A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 23, 1993 Despite Cheese Plant Strike, ADC Expects Good Year ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff QUARRYVILLE (Lancaster Co.) Because of the ongoing Beatrice Cheese Inc. processing plant strike near Allentown, Atlan tic Dairy Cooperative (ADC) members should expect less in the way of dividends at the end of the year. That’s the message given to about 140 ADC members at the District 3 annual dinner meeting on Tuesday from Dr. Paul E. Hand, general manager. Also, District 12 met on Thursday, with the election of member representatives. The cheese plant normally handles about 18 percent of the milk taken daily for processing from the cooperative, but because of the strike, die cooperative is tak ing in more milk than it can handle now about 1.2 million pounds extra a day. That’s about 26 extra tankers, according to Hand. The issue, involving work at the plant near Allentown, will con tinue, with more than 150 employ ees involved in the strike. Hand said ADC does not know what the Beatrice plans are, but it is likely to take months before the issues are resolved. Hand said it is the issue of over time, written into the workers’ contract at Beatrice, that is causing the conflicts. Hand said ADC con tinues to suffer substantial losses. Atlantic Dairy Cooperative members were honored for 25 years of membership. From left, Jim Hess, Paul Hess, and Francis Kirk. (Continued from Page Al 6) A dye is used that shows in dif ferent intensities on male chromo somes than on female chromosomes. Simply, as the sperm pass by a layser, the different dye concentra tions cause the light ray to break up differently. The sperm are then given an electric charge a label according to the dye intesity. From there, the sperm as passed through an electric field and the fluid drops separate to different sides, according to polarity. The technique came from the Lawrence Linear Nuclear Wea pons Laboratory in California, he said. He said there is still a question as to whether the treatment causes mutations, though it doesn’t appear so. A further drawback is that the rate of separation is at 200,000 sperm an hour. It takes 10 million sperm to artificially inseminate a cow. The time delay to reach 10 million would severly affect sperm viability. However, it’s possible that another technique may be used in conjunction with sexing to pro- Quality Premium awards went to the following, from left, Ed Zug (for Edward L. and Edd W. Zug Jr.) and Joe H. DeLong and Joe L. DeLong (Pillar Pride Farm). “It’s a major problem, and it will price higher than the $lO.lO sup affect our bottom line at the end of port price. ADC projects the price the year,” he said. to average about $13.10 for 1993, Whatever the outcome of the strike, however, ADC should still have a good year financially, according to the general manger. Milk production is up about 2 to 3 percent, and if the export market would become healthier, prices could improve. Also, in 1992, membership has increased for the first time since the merger of Inter- State and Lehigh Valley coopera tives in 1987. Still, members are receiving about $l-$1.50 per hundredweight Bovine Genetics: Beyond A.I. duce a viable embryo invitro fertilization. He said invitro fertilization, commonly called making test-tube babies, is a technology which has come along quickly and holds promise of being able to be used with other techniques to reduce risk of failure and thus costs. In the test tube, it doesn’t require many sperm to fertilize an egg, because they don’t have the environmental hazards prevelant in a natural female reproductive system. He said it may another two years before that technology comes along, but it is apparently on its way. That compares to 10 years ago when there was no method of determining sex. Now there are several. Seidel also discussed cloning and the special micro-tools used. To penetrate the embryo wall to extract genetic material for trans fering to a recipient embryo shell, he said they make their own tool a tiny, piece of special razor blade instant-glued onto a tiny glass pipe. He said that they have created many identical twins at Colorado down about 50 cents from 1992 levels. The price is more normal and seasonal now, falling for the spring, but should rebound by the end of the year, according to Hand. In the meantime, Beatrice could Ever Flow Farm, operated by Everett and Florence Krelder, were presented with a special 50-year member ship plaque. Kerry Munro accepted the award. using the cloning technique. In fact, he said that there have been between 1,200 to 1,500 clone calves already produced in the United States and Canada, mostly from beef cattle. The drawbacks to cloning appa rently begin after splitting down an embryo to more than twins. It is possible to create three or four, or more, depending on the stage of development of the embryo. However, he said that there is something going on that is not understood. First of all, when splitting to twins, there are four possible outcomes both halves live; one set dies; the other set dies; or both sets die. Each probability seems to be equal in occurance. Seidel