A34-Lancast«r Farming , Saturday, Juna 14,1986 Major Dairy Sales And Dispersals Nationwide During the week of June 6to National Dairy Cow Sale Index has June 11, there were no major dairy been updated. As sales are sales or dispersals held outside of scheduled for next week, the Pennsylvania. However, the column will resume. NATIONAL DAIRY COW SALE INDEX ©1986 Lancaster Farming Newspaper This sale index can help diarymen place a value cm the dairy cows jin their own herds. Breed organization sales and private dispersal sales reported in Lancaster Farming are included in the dollar averages. Year to date: Nation Pennsylvania Four previous weeks: Nation Four previous weeks +/-yeartodate: Year to date: Nation Pennsylvania Four previous weeks Nation Four previous weeks +/-yeartodate: farm implement man ufacturer that does that Each part undergoes a special 3 stage power wash, oven drying, elec trostatic painting and finally, bak ing at 200°F THEN we assemble the unit! Quality painting is just one reason Fox Brady machines are still operating after 25 years. Call Or See Your Brady Fox Dealer: SHUEY SALES & SERVICE Mam St Ono, PA (717)865-4915 STRAWSER FARM SUPPLY Star Route Mifflin, PA (717)436-6992 Quakertown, PA (215)536-7523 Ayrshire Brown Guernsey Jersey Swiss 721 940 789 925 1027 - 566 1332 674.19 966 676 910 48 lower 26 higher 113 lower 15 lower Holstein Bed and MflUiig White Shorthorn 1816 2837 672 1298 2837 922 1826 10 higher a good example. They’re loaded with features that give extra tons per acre.. .choice of 3 diesel engines; the famous Fox cutting cylinder; the optional Auto Bev knife sharpener; and a super selective hydrostatic trans mission. Stop and talk about Fox Brady quality. GRUMELLI FARM SERVICE Rt. 222 Quarryville, PA (717)786-7318 DOTTERER EQUIP., INC RD 3 Mill Hall, PA (717)726-3471 CJ. WONSIDLER BROS New Tripoli, PA (215)767-7611 251 lower Oley, PA (215)987-6257 Ag Problems Center On Lower Farmland Values Declining land values have been at the very core of agriculture’s problems over the last several years, according to analysts of 'USDA’s Economic Research Service. Between 1970 and the early 1980’s, farm real estate values, on average, more than quadrupled, says a recent issue of the Agriculture Department’s FARMLINE magazine. The steady, rapid appreciation was far out of line with the growth in the earning capacity of the land. It was propelled by a number of factors: high inflation rates in the general economy; rising exports and projections that a growing world population would depend in creasingly on the output from America’s farms; low retd interest rates and plentiful credit; greater attention to the fact that land is a limited resource; and fairly steady gains, overall, in net cash income from fanning. Perhaps the most important stimulus by the late 1970’5, however, was the self-perpetuating assumption in the farm real estate market that the rapid inflation in land values would continue. More than half the returns of farm in vestment were coming in the form of capital gains, primarily on land, say USDA analysts. While the returns a farmers could earn by producing crops and livestock were rising slowly and could vary sharply from year to year, the returns to the ownership of farmland arere very dependable and very high. Land was ap preciating at an average annual rate of about 16 percent in the late 1970’5. B HAMILTON EQUIPMENT, INC. 567 South Reading Road P.O. Box 478 Ephrata, PA 17522 Telephone (717) 733-7951 Please Contact Us For Your Nearest Dealer The capital gains encouraged farmers and farmland investors to continue bidding up land values to get access to all this “paper wealth.” The paper wealth could easily be converted into real money by using the inflated land values as collateral to help meet cash flow needs, invest in new facilities, or buy more land. Expansion, in fact, seemed to be a wise business decision supported by the “experts.” Expansion in the early and mid -1970’s paid off for a great many farmers, say Agriculture Department economists, but others expanded too much or too late as interest rates were rising and land values were leveling off. They could support their newly acquired debt only when they were getting large capital gains, mainly in land values. They were counting on being able to borrow against continued capital gains to meet their debt payments and other cash flow needs. For many of them, all that was needed to bring on a crisis was for farmland in flation to slow. It did that, and more. The bottom fell out of the land market, and some farmers could Kuhn has engineered Mower Conditioners that cut hay up or down, wet or dry, even in toughest conditions They operate fast, resist clogging, and condition hay thoroughly to speed drying time up to 50% There’s less chance of “ramed-on hay,” and the palatability is improved with a Kuhn Mower Conditioner Highly efficient oval disc cutting system severs crop at base and feeds it through free DON'T BE SLOW Call Now To Place Your CLASSIFIED AD Mi: 717-3*4-3047 or 717-434-11*4 swinging fingers and reversible conditioning comb. As grass goes through conditioning comb, natural wax is stripped. Conditioner is adjustable to 20 positions to suit crop and weather Adjustable swathboards provide light fluffy swaths to ensure fast drying times Cutterbar is height adjustable to suit terrain and incorporates blade protection features. Built tough to last 1 Call or write for more information FC25O—5 oval tutting discs 8 cutting and transport widths FC3OO—6 oval cutting discs 10' cutting and transport widths Distributed By not get the additional credit or even support their current debt. The underlying causes can probably be traced to a dramatic slowdown in inflation throughout the general economy, a downturn in exports, a sharp rise in real interest rates, a general tightening up of credit; and the gradual realization in the farmland market that the inflated values weren’t supported by the economics of farming. The downturn in farmland values began as lenders tightened up on credit and called in existing loans, and as more farmland came on the market because some farmers couldn’t manage their debt payments. The more that values dropped, the greater the number of turners who had to sell off land or weren’t in the position to buy the land going on the market, so the downturn accelerated, feeding on itself. The USDA FARMUNE report says it was this decline in the value of farm assets, particularly land, that precipitated the “crisis” for many of the farmers now facing severe financial stress and for many of those who have already succombed to it.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers