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VOL 31 No. 52
Dairy Promotion
Program Elects
New Officers
HARRISBURG Paul Cor
bin, a lifelong dairy farmer from
Jefferson County, has been
elected the new chairman of the
Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion
Program.
Corbin, who milks 60 cows on
his 230-acre, 91-year-old family
farm in Reynoldsville, is begin
ning his fourth year on the PDPP
Commodity Marketing Board. He
says his goal for the organization
in the coming year is to work
cooperatively with MAMMA,
Mid-East UDIA and ADADC in
advertising and promotional
efforts that will increase the sale
of milk and other real dairy
products.
(Turn to Pag* Al 9)
Wolff To Address
RCMA Annual Meeting
BATAVIA, N.Y. — Pennsylva
nia Secretary of Agriculture Boyd
E. Wolff will address the annual
Meeting of the Regional Coopera
tive Marketing Agency on Dec. 9,
1988. He will address over 250
RCMA delegates and directors
who will gather to conduct the
annual business of the organiza
tion and to elect officers for the
coming year.
“We are very pleased to have
Secretary Wolff address our
group,” said RCMA President Bill
Zuber. “Wolff has been suppor
tive of RCMA efforts both in
Pennsylvania and throughout the
Northeast,” said Zuber.
Wolff has been the Secretary of
Dairy Farmers Need To
Stretch Feed Supplies
BY PAT PURCELL
EPHRATA (Lancaster) Far
mers don’t need to read the market
prices for soybeans and distiller’s
grains to know these prices have
jumped drastically from just a year
ago. They’ve been seeing it in their
feed bill.
“My total feed bill has increased
by $2,000 per month over this time
last year,” said Rodney Smyser of
York County.
And for the first time in many,
many years, a high number of far
mers will be buying com. Average
prices for ear com are nearly dou
ble what they were last year at this
time. According to the PA grain
market, old ear com averaged
$56.46 per ton in southeastern
Pennsylvania during the last week
of (October, 1987. In the last week
of October, 1988, old ear com
averaged 97.67 per ton in the same
location. Com can be bought at
lower prices. These are averaged
prices.
Rve Sections
Governor Casey accepts an award from William Sturges,
executive director of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union. The
award was presented In recognition of Casey’s environ
mental efforts.
the Pennsylvania Department of
RpcfilttWf since February 1987,
andtdevoted the past 33 years to
full-time farming and active parti
cipation in many state and local
farm organizations. He received a
B.S. degree in dairy husbandry
from the Pennsylvania State Uni
versity in 1953 and earned many
distinguished awards since then,
including the Pennsylvania Mas
ter Farmer Award in 1970.
The RCMA Annual Meeting
will be held at the Sheraton Inn in
Liverpool, N.Y. For more infor
mation about the meeting or
RCMA, please contact the organi
zation’s Batavia office at
1-800-634-3723.
Are farmers feeling the pinch?
You bet.
When it takes every acre a far
mer has to feed his own livestock
in a normal year, that pinch
becomes a crunch in a year when
crop loss is as high as 30 percent
(Turn to Pago A 23)
Agway Reports Revenues Of 2.9
Billion, Sells Oil Refinery
SYRACUSE. NY William
A. Hiller, Agway president and
chief executive officer, reported to
members at the farm cooperative’s
annual meeting here last week that
Agway had sales and revenues of
$2.9 billion, up $2ll million over
the previous year. He reported
strong sales performances from
the Agri-Services and Energy
Groups and solid growth is leasing
food businesses.
Hiller explained that during the
past year, Agway Petroleum Cor-
Lincistor Farming, Saturday, November 5, 1988
Dr. Gabrlella Varga, assistant professor of animal science, works with the equip
ment that simulates the rumen in lactatlng dairy cows to test fiber composition Influ
ence on dairy cattle nutrition.
PSD Researchers On Cutting
Edge Of New Technology
BY
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
Note: At a member of the Pen
nsylvania State University
Agricultural Advisory Council,
potation and Southern States
Cooperative successfully com
pleted the sale of an oil refinery
and two product terminals they
had jointly owned and operated
since the 19405. As a result of the
sale, Agway reported a consoli
dated, after-tax one-lime loss of
$91.6 million for the year.
Hiller pointed out that despite
the one-time loss, Agway’s
remaining consolidated operations
are strong and during the year
showed after-tax operating profits
508 Per Copy
Casey Urges Farmers To
Support Tax Reform Program
BY USA RISSER
GRANTVILLE (Dauphin)
“We have an opportunity to make
tax reform a reality,” Governor
Robert P. Casey told diners at the
Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s
annual banquet this week. “Help
me make it happen. Contact indivi
dual legislators and let them know
how you feel.”
The tax reform program will be
among the top items on the legisla
ture’s agenda when they return
from recess. The program prop
oses to allow local governments
the freedom to determine the tax
structure within their own com
munity. The reform program was
initiated in order to ease the tax
burden on farmers.
“The current tax structure
this editor visited several research
projects in the animal science
departments as part of the coun
cil’s day on campus and business
meeting headquartered at the Nit
tony lion Inn.
of 19.7 million.
“Our continuing operations are
projecting profitable growth in the
coming years,” Hiller stated, “and
we are pleased to be out of the
refining business.”
Hiller announced that, based on
the success of Agway’s continu
ing operations during the year, the
cooperative declared a cash refund
to members of $2.5 million. !n
addition, over $22 million in inter
est and dividends was paid to hol
(Turn to Pag* A3l)
$lO.OO Per Year
encourages an ovcr-reliancee on
real estate,” stated Casey. 'Thus
the tax burden is higher for far
mers.” The value at which their
land is taxed is higher than the
income that it produces, Casey
added. ‘The program will give
agricultural and rural communities
an opportunity to change the way
agricultural acreage is accessed.”
If the program passes, the state
will make the transition easier for
local governments through $l4O
million in state funding.
The tax reform program is one
of the campaign promises made by
Casey.
During the banquet Casey was
honored by the union for his envir
onmental and agricultural preser
vation efforts.
In the following report, Dr.
Herbert Siegel outlines poultry
science research projects, Dr.
Guy Barbato studies relation
ships between bio-chemestry and
genetics, Dr. Robert Wideman
studies urolithiasis in poultry and
Dr. Gabriella Varga has a work
ing model of a cow’s rumen in her
classroom laboratory.
UNIVERSITY PARK-“When
you consider nutrition, you must
ask how a given breed or genetic
group responds to nutrition,” Dr.
Siegel said. “Not every genetic
group, in this case breed of chick
en, responds to the same feed. So
wc talk in terms of interface
interface between physio logy,
nutrition, genetics and
management.
For example, researchers at
PSU have found that two very
popular strains of laying hens have
(Turn to Pago A 24)