VOL. 30 No. 23
Pseudorabies: Serious or ‘pseudo-problem’?
BY JACK RUBLEY
PENRYN While members of a
special Pseudorabies committee
were introducing pork producers
to their recently completed
Pseudorabies virus (PRV)
eradication plan, many producers
were wrestling with a more fun
damental question:
Is PRV eradication, in fact.
Carpenter touts NFU’s
family-farm campaign
BY JACK HUBLEY
YORK National Farmers
Union president Cy Carpenter
squared off against the Reagan
administration’s farm policy
during a senes of public meetings
held throughout Pennsylvania and
southern New York this week.
“Agriculture is your largest
industry, and this administration
is trying to destroy it,” said the
chief of this Minnesota-based
general farm organization while
addressing about 50 Dauphin, York
and Lancaster County farmers in
York on Monday.
Carpenter charged that the
plight of the nation’s farmers is
worsening rapidly, with land value
losses alone amounting to $5O
billion annually for the past three
years.
"The proposal being offered by
this administration is disaster, and
there’s no light at the end of the
tunnel,” Carpenter asserted, while
reviewing the Department of
Agriculture's market-oriented
approach to agriculture
Current administration
philosophy calls for a gradual
phase-out of target price supports,
with commodity prices eventually
tied directly to market demand.
Carpenter took aim at the recent
elimination of the dairy diversion
program. Though the program
If April showers bring May flowers, we can only hope that April snow showers
yield the same results. Tuesday morning's unusual weather conditions failed to
Five Sections
necessary?
The question surfaced
repeatedly at a meeting held in
Penryn on Thursday afternoon
when Penn State Extension
veterinarian Larry Hutchinson
and Lancaster County Extension
livestock agent Chet Hughes un
veiled the program to county
producers. Two other meetings
Cy Carpenter
'needed some improvements",
Carpenter pointed out that the
producer-financed diversion
program did lower dairy
production. "In spite of this,” said
Carpenter, ‘this administration
disconf-nued it, and offered
nothing as a realistic
replacement.”
The NFU chief emphasized that
such "callous indifference" to the
plight of the American farmer can
only lead to further exploitation of
the farming community by "those
(Turn to Page A3B)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 13,1985
followed; one held at Lancaster’s
Farm and Home Center on
Thursday night and a third held
yesterday at the Earl Township
building near New Holland.
Under the leadership of the Pa.
Pork Producers Council,
producers mobilized last
November after the Department of
Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal
Industry decided to refuse to issue
permits to move infected herds
after seven months. Thus the
owner of swine testing positive for
PRV had two choices: move the
entire herd to slaughter within
seven months-or eat them all
himself.
This forced depopulation with no
indemnity had proven to be a back
breaker for a number of Lancaster
County swine farmers in recent
years. A producer-conducted
survey of Lancaster County swine
Duncan elected chairman
of Penna. Dairy Promotion Board
HARRISBURG - Donald B.
Duncan, an independent dairy
producer from Robegonia, Berks
County, has taken over as chair
man of the Pennsylvania Dairy
Promotion Program Advisory
Board. On Thursday, fellow board
members elected Duncan to fill the
vacated dairy board post of former
Secretary of Agriculture Penrose
Hallowell.
Following the election, Duncan
immediately took up the chair
man’s gavel and presided as the
dairy promotion board allocated
nearly $lOO,OOO to fund a variety of
advertising projects and events.
Over the summer months the
board will coordinate a dairy
recipe contest, fund a variety of
local promotion programs, and
sponsor a “Dairv-ere in the
Eight horsepower 6 snowplow 9
BY WENDY WEHR
keep at least one Lancaster County farmer from his field work. Some say this
"warm snow" is better than fertilizer.
farmers last fall showed that
forced depopulation resulted in a
$565 loss per sow in farrow-to
fimsh operations and $387 per sow
in farrowing-only facilities.
So the PRV committee-with
representation from the packing,
marketing and producer sectors as
well as agricultural orgamzations
claimed that a better plan could be
hammered out. And the Bureau
elected to give the committee until
May 1, of this year to prove it.
What surfaced this week was the
fourth draft of the committee’s
battle plan. Basically, the com
mittee resolved to deal with
positive herds in one of three
ways: In low-incidence herds,
infected pigs would be removed,
with testing and removal repeated
every 30 days until the herd was
virus-free.
Option two involved vaccinating
Donald B. Duncan
Delaware” inner tube float.
Duncan has proven to be an
articulate spokesman at previous
board meetings and is a dairy
*7.50 per Year
the breeding herd and segregating
replacement gilts. These gilts
would be tested at about six
months of age, with all positive
gilts being removed. Retestmg
would occur 60 days later. This
approach would be contingent on
the producer having facilities to
segregate herds, as well as the
Bureau’s willingness to permit the
use of vaccine. At present, vac
cines are prohibited in the state
because any vaccinated hog will
test positive. This makes vac
cinated pigs indistinguishable
from infected pigs, says Hut
chinson.
A final option would be
depopulation, but the plan states
flatly tht there shall be no forced
depopulation without indemnity.
To help producers make the
right choice, a team of consultants
(Turn to Page A 29)
promotion activist in his home
county. As president of the Berks
County Dairy Farmers
Association, Duncan has led what
he believes to be one of the finest
dairy promotion programs in the
state.
The Berks County group was one
of the first to purchase a trailer,
which they take to many fairs
during the summer to sell milk
shakes and ice cream and promote
dairy products. Last year, $4,500 in
proceeds from the trailer sales
were used to purchase “Make It
Milk” 'ads on the radio, said
Duncan.
Their county dairy promotion
committee is also unique, ex
plained v the new board chairman,
because they have a paid coor
dinator providing program support
(Turn to PageA39)