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VOL. 29 No. 44
Six-farm methane digester
study nearing completion
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
SPRINGVILLE A unique
study by the Lancaster Con
servation District to see if manure
from six neighboring farms can be
collected for generating electricity
in a cooperative methane digester
is nearing completion.
Robert E. Gregory, Con
servation District administrator,
gave a progress report on the six
farm study at a Methane Digester
Workshop held Tuesday at the
Lancaster Farm and Home
Center. A similar workshop was
held Wednesday in Somerset.
The cooperative digester
feasibility study, which was funded
by the Governors Energy Council,
is a unique phase of widespread
efforts under way in Lancaster
County to update manure handling
and disposal procedures, which
are related to the nitrate loading of
underground water supplies, area
streams and the Chesapeake Bay.
Gregory set the stage for the
digester report with a few essential
agricultural figures:
“In Lancaster County, we have
25 percent of the livestock units in
the state and only 7.4 percent of the
cropland,’* Gregory said. “This
results in a manure application
average of 13.5 tons per acre,
which is three times the amount
spread in neighboring counties.”
While admitting that Lancaster
County plays a sizable role in the
nutrient .loading problem of the
Chesapeake Bay, Gregory said
that agriculture’s responsibility
must be kept in balance with that
of residential and industrial
segments of the area.
Cooperative Methane Digester Study
Six farms with a heavy livestock concentration in Northern
Lancaster County is studied as possible site for cooperative
methane digester.
PbRUISICALS OIVISIUM
*2u‘) PATTEE LIBRARY
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UN VETSIIV
UNIVERSITY PARK PA lbBT2
Four Sections
The six-farm cooperative
methane study is located at
Springville, north of Ephrata, and
Pa. pork
fund is
suggested
See editorial on AlO
HARRISBURG - A Penn
sylvania Pork Fund which would
come from a statewide checkoff on
swine sales and be used for
promotion and indemnification has
been suggested by Rep. Terry
Scheetz, hog producer and
member of the State Legislature
from I«ncaster County.
Rep. Scheetz said he is offering the
pork fund concept as a starting
point for discussion of a way in
which pork producers can
establish a self-help program for
continuing promotional purposes
and indemnification to owners
whose herds may be depopulated
due to disease.
“This fund concept has been
formulated with the help of three
members of the Pennsylvania
Pork Producers Council,” Scheetz
said.
“It’s being offered as a starting
(Turn to Page A 39)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Septemoer 1,1984
(Turn to Page A 34)
Naming of his three-year-old Holstein as Supreme Champion of Elizabethtown Fair
brings smile to face of Tom McCauley.
Supreme champ is crowned
ELIZABETHTOWN - It’s a new
experience for judges and
exhibitors alike.
In the showring at the same tune
are four grand champions of their
species - dairy, sheep, market
steer and hog.
The four are not competing
against each other directly but
more against the “ideal” of their
species. The judges - and there are
four - must walk around with a
picture of that ideal in the back of
their minds and then pick the one
of the four that comes closest.
This unique livestock com
petition describes the naming of
the Supreme Champion of the
Contract growers fear quotas
under any egg marketing order
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
LANCASTER Family poultry
farmers, particularly contract
growers, expressed grave fears
and reservations Tuesday night
about any Egg Marketing Order
that could include production
allotments or quotas.
Among the fears expressed at a
Pennsylvania Poultry Federation
session at which Jerry Weber,
chairman of the United Egg
Producer’s Egg Marketing Order
Committee, outlined possible
options under any Order:
-How will quotas or allotments
be assigned - to the property or
building of the grower or to the
contractor or on a percentage to
both depending on the contract?
-The family poultry farmers
present left no doubt that they
At Elizabethtown Fair
Elizabethtown Fair. It was tried
last year and proved so popular it
was continued this year.
But the fair committee learned
at least one lesson from last year.
You don’t let the hog run loose in
the ring with the steer and cow.
There was a bit of mild pan
demonium last year so the com
mittee had the hog penned up this
year in a comer of the ring.
This year, the competition ended
up largely between the three-year
old dairy cow of Tom McCauley
and the Dorset ewe lamb of
Margaret Herr. And in this lies a
bit of unfairness of such com
petition. Both the cow and lamb
want any quotas to be on a building
or property basis and not the
contractor.
If quotas would be assigned to
contractors, they feared:
-Big integrators could move
allotments around as they wished
and some growers could end up
with empty houses and no quota to
fill them.
-If a contractor pulls out of a
contract and takes all or most of a
quota along, what would the
grower be left with?
-Some growers are paid on a flat
rate and would have no quota at
all.
-Since large operators have a
much bigger quota base, any
possible future expansion would be
limited to them.
A basic question asked at the
*7.50
have been shown widely in other
competition and are breeding
representatives of their species.
Undoubtedly, it gives them the
edge over the strictly market
animal representatives.
But the judges had high praise
for each of the four though. Judges
representing their species were
Gerald Tracy, farm manager of
Masonic Homes, sheep; Gary
Dean, Lancaster Farm Credit,
beef; Chet Hughes, Lancaster
livestock agent, swine; and Lew
Ayers, retired Ephrata vo-ag
teacher, dairy.
“She shows an extreme amount
(Turn to Page A 26)
session:
Would any egg marketing order
protect the family farmer?
The question went basically
unanswered, but there was no
doubt how a number of poultry
farmers felt about the answer.
UEP is now conducting a straw
pole survey among “producers” to
see what they think of any Egg
Marketing Order and the possible
options that might be in it. Survey
deadline is today, but Weber said
replies received within the next
few days would be included.
Based on the survey results,
UEP wants to make a decision on
whether to move ahead quickly, if
producers favor an Order. UEP
thinks the ball should be started
(Turn to Page Al 2)
sr Year