D6-Laricaster Farming Saturday, June 20,1987
LCNC Says Farm Credit Bail-Out
Must Not Penalize Northeast Farmers
WESTMINSTER, Vermont - In
a letter to all northeastern
Senators and Representatives, the
Legislative Committee of Nor
theast Cooperatives (LCNC) this
week asked Congress to assist the
troubled Banks of the nation’s
Farm Credit System without
diminishing the ability of the
Banks which serve northeastern
farmers to continue to provide
affordable credit.
The Farm Credit System is the
nation’s largest farm lender,
having approximately $54 billion in
loans outstanding. Several of its
regional Banks are in serious
trouble and are charging their
farmer-borrowers interest rates
that are excessive by normal
credit market standards.
In the letter, Steve Kerr, the
executive director of the LCNC
stated “there is no question that
the troubled Banks and their
borrowers must be helped. The
ability of many farmers to work
through the current agricultural
recession hinges on a credit source
that understands them and their
business problems. The ability of
American agriculture to adapt and
compete in the rapidly changing
global economy depends on a
strong farm credit delivery system
in the years ahead. ”
The Farm Credit System and a
number of national farm
irganizations have asked Congress
to adopt a package of legislative
proposals that includes a loan
request for $6 billion of federal
'unds.
The LCNC’s letter notes that
farmers recognize that “the
federal budget deficit makes this a
difficult request. Without federal
nnancial assistance, however,
several of the System’s Banks are
ikely to fail. Many farmers will be
.eft without a reliable source of
credit; interest rates will most
irobably rise, across the board;
uid the financial problems of
nany farmers will be exacer
jated. We urge you to support the
System’s request for financial
issistance.”
The LCNC asks, however, that
lortheastern members of
Congress “not agree to any
iroposals that would diminish the
ibility of the Banks which serve
A
The Farm Credit System
James Elected Southeast Farm
Credit Service President
WEST CHESTER - William H.
James, Jr. of West Chester has
been named president of Southeast
Farm Credit Service by its boards
of directors. Mr. James is a
graduate of Downingtown High
School, Brandywine College, and
earned a degree in general
agriculture from The Penn
sylvania State University in 1974
Mr James joined the Farm
Credit System in 1975 and has
worked in the five county
Philadelphia area since 1979 He
nost recently held the position of
/ice president/operations, to
which he was promoted in 1984
Southeast Farm Credit, with
iffices in West Chester, Avondale,
lilverdale, and Creamery serves
le agricultural community with
iort, intermediate and lohg term
ans for virtually any farm and
irm-related purpose;
northeastern farmers (Springfield
and Baltimore) to continue to
provide affordable credit.” These
Banks are financially strong and
therefore able to provide farmers
credit at reasonable, competitive
rates. “Our farm income is
enhanced by their ability to offer
us affordable credit. That they be
•able to continue to do so is very
important.”
The letter points out that “over
$l5O million in Bank earnings that,
under other circumstances, would
have been paid out to farmer
borrowers in the Northeast over
the past two years have been
transferred to the troubled Banks
through a voluntary loss-sharing
program. Had they been returned
as patronage dividends - as they
had in the past - our effective in
terest rates would have been lower
than they were and our net farm
income would have been more than
$l5O million greater than it was
“Were the Springfield and
Baltimore Banks now to be asked
Hamilton Offers
4 Home Banking 9 System
LANCASTER At your
fingertips, in the privacy of your
home, you can now manage your
financial affairs from just tran
sferring money to even, the most
complex transaction.
Hamilton Bank is making
available the first Home Banking
system in southcentral Penn
sylvania. All you need is a personal
computer, a Hamilton checking
account, a telephone modem and
the Bank’s special program.
Home Banking allows con
sumers to schedule bill payments,
move funds, check balances, track
and manage their finances, and
ask about interest rates and ser
vices by electronic mail.
“Through Home Banking, we
hope to attract customers who are
comfortable with electronic
delivery services and who put a
premium on convenience,” said
William F. Fenimore, Jr., bank
president.
Customers will not only have
Farm
Credit
News
to shoulder more of the cost of
providing financial assistance to
the still struggling Banks, they
would have to recover their outlays
by raising the interest rates that
they charge northeastern farmers.
Net farm income can be hurt as
much by increased interest costs
as by reduced milk prices. Indeed,
one of the surest ways to drive
farmers out of business in the
Northeast today would be to enact
legislation that leads to higher
interest rates and thereby reduces
net farm income.”
The LCNC’s letter to Congress
concludes by saying, “the
resolution of the Farm Credit
System’s problems will "have a
tremendous bearing on the future
profitability - and therefore sur
vival - of dairying in this part of the
country.”
