A34-La master Fanning, Saturday, September 7, 1991
Soviet Scientist-Agricultural Engineer Impressed By U.S. Farm Systems
From left, Amos Beiler, farmer; Bill O’brien, Farm Credit; Carol Mercner, Farm Cre
dit; and Oleg Marchenko, Soviet scientist; take a look at the Belter’s Brother poultry
operation.
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LEOLA (Lancaster Co.) For
three months a Soviet scientist
agricultural engineer has been tak
ing an in-depth look at American
style fanning.
After visits to 25 states, Oleg
Marchenko told Lancaster County
fanners, Melvin and Amos Beiler,
that he is impressed with
cooperatives.
“You have cooperatives for
seeds, fertilizers, milk, and Farm
Credit,” Marchenko said. “In my
country, I would like to see similar
cooperatives established for pro
duction, storage, and proccessing
of crops.”
Marchenko told the Beiler
Brothers, who operate a farm near
Leola, “Americans have a flexible
system. If a crop doesn’t do well
on yo,ur land, you can change to
another one, but a collective farm
in the Soviet Union needs to grow
a fixed amount of crop every year
even if the soil and climate is not
suited for it”
Amos Beiler asked, “You mean,
if I lived there, you would make
me raise cows when I don’t like
them? 1 like pigs. I want to add
more pigs.”
“And you can do that, here,”
Marchenko said, “as long as you
have a market. But in my country,
you must understand, we do not
Soviet scientist-agricultural engineer Oleg Marchenko visited Lancaster County
farms this week. From left: Bill O’Brien of Farm Credit, Melvin Beiler, Llll Beiler, Soviet
Scientist Oleg Marchenko, and Amos Beiler.
have the ideal conditions that you
do. We have a big problem with
transportation and distribution.”
Collective farms average 40 to
60 percent vegetable loss annually.
These losses are die result of prob
lems faced in planting, harvesting,
transporting, and storing the crops.
In theory, the collective farm
sounds like a good idea a group
of farmers work together, and use
the profits to improve the com
munity. In contrast, an American
farmer works to raise his individu
al standard of living, which is con
sidered selfish by socialists.
But most collective farms in the
Soviet Union are in poor financial
shape. The reasons are legion.
Unlike the U.S., where fanners
choose to raise crops that are most
suitable to the soil and climate, and
then ship them to markets, the col
lective farms are “multi-branched”
farms, which means they must
grow all the crops needed for the
central village. It doesn’t manner if
the soil isn’t conducive to cabbage.
They must grow it because the vil
lage needs it since there is not a
transportation network to ship
food in and out of the areas.
Because the farms have only
one tractor to every 400 acres, they
cannot completely plant and
harvest the crops during prime
growing and harvesting times. It
takes one tractor too long to cover
such a large area.
Then, there are tractor break
downs with which to contend. “In
the U.S., dealers have spare parts
and you can fix your tractor in a
hurry so that no time is lost,” Mar
chenko said. “But, in my country,
there are no dealerships for parts,
and it is not always possible to get
spare parts in time to finish the
job.”
The Soviets also have poor qual
ity metal for agricultural use. “We
use our tractors 10 years at best,”
Marchenko said.
“Farmers in the U.S. have sever
al sizes tractors on their farms. But
when you don’t have enough trac
tors, you need to use a big tractor
for a small job. It’s inefficient We
spend about two times more fuel to
get two to three times less product
and we use five to seven times
more manhours for labor,” Mar
chenko said.
“For example, we sent a million
people to havest potatoes at one
farm. But they needed to travel
three hours to get there and three
hours to return home. Consider the
cost of fuel. That raises the labor
costs tremendously,” he said.
The lack of proccessing plants
in the area where crops are raised is
also a large factor in the collective
farm’s loss of food. Added to this
deficit, is the lack of technology.
On a collective farm, a person
Oleg Marchenko, right, examines an ear of corn grown by
Amos Seller, left.
might milk cows one day and the
next day plant a crop. There is no
follow-through.
