i i ' ■ 0 )v n t
VOL. 30 No. 37
USD A blasts dairy unity; milk output up 6%
BY JAMES H. EVERHART
WASHINGTON - The an
ticipated showdown between the
House Agriculture Committee and
the Reagan Administration has
begun.
Undersecretary of Agriculture
Richard Goldberg, apparently
speaking in behalf of his boss,
USDA secretary John Block,
criticized the dairy legislation
approved last week by the Com
mittee, in a letter dated Tuesday.
Goldberg described the Ag
Committee’s dairy title as being
“inconsistent with long-term
solutions or long-range planning.”
Specifically, the letter addressed
to Committee chairman Kika de la
Garza, noted that the assessments
would be higher than the
legislators had estimated.
While the committee placed the
standby diversion assessments at
40 cents or less, USDA officials
said a more accurate estimate
would be 75 cents to $1.25 a hun
dredweight.
Goldberg also said CCC costs
would range from $3.5 billion to $6
billion during the period from 1986-
1990.
The committee has since
responded to the blast from USDA,
in a letter that received bipartisan
support.
Goldberg’s letter “contained
misrepresentations that serve to
be divisive and further damage
agriculture,” said the letter from
de la Garza, and Reps. Tony
Coelho, Ed Madigan and Jim
Jeffords. Madigan and Jeffords
are the ranking and senior
Republicans, respectively, on the
committee, while Coelho is
chairman of the livestock, dairy
and poultry subcommittee, which
forged the original proposal
The cost estimates, the
congressmen said, “do not make
Young Farmers meet
f f
in Ephrata Friday
EPHRATA - About 325 mem
bers are expected to attend the
Summer Conference of the Penn
sylvania Young Farmers next
weekend at Ephrata Area Junior
High School.
The conference, an annual event,
will feature farm tours, business
meetings, programs and a banquet
next Friday evening.
A special videotape presentation
will describe the hydroponic
tomato planting facility at Penn
Dutch Farms, where 9,500 plants
are grown in water only, without
soil.
Highlights of the farm tour in
clude:
• The Green Dragon Farmers
Market and Auction. Con
ventioneers will have the op
portunity to watch livestock, hay
and straw auctions, and see 250
local growers, merchants and
craftsmen selling their products.
• Triple G Farms. The Graybill
Four Sections
sense, economically or
realistically,” and ignored the
impact of off-setting savings.
The legislators also disputed
Goldberg’s assessment of the
impact on consumer prices, noting
that even if milk prices did go up,
they would be rising at a slower
rate than the Consumer Price
Index, the government’s
recognized barometer of inflation.
The group called on Block to
And what could be a sweeter dream than free ice cream for everyone? The Keystone
Ice Cream Association and the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program made that dream
come true on Thursday by dishing out free fix-your-own sundaes to hundreds of ice
cream fans on the steps of the State Capitol Building.
Pictured above is Keystone ice Cream Association president William Culp receiving a
"custom built” sundae from (left) Franklin County Dairy Princess Debby Hawbaker,
State Dairy Princess Lynette Loper and York Princess Joyce Ruppert.
brothers farm 400 acres, milk 175
cows and sell milk and ice cream
at their grocery store. They grow
corn and alfalfa, and have a new
open-front heifer bam.
• G/M Finishing. A division of
the Gerber Company, this dye and
bleach plant sends material to
sewing plants throughout the
United States.
• The Fox Farm. Dan and Kathy
Fox farm 74 acres, mostly corn
and hay, and milk 40 cows. Their
200-plus-year-old home was built
over a spring with a capacity of
about 1,000 gallons a minute.
• Indian Spring Farm. Clark and
Lucy Stauffer farm about 100 acres
of corn and tobacco. Convention
goers who visit the farm will be
able to see tobacco at all stages of
development.
• Middle Creek Wildlife
Management Area. Located on the
Lancaster-Lebanon County bor-
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 20,1985
“reconsider your staff’s criticism
of this program.”
The committee last week ap
proved a Dairy Title proposal that
includes standby diversion
authority and a support price tied
to cost of production.
Meanwhile, milk production in
June approached all-time records,
increasing 6.1 percent over June
1984 figures.
USDA officials said production
‘/cc Cream Dream ’
Fair Coverage
Come July, a bumper crop
of fairs begins sprouting
throughout Lancaster Far
ming country.
Traditionally, our coverage
of county-level fairs has been
extensive. But for the first
time, fair coverage will be
consolidated in Section A,
following the markets.
Our all-new fair pages will
cover results, as well as
highlights of upcoming fairs.
Throughout the fair season
just check the index for the
location of fair coverage.
Also in this issue you’ll find
a 'complete schedule of
Pennsylvania fairs and
livestock shows on page C 2.
totaled 12.434 billion pounds last
month, more than 700 million
pounds over last year’s output.
Production per cow increases
accounted for most of the ad
ditional milk, with the monthly
output climbing 43 pounds to 1,128
pounds.
Cow numbers were also on the
rise, though not as steeply,
climbing about two percent to just
over 11 million.
State Grange offers
1 t
HMO medical coverage
BY MARGIE FUSCO
Staff Correspondent
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania State Grange has become
the second Grange in the nation to
offer its members a prepaid
primary health care plan.
The program, called a Health
Maintenance Organization
(HMO), is a method of covering
basic health costs not covered by
standard medical insurances.
Grange members who subscribe to
the HMO will receive coverage for
both doctor visits and
hospitalization by paying a
quarterly premium.
“Now farmers and other self
employed people in the
agricultural industry can have
health benefits as good as people
covered by company plans,” ex
plains Linda Blake, public
relations director for the Penn
sylvania State Grange. Because of
its size, the Grange has been able
$7.50 per Year
The present totals are higher
than any June figures since 1947,
when per capita consumption was
much higher.
June 1984 figures, of course,
reflect the impact of the dairy
diversion program, which was
then in its sixth month of
operation.
The increases since the end of
the diversion program April 1 have
fueled the controversy now raging
in Washington over the future of
dairy policy in this country.
Proponents of the program cite
the figures as proof the program
did bring about a reduction, ad
mittedly temporary, in dairy
output.
Opponents, however, point to the
increases as confirmation that the
program made no lasting impact
on the imbalance between supply
and demand.
Last year, the government
purchased nearly eight billion
pounds of surplus milk, down 50
percent from the 16 billion Uncle
Sam absorbed m 1983. At the
current rate, surplus purchases
are estimated at 10 billion pounds
or more.
Pennsylvania’s June milk
production was up six percent, a
rate virtually identical to the
national increase, and roughly in
league with figures from other
leading milk-producing states.
California and Minnesota led the
major producers, recording in
creases in the seven-percent
range, while Wisconsin had a six
percent increase and New York, a
four-percent hike in production.
Florida and Maryland led the
nation, both recording 13-percent
increases over June 1984 figures
( Virginia, meanwhile, recorded a
’ 12-percent increase and
Washington state jumped nine
percent
to form a group and has enlisted
the services to two HMO
orgamzations.
Grange members living in
Lancaster, Lebanon, York,
Adams, Dauphin, Cumberland,
and Perry Counties will come
under coverage from
HealthAmenca Members who live
in Montour, Columbia, Lycoming,
Northumberland, Snyder, Union,
Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming,
Sullivan, Clinton, Clearfield,
Centre, Mifflin, and Juniata
Counties will receive coverage
through the Geisinger Health Plan.
HealthAmenca is a national
program serving nearly half a
million members across the
country. The Geisinger Health
Plan is offered through the
Geisinger Health Care System,
headquartered in Danville, Pa.
An HMO is somewhat different
from conventional medical in
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