Ken and Dennis Marshel farm 250 acres northeast of Ris
ing Sun Maryland. They are fifth-generation farmers and
have 70 Holstein milk cows that average 22,8001b5. Ken is
the president of the new Lanco Dairy Farmers Cooperative.
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New Local Dairy Cooperative
Ready To Divert Milk May 1
(Continued from Pago A 1)
in the Amish community of Lan-,
caster County though no attempt >
locally has been made to set the
price of milk at production costs
plus a profit
However, since by law. ARMP
PA need a “Marketing Agent In
Common” (MAIC) to cany out any
pricing agreements it forges, far
mers. especially Amish dairy far
mers in Lancaster County, have
felt the need to have mote than one
local MAIC to handle the large
number of ARMPPA members
from their group. Before Lanco,
only the National Farmers Organi
zation (NFO) was ready to work
toward ARMPPA’s efforts.
The Allied
Federated Umbrella
To handle bookkeeping, quality
inspections on the farm, check
writing, and milk route scheduling,
Lanco officers have put their small
cooperative under the umbrella of
Allied Federated Cooperative,
headquartered in New York State.
Allied cares for 32 small coopera
tives, some as small as 45 members
and is already moving milk to
market for its members. Allied and
Lanco have signed an agreement
with a mote local handler, and the
45 dairy farmers have given notice
to their present handlers they will
be succeeding as of May 1.
Lanco is composed mostly of
Amishtnen, and they have four of
the five officers in the cooperative.
But they do not want it to be exclu
sive. In fact. Ken Marshel, a dairy
farmer from Rising Sun, Mary
land, located just south of the Lan-
/Ask for
ice
caster County border, was elected
president at a board meeting last
Thursday night
"We were were sort of opposed
to a new cooperative at first,” Mar
shel said. “The large mega
cooperatives are legally owned by
farmers, but we don’t seem to have
a voice. That’s why ARMPPA was
formed. These large cooperatives
seem to keep tying the farm price to
the BFP, and that’s so manipulated
because of the large cheese
companies.
“the bottom line is that the far
mer is not getting the fair share of
the consumer’s dollar. By forming
these small cooperatives, we can
maintain more control over
pricing.”
An Amishman from the Ronks
area who is a strong support of this
cooperative movement told Lan
caster Farming he wants to keep
the membership small enough to
have volunteer directors and offic
ers. They are also concerned that
the small family farmer will be his
tory if something is not done to
increase milk prices at the farm.
“Until about a year ago, I thought
the small farmer could make it,”
the Amishman said. “But now I see
things that make me realize larger
farms have an advantage. For
example, the “stop charge” to kick
up milk at the farm is the same for
large or small farms. This can
make the cost anywhere from two
or three cents to 23 cents per
hundred.”
The Amishman also expressed
belief that the large cooperatives
are squeezing out the small hand
lers so they can take over the whole
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market. By banning local fanners
together, they fed they can help
keep local handlers in business.
The farmers ask that their hand
ler not be named because of reper
cussions. But this handler wrote
agreements to take this local milk
because of the need to insure a loc
al supply of milk from the fanners.
Lanco has agreements to supply
up to four trailer loads of milk per
day with an increasing supply
needed until fell. Pricing will be
done under what is in place for
Order 2. They are not setting over
order prices and expea to gain only
10 to IS cents per hundred at the
farm gate because of lower over
head in the local cooperative. But
those involved hope the potential
change in the source of supply will
cause prices to remain higher than
they otherwise would be.
Marshel said there was no fear of
moving to a different milk marke
ter because “if we don’t try to do
something to put pressure on the
farm price by moving milk around,
we wouldn’t be in business much
longer, and then we won’t need a
milk market
A meeting open to all dairy far
mers who have an interest in the
cooperative will be April 21. start
ing at 8 p.m. at Harvest Drive
Restaurant located southwest of
Intercourse. The official
announcement says the meeting is
for English, Mennonite, and
Amish dairymen who are con
cerned about the merging dairy
markets.
p