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VOL. 30 No. 15
American Farm Bureau President Robert Delano discusses
agricultural policy with Pennsylvania Farmers' Association
President Keith Eckel, following PFA’s County President's
Conference Wednesday in Mechanicsburg.
Extension adds
manure mgmt. specialist
BY WENDY WEHR
LANCASTER At most annual
meetings of the county Extension
associations, reviewing the
program and staff ac
complishments of the past year is
the main order of business. But at
the Lancaster County Annual
Extension Association meeting on
Thursday night, the focus turned to
the upcoming year and the ad
dition of a staff member to help
farmers cope with the manure
management problems of the
Chesapeake Bay watershed.
James McKeehen, Southeast
Hegion Administrator for Fenn
State Extension, announced the
appointment of a project associate
for manure management. Mitchell
Woodward, an agronomist and
agricultural specialist, has ac
cepted the position of aiding far
mers with the burgeoning waste
management problems in the
Southeast.
Woodward, who grew up on a
da in, farm outside of Middletown,
Delaware, earned his master’s
degree in agronomy and extension
education from the University of
Maryland. Currently working as
Over-Order Pricing
Over-order pricing continues to
receive attention from Penn
sylvania dairymen this week
Members of several key farm
organizations met in Harnsbhurg
to discuss RCMA's role in
negotiating for over-order prices.
Turn inside for their comments
following the meeting
For more on over-order pricing
turn to page A-27
*9* Sections
an agricultural representative tor
the DuPont Corporation in North
Carolina, Woodward says his
concerns remain with the farm
communities and peoples of the
Chesapeake watershed.
My great grandfather was a
waterman," says Woodward. His
family background and concern
for the farmers of southeastern
Pennsylvania will help him as he
begins his new duties in March
Controlling pollution in the
Chesapeake Bay is important,
whether it’s animal waste,
chemicals, or whatever," remarks
Woodward. Manure management
is a big problem. If we can control
it somehow, maybe we can hold
back on some of the government
regufations "
While Woodward will be working
out of the Lancaster Extension
office, he will be aiding farmers in
all the southeastern counties
where there are manure
management problems "I will
work in the Susquehanna River
valley where there is the largest
concentration of dairy," sums up
Woodward.
(Turn to Page A3B)
INSIDE this week’s Lancaster Farming
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 16,1985
FFA Week
Today marks the beginning of
National FFA Week, a time to
promote vocational agriculture
and to applaud the ac
complishments of tomorrow’s
farmers.
For stories about Lancaster
County Star Farmer Floyd Huber
and County Star Agribusinessman
Dan Martin, turn to page FI
Market, Not Politics, Must
Set Prices, Delano Says
BY JAMES H. EVERHART
MECHANICSBURG - The
nation needs a farm policy in
fluenced by the market, not by
political considerations, American
Farm Bureau President Robert
Delano told a Pennsylvania
Farmers Association meeting here
Wednesday.
"There are just two ways to
make sure production matches
market usage," Delano told the
PFA Presidents Conference. “One
is to allow supply-demand signals
to get through to farmers and
ranchers through the market. The
other is to allow government to use
mandatory production controls to
do the same job."
The Government’s intervention
alternative, he added, is “the
surest way to wreck commercial
agriculture."
Delano specifically pointed out
the federal farmer-iteld reserve,
which, he said, raised grain prices
a few cents a bushel, while causing
price problems later.
His organization, he added,
wants to eliminate or phase out the
reserve, to “avoid the political
temptation to enhance prices by
building up the reserve, 1 he said.
In followup questioning by
Lancaster Farming, Delano said
he supports a market-oriented
price support program similar to
the one used for soybeans. He said
he expects Congress to enact a
system in which price supports are
tied to a percentage of the three- or
tive-year moving market
And, in response to a question
from one of the 31 countj
presidents attending the con
ference, Delano indicated that a
similar market-oriented approach
should be applied to milk pricing
as well. He does not, he said,
support extension of the dairy
diversion program.
Much of the recently publicized
crisis in American agriculture
could ne resolved, be added, it
pricing was more realistic and
market-oriented.
‘lf the support price is set at the
proper level, you won’t see
defaults," he concluded.
The major threat facing
Though moving water gets most
of the blame for soil erosion in the
East, winter winds may be stealing
more topsoil than we realize, says
SCS soil conservationist Lee Bentz
"When we can't see it, we
generally don’t recognize that it
exists," says Bentz. But the brown
snow we ve been seeing this winter
is proof-positne that wind is
robbing farmei -
Stt an at< ■ uni lly-away soil
on A
American agriculture and the
rest of the American economy
he told the group, is the federal
budget deficit.
Currently, he said, the deficit is
chewing up about 75 percent of net
domestic savings, and driving up
interest rates to levels which are
“far above one of the usual
monetary guideposts, the rate of
inflation.”
Many farm organizations have
gone bankrupt as a result, he said.
To impress Congress with the
Farm Bureau’s stand on the issue,
he said, the group has organized a
“Balanced Budget Brigade" that
is asking Congress to balance the
federal budget by cuttmg federal
spending and not by raising taxes.
"Our group makes it very plain
that attempting to balance the
budget by increasing taxes would
Lancaster Farming
Names New Editor
LITITZ Lancaster Farming is
pleased to announce the ap
pointment of James H. Everhart
as managing editor.
A I Lancaster native, Everhart is
a graduate of Conestoga Valley
High School and Franklin and
Marshall College.
He has 14 years experience as a
writer and journalist, including
nine years at The York Dispatch in
York.
At the Dispatch, Everhart won a
variety of state and national
awards, covering a wide range of
social and environmental issues,
land use and municipal govern
ment topics.
Aftei leaving York, he served as
a newsman at The Associated
Press in Albany, N.Y., returning to
1 Lancaster in 1981. Since that time,
he has worked as a writer and
journalist at advertising agencies
and other publications.
He lives in Lancaster with his
wife and two children.
Wind Erosion
do just the opposite of what needs
to be done. New taxes large enough
to affect the deficit would increase
interest rates, reduce disposable
income and lower standards of
living.”
The group, he said, delivered two
van loads of signed cards - from
about one million individuals -
calling on the President and
Congress to balance the federal
budget.
Agriculture, he said, must do its
part, too.
"We are in trouble with the
public because of the high costs of
last year’s farm program,” he
said. "The deficit has put pressure
on the budget, pressure that many
of us have helped to generate. It is
obvious that we cannot ignore this
anti-spending and anti-tax
pressure .by allowing costly stir-
w r - ’to Page A3B)
James H. Everhart
Pennfield Plans Mill
Pennfield Corporation, the
largest Pennsylvania-based feed
manufacturer, has announced
plans to build a state-of-the-art"
teed mill in the Mount Joy In
dustrial Park.
The $6 4 million plant will have
the capacity to produce 60 tons of
dairy and hog feed an hour
For more on the new plant turn
to page A-28
'17.50 per Year