D2-Lancaster Farming Saturday December 22,1984
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Four packers charged with failure
to pay for $5 million
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In
separate administrative com
plaints, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture has charged four meat
packers and their owners and
officers with failing to pay for
nearly $5 million worth of pork
carcasses and meat products
purchased during 1983-84 from
Arbogast & Bastian, Inc., of
Allentown, Pa.
B.H. (Bill) Jones, head of
USDA’s Packers and Stockyards
Administration, said there is no
connection between the respon
dents except they are each
.charged with failing to pay for
products purchased from the same
supplier.
The respondents are:
Disease prevention is best
By George W. Chalonpka
Extension Poultry Specialist
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. Disease
prevention is a definite must on
poultry farms, regardless of the
size of the operation. Avian in
fluenza, fresh on our minds for
over a year now, and exotic
newcastle disease which keeps
popping up every once in a while,
are two dreaded diseases that
require special attention. But
prevention of all diseases should
always be a concern.
Our recent brush with A.I. made
all of us on Delmarva aware of how
critical it is to practice routine
disease prevention. There are
certain basic procedures you can
follow to help protect your flock
from disease and to minimize the
spread of infection to other flocks.
The prime purpose of the
Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc.’s
Emergency Poultry Disease Task
Force is to develop and implement
plans to prevent or to control
and/or eradicate poultry disease
outbreaks that could cause serious
economic losses to Delmarva’s
commercial poultry industry. The
LAAA Annual Meeting Scheduled for Jan. 17-19
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Leaders
of the cattle, pork and packing
industries will take part in an
Industry Sector Update" at the
1985 annual meeting of Livestock
Marketing Association.
The meeting, which will attract
marketing business owners from
across North America, will be held
here Jan. 17-19, at the Alameda
Plaza hotel in Kansas City. LMA
members will here predictions
about livestock demand,
movement patterns and their view
of the industry in 1985 from;
John Weber, president of the
National Cattlemen's Association
-Pork Cutters, Inc., New York,
N.Y., and Don and Marga
Birakowsky, who are charged with
failing to pay for $945,990 worth of
products purchased from March-
May, 1984;
-Botches Pork Packers, Inc.,
Brooklyn, N.Y., and David A.
Botches, who are charged with
failing to pay for $2.1 million worth
of products purchased from April-
May, 1984;
-Otto Doerrer and Son, Inc.,
Bronx, N.Y., Budolfo Panigrosso,
and Gene Lombardo, who are
charged with failing to pay for $1.3
million worth of products pur
chased from February-May, 1984;
and
—Crissman, Inc., of Castenea,
Pa., and Jack G. Crispman, who
medicine for poultry
task force strongly recommends
all poultry growers (including
people who raise game birds,
waterfowl, exhibition flocks,
sporting birds, and small farm
flocks) follow these procedures:
• Set aside special clothing
(including shoes, boots, hat and
gloves) for wear when caring for
flocks. Never wear these clothes
off the farm.
• Flock managers and other
caretakers should not visit other
poultry flocks.
• Do not allow visitors on the
premises or in the poultry houses.
• After caring for the flock,
change clothes completely and
wash hands and arms before
leaving the premises.
• Require all essential visitors
(such as owners, fuel delivery,
feed delivery, meter readers,
poultry catchers and haulers, and
other service personnel) to put on
protective outerclothing including
boots and headwear before letting
them near the flocks.
• Require scrub down of all
vehicles entering the premises for
poultry pickup or delivery, feed
Wayne Walter, president of the
American Association of Meat
Processors
Baskin Brown, president of the
American Association of Meat
Processors
In addition, Dr Marvin H.
Duncan, vice president and
ei onomist with the Federal
Reserve Bank of Kansas City, will
discuss agriculture's 1985 financial
concerns during this session
Another topical session will be on
the new agricultural futures op
tions and how the> work within the
futures market The featured
speakei will be Ronald E Prost,
vice president-commodit>
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in pork
are charged with failing to pay for
$421,736 worth of products pur
chased from January 1983 through
February 1984.
The respondents have a right to a
hearing on the administrative
charges filed by USDA under
authority of the Packers and
Stockyards Act.
If the charges are proven, they
will be placed under cease-and
desist orders, similar to a per
manent injunction, and they could
also be ordered to pay a civil
penalty.
The P&S Act is an antitrust, fair
trade practice and payment
protection law. It is designed to
maintain integrity in the
marketing of livestock, poultry
and meat, and in the marketplace.
delivery, fuel delivery, and other
purposes. Undercarriage and tires
should be sprayed and disinfected
before entering and upon leaving.
• Clean and disinfect all coops,
crates, and other poultry con
tainers or equipment before and
after use.
• Send sick or dying birds to a
state laboratory for diagnosis.
• Bury or burn all dead birds.
• Anyone handling wild game
(especially waterfowl) should
change clothes completely and
bathe before entering poultry
premises.
As a poultry grower, you may
feel that some of these procedures
aren’t necessary or don’t apply.
But to protect your flock from
disease, implement all precautions
that do apply as soon as possible.
