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BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
GREENFIELD, Ind. Pigs
housed in better climatic con
ditions than humans. That’s how it
is in the Eli Lilly and Company
swine research facility here in the
heartland of the U.S.A. As you
know, Eli Lilly is a major phar
maceutical company with
worldwide distribution of phar
macy products, medical devices,
agricultural products and
cosmetics.
The Greenfield lab is the testing
ground for Elanco products, Lilly’s
ag division, as well as other
compounds with potential in all of
the world markets. Actually the
Greenfield lab has an illustrious
history prior to its involvement
with agricultural products.
Starting in 1914 the research center
produced vaccines that conquered
small pox, diphtheria, polio and
tetanus.
Later during World War 11, 1100
horses were housed at the research
center to produce antitoxins for
treatment of disease. While these
horses are long gone, the horse
bams, built according to Spanish
architecture, have been refur
nished into modern offices, and the
buildings greet the visitor with a
unique historic architecture that is
on the National Registrar.
From its beginning when Eli
Lilly purchased 156 acres of farm
land at Greenfield 15 miles east of
the pharmaceutical company’s
headquarters in Indianapolis, the
research facility has grown to 1500
acres with 95 research buildings
and 1,000 employees. All the
products and compounds that Lilly
and Company produce have been
studied by scientists at the
Greenfield laboratory.
It was in 1953 when Lilly started
the research for byproducts from
the company’s human phar
maceutical business to be used in
agriculture. Now research trials
for new disease control and better
farm commodity production cover
all major areas of agriculture. The
tour arranged for the National
Farm Press on Monday in con
junction with the National Pork
Congress concentrated on the
swine laboratory facilities.
These new, modern bams have
about 250 to 300 sows that produce
litters to be used in the research
30 YEARS AGO
June 17 to 20 is Extension
Homemakers Week on the campus
of the Pennsylvania State
University, University Park,
announces Miss Ruth Kimble,
extension home economist, Lan
caster County.
A varied program of interest
groups, special activities, and
speakers is planned for the three
days. With special emphasis this
year on music, women interested
in music will be encouraged to
participate in a chorus.
Plans for a new 333,000 kilowatt
steampower plant to be build on
Brunners Island, 15 miles below
Harrisburg, were announced
Wednesday by Charles E. Oakes,
president of the Pennsylvania
Power and Light Co.
He said that the company ex
pects to spend nearly $24 million
this year in new construction and
expansion of existing facilities.
The new unit will be twice as
large as the largest present unit in
the PP&L system. It will occupy a
766 acre site, which was purchased
last spring. It has a potential
capacity of two million kilowatts.
The wet growing season last
year made a sharp difference in
Research Pigs
trials from farrow to finish. Ob
viously, the buildings are much
more elaborate than in regular
commercial production facilities.
The research facility looks for new
approaches for increased weight
gain and attempts to improve feed
utilization to develop lean, well
muscled pork for greater quality.
The animals are housed in a
totally controlled environment. Air
is controlled by computer for
heating and ventilation. Tem
peratures are monitored 24 hours a
day. The fans in the building have
the capacity for 60 room changes
per hour. That’s more than two
times the normal capacity in
commercial operations. The
houses are better insulated than
many homes. In fact, there is two
to three times more insulation than
most commercial hog bams. The
cold air is brought into the attic of
the buildings and mixed with the
warmer inside air before getting it
down into the room below. This
eliminates the variances in tem
peratures. For hot weather,
evaporating coolers are used and
self-starting gas generators back
up the operation in case of an
electrical power failure.
The pigs enjoy a more uniform
environment than most humans do
in homes or offices. Feeds are
produced in the on-farm mill. Each
bag of feed is bar coded according
to the needs of individual trial pens
of hogs. The walls are fiberglass
for easy cleaning, and the manure
system uses a combination of
aerobic and flush systems that use
less water.
Artificial insemination is used to
reduce the number of boars needed
and to keep the genetic differences
in the trial litters to a minimum for
''the research projects. This keeps
4 litters iniform and reduces the
differences from hereditary
factors to insure more accuracy in
the research projects.
All in all, the research is a
laborious undertaking. About
30,000 compounds may be studied
each year, but only 10 will get to
the advanced stages of research.
And only about one new product
will emerge on the market every
two years. Whether it be the
worldwide products of Eli Lilly or
the agricultural products of Elanco
research continues at Greenfield to
help insure a more profitable and
healthy world in which to live.
THIS WEEK
crop yield figures from 1955 ac
cording to a release for the state
department of agriculture.
Last year’s rainfall totaled 29.69
inches between April and October,
6.17 inches above normal, while
practically no rain fell between
mid-June and mid-August of the
preceding year.
The Lancaster Stockyards and
the Christ Kunzler Packing Co. in
Lancaster were visited Tuesday by
an eight man livestock marketing
and meat processing study team
from Japan.
The tour was arranged by the
International Cooperation Ad
ministration in ’ cooperation with
the Department of Agriculture and
the Pennsylvania State University.
Four tobacco seed cleaming
and treating demonstrations were
held this week on county farms by
Dr. 0. D. Burke and Harry S. Sloat.
The treatment they demon
strated consisted of cleaning the
seed by sieving and blowing. A
sieve with holes of about 1/32 inch
diameter was used. To blow the
light seeds and chaff out of the
seed, they used a light separator
powered by an electric fan.
Housed In Fancy Facilities
facilities tft to right); Walt Waitt, animal nutritionist; Dr. Al Melliere, head of animal
service application: Dr. Jay Jones, research specialist and Dr. Art Raun, director.
he medi
*y
<i
iur group in front
Farrowing house on the Greenfield research laboraties.
Pens of finishing pigs in research projects.
4* •
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rn swine research buildings.
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