A2O-Lancuttr Fanninfl* Saturday, Uay 7, 1994
Zimmerman Retires From PDA
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster Co.) Every workday for 32 years, John Zimmerman
drove east from his 150-acrc Perry County farm in Rye Township across the Susquehan
na River into Harrisburg to his job at the state Department of Agriculture.
His morning farm chores already done, the trip used to take him an hour, before' the 181
bridge was built across the river, and would give him time to think.
He said that many times his thoughts were of the work to be done, the livestock auc
tions he would travel to that day, the number of hogs, calves, etc., he would group and
catagorize.
“Lots of times, going to a sale, part of your thoughts were on the sale, what you were
going to have that day. Or on the grading operation, usually going to grade hogs, or other
livestock, how many 1 would have, how long it would take.
“And sometimes you’d think about the quality (of the animals). Good quality is a plus
from (the perspective of) sales and grading. It always takes long to grade poorer quality.
They usually have a bigger assortment of sizes and quality, so it takes longer to gel them'
through. )
“And there were a number of times, driving, when you would think about home and
things that needed to be done,” Zimmerman said.
Those who operate or who have operated livestock auctions around the state should be
familiar with John Zimmerman.
On Sept. 19,1962, Zimmerman joined the state Department of Agriculture as an agri
cultural marketing specialist On Jan. 4,1965, he was promoted to chief of the livestock
division, and he held that position until his retirement March 18.
For all those years, Zimmerman’s softspoken manner and firm, but friendly face has
been associated with the state Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Livestock
Marketing.
No more. Zimmerman at 63, is currently living on his farm with his wife Carolyn, with
whom he will celebrate a 37th wedding anniversary on Wednesday.
His work now is taking cate of all those things he wanted to get down at home... the
small jobs, the painting jobs, the fix-up, the repairing.
But while the state still sponsored it, it was Zimmerman’s voice, among others, that
was heard on the twice-daily toll-free telephone recordings of the Pennsylvania market
reports.
And when the livestock auction in Pennsylvania served a stronger position in the daily
marketing of livestock, so did Zimmerman. It was his face, among others, that was seen
grading livestock in stables in preparation for an upcoming sale.
With spray-paint can in hand, or some other marking device, Zimmerman has judged
the quality and separated into lots hundreds of thousands of animals for auction.
He has traveled across the state many times visiting auction houses, grading animals
for sale, marking animals, meeting people, working with people, talking, sharing a cup of
coffee, swapping stories.
His job, as an objective livestock grader, was very important in protecting the local
producer from receiving inappropriate prices, helping to protect the consumer, and trying
to create a level playing field in grassroots commerce.
Those were the days when the community butcher was prominent in the demand por
tion of the price-driving supply and demand equation.
Now, though there are still a number of local butchers who buy livestock at auction, the
majority of animals and the price paid is generally set by several major buyer-processors,
or contractors.
photo t: 1990, John Zlmmennan, left, looks over a Holstein calf at Vin
tage Livestock Auction, while Richard McDonald marks the calves according to
grade. Zimmerman recently retired as chief of the Livestock Division of the PDA
Bureau of Market Development. McDonald Is the new chief.
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of Agriculture Bureau of Livestock Marketing. Ha is known for his support
of the industry, and his personal disposition.
While nothing stays the same, it with pheasants, and having a cou
is still worth noting when things pie of dogs that would hunt the
change as significantly as they birds and rabbits, life was good,
have with the grass roots agricul- ‘That was one of the joys of life,
tural community and its ways of was hunting pheasants. I had the
doing business. idea when I got out on'my own I
Zimmerman was a part of the would all kind of time to hunt,” he
change. said, again laughing at his youth-
When he was just starting out f u p outlook,
with the state Department of Agri- Although the pheasants are
culture in 1962, Zimmerman, then pretty well history, Zimmerman
31-years-old was back from a two- has more or less always kept the
year stint as an officer in the U.S. first week of deer season as an
Air Force, having served as a radar annua i observation, sometimes
controller with the rank first taking two weeks in the late fall to
lieutenant. hunt And more recently he has
Previously, he had attended been fishing with a son-in-law.
Penn State University at the Har- But those are avocations and
Center m 1949 and 1950, times for being an individual,
through the ROTC program and separate from the demands of
went on to earn a degree in agricul- society,
tural economics. His work as auction grader and
He grew up on a mountain sub- reporter for the state was his work,
sistance farm behind Summerdale “(Work has) meant a great deal
with a herd of milking goats, and to me, and still does,” he said
other livestock and laying hens, recently. “It was an area where my
and when he was 15, his family so-called expertise laid and it was a
moved to a Cumberland County service provided to the agricultural
farm, about 14 miles away from community and consumer as well,
where he lives now, on the other and you had that feeling that you
side of Stewart’s Gap. were of help to people,” he said.
With hogs, some cattle, and a He routine was never exactly
half dozen or so riding horses, he routine, but he would drive 20,000
said he grew up wanting to be a to 25,000 miles per year to travel
cowboy, and then with World War across the state to get to auctions,
II coming, he wanted to be a fighter stay overnight, do another auction
pilot, “Until I found out I was color somewhere else the next day, and
blind,” he said, laughing. maybe get home later the next
“Butundllwas 15,1 didn’t have night,
a definte goal of what I was going On the road, before the roads
to do,” Ijp said. His father, raised became so big and straight and
and bom on a farm, had been look- level and made all the remote
ing for a farm and had finally places accessible,
found one in Enola. Zimmerman Even as recently as last year,
said that was when he decided that Zimmerman tallied 2,500 to 3,000
whatever he was going to do, it miles on the road in Pennsylvania
would be agriculturally related, just during October. And that is
They were, as is said, the good with severe reductions in the
old days. amount of traveling that has been
For a youth in Cumberland allowed by the state with the
County on a 50-acre farm loaded (j urn to A 27)
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