A36-Uncast«r Farming, Saturday, AprH 12,1986
Rough ride ahead
Now that the bids are out for the
whole herd buyout program, it
looks like a part of the surplus milk
problem will be taken care of. At
least temporarily. Shakespeare
would say, “Ay, there’s the rub.”
How long will it last?
For every one of us left in the
business of milking cows, a major
question must be faced. That one
is, “How am I going to act now that
some of my competition is out of
business”?
Whether you think of your
neighbors as competitors or just
hard working dairymen like
yourself, all people who milk cows
are competing with each other for
a limited market. Now that some
of that competition is temporarily
gone, how am I going to handle it?
Eliminating a million cows from
the herd will cause a small gap in
production for a while. But the
potential for quickly filling that
gap is still here, and most of us
know how it can be done. We can
assume that a lot of the lower
producers are among the herds
that sold out. But there are many
20,000 pound herds and 25,000
pound cows still around.
We will be lifting the average
production per cow to new heights
before we know it. It is simply a
matter of fine-tuning the
technology that we already have.
Feed programming, growth
hormones, and nutritional ad
ditives are only starters. How long
will it be until we are right back in
the same old surplus battle?
The answer lies in how each one
of us is going to react in the next
couple of years. Some will im
mediately start to build larger
numbers, perhaps in preparation
for a possible quota system.
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It could develop into a mad rush
to buy up the available cows, just
to keep someone else from getting
them. The biggest influence on
your reaction as well as your
neighbors is, how profitable will it
be to expand, and will the means
(money and cows), be available
when they are needed?
The support price for milk will
be the final criteria for both
staying in business and deciding to
expand. Solvency must be the key
to survival.
The natural tendency whenever
a shortage develops is for those
who are in a position to expand to
do so as quickly as possible. If
shortages develop, they will be
regional, and not countrywide.
Milk distributors, both Co-op’s
and private companies, will
continue to compete for both
supplies and markets. This will put
pressure on you as a producer to
get into the best position you can
find for the long haul. Shaky and
marginal processors will be
brushed aside, and the rest will
fight for position in the market
place.
In spite of Regional Federal
Marketing orders that control
prices, there will have to be a
sifting out and re-shuffeling of
supplies and distributors. How fast
this occurs will be interesting to
watch.
I don’t expect any fast knee-jerk
reaction to the Dairy Herd
Reduction plan. Most of us will be
rather conservative and cautious
over the next couple of years.
Those of us who intend to stay in
business will keep our eyes open,
and stay informed on all political
issues, as well as those issues that
affect our business directly.
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DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED
ALEXANDRIA, VA - Middle
Atlantic Order Market Ad
ministrator Joseph D.. Shine today
announced a Class I milk price of
$14.05 per hundredweight for May
1986. This price is up 23 cents from
April but is 68 cents below last
May’s Class I price. Effective with
the May 1986 Class I price, the
Order 4 Class I differential in
creased from $2.78 to $3.03 per
We will make the necessary
adjustments to our farm
management, and keep a clear,
clean path open between the farm
and the bank.
Heavy debts will have to be
made manageable and kept that
way.
There will be no room for the
casual, sloppy, or uninformed and
untrained dairyman.
Farmers have always thrived on
competition and uncertainty. A
little belt tightening now might
slim us down for the hurdles that
lie ahead.
L*tU>KfHHwTo»r
■WIiiRVW PflwPi
Furnace Rd.
Box9lA, R.D.3
Quanyville, PA 17566
(717) 786-2173
Order No. 4 Class I
May milk price set
4l
STRIKE
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RICH!
SELL
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m
A
LANCASTER
FARMING
CLASSIFIED
Ml
hundredweight pursuant to the The May 1986 Class I price and
Food Security Act of 1985 and the the March 1986 Class II price are
subsequent expedited final based on the March 1986 Min
decision. nesota-Wisconsin manufacturing
Mr. Shine announced a Class II milk price of $11.02 per hun
milk price of $10.99 per hun- dredweight at a 3.5 percent but
dredweight for March 1986 and a terfat content.
butterfat differential of 15.8 cents The USDA reported that the
for the month. The Class n price wholesale price of Grade A butter
was down nine cents from the at Chicago for March was $1.3748
previous month, while the but- per pound and the nonfat dry milk
terfat differential decreased two- price was $.8044 per pound, f.o.b.
tenths of a cent. plants in the Chicago area.
Brazil buys dairy products
WASHINGTON - Under
Secretary of Agriculture Daniel G.
Amstutz announced an export sale
by the Commodity Credit
Corporation of 22.0 million pounds
(10,000 metric tons) of nonfat dry
milk valued at $6.9 million to In
terbras, a Brazilian buyer.
CCC sold the nonfat dry milk,
part of its surplus inventory
acquired under the CCC dairy
mice support program, for $690
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Ivyland, PA TRACTOR CO Sinking Spring, PA
215-675-1610 Lebanon, PA 215-678-0828
717-949-6501
R.S. HOLLINGERI
SON, INC.
Mountville, PA
717-285-4538
LAMBS FARM MACHINERY THOMAS POWER
Thorndale, PA HSfSJSf't 1 , EQUIPMENT
215-269-2876 Avondale, PA
609-758-2211 21 5-268-2181
per ton f.a.s. (free along side)
vessel. Deliveries will be made in
April and May with payment in
U.S. dollars. No credit
arrangements are involved in this
sale, Amstutz said.
Brazil has also purchased 7,000
tons of nonfat dry milk from New
Zealand at $690 per ton and 5,000
tons of nonfat dry milk from
European exporters at $690 per
ton.
Oiviuon of Hcsston Corporation
KELLER BROS.
Lititz, PA
717-626-2000
PIPERSVILLE BARDEN
CENTER
Pipersville, PA
215-766-0414