Farmers Need Aggressive Product
BY
BONNIE HELLUM BRECHBILL
FrankUn Co. Correspondent
KAUFFMAN STATION -
“Thirty-two peaks in Colorado are
higher than Pike’s Peak. Name
one,” Walt Buescher, nationally
known humorist and agri-speaker,
challenged his audience. “Zebulon
Pike told people about his peak.
You gotta tell people! If you don’t
sell your product, who will? Uncle
Directors elected to the Franklin County Extension board of
directors include, from left, Raymond Bricker, Gerald
Reichard, Jeff Grove and Joe Middour.
W-L Alfalfas
Why grow anything but the Best?
mßt
“W-L is very definitely
a high quality seed
The varieties are
dependable, the crop is
more persistent, and I
think the hay quality is
better I took 4 cuttings last
y6ar, and the fourth was
just like the first'”
CarlKreider
QuarryviUe, PA
Franklin County Extension Meeti
Sam? Do you really want the guy
who runs the Post Office to do your
advertising?
Buescher not only encouraged
farmers to aggressively sell their
commodities, but also to keep their
production up. The world market
may be highly competitive, but
there are thousands of people
being bom every day, “and they
all get into the habit of eating quite
early in life.”
“I plant 900 acres with W-L
because it gives me
tonnage and quality
WL 316 comes back quickly
and stays fine When
you’re doing as many acres
as I am, that leaf to stem
ratio is important”
Dean Stuart
Corning, NY
The occasion for Buescher’s
remarks was the 69th Annual
Meeting of the Franklin County
Extension Association, held Jan.
26, at Kauffman’s Community
Center.
J. Fred Rock, Franklin County
Commissioner spoke on Franklin
County’s $l9 million budget,
$lOO,OOO of which is earmarked for
Extension use. “Agriculture is
important in Franklin County,”
Rock said.
Retiring from the Extension’s
Board of Directors after serving
six years were Walter Grove, Jack
Diehl, Robert Meyers Jr. and
Fannie Harbaugh.
John Shearer, county extension
director, thanked the 350 people in
attendance for their presence
despite the postponement from
Friday evening, and added that
their interest is important to the
type of Extension service he and
the other staff can develop. “It’s
been a good year in Extension,” he
stated. Over 30 percent of the
Extension staffs time was devoted
to agriculture and natural
resources, Shearer reported.
Volunteers gave over 8,000 hours to
Extension programs last year.
Newly elected to the Extension’s
board of directors were Jeffrey
Grove, to represent Southampton
W
—lL— iL—
“The WL3IB has done
very well We've got one
bed we planted 8 years
ago, and it's still
producing We got four
cuttings this year l And we
planted some 316 this
Spring, and it did
exceptionally well 1”
Ross Smith, Jr
Jarrettsviiie. MD
Lancaster Famine, Saturday, January 31,1M7-A23
Marketing To Survive
Township; Raymond M. Bricker,
Saint Thomas Township; and
Gerald J. Reichard, Washington
Township. Incumbents Jeffrey
Funk, Washington Township and
Joe Middour, Quincy Township,
were re-elected to another term.
A message for the farm com
munity was woven into Buescher’s
jokes and visual presentation.
The United States tries and fails
to get American farmers to raise
less food, and the Soviet Union
tries and fails to get Russian
farmers to raise more food, he
observed, calling the PIK program
a “recycling program.”
“Four presidents in a row have
said no to selling food to Russia.
We scared ‘em real good, didn’t
we? They got out of Afghanistan
and Eastern Europe real fast,
didn’t they?” he said. “The
American farmers are the ones
who got punished, not Russia.” He
said that he now sees the same
thing happening with South Africa.
“Americans aren’t eating as
much bread, potatoes, sugar, beef,
pork and eggs as they used to - and
when you multiply that by 228
million people, that makes quite a
difference to the farmer.”
Although Americans spend only
14 percent of their disposable in
come on food - less than any other
nation - Buescher cited price as
one reason for the drop in con
sumption. He explained his
statement by saying that the
housewife buys furniture only
twice in her life - when she gets
married and when the kids leave
home - and she doesn’t remember
how much it cost the first time. But
she goes to the grocery store every
week, and she notices when things
go up a few cents.
Although price is a factor in
decreased consumption, Buescher
says the biggest culprit for far
mer’s loss of domestic market is
the advice of “nutrition experts.”
“A lot of businesses guess wrong
on inventory,” he said. “And when
they do, they have a sale. But the
political wave, for the last 50
years, has told farmers to cut
back. Twenty-five percent of the
jobs in America are related to
agriculture. If farmers cut back, 5
million jobs could be cut also.
Every business would be affected
if agriculture, the nation’s largest
business, cut back,” he declared.
While he praised dairy farmers
for their advertising campaigns
and encouraged them to continue
pushing their product, he also
chided them.
“You dairymen have the best
drink at the best price and soda is
outselling you. Why, when you
read the ingredients on a can of
soda, you don’t know whether to
put it in your stomach or your
radiator. And they charge more for
this stuff than for milk.”
“Orange farmers tackled this
job many years ago. When I was a
boy, I got an orange once a year -
in church on Christmas Eve. Then
the California orange growers got
together and formed Sunkist. Now
you can buy oranges 364 days a
year - the only day you can’t get
them now is Christmas - because
the stores are closed.”
After reviewing the many
everyday items, such as nylon
stockings and aerosol cans, that
have been invented since the
Depression, he said, “We came out
of the depths then, and we can do it
again.”