PPF Names-CemmunkatiorK Dimatot:
<jhP^f IS h B oY R K. ~ Mi( ; hael holds a B.S. degree from the
Meidon has been appointed Pennsylvania State University and
i r f e ™y *° position of Director is currently working toward a
of Communications with the Masters in Journalism and Public
I Pennsylvania Poultry Federation.
I A Harrisburg native, Michael’s
| extensive media experience in
cludes audio and video production,
1 script writing, newspaper
reporting, still photography and
commercial radio broadcasting.
~w xy
fDULTRr' FEDERATION
Francis To Address NY Convention ’
ITHACA, NY John Francis,
vice president of marketing for the
Beef Industry Council of the
National Livestock and Meat
Board, will speak on the Beef
Checkoff Jan. 10 at the annual
convention of the New York Beef
Cattlemen’s Association at the
Sheraton Inn, Ithaca.
Francis manages the develop
ment, implementation, and
evaluation of the national beef
marketing programs conducted by
the Beef Industry Council. He
assists and counsels Jay Wardell,
senior vice president of the beef
program, in all areas of beef
program management. He also
coordinates programs between the
Beef Industry Council and the 38
state beef councils including the
...and
a Please,
f Oh LORD,
i
|
} Let there
j be Peace
j on Earth
I
E
I
I
I
Wolgemuth Bros., Inc.
New York Beef Industry Council
and acts as liason between the Beef
Industry Council and the Beef
Promotion and research Board.
The two-day New York Beef
Cattlemen’s Association con
vention begins Jan. 9 with
seminars conducted by Cornell
University staff on forage and
grazing management and on
marketing feeder and finished
cattle. Burton Eller, National
Cattlemen’s Association vice
president for government affairs
and policy coordination will be the
Friday night banquet speaker.
Information about the Con
vention may be obtained from Lee
Kraszewski, RD 1, Box 120, Cor
ning, N.Y. 14830.
Mount Joy, Pa.
BY RICHARD BARCZEWSKI
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. There have
| been some major changes in the
attitudes of the farm community
since I first became involved with
Cooperative Extension as a 4-H
club member 14 years ago.
It used to be that any time a
meeting was held on any topic
ranging from marketing hogs to
growing com, a full house of
growers was in attendance.
Producers seemed more interested
in keeping up-to-date and more
willing to try new techniques.
Today, however, producer at
tendance at meetings has dropped
off drastically. Why?
Farming has been a boom or
bust endeavor over the past 15
years. When things were going
well, they were going really well.
And when things were bad, they
were really bad. Of course, we all
know what the situation is now.
Hog producers currently are
seeing some decent prices, thanks
to reduced inventories and a stable
demand. However, com prices are
down. As a matter of fact, they
even dropped below $1 per bushel
in the Midwest recently.
The real kicker is that most hog
producers also grow crops. I
personally know very few hog men
who don’t produce grain in ad
dition to their hog operations.
In a year like this, the money you
lose on your com crop can’t always
be made up by the hogs. Cheap
grain is only cheap when you’re
buying, not producing it. But
having a diversified operation can
sometimes result in a little profit
Stay Current To Stay Afloat
or at least reduced loss, compared
to a single commodity production
system.
This year, for example, if it costs
you 40 cents to produce a pound of
Uve hog and the market price is 55
cents, you stand to net $34.50 on a
230 pound market hog. Now sup
pose you’re marketing 2,000 hogs
per year. Assuming prices were
stable over that entire year (and
we all know how unlikely that is),
the net income from your hog
operation would be $69,000.
That’s a nice piece of change,
especially considering prices in
previous years and the bills you
may have accumulated due to low
hog prices in the past.
Remember what I said earlier?
Most pork producers also grow
grain. Let’s just suppose that
besides the hogs above, you also
grow 300 acres of com. Where
would you stand now, financially?
In the parts of Delmarva where
most of the hogs are raised,
nonirrigated com yields ranged
from 0 to 50 bushels this year. If
your average over the 300 acres
was 30 bushels, that land produced
9,000 bushels of com. Com prices
on the peninsula are currently
running at $1.65 per bushel, so the
gross income from that 9,000
bushels would be $14,850.
Now here comes another kicker.
According to some cost of
production figures I have in my
files, it costs about $265 (including
rent) to grow one acre of com in
this part of the country. Multiply
this by 300 acres and it cost ap
proximately $79,500 to grow that
com. Considering that you were
only able to sell it for $14,850, you
suffered a net loss of $64,650 on the
corn.
In the situation I’ve just
described, your net income for the
total farm (hogs and corn) would
be only $4,350 for the year. Things
would have looked better in this
specific example, if you’d
produced more hogs or less com.
In another year the opposite might
be true, depending on production
costs and the market prices of com
and hogs.
Under the circumstances, it’s
easy to see why many farmers are
apathetic about agricultural
meetings. Times have been bad,
and things don’t look good for the
next several years, either. But the
key to surviving the current slump
is to improve management and
stay informed.
Farming is a business. And just
as in any other business, you, the
proprietor, must be aware of your
production costs, average
production and average income.
Keeping up-to-date with current
management practices is also a
must in any competitive business.
I can’t think of anything more
dangerous to a farmer in financial
difficulty than avoiding current
information.
The hog industry is a volatile
industry. Prices fluctuate, and new
technologies lead to better feeding,
housing and health practices. As a
producer you must keep current if
you intend to stay in business.
Keeping current won’t
guarantee you a place in the future
of the hog industry, but it will
reduce the likelihood of business
failure.