ll 't iU. [lll liliiii
roi. 32 No. 1
Early SnowfaU DmtfrNtorthem Pa.
Six-year-old Eric Hall of R 4 Muncy took full advantage of the
season’s first snowfall Wednesday as he £ave his sled a test
run. Nearly an inch of snow fell on Everbe Farm in Lycoming
County, where Eric lives with his parents, Barney and Lisa
Hall.
Hog Contracting: Sell Out Or Smart Move?
BY JACKHUBLEY
Getting married and plunging
into the hog business are a couple
of big steps for any young farmer,
but that’s exactly what Paul Felty
did in 1984. And though he was
starting from ground zero in both
enterprises, he’s the first to admit
that he was a lot more successful
at marriage.
Seated in the office of his new
330-sow building, Felty recalls how
he -druggled, quite literally, to stay
afloat two years ago. “Every tune
it rained the old bank barn filled up
with water. And the first Christ
mas I spent the whole day down
there thawing pipes.”
By contrast, his new structure,
located north of Lebanon on the
farm owned by his father-in-law,
Joe Morrissey, provides a pleasant
work environment with good
ventilation and lighting-a state-of-
Annual Forage
Conference Set
At Penn State U.
Ihe 1986 Annual Forage Confer
ence sponsored by the Pennsyl
vania Forage and Grassland
Council in cooperation with the
Pennsylvania State University will
>e held November 25 at the Keller
Budding Auditorium at the
iniversity. The theme for this
feur’s program is The Role of
forages In Dairy Profitability.
Here’s a complete schedule of
he program;
(Turn to Page A3B)
Five Sections
Phc'o By Barbara Miller
the-art swine confinement
building. How can an aspiring hog
producer get from there to here in
such a short time? In Felty’s
opinion, a contract arrangement is
the best answer.
For Paul Felty his hog operation
is a dream come true. A dream
made possible by two people; Joe
Morrissey, a broiler producer who
put up the money for the building,
and Brent Hershey, owner of
Hershey Ag Services of Mount Joy,
the company that offered Felty a
PHA Bam Dedicated, Fills With Brazilian Shipment
With the flourish of a sharp scissors, Pennsylvania Holstein president Art Baxter cut
the ribbon to officially open PHA’s latest export-facility addition. On hand for the
ceremony were, from left, Jay Landis, representing PHA's executive committee,
treasurer Walter Wurster, builder Henry Lapp, president Baxter, federal veterinarian
Dr. Chuck Rossow, state sales chairman Laszlo Moses, and PHA executive secretary Bill
Nichol.
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 8,1986
Speaker Thinks Problem
Due To Weak Exports
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
PHILADELPHIA - “It is no
secret that large and growing
exports are absolutely crucial to
the economic well-being of U.S.
agriculture,” said James P.
Houck, Agricultural and Applied
Economics, University of Min
nesota. Professor Houck was one
of the featured speakers here
Thursday at a forum to discuss
critical concerns of U.S.
agriculture sponsored by the
Philadelphia Society for
Promoting Agriculture. “The
dismal price and income per
formance of our farm economy in
recent years is a direct con
sequence of a weak export
market,” Houck said. “Between
fiscal 1981 and 1986, annual
agricultural exports decreased
34.4%, from $43.3 billion to $27.5
billion. From 1985 to 1986 exports
slid 12%. ”
Agricultural shipments to the
less-developed nations of the world
fell slightly faster than the total
over this 1981-to-1986 period. They
dropped by 38 1%. This distinction
contract.
“Before I met Brent I knew I was
going to breed hogs, but I didn’t
know which way I was going to
go,” says Felty.
Hershey, who runs his hog
contracting business in con
junction with Esbenshade Mills of
Mount Joy, makes it easy for
young farmers like Felty to realize
their dreams. According to Her
shey, the two critical prerequisites
for entering into a contract
agreement are enthusiasm and
Ag Society
James P. Houck
is worthy of concern since the lg*s
developed nat, i about 43%
of all U.S. ag! icullural exports in
1986, down from 45% in 1981.
Furthermore, the less-developed
countings, individually and as a
group, exhibit more volatility in
their farm imports than richer
nations like Japan Canada, and
money...in that order. “The most
important thing to this is that they
like hogs,” says Hershey. “Then
you worry about the money.”
Like most contractors, Hershey
owns the pigs, feed, medication
and other inputs, and the farmer is
responsible for the facilities and
labor That’s not to say that the
producer has to have a background
in ag engineering or finance to get
started In fact, Hershey Ag will
see the project through from the
(Turn to Page A 22)
$8.50 Per Year
the members of the European
Community.
The reasons for the stagnation
and decline of U.S. farm exports
are numerous and complex. They
involve internatinoal recession,
currency exchange rates, bumper
crops around the globe, in
ternational debt repayment
problems, political maneuvering,
and trade-strangling policy ad
justments. Another candidate for
blame is foreign assistance to the
agricultural sectors of those less
developed countries who have been
important traditional customers
for U S. farm products. Figures
compiled by the OECD indicate
that, even after accounting for
inflation, agricultural assistance
from rich to poor nations has more
than doubled in the ten years since
1975-76. In particular, United
States' funding for such work has
increased more than 50 percent
over this 10-vear period
THE ISSUES
Spending public money for
foreign aid has long been un
popular with lots of Americans
(Turn to PageAl9)
l|oP*ter| Panning
We’re 31 Years Old
"Here is a trade paper' devoted
to the interests of the farmer . ’
said a greeting appearing on page
one ot the first edition of Lancaster
Farming back in November, Übs
r l hurt wine years later, the East
Coast's largest ag weekly con
tinues in that tiaciition sen mg
more than 43,000 subscribe! s in
Hennsvlvama ind surrounding
states
r.V JOYCE RLPP
\ ork ( «. t oi respondent
MIDDLETOWN - With Ph
slash of a scissois, Pennsy\ania
Holstein president Art Baxter
sliced through a wide, white rib
bon, officially opening on Monda>
afternoon the newest addition to
PHA’s farm and cattle-expoi >
facility
The 220 by 60 foot pole barn,
equipped witn 260 individual
headgates, and divided into four
separate holding lots, makes the
state’s Holstein Association farm
the largest such export facihh in
the East Enlarged capaciU of the
Middletown farm enables a full
boatload of heifers, up to &00 head
of 1,000-pound animals, to be
assembled at a time
'We are ideally located
geographically to do this," noted
PHA president Art Baxter "This
is just the beginning, it’s up to us to
make it work for the future ”
Baxter praised the efforts in tne
(Turn to Page A23'