“People don’t understand the
value of each job because they
don’tfollow it through from begin
ning to end like American farmers
do. It’s impossible for them to be
aware of all the stages of the crops
because they don’t know crop
sequences, only the agronomists
know that Our people have been
told what to do. We have lost the
peasant who had the knowlege of
agriculture,” Marchenko said.
Although the Soviet govern
ment is willing to give individuals
land to farm, Marchenko asks,
“Who wants it? How will they care
for it? How will they buy equip
ment seed, and fertilizer?”
Despite the obstacles facing
Soviet farmers, Marchenko is opti
mistic. “I see cooperatives as the
answer,” he said.
He would like to see joint ven
tures between his country and
other countries. Of prime impor
tance is establishing a food proc
cessing plant His country would
like to barter, trade or have what he
refers to as a coupon exchange
where a country is given a coupon
to redeem in exchange for
services.
“The markets are there,” Carol
Mercner of Keystone Farm Credit
said. “Western countries could fill
those needs, but they won’t do it
for nothing.”
In 1988, Mercner spent one
month in the Soviet Union with a
delegation of ag engineers from
the U.S. In 1990, she returned to
visit with Marchenko’s family for
a month to find out how the aver
age Soviet citizen lives. She ha
Rediscover Backyard Composting
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Fall will soon be here and with
this season comes leaves and other
green material from the trees,
shrubs, vegetable and flower gar
dens. One way to easily take care
of this material is through com
posting. Composting is an age old
art that has been “rediscovered”
because of recent legislation limit
ing yard and garden waste into
landfills. For many home garden
ers. this will be the fust fall that
they cannot send the “garden
trash” away. The various aspects
and activities of composting will
be presented through a lecture,
slide and question and answer ses
sion. Participants will learn about:
• Soil Basics.
• The Food Web of
Decomposition.
• Setting Up Easy Composting
Systems for the Backyard.
Instructors include York Co.
Master Gardeners. The class will
be held Tuesday, Sept 17, 7:30
helped Marchenko establish con
tacts during his visit in the States.
Mercner sees Soviet problems as
complex. She believes that
cooperatives in this country have
the framework to help the Soviets,
but they cannot do it without an
exchange of money.
‘The missing link is that the
tuple is not convertible,” she said.
“We need to have an exchange of
money because the Soviets do not
have enough of what we want to
make trading a viable option.”
Marchenko hopes machinery
companies will settle in his coun
try so that they can provide the
parts so desperately needed by
farmers.
He wants to see programs such
as 4-H established. “The children
need to learn about improving
stock through breeding and feed
ing,” he said. In the past, children
have not had opportunity to be a
part of the large collective farms.
To make all these changes will
take many years, longer than 10,
Marchenko surmises. But he is not
discouraged.
“Change will come slowly.
Some do not want to change. They
are afraid. They want the security
of a collective farm. I believe we
will have both for a transitional
period the collective farms for
those who want it and privatization
for those who want it. Economical
ly competition will show which is
the best for our specific rural
conditions.
“I have traveled to 25 U.S. states
and observed their farming prac
tices. I am convinced that coopera
tives and joint ventures hold the
answers,” Marchenko said.
p.m.-9 p.m. All courses are held at
the Farm and Home Center, 1383
Arcadia Road, Lancaster in the
classrooms downstairs. Cost is $8
(includes composting manual and
refreshments).
Remember, all classes are
dSigned for the gardening public,
informative to the novice or sea
soned gardener.
To register, send a check made
payable to Agricultural Extension,
Penn State Cooperative Extension,
c/o Home Horticultural Seminars,
1383 Arcadia Road, Room 1, Lan
caster, PA 17601.
(At the present time, the downs
tairs meeting room of the Farm and
Home Center is accessible only by
stairs. If you use a wheelchair or
crutches or are unable to use stairs
and you want to attend a meeting
scheduled for this room, please
contact H. Bruce Hellerick at (717)
394-6851, at least five working
days prior to the scheduled prog
ram to arrange for alternative
meeting site.)