Voi. 38 NO. 25
Andrew Long, club president, presents club Jacket to
Frank Perdue.
Farmer Action Corrects County Clean, Green Assessments
Editor’s Note: This is the first in
a two-part series about real life
events surrounding local
government decisions in two
adjacent Pennsylvania counties
and how they affected agricul
tural and rural landowners.
These stories are about home
town officials, and how assump
tions by government officials
made life difficult for some fami
ly farmers.
Graybeal: Bottom
Line Most Important
EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
PEACH BOTTOM (Lancaster
Co.) For Joe Graybeal and his
brother Steve, the bottom line is
more important than fancy build
ings or modem equipment
“We are a low-cost operation,
and we don’t have a high herd aver
age,” Graybeal said. “At 19,800
pounds, we are way behind those
fellows who are in the
25.000-pound range. We watch
these records, but we are not sure
how they get there without spend
ing a fair amount of money. And
Livestock Care
Topic Of Housing Expo
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Staff
LEBANON (Lebanon Co.)
Forget the fancy, expensive hous
ing facilities right now, for
instance, and concentrate on some
of the fundamentals of taking care
of animals.
Know their flight zone. Be wary
of how you load them onto and off
the chute. Learn more about how
to treat them right, and they’ll treat
Four Sections
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
ffiW*TSBURG (Dauphin
Co.) A more than five-year-old
dispute over the real estate taxing
rate under Dauphin County’s
“Clean and Green” tax-reduction
program is nearing its end.
This past week, two meetings
were held at county schools to
explain the specifics of the Clean
and Green Act and how a county
wide reappraisal of taxes under the
we are not sure we want to invest
all that much fa) buildings and
equipment You can always invest
in buildings, but there must be a
return for the investment”
Joe and Steve started farming on
the home place along Mason Dixon
Road in southern Lancaster Coun
ty on the Maryland line in 1968.
Since that time two additional
neighboring farms (all the mea
dows join) have been added to their
holdings. The dairy herd has
(Turn to Pago A2S)
you right.
Some of these concerns will be
addressed at this year’s Animal
Housing Expo, a show for North
east livestock, dairy, and poultry
producers, set July 13-14 at the
Lebanon Fairgrounds.
Many of die problems asso
ciated with cattle especially
bruising can be handled by
knowing several of the fundamen
(Tum to Page A 39)
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 1, 1993
Penn State Poultry Club
Holds Recognition Banquet
JUDY PATTON
Union Co. Correspondent
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) In the same style as his
nationally televised chicken ads,
Frank Perdue spoke at the Penn
State Poultry Science Club ban
quet. The third annual awards ban
quet was held here last week.
“The horizons are unlimited in
agriculture today,” Perdue told
students and industry people at the
banquet. You don’t have to be a
straight A student to succeed in
business, he said, but you have to
be willing to work hard, to accept
criticism, and to leant.
Perdue dropped out of college to
go into business with his father,
who had a small hatchery with
2,000 white leghorn layer hens
near Salisbury, Md. Today Perdue
act is to be performed. A third and
final public explanation meeting is
scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the
Upper Dauphin High School.
County-hired mass appraisal
and assessment business 21st Cen
tury Appraisals Inc., based out of
Port Matilda, has been conducting
the meetings to inform landowners
of the benefits and drawbacks of
the Clean and Green preferential
tax reduction program.
21st Century was hired by the
Harold Llndacamp, Lancaster DHIA supervisor, left, confers with JOi'fltaiybeal in
the milking parlor.
Farms processes 7.3 million chick
ens a week and has $1.3 billion in
annual sales.
“My father was a great teacher,”
Perdue said. Even during the
Depression, Perdue made money
on egg contracts. When the flocks
died from a disease during World
War 11, Perdue switched to broil
ers. They also started processing
their own feed then because they
couldn’t get ingredients during the
war. In the 1950 s and 1960 s they
added feed mills and soybean
plants to their operation.
Perdue attributed his success to
drive, which he said is the common
denominator of all successful peo
ple. He also believes “you have to
diversify enough to make it,” as
long as all the businesses are close
ly related. High quality products is
county in accordance with a Dau
phin County court order to change
the way it has assessed real estate
values for Clean and Green
properties.
The dispute and current actions
began in 1985 when Dauphin
County peformed a county-wide
reassessment and did an across
the-board doubling of appraisal.
The dispute has ended after one
farm family used its own resources
to initiate a legal battle with county
609 Par Copy
also a key. and Perdue has spent
about $4O million in the last eight
years for quality improvement.
About advertising, Perdue said,
“Nothing will destroy a good pro
duct quicker than a poor ad.” But
the product must meet the expecta
tions the consumer has from the
ad, as he warned. Eighty percent of
new products fail because the
advertiser assumed the consumer
is stupid.
Investing in research and deve
lopment of the best product is
important at Perdue, whose broil
ers have 14-20 percent more breast
meat than any other broilers,
according to Perdue. Good deliv
ery service and health and safety
provisions for employees are also
prime concerns at Perdue Farms.
(Turn to Pag* A 23)
officials challanging (he way they
gcajyl land presumed protected
under Clean and Green.
The issue was not reported in
local newspapers, and according to
officials at the educational meet
ings, almost all of the landowners
are not aware of the lawsuits which
caused the mass reappraisals.
But the fact that these meetings
are even scheduled is because of
the efforts by the Russel Cassel
(Turn to Pago A 26)
$19.75 Per Year