(Continued from Pag* A 1) cooperative community.” Hand joined Atlantic’s staff in 1957 as an economist He worked his way up through the cooperative ranks and was named general man ager in 1982. He served on numer ous industry boards and often spoke at dairy-related meetings. “Paul Hand truly is a recognized leader in the dairy industry.” said Robert B. McSparran, president of the 3,500-member cooperative. “Much of the success of the cooperative can be attributed to his leadership and management” The Paul E. Hand Scholarship at Penn State will be dedicated to gra duate students in agricultural eco nomics. Hand himself received his Ph.D. from Penn State in 1960. Earlier in the day, Dever reported that Atlantic Dairy ended the 1992-1993 fiscal year with sales of $573 million and a net mar gin of $5.4 million-the third high est margin in the 76 year history of the cooperative. The net margin resulted, in part, from sales of 3.5 billion pounds of member milk. The volume mark eted represents a 1.4 percent increase over the prior year. It also represents the greatest volume of member milk marketed by the cooperative. In addition, Atlantic marketed approximately 700 million pounds of milk through joint marketing agreements with other coopera tives. The total milk marketed was 4.18 billion pounds. Also contributing to the net mar gin were finished product sales from Atlantic’s manufacturing division. Holly Milk, and profits from QC Inc., a wholly owned sub sidiary providing quality testsing services. The net margin, down from $7.5 million last year, equates to mem ber earnings of 15.3 cents per hundredweight “A net margin of more than $5 million should be considered stais factory and consistent with our goals and sound financial posi tion,” Dever said. “Other good indicators are the extra payments made to members during the year.” Atthehe: je at Atlai ic Lu.. <opeK .e ing from left, lower row, are Gordon Hiller, master of Pen* nsylvania State Grange; Jerry Klose, butter operations manager, Land O-Lakes, Inc.; Dawn Downey, 1993 Mary land Dairy Princess; Earl Fink, executive vice president, Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers; Jennifer Grimes, 1993 Pennsylvania Dairy Princess; Russell Wachter, presi dent, Maryland and Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative; Stacy Huffman, 1993 West Virginia Dairy Princess; James Barr, chief executive officer, National Milk Producers Feder ation; Clyde Rutherford, president, Dairylea Cooperative, Inc.; Amanda Wolfer, 1993 Delaware Dairy Princess; Alpheus Ruth, retired president, Lehigh Valley Farmers; Donald Risaar, president, ML Joy Farmers Cooperative; Nancy Siekler, 1993 New Jersey Dairy Princess; Michael Donovan, general manager, Eastern Milk Producers Atlantic Dairy Shows $5.4 Million Net Margin These extra payments totaled $16.5 million. They included $2.2 million in quality milk bonuses, $5 million in equity payments and $9.3 million in over-order pre miums. The total amount of such payments since the cooperative’s 1987 merger is $l4l million. “We have had six and a half years of good income levels." Dever said. “As we get bigger, maintaining that high level of income must be one of our primary goals.” During the past fiscal year, the cooperative’s membership grew by 23 members. The total member ship stood at 3,572 on July 31, the close of the'fiscal year. “Size in membership is only one part of the marketing equation,” Dever said. The other part deals with the cooperative’s ability to negotiate with its buyers. And the majority of these buyers are repre sented by large national or multi national corporations. “Even though we think of ourselves as a large corporation, we are still only a regional dairy farmers’ cooperative.” We cannot be weak at the negotiating table.” Dever said the cooperative needs to have the same levels of expertise about the business as its customers. It also needs to keep up with technology and to adjust to modem marketing principles. “A 76-year-old organization that has changed with the times, that js still in business and doing a good job of it, does have value,” Dever said. “ADC is that kind of organization.” Mary Margaret Pecht a reporter for The Sentinel in Lewisburg was named the 1993 Agricultural Com municator Award winner. Pecht was recognized for her “exemplary services to the dairy cooperative community” and given a plaque by Atlantic