A36-Lancast«r Fanning, Saturday, January 5,1985
Continuation of diversion requested by farm organizations, dairy co-ops
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Leaders of
three major national farm
organizations and three dairy
cooperatives have joined forces to
request at least a nine-month
extension of the dairy diversion
program. Unless action is taken,
the program is slated to expire
March 31. An early announcement
of intentions for the program
would help dairy producers to plan
for their next year, the farm
leaders said.
In letters to President Ronald
Reagan, Agriculture Secretary
John Block, and members of the
U.S. House and Senate agriculture
committees, the need for an ex
tension was outlined by National
Farmers Union President Cy
Carpenter, St. Paul, Minn.;
American Agriculture Movement
National Chairman Tommy Willis,
Brownsville, Tenn.; National
Farmers Organization President
DeVon Woodland, Corning, Iowa;
Mid-America Dairymen, Inc.
Executive Vice President and
General Manager Gary Hanman,
Springfield, Mo.; Farmers Union
Milk Marketing Cooperative
President Stewart Huber,
‘Something good
can come
from sludge 9 9
says ag prof
DOYLESTOWN - Sludge.
Hardly anybody likes to think
about it. Even fewer people like to
talk about it. No one likes to work it
or thinks it has any real value.
But a lot of people have to deal
with the problems of sludge
disposal every day.
William E. Palkovics, associate
professor of agronomy at
Delaware Valley College, is one of
the few people who thinks
something good can come from
sludge. He recently presented a
paper at the annual meeting of the
American Society of Agronomy
detailing how a necessary and
useful product can be made from
sludge.
Based on the results of a study
funded jointly by the Department
of Environmental Resources and
the Department of Agriculture,
Palkovics has found that by adding
agricultural limestone to septic
tank waste material, a soil ad
ditive rich in nutrients is obtained.
According to the study, this
procedure, called lime
stabilization, holds promise as a
means of extending the length of
time of application to septage
materials to agricultural lands.
This is something which can be
of benefit to farmers seeking to
enrich their soil as well as to
homeowners who have always had
trouble getting rid of their septic
tank waste,” said Palkovics, who
conducted the study along with
Delaware Valley College
colleagues Tom Cordrey, Gary
Brubaker and Larry Hepner. "In
many cases the untreated septage
is disposed of illegally and that
poses health problems for people
living near the dumped waste.”
In addition to serving as a soil
additive the limestone helps
reduce odor and kills pathogens
living within the sludge. The cost of
treating the sludge with limestone
is relatively cheap. Palkovics
estimates it would cost $3 to $4 per
1,000 gallons of septage to add
agricultural limestone.
Madison, Wis.; and Farmers
Union Milk Producers Association
President Jack Rynd, Cochranton,
Penn.
Numerous other dairy and farm
organizations have been contacted
and invited to join in this effort.
The dairy diversion program is a
voluntary effort on the behalf of
dairy farmers who agree to reduce
their milk marketings to bring
supply more in line with demand.
In return, participating farmers
receive an incentive payment. The
program is paid for entirely by
dairy producers through a
program deduction from their milk
checks.
And, according to the farm and
dairy leaders, it is working.
USDA’s Commodity Credit Cor
poration purchases of surplus
dairy products were down by 38
percent for the 1983-84 marketing
year, and may drop by 50 percent
for the 1983-85 marketing year.
Projections also indicate that
reductions in milk production
under the program and an an
ticipated 3.5 percent increase in
domestic dairy consumption will
combine to stabilize the U S dairy
market. And, the dairy and tarm
leaders wrote, since the program
is funded by and for other dairy
producers, an extension of the
dairy diversion would continue to
reduce the U.S. Treasury’s cost for
the dairy price support program.
“Evidence of this program’s
success is so strong, and benefits to
consumers and producers alike is
so great that we feel this ad
ministration and Congress must
move to extend the program if we
are to avoid repetition of the
supply and demand imbalance that
caused the problem in the first
place,” NFU’s Carpenter said.
“Dairy farmers have suc
cessfully made a very substantial
investment in time and money to
make the program work. Now,
they deserve the chance to con
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tinue through the cooperation of an
extended program,” Carpenter
said.
In their letter, the farm leaders
pointed out that dairy farmers are
now trying to make their
management decisions for
the next year. An early an
nouncement on the dairy program
would allow producers an op
portunity for orderly marketing of
both cull cows and many of the
replacement heifers they have on
hand on case the program ends
April 1,1985.
“While we may not agree on all
aspects of dairy policy, we are in
agreement that the extension
needs to be carried forward to
avoid economic disruption in the
dairy industry and to continue the
progress made to date,” they
wrote.
AAM’s Willis compared the
possible end of the dairy diversion
program to the recent USDA
Payment-in-Kind program.
M.M. WEAVER & SON
N. Groffdale Rd.
Leola, PA 17540
Ph: (717)656-2321
“We lost all of the advantage we
had gained through the PIK
program in one product year. We’d
hate to see everything we’ve ac
complished through the dairy
diversion program go up in smoke.
If the dairy diversion program is
allowed to expire, we will see
springing heifers brought into
production,” Willis said.
The dairy program should be
extended with an emphasis of its
secondary goal of increasing
producer income, according to
NFO’s Woodland.
“The purpose of this program is
two-fold: first, to reduce dairy
stocks, which it has done; and
secondly, to increase producer
income. We must give more at
tention to the second goal, since the
first has been nearly ac
complished,” Woodland said. “It is
also important to call attention to
the fact that the program has been
self-financed by producers and has
not gone to the U.S. Treasury.”
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Pitman, PA
Ph: (717)648-1120
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Perkasie, PA 18944
Ph: (215) 257-0101
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West Grove, PA
Ph: (215) 869-9440
869-2214