A36-Lancasttr Farming, Saturday, May 23,1987
The Milk
Check
TOM JUHCHAK
County Agent
Last Chance
The newly elected Directors,
representing the independent
producer members of the Regional
Cooperative Marketing Agency,
joined with the directors elected by
the cooperative members for their
first meeting together last Friday
in Albany. They decided to start
negotiations with dealers for over
order pricing after one more sweep
for new members in Pennsylvania.
The goal is to give all farmers who
want to join a last chance op
portunity to sign contracts with
RCMA before the July 10 meeting
of the Board of Directors when
negotiating strategies will be
developed.
News releases to the media and
press conferences with legislators
will be part of the plan to gain
support and membership for
RCMA. County coordinators and
other volunteers will be provided
with new information and urged to
sign up neighbors who are not yet
members. All of Pennsylvania will
be a part of this effort to get new
members but 12 of the most im
portant dairy counties have been
chosen for more intensive activity.
These include Susquehanna,
Bradford, Tioga, Wayne and
Lycoming in the northeast and
Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks,
Chester, Franklin, Centre and
Lebanon in the central and
southern areas.
Every opportunity provided by
June Dairy Month activities will be
used to publicize the benefits of
RCMA membership to all
dairymen and provide a last
chance to participate before
negotiations start for over-order
prices from Maine to Maryland.
Normally, the spring flush of
milk at this time of the year does
not provide the best opportunity
for negotiating premiums above
the minimum prices provided by
Federal Orders but this year is not
a normal year. Milk supplies are
up seasonally around the nation
and market prices have fallen
agribusiness bank serving all facets
of the agricultural community.
There’s a Meridian banker nearby
to serve you.
Palmyra/Myerstown
Andrew C. Terrell
717-274-6402
MEMBER FDIC
below the support levels. However,
here in the Northeast supplies are
short enough to have handlers
concerned about getting enough
milk to meet their needs in the
months ahead.
Fluid milk handlers have some
protection for their supplies
through a “call order” that is
likely to be used by the Market
Administrator this year but cheese
and soft product manufacturers
may have to use premiums and
contracts to get an adequate
supply for their needs. Some of this
activity is already occuring with
some jockeying for position by
handlers even now during the
spring flush. For these reasons the
RCMA directors have decided to
start planning the marketing
strategy for their members,
strengthen their position with
additional contracts, and go for
over-order pricing this summer.
Remember, only the RCMA
member with signed contracts will
receive any premiums negotiated
so decision time is here for many
dairymen who chose to wait and
see.
Lots of Reasons
There’s no short&ge of reasons
for the short supply situation here
in the northeast and you’ve heard
some or all of them before. The
Dairy Termination Program with
only three more months to go and
the increase in commercial sales
have gotten most of the attention
for lower production and rightly
so. Without the Dairy Termination
Program we would have 12 billion
pounds more milk to sell since last
April and that would have
eliminated the price increases
over the previous year that you’ve
had since last August. It turned
production around 8 percent over
the previous year last March to 3
percent under this March.
You still had record high milk
production last year but with the
increases in commercial sales
you’re selling only half as much to
the government as last year. In
Pennsylvania’s largest
Kennett Square/Thorndale Lancaster
Gary Kline Bob Zook
215-444-6060 717-295-8577
Or call toll-free, 1-800-222-2150
0 Meridian Bank
Professionals with the personal touch
fact your commercial sales of 135
billion pounds last year was more
than your total production in 1981.
These are all national averages
and don’t explain the short supply
here in the northeast.
In this area you have reduced
production a lot more than the
national average and it may be
' because of the number of farms
that have stopped producing milk.
People who should know claim we
are losing two farms to milk
production for every farm in the
Dairy Termination Program.
Nationally, prices are below
support levels and everyone shares
equally in the lower milk prices in
spite of supply differences between
regions. Other areas use over
order pricing to adjust farm prices
to local marketing conditions and
1 that is the strategy that’s being
' proposed now here in the Nor
theast. If you feel the time is ready
make your move now. Don’t wait
to be asked.
