs to them. On
the East Coast, 45 percent of the
breaker market is foreign
supplied, and the legal and
legislative battle to stem this flood
will be long and costly, Bushway
observed.
Covering the current prime topic
in the industry - Marketing Orders
- Bushway made these points:
• Although legislation that will
allow a marketing order for eggs
has been passed, there is no basis
for saying that, as of now, the
industry wants marketing orders.
They are under searching
examination throughout the United
States.
• U.E.P. has taken the position
that it has a responsibility to
provide the fullest information to
producers so that they may have
all the facts needed to take a
position on marketing order issues.
• There are three action
categories in marketing orders;
quantity control, quality control,
and market support and
promotion. An order can include or
not include production controls,
offer a vehicle for product
promotion, provide research on
product, prevent dumping or fund
value-added programs, among
others.
• Nothing can be shaped or take
effect except as a result of
producer vote in referendum.
“U.E.P.’s Marketing Order
Committee, under the chair
manship of Gerry Weber, is
working with the All-Industry Task
Force on assembling a package of
information for presentation to the
industry. There will be opportunity
for producer imput - possibly a
finning up of positions thru an
early industry straw vote,”
Bushway stated.
• Finally, it will requrie 12 to 18
months of study and hearings
before a referendum ballot can be
readied.
I'M NOT
L10N...
The Classified
Livestock
Section
Has Beastly
Selections!
in Lancaster
Bicarb boosts milk
production
AUBURN, Al. - Sodium
bicarbonate boosted milk
production by more than 1,000 lbs.
per lactation in a three-year study
at Auburn University.
Dr. George Hawkins and Dr.
Keith A. Cummins, professor
emeritus and assistant professor,
respectively, of animal and dairy
science at the University, said that
cows fed 1.1 percent bicarb in the
total ration produced an average
17,587 lbs. of milk per lactation
(305-day mature equivalent basis).
Their herdmates, who received the
same ration without sodium
bicarbonate, averaged 16,447 lbs.
of milk. Feed intake and fat
production were not affected by
the buffer addition. (See ac
companying table).
“Based on this and other
published experiments, it appears
the addition of sodium bicarbonate
to well-formulated lactation diets
will result in an increase in milk
production of 2 to 6 percent,”
Cummins said. “This increase is
Production Response To Sodium Bicarbonate
in Dairy Rations
Dry matter intake
(lb. per 100 lb. body weight)
Milk (305-day ME. Ibl)
Fat (305-day ME. Ibl)
Fat (%)
iMilk and milk fat production adjusted for previous production by
covariance.
Source: Auburn University
more than enough to pay for the
additional expense of added
bicarbonate.”
However, Cummins suggests
that dairy producers consider
buffers like sodium bicarbonate
only after rations are well
balanced for all other nutrients.
“Bicarbonate addition should be
considered a fine-tuning of
management, not a means to cover
up poor management practices or
inadequate ration formulation,” he
said. “The greatest value will be
seen in high producing dairy cows
consuming diets inadequate in
fiber.”
Rations used in the Auburn
experiment were com silage-based
and contained com and soybean
meal as primary supplements.
Content of fiber and other nutrients
met National Research Council
requirements. According to
Cummins, this may explain why
butterfat production did not in
crease with bicarb sup
plementation as it has in several
other experiments.
To Change
Control Bicarb with Bicarb
.. 2.75 2.87 +4.36%
16,447 17,587 +6.93%
.621.7 624.4 + .43%
..3.81 3.58 -6.42%