The LCNC is an association of
12,000 dairy farmers, who farm in
the New England states, New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland and Delaware.
access to their bank accounts, but
also to information about current
rates on savings accounts, cer
tificates of deposit and various
consumer loans. Rate information
and an economic forecast from the
economics department of
Core States, the parent company of
Hamilton, will be up-dated weekly.
Hamilton’s Home Banking
program also includes software for
a broad array of financial plan
ning, record keeping and analysis
activities such as a budgeting
spread sheet, tax record main
tenance and net worth calculation.
“This is an integrated package
that makes it unnecessary for the
subscriber to purchase other
financially oriented software,”
said Susan B. Carr, assistant vice
president and manager of Home
Banking.
The Home Banking system also
provides a gateway for sub
scription to other electronic in
formation services providing
airline and hotel reservations,
weather services, Ticketron, stock
market quotations and news from
around the world.
The program works with IBM
and compatible personal com
puters, Apple II series or com
patible and Commodore 64 and 128
computers. The on-line service is
available 24 hours a day.
Maximum security and control
is afforded since each customer
maintains a personal diskette and
selects a personal password.
Hamilton Home Banking is being
offered through MAC and the
Money Access System, a
correspondent banking service of
Core States Financial Corp.
New IMC Plant To Produce Hormone
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - In
ternational Minerals & Chemical
Corporation recently committed
$5O million to build a new facility to
produce its newly developed
porcine samatotropm product.
Speaking to an audience of
several hundred civic leaders,
guests and employees at ground
breaku g ceremonies, oh June 9,
Donald R Phillips, president of
IMC’s Animal Products Group,
said the new plant is ah important
element in a long-term growth
strategy to become a leader in the
animal health biotechnology
market.
“Today’s groundbreaking marks
a milestone in an ongoing effort
begun in 1980 to build upon a solid
position in the animal health and
BUSINESS NEWS;..
Council's Pork Congress in February proved profitable when
his name was drawn to receive a Large White boar from RPM
Farms, Beavertown. Porr runs a feeder pig operation near
Palmyra.
FMC Works To Solve Off-Target
Problems With Herbicide
PRINCETON, N.J
situation with Command herbicide
has made one thing clear this
year,” says Rick Landrum,
Command product manager with
FMC Corporation, “and that is that
farmers will apply chemicals
correctly if some effort is taken to
educate them on why they should
and how they can do it right, and if
they’re willing to make the effort
to use the chemical.”
Landrum’s comments come in
the wake of a planting season that
has seen virtually no problems
with Command moving off fields
due to spray drift or volatilization;
last year, in a number of cases,
movement of Command caused
nearby vegetation to turn white or
yellow.
After the off-target incidents
occurred, FMC modified the label
instructions for Command to
require incorporation, listed drift
reduction guidelines, and un
dertook a comprehensive effort to
ensure that label instructions and
drift-reduction measures were
followed by growers and custom
nutrition business, coming on the from an expanded commitment to
heels of several important research and development of new
acquisitions and dramatic returns products,” Phillips explained.
Ford New Holland Names Director
John Ochs has been appointed
director of Public Affairs for Ford
New Holland, Inc., a subsidiary of
Ford Motor Company. He succeeds
Arnold S. Hirsch, who has been
named stockholder relations
manager for Ford.
Ochs served as manager of
Ford’s Washington, D.C. Public
Affairs office since joining the
company in early 1986.
Before joining Ford, Ochs was
press secretary and special
assistant to former U.S. Secretary
of Agncultui e John Block. In that
position, he served as the Reagan
applicators who intended to use
Command.
“The
“We knew that the label changes
would reduce off-target movement
by more than 90 percent,” Lan
drum says, “but we also knew that
we were going to have to educate
dealers and growers about those
new instructions and the im
portance of following them, so we
used several other methods to get
our message across.”
Those other methods included
face-to-face meetings between
more than 75,000 potential Com
mand users and FMC personnel, a
special training and testing
program for dealers and customer
applicators, and a series of
educational publications.
Landrum says that one thing
that must be kept in perspective is
that soybean growers wanted to
use Command again this year.
“Just about everyone who used it
last year planned to use it again
this year, even those who had some
off-target problems. They either
figured out a way around the
problem themselves or relied on
the information they got from us.”
Administration's chief
agricultural spokesman foi five
vears ■>
Prior to that, Ochs was press
secretary for the Illinois secretary
of agriculture, publications editor
for the Illinois Farm Bureau, and a
reporter for the Daily Pantagraph
in Bloomington, Illinois.
He is a graduate of the
University of Illinois, with h
degree in agricultural journalism.
Ochs maintains an active interest
in a family grain and livestock
operation near Olney, Illinois.