presi dent Robert B. McSparran. Pecht joins a select group of communicators who have been recognized by Atlantic for their roles as both communicator and educator. Through their work, these communicators have pro vided cooperative members, con sumers, legislators, youth, young farmers, industry employees and land-grant universities with agri cultural and cooperative information. Pecht began writing for the newspaper 32 years ago. In addi tion to general reporting, she serves as agricultural editor and religion editor. She also writes a column titled “View from the Valley.” Pecht is a familiar face at the cooperative’s local and district meetings throughout Juniata County and the surrounding area. She also is familiar to a number of Atlantic’s managers, whom she has interviewed for various farm news stories over the years. Lancaster Mennonite Names FFA Winners National FFA winners at Lancaster Mennonite are from left, Wendall Landis, Joleen Herbert, Leon Trager, Jr., and Kendall Reiff. Lancaster Mennonite High School senior Wendall Landis received a gold medal in the National FFA Livestock Evalua- •i jmes jnan, ret manager, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative. Upper row, J. Wade Groff, pastor, Strasburg Mennonite Church; Oscar Milinovich; Terri Milinovich, retired execu tive secretary, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative; Georgette Hand; Or. Paul hand, retired general manager, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative: Robert Dever, secretary and general manager, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative; Robert McSparran, president, Atlantic Dairy Cooperative; Donald Schirver, chief execu tive officer and general manager, Milk Marketing, Inc.; Don Rice 111. guest speaker; Boyd Wolff, secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture; Leon Wilkinson, chairman, Pen nsylvania Milk Marketing Board; Erik Rasmussen, market administrator, Federal Order 1; and Dr. Dhun Patel, New Jersey Department of Agriculture. nr* Pecht grew up on a dairy farm near Vita and graduated from Chief Logan High School. She says she knows how to milk cows but never mastered driving a trac tor. "They always had three pedals, and I only had two feet,” she said. Pecht and her husband, Richard, live in the village of Mattemtown. a few miles from Lewistown. They have a daughter, Tamra Seiler, and two grandchildren. Katie 4, and J. Dwight 2. They are members of Evangel Baptist Church, the Fort Granville Grange, Pomona Grange 35. the Pennsylvania State Grange and the National Grange. In addition, Pecht is a volunteer reader in the public schools. She tion Contest held November 11-13 at Kansas City, Mo. LMH juniors Leon Trager, Jr. and Joleen Her bert both received bronze medals r H . If. r also enjoys traveling, reading, sewing and quilling (that’s QUILLing). She collects auto graphed editions of books and anti que hymnbooks. Pecht is the 21st person to receive the Agricultural Commu nicator Award, which Atlantic first awarded in 1973. Put winners have included various media rep resentatives, Extension education specialists and cooperative leaders. Atlantic Dairy Cooperative rep resents mere than 3,soodairy farm families in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. in the contest. In addition, the four-member LMH livestock team received a bronze medal. The livestock team consisted of Landis, son of Abram and Dor othy Landis. Manheim; Trager, Leon and Della Trager, Quarry ville; Herbert, son of Luann Ncwswanger, Terre Hill; and LMH junior Kendall Reiff, son of Samuel and Elva Reiff, Ephrata. The team received a $l,OOO first place award in state competition last June. Teacher Lem Metzler serves as advisor of LMH’s Hans Herr FFA Chapter, chartered in January, 1992. Also, in a recent regional FFA competition in Lebanon County, Pa., senior Crystal Hershey, daughter of Marlin and Barbara Hershey, Lancaster, placed first in the Salesmanship Contest. Sopho more Maria Hurst, daughter of George and Mary Hurst, Lititz, placed fourth. FFA is a national organization of 416,529 members preparing for leadership and careers in the sci ence, business and technology of agriculture. The organization has 7.54 S local chapters located throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. At LMH 79 students are members of the FFA. general
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers