Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, May 13, 1995, Image 20
A2Q-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 13, 1995 (Continued from Pago A 1) Now, the several-day shooting ev<nt not only receives support ho n pro-animal use people, and a new generation of sprat shooters eager toengage in the now uncom mon sport, but spectators have turned out in tremendous numbers just to see what kind of antics the “animal rights nuts” put on, and who gets arrested. But, about 11 miles west of Hegins on Rt 25 a road that runs about 60 miles between 181 and the Susquehanna River there is a fork in the road. The right road heads toward the village of Feamot. •A red brick church with a high white steeple stands abruptly in the middle of the “Y." Off to the right is Sterman Masser Potatoes Inc. All told, Masser’s potato opera tion supports at least 20 local fami lies. something that Keith said gives him constant concern. He said his concern is that he feels it is his responsibility, to him self and his employees, to ensure that the farm remains a profitable venture. Profit margins determine how many people can share in the suc cess of a business. Should Masser not remain aggressive and con cerned, margins could slip, and he’d have to face the prospect of telling people the business can no longer afford to offer them the opportunity to work for a roof, clothes and food. Perhaps if Masser hadn’t been raised in the area, and his family hadn’t been growing its own roots for so long, and perhaps if it were not that the region is so economi cally depressed, then maybe Mass er wouldn’t feel so compelled to bear responsibility to provide opportunity for others. But as it is, there are many small towns in nearby valleys and hills where house trailers, or homes in need of maintenance sit among rust, rotten wood and rubble of what appear to have been formerly prosperous mining villages. Junk cars, broken household items littering some roadsides and yards, falling roofs, and acid tainted streams flowing down ster ile beds are evidence of the former coal mining heydays. But in the afterlife of the coal mining frenzy, the town of Sac ramento seems to have survived. In addition to a hodgepodge of local service jobs, and home businesses, some people commute to jobs, such as the Fort Indian- The arrow In Jhis aerial photograph of Sterman laser Potatoes Inc. m the location of the mainofflce, wharehouee and production facilities. A grate airplane ttio stratchM from thi tacilitiM ifoi down through cropped fisldt surrounding the mm. i portion of the 2,500-aere farm property of the business. * Family Farm Business Helps Post-Coal Economy town Gap military installation, more than an hour’s drive sout . Those jobs are tenuous. The profit in most service jobs depends on local people having adequate amounts of free-spending money. Of course, in order to have free spending money, a job has to pay well. Good-paying local jobs depend on businesses that are based in agriculture, processing, mining, manufacturing or the intellectual production of some thing, and all of these endeavors have to make something that can be sold outside of the community. That is the economic foundation of any community; produce a unique, desirable commodity that other people, somewhere else need or want, and then conduct trade. The more money that comes into a community through the selling of a locally made product, the more prosperous it can be. Service businesses can help sup port those businesses, but without them, service businesses can only sustain until local discretionary monies run out, or most people leave. The military base, which had been seen as a stable job provider, has been under consideration for closing. Only a stable business, based on selling a locally available com modity, can offer stable jobs. So, instead of mining coal, some people work for Masser, helping to mine the soil for potatoes, which are then cleaned, graded, bagged, and shipped to supermarket chains. While the business has grown to provide for 20 families supplying potatoes for market, Masser said he hasibeen keeping his growth realistic. “I don’t intend to become the biggest, but! do want to remain viable.” Keith was bom in the next val ley to the north, the Leek Kill area, which is within the political boundaries of Northumberland County, where his great grandfather, Charles Masser, base d his potato business. Keith’s father, Sterman Masser, moved to the Sacramento farm in 1959 and rented it from an uncle who fanned primarily in the Leek Kill area. The farm was purchased by the uncle during the early 19S0s as a satellite farm. In 1967, Sterman purchased the farm and continued to grow potatoes. ' In 1980, Keith took over. There are now four loading ,our k ? ad,n 9 doc,< * «»d the business office of Sternum Messer to^uiS >^£lSi O, cKIS!Sr g * ,or * ,orino ’ gradl "° <md bs »» ln » p 0 *** 0 " docks and a large paved and gravel parking area that some of the con gregation of the neighboring church use when its own lot is overflowing. Immediately behind the loading docks and the business office front is a complex of buildings. There are bays for receiving, large refrigerated bays for storing pota toes, and skid loader operators scurrying around moving 4-foot by 4-foot bins of potatoes to various locations, including a grading and computerized bagging operation where most employees are concentrated. Also within the complex, there’s a modem lunch room, modem restrooms (designed by regulations to accommodate a