said that it should be noted that identical genetic twins are not identical in appearance, though close. This is because the chromosomes don’t have specific genes for each hair follicle and thus can’t exactly control color patterning. / The use of identical twins aids in research not only because of better take six months to a year to resume near to full capacity, if they hire non-union workers, according to Hand. Allentown, hard hit by the recession, has seen businesses such as Mac Truck, Bethlehem Steel,' and Ford lay off workers. In one day, he said, more than 200, many unemployed, applied for work at the cheese plant. Right now, ADC is moving milk to cheese plants that aren’t fully equipped to handle it, including Dietrich Dairies, Holly, and others. Last year, ADC celebrated its 75th anniversary, and a video was shown to the members highlight ing the progress of the cooperative through the years. Also, a video of Holly Milk was shown. (Holly won the Outstanding Quality Pro ducing Butter Plant Award from the Land-O-Lakes system for the fourth year in a row.) Hand also spoke about the suc cessful efforts by the various milk marketing organizations to prom ote milk products. ADC stands as the ninth largest cooperative in the country, with $2O million in assets. Robert B. McSparran, president of ADC, said that ag representa tion at the state and federal levels is declining. He said that only 50 members in U.S. Congress are from strictly ag districts, and there are new districts established that don’t reflect the interests of agriculture. He also spoke about the surgence of BST, and how farmers in Wisconsin are becoming “dis enchanted” with the growth hor mone used to stimulate milk pro duction. But he said he cannot understand how to legislate advances in technology “out of existence.” At the meeting Thursday, new officers of the two locals of Dis trict 12 were elected. From the Strasburg-Paradise local, presi dent is Marlin Beiler, Paradise: vice president, Elvin Fisher, Ronks; and secretary-treasurer is Charles Neff, Paradise. From the Quarryville local, president is James G. Kreider, Quarryville; vice president is P. Robert Wen- comparisons between the tested animal and the control group, but because it takes fewer animals to achieve a high probability of accuracy. In principal, it should be possi ble to take-an embryo nucleus and make a large number of viable embryos. Hie drawbacks are that since cloning is from embryos, one can’t be certain that the animal resulting from the genetic combi nation being cloned is worth hav ing. Therefore, a bunch of eggs would have to be frozen until later. And, as far as making clones from an embryo in higher cell development, there has been some strange results in the identical offspring. “They seem dopey when bom and wouldn’t get up to feed. If you would foo} with them over two to three days they seem to become normal and they are normal parents. It’s something we don’t understand.” ’ Seidel said he and others at Col orado are planning to meet soon to review all the current data to try to get a better look at what might be happening. Dr. Paul E. Hand, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative general manager, spoke at the Dis trict 3 annual dinner meeting In Quarryvllle Tuesday. ger, Quarryville; and secretary treasurer is David E. DeLong, Quarryville. At the Tuesday meeting, mem ber 4-H awards were presented to Laurie and Amy Kreider and Joe and Denise Best. Twenty-five year recognition awards went to the fol lowing: Francis L. and Ethel V. Kirk; Paul L. Hess and Sons; Susan and Robert L. Kauffman, Jr.; Sam and Marian Long; James A. Hess; and Amos Z. Nolt. Fifty year awards went to Everett and Florence Kreider, Ever Flow Farm and Marlin Brubaker, Little Bri tain Agri Supply. Quality Pre mium awards went to Joe DeLong of Pillar Pride Farm and Edward L. and Edd W. Zug, Jr. At the Thursday meeting, a 25-year recognition award went to Murl P. Clark. Fifty-year recogni tion awards were presented to Delmar and Nancy Neff and Roy C. Neff and family. Attend Corn Clinics YORK (York Co.) York Farm Credit and three area farm implement dealerships have teamed up to offer free use of new tractors later this year. All you have to do is attend one of the three com clinics set to take place soon and register at the York Farm Credit display. The Adams County Com Clinic will be held on Monday, January 25, at the York Springs Fire Hall from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Regis ter to win one free week’s use of a new Case IH Maxxum tractor from Melvin J. Sheffer, Inc. of Hanover. The York County Com Clinic will be held on Wednesday, Janu ary 27, at the York County 4-H Center from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Register to win one free week’s use of a new John Deere 6000 series tractor from Waltemyers Sales & Service of Red Lion. The Cumberland County Corn Clinic will be held on Thursday, January 28, at the Penn Township Fire Hall in Huntsdale from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Please call John Matlilio at York Farm Credit (792-2641) for details.
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