Also, whether you buy hatching
eggs, chicks, started or mature
birds, make sure you know the
source of your poultry. Don’t
carelessly bring in disease through
one of these possible carriers.
Protect your flock, your
neighbor’s flock, and all of the
poultry industry from potential
disaster.
marketing with the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange
EMA s 1985 officers and direc
tors will be installed on Friday
morning, Jan 18
The program sessions, which
will be held Friday and Saturday,
will also include sessions on in
surance, financial and legal risk
management
LMA members will also be
updated on the latest legislative
and regulatoiy developments that
will have an impact on their
businesses
EMA represents and provides
commei ual services to some 1,309
North Amencan maiketing
businesses
W, Va. Cattlemen hold
convention.
By
Debbie Stiles-Renzi
Staff Correspondent
LEWISBURG, W. Va. - The
1984 West Virginia Beef Cattle
Short Course and Cattlemen’s
Association Annual Convention
were held in conjunction
December 4 and 5 at the Brier Inn
Convention Center in Lewisburg,
Greenbrier county.
“Maximizing West Virginia’s
Forage Potential” was the dual
convention/short course theme,
which featured educational
seminars, hands-on demon
strations and commercial exhibits.
Extension and West Virginia
University specialists in fields
ranging from agronomy to animal
science, as well as industry
spokespersons from the National
Cattlemen’s Association were on
hand to teach and advise the group
of nearly 200 participants on a
diverse forum of topics pertaining
to the beef industry.
Owing to this year’s new location
for the gathering, many of the
registrants were from southern
ilf/
It’s no secret that crossbreeding
will lower production costs.
Crossbreeding lets you combine
traits from more than one breed.
And through heterosis (hybrid
vigor), it provides an added boost
in productivity compared to using
purebred stock.
But until recently, most studies
used Yorkshires, Hampshires and
Durocs in their breeding
programs. Since the Landrace and
the Spotted breeds are becoming
more popular, researchers at
Oklahoma State University
decided to take another look at the
merits of crossbreeding-this time
with Durocs, Yorks, Spots and
Landrace.
In all they looked at data from
nearly 500 litters and asked
questions related to reproductive
performance. Which breeds
contribute the most to the sow
line? What breeds make the most
effective cross? Is there any merit
to using crossbred boars?
The researchers found that
Yorkshires are the most
productive in terms of litter size at
birth and weaning. But the Lan
drace have the edge in milking
ability and keeping the pigs alive
until weaning.
The breed of the boar in this
study had no effect on litter size,
litter weight or survival.
Crossbred litters (from purebred
parent lines) provided an extra .79
pigs per litter, 26 more pounds per
litter at six weeks and improved
survival by 5.6 percent.
The scientists also calculated
which crosses maximized
heterosis or hybrid vigor. You’ll
recall that this is the level of
performance over and above the
expected average of the parents.
For example, you might expect
(through performance records of
the parents) that a group of York-
Hamp pigs would gain 1.5 pounds
per day. But they may grow 1.75
pounds per day. In this case,
heterosis would be .25.
This study showed that crossing
short course
counties of the mountain state,
notably Monroe and Greenbrier.
“There were a lot of new faces,”
commented Voras Haynes, county
agent from Randolph county.
Haynes reported that many of the
first-timers were farmers and
cattlemen from the immediate
area who had never attended the
course in previous years when it
had been held at Jackson’s Mill in
Lewis county.
Pork Prose
by
Kenneth B. Kephart
Extension Livestock Spec.
University of Del.
a Duroc boar with a Spot sow gave
the best heterosis for litter size at
six weeks, improving litter size by
almost 1% pigs.
Unfortunately, heterosis can be
misleading. And this case is a
classic example. Even though
hybrid vigor was maximized with
the Duroc-Spot cross, breeding a
Spot boar to a York sow produced
the largest litter.
By the same token, breeding a
Duroc boar to a Spot sow resulted
in the greatest heterosis for
weaning weight; but the heaviest
litters were from Landrace sows
that were bred to Duroc boars.
So you have to be careful. Cer
tain crosses might make the best of
heterosis. But on the bottom line,
these crosses may not be the most
productive. This point is un
derlined in the second part of the
Oklahoma study. The researchers
found that York-Spot sows had the
smallest and lightest litters at
weaning, even though this cross
had an expected high level of
hybrid vigor. And which sows
raised the biggest and heaviest
litters? Those with a small amount
of heterosis-the York-Landrace
cross.
What about crossbred boars?
The study showed no advantages in
litter size, litter weight or survival.
But using crossbred boars im
proved tirst-service conception
rate by 17.9 percent and
significantly reduced the total
number of services per pregnancy.
But the scientists were cautious
about their conclusions. Since they
used young boars in the study, the
improved breeding ability of the
crossbreds may have been due to
earlier sexual maturity. More
research is needed to see if
crossbred boars still hold an ad
vantage over purebreds in later
life.
What can we conclude from the
study? First, crosses of the white
breeds still make the best sow
lines. And second, crossbred boars
deserve your serious con
sideration.