wheelchair, even though the need of having to get someone with a wheelchair up the stairs to the restroom is extremely remote), and a modem locker room. The front of the business office area looks like a business. It has a cut-stone facade and interior, spa cious carpeted front office, a long counter, arid built-in glass show cases displaying the company’s potato sacks and bags. Behind the complex are a series of projects in progress. Two weeks ago, a number of grain elevators were being erected, a large refrigerated potato storage facility (with Masser designing part of the cooling system) was being fin ished, and underway were another building for equipment storage, and a machine shop. In total, the business farms 2,500 acres, 400 of which are in potatoes and the others primarily in small grains. The farming operation is not contiguous, but consists of the home farm and surrounding prop erties, and a series of properties stretching west, from Hegins down through the Lykens Valley to the Susquehanna River. Applied Business The success of Sterman Masser Potatoes Inc. is apparently because of the strong business attitude and strategies that Keith applied to the family potato business. In order to be successful, he took over the middleman jobs of processing and packaging. The traditional relationship between farm and processor and packager has been such that farm operators lake most of the risk on margin, while processor and pack ager build in margins in the whole sale and retail prices. Having control of operations up to wholesale level, and supple menting on-farm production with purchased potatoes. Sterman Masser Inc. can fulfill orders and keep the margin and its reinvest ment undercontrol and in the long range interest of the business. Typically, processors and pack agers of commodities, while sup portive of independent processors as a whole, are not concerned with the woes of individual producers. Common modern business practice is such that processors of raw products depend on competi tion between producers to keep down operating costs and to ensure adequate supplies. Processors usually get their margins, regardless of strains on producers. But with the roles of processor and packager under one roof with producer, indifference to producer problems is eliminated. As long as Masser can make the whole prog ram work, there is hope for the loc al economy to continue to export goods and bring in cash. According to Keith, he learned his work ethic from his parents and through growing up on the farm. He said he got his business acumen and training in goal-setting and planning while at Proctor & Gamble as a project engineer. Masser said he never had any intention of returning to fanning when he left for college to pursue an agricultural engineering degree at Pennsylvania State University. He said he selected the agnr.nl tural curriculum because he felt most confident that he had a chance of succeeding in that area. Once his studies began, his inter ests turned toward the study of fluid dynamics. After graduating, he went to work for Praetor & Gamble in 1972. That was also the year of Hurricane Agnes and the Flood of '72. and Masser had his first encounter with the Susquehanna River while working at Mehoo pany, in Wyoming County, where Proctor & Gamble used Susque hanna River water in part of its operations. In 1976, he returned to the home farm and worked with his father, and a brother, who died in an acci dent in 1980. That is when Keith took over the farm, and S term an invested in a coal business. In 1990, Masser took advantage of a low-interest loan program made available through the state’s economic development program and purchased grading and bag ging equipment He has continued to expand. He said his goal is to double the size of the business every 10 years. Of course that growth has its limits, but currently the business ships 18,000 tons of potatoes to supermarkets per year. Masser is certified to apply pes -ticides, as are two other employ ees; and he has a fumigation license also. He and 10 other employees currently possess com mercial driver licenses. On the wall behind his office is a sign that states, “Stuffing is for turkeys. Eat potatoes.” On the desk is a monitor to track commodity market prices and a computer. In 1984, Masser decided the business needed a better irrigation system for the potato Helds and he wanted to build center-pivot irriga tion systems. (He owns sue and uses two per year.) Seeking to comply with the law, he sought out information through the local USDA Soil Conservation Service. He was directed to the Susquehanna River Basin Com mission (SRBC). Created in 1970, the SRBC is a federal/multi-state agency charged with authority to oversee the man agement of the flows of the Sus quehanna River, which means the entire river drainage basin. The agency is considered neces sary because chaotic use of the water within the river basin is seen as only leading to a great deal of unnecessary costs, fighting and suffering. The amount of water within the basin is limited and the growth of the human’ population can be expected to continue until those limits are reached. Some fair and orderly management is needed to maintain a reasonable standard of living within the basin. Since Masser’s operation is within the basin, he contacted the then still-developing agency, told them what he’d like to do, and asked whether he needed a permit According to Masscr, a rep resentative from the SRBC came to the farm and Masser explained (Turn to Pago A 2«)