Closer to Home
Even though production is down
3 percent nationally, here in Order
2 it has been five percent lower
than last year each month since
January. In fact April production
in Order 2 was the lowest for that
month since 1984, the year of the
Milk Diversion Program, and yet
the blend price has dropped 91
cents since January. Of course the
Class prices in Federal Orders
come from the Minnesota-
Wisconsin Price Series and that
has dropped 70 cents since January
to $ll in April. So, you know you
have more cuts coming in your
blend price before it bottoms out in
Mayor June.
The blend price or Uniform
Price for April in Order 2 is $11.55
which is 24 cents better than last
year but far less than the 64 cents
difference you had in January.
That M-W price of $ll is 7 cents
below the support price for 3.5 milk
and can’t go much lower but that’s
what is sending the price signals to
Order 2 in spite of your production
falling faster than the national
average.
Even though your blend price in
Order 2 was 24 cents higher than
last year it was 37 cents lower than
last month. Your Louisville Plan
payment increased from 20 cents
in March to 30 cents in April so the
difference in the market price was
27 cents. Most ofthatcame from a
43 cent drop in the Class I price
reflecting the sane drop in the M-
W back in February. Class II
prices fell 7 cents corresponding to
a similar drop in the M-W last
month. In April the M-W fell only 3
cents more to $ll but it was a 24
cent drop in March so you’ll have a „
total of 27 cents coming out of your
Gass I price through June.
Your best hope for better prices
this summer will have to come
from any premiums that can be
negotiated with handlers or offered
by co-ops for the relatively short
supply that faces them in the
months ahead particularly in
30 YEARS AGO
-The coming June Dairy Month
is described by the American
Dairy Assn, as “probably the
largest food festival ever at
tempted during a 30-day period. ’ ’
In Pennsylvania the observance
will be the realization of long
range planning the end result of
four years of organizing and
overcoming defeatist attitudes and
sagging interest.
-Milk production per cow in
herds of crop reporters averaged
21.76 pounds on May 1, according
to the Crop Reporting Board. This
is four per cent above the previous
record high for May 1,1956, and is
17 per cent above the May 1
average.
Total milk production in April of
this year was 11,428 million
pounds, one per cent above April,
1956, and nine per cent above
average for the month.
-Lancaster County Agent
Matthew M. (Max) Smith received
a Superior Service Award here
Tuesday at ceremonies in the
Sylvan Theater on the Washington
Monument Grounds.
The award is one of the highest
honors the Department of
agriculture can bestow.
-Medical specialists of the U.S.
Air Force have been conducting
regular examinations of more than
50 middle-aged Air Force
Reading
William Hughes
Blaine Fessler
Doug Darling
215-320-FARM
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Order 2. The decision you need to
make now is whether or not you
want to negotiate those premiums
individually and take what you can
get or do it through an organization
to get all the market will bear.
executives in connection with the
part played by diet and stress in
heart disease.
They have found that the amount
of cholesterol in the blood can be
controlled by limiting the amount
of fat in the diet of some in
dividuals but that in other in
stances dieting had little effect in
reducing the blood cholesterol
when men were in demanding
positions and under great stress.
This conforms to findings by Dr.
Ancel Keyes of the University of
Minnesota that much of the
cholesterol in the blood is made in
the body and not derived from fats
in the diet.
-The State’s heaviest infestation
of tent caterpillars in ten years is
about the end but will be followed
in a week or ten days by the ap
pearance of a more destructive
pest known as the “bag worm.”
Only unsprayed apple and wild
cherry trees have been damaged
by tent caterpillars which now can
be seen in numbers crossing roads
and defoliating trees, in which
theyh ave built cobweb-like tent
homes, according to Dr. Thomas
L. Guyton, director, Bureau of
Plant Industry, Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture. They
may seek shelter in nearby houses
but will do no damage there, he
said.
533-4060
1515ChocolateA«
738-1131
1755 W Mam St
EPHRATA
HERSHEV