Grangers return a favor at Elizabethtown Fairgrounds
Members of the Elizabethtown Area Grange #2076 were found "at the fair" this
Tuesday, concreting this bdilding at the Elizabethtown Fairgrounds. As well as donating
their labor, the grangers contributed about $2500 to concrete the building. Explained
project chairman Kenneth Myer, "We make milkshakes here at the fair every year, and
that's how we make a large portion of our money, so we decided to put some money back
into the fair.” Pictured here are Ken and Sam Myer, Bob and Joe Brant, and Dennis
Drager.
MILK HER
FOR ALL SHE’S
UNIVERSITY PARK - Egg
consumers needn’t worry. The
avian influenza that threatened
half of Pennsylvania’s egg supply
last year will do nothing but keep
egg prices down for the remainder
of this year, a Penn State
agricultural economist says.
“As of now, AI (avian influenza)
means lower prices for the con
sumer,’’ egg and poultry
marketing specialist Kermit Birth
said Monday. “That’s because
producers outside of Pennsylvania
reacted to high prices and in
creased egg production.”
Pennsylvania’s avian influenza
quarantine, in effect for nearly a
year, was lifted Oct. 4. To prevent
spreading the contagious disease,
15 million chickens were
destroyed, costing the federal
government $5O million.
But because it “takes only six
months or less to grow pullets to
replace hens, and layers can be
kept in production for longer
periods,” Birth says the egg in
dustry “has been able to expand
egg production.”
Lancaster Famine, Saturday, Navambar 10,1904—A19
Avian influenza
depresses egg prices
GARDEN CARTS
With Dump Fronts
UNASSEMBLED... *lO.OO LESS!
Than Sal* Prices Shown
SALE PRICE
• Small Cart • « aa
Regularly $159.00
• Large Cart si AO
Regularly $179.00 lOy
BOWMAN'S STOVE SHOP
RO3, Ephrata. PA 17522
Rt. 322,1 Mi. East of Ephrata
(717)733-4973
lues., Wed. 10-6; Thurs., Fri. IQ-8; Sat. 10-4
“Increasing egg production is
easier than decreasing it,” he
adds.
Birth explains the drop in egg
prices this way:
Egg prices were down a year
ago, so producers took moves to
cut back on egg output. Then the
avian influenza hit. Many layers
had to be destroyed.
Producers in other areas of the
United States then kept layers in
production for longer periods. Av
the same time, producers ordered
more pullets for flock
replacements. Many of these
pullets are now being housed as
laying hens.
“There are about 25 percent
more pullet chicks being grown in
the United States this year than
last year,” Birth says. “The in
dustry overreacted.”
Pullets were used to replace the
hens kept in production “longer
than they have been in previous
years,” Birth says.
The result? From February to
April last year, 23 percent of the
United States’ egg-producing
chickens had been put through a
rest period. Only 18 percent were
put in this rest stage for the same
period last year.
Birth points out that Penn
sylvania egg producers accounted
for only 6.5 percent of the nation’s
supply last year. But Pennsylvania
is a major egg supplier for the New
York City and Philadelphia
markets, he says, and those areas,
as well as the rest of the United
States, experienced high egg
prices during the influenza out
break.
Although egg producers who
lost flocks lost income last year,
Birth says the industry is
rebounding well.
“The industry can always come
back strong,” he says. “At least AI
gave us a chance to learn more
about flock management. ’ ’
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