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VOL. 38 No. 8
Convenience Rather Than Diet, Health Issues Top Beef Consumer Demands
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
NOTTINGHAM (Chester Co.)
—Some farmers may believe con
sumers are more worried about
cholesterol than they are conveni
ence. The chairman of the Pen
nsylvania Beef Council believes
otherwise.
What drives purchases of beef
and other food products isn’t diet,
health, or other issues, according
to Dennis Byrne, but convenience.
Based upon a survey before the
Council’s planning session rccen
dy, results proved that consumers
prefer convenience over cholester
ol. “A lot of us got shocked,”
Byme said. “The results of the
survey showed that the consumer’s
number one preference for buying
is convenience. Number two is
variety. Number three became
diet/health, and issues were way
down there.
Farm Show Issue
Next 4
(Early Deadlines Listed)
Ncxi week Lancaster /arm
ing’s annual special Pennsylvania
Farm Show issue is dedicated to
everyone who makes this event
successful This week, for those
who like to make plans early, you
will find schedules, floor plans,
and exhibitor locations on Pages
A-29 and D 2-5.
To prepare for the Farm Show
late in the week, our office will
have early deadlines. These dead
lines arc as follows:
Public Sale Ads Noon, Mon.,
1/4.
Mailbox Markets Noon,
Mon., 1/4.
General News Noon, Wed.,
1/6.
Clasificd Section C Ads 5
p.m., Tue., 1/5.
All Other Classified Ads 9
a.m., Wed. 1/6.
Reviewing the Old, Looking
Forward To The New Year
lOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.)
The New Year is always a time to
reflect on the past and a time to
look forward to new challenges.
With this in mind, we asked several
of the people who we featured dur
ing the past year in Lancaster
Farming to share the biggest
changes they had faced in 1992 and
tell us what they look forward to in
1993.
For Barbara Grumbine, Myer
stown, the past year overflowed
with changes. “But things ran
smoothly,” said Barbara, who lives
in Washington D.C. during week
days and returns to the farm to be
with her husband and two sons for
the weekends.
Four Sections
Beef Council Chair Announces New Year Promotions
“Now, if you talk to farmers,
they put issues and diet/health at
the top, because issues are the ones
they hear about, and it hits them.
And we remember it”
In an interview conducted at Herr Angus Farm (which
used to be a seedstock farm of purebred Angus, but now is
simply a beef finishing operation), Dennis Byrne spoke
about the future drives and directives of the Pennsylvania
Mifflin Extension Holds Annual Meeting
GAIL STROCK
Mifflin Co. Correspondent
LEWISTOWN (Mifflin Coun
ty) Leaders and friends of the
Mifflin County Cooperative
Extension Association gathered
recently for their annual banquet
meeting held in the social hall of
the Ellen Chapel Methodist
Church.
President Marlin Aurand pres
ided over the meeting that
included comments from Exten-
In February 1992, Barbara was
appointed Northeast area director
of the agricultural stabilization and
conservation service of the USDA.
‘There was so much to learn,”
Barbara said. Her day started at six
a.m. It took about 25 minutes for
her to walk I'/j miles from her
apartment to her job where she
worked until 5:30 and sometimes
6:30 p.tn.
Barbara almost always took
home reading material. “It’s
always so much to leam. I could be
there 50 years and not know it all.
There are changes every day. Con
gress passes laws and our agency
writes up ways to implement them
and approve staff and changes.”
(Turn to Page B 2)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 2, 1993
Manages Herr Angus
Byrne, who manages Herr
Angus Farm (owned and operated
by the Herr Snack Food Products
Company), said a classical exam
sion Director David Filson, Reg
ional Director Mary Jo Depp, and
the Dean of Penn State’s College
of Agricutlrual Sciences Dr. Lar
martine Hood. The 1992 minutes
were read by secretary Vivian
Mowery, followed by the treasur
er’s report by John Czemiakows
ki. Marion Barr and Elrose Click
presided over the election of
officers.
Filson introduced the extension
staff and secretaries, compliment
ing the cooperative effort of all.
He awarded Marlin Aurand a cer
tifcate of appreciation for 14 years
of service on the Extension Board
as well as service at the state and
regional levels.
Marion Barr, Jim Hostetter,
John Tedeschi, Geraldine Van
Art, Helen Sunderland, and Viv
ian Mowery received certificates
(Turn to Pago A 22)
Pa.DHIA Receives High Scores
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) The Pennsylvania Dairy
Herd Improvement Association
received outstanding scores re
cently on its annual quality certifi
cation evaluation by National
DHIA.
The association again ranked
extremely high in its laboratory
operation with 99 out of 100
points. This evaluation makes it
the foremost DHIA laboratory in
the northeastern United States,
and one of the highest ranking labs
pie of how issues really fare in the
mind of consumers is Alar, a pesti
cide once used on apple crops.
Apple producers know what Alar
is, but the consumer may have for
Beef Council. From left, Byrne, holding Sharon, 3 with wife
Dottle. Not pictured are Adam, 7, and Becky, 9.
Photo by Andy Andrews.
Elected to serve as 1993 officers of the Mifflin County
Cooperative Extension Association are, from left, Helen
Kirk, treasurer; Vivian Mowery, secretary; and John Czer
niakowski, vice president. Absent was newly elected presi
dent Joan Yoder.
in the entire country.
DHIA members and others us
ing the PA DHIA lab in State Col
lege can rest assured that their test
results are accurate whether the
milk analysis is for fat, protein,
solids-non-fat, or somatic cell.
Equipped with the latest tech
nology in the milk analysis field,
the lab has scored a perfect 100
percent on all National DHIA un
known (blind) sample analyses on
all lab machines for the last five
months. This perfect rolling ma
608 Per Copy
gotten. “You talk to a consumer,
you’ll be lucky to find 20 percent
of them know what Alar is," he
said.
(Turn to Page A 18)
chine average score is almost un
heard of in the industry and ranks
the PA DHIA lab far higher than
most of the other labs in the coun
try.
In field operations, the associa
tion also scored extremely well
earning 111 out of 100 points
needed for certification.
Seventy-five points are needed
for certification. The additional
points earned above 100 are bonus
points earned for voluntarily ex-
(Turn to Page A2l)
$19.00 Per Year