JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Correspondent
WILLIAMSPORT (Lycoming
Co.) An informational hearing
held last week on proposed Dairy
Compact legislation for Pennsyl
vania brought out a standing
room, nearly 200-head strong,
crowd of dairy farmers and indus
try representatives.
The hearing, called April 3 by
the Pennsylvania Senate Agricul
ture and Rural Affairs Committee
and hosted at the Pennsylvania
College of Technology, was to ga
ther input on Senate Bill 170. The
Northeast Interstate Dairy Com
pact bill, if enacted by the Senate
and Legislature, would lay the
groundwork for the state’s dairy
industry to become part of the
Northeast Interstate Dairy Com
pact The bill was originally intro
duced to the Senate on January 21,
1997, by Bradford County Senator
Roger Madigan and referred to the
Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee for consideration.
Because the Dairy Compact is
structured for only contiguous
stales to join, with mirror enabling
laws. Pennsylvania participation
hinges on die passage of similar
legislation in New York. New
York’s state Senate has already
passed its version of Compact
legislation, but it has yet to be
acted upon by the Empire stale’s
Assembly side.
The Northeast Dairy Compact was authorized
by the 1996 Farm Bill and first used for pricing
milk in late summer 1997. Included in the origin
al Compact borders area are Vermont. New
Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
and Connecticut New Jersey recently had en
abling Compact legislation signed into law and
more than a dozen other states either have, or are
working toward, similar compact proposals.
Maryland’s legislation, thwarted in previous at
tempts, was working through the state’s Senate
earlier this week.
While some daily hearings pit the state’s
farmer-member organizations against one an
other, that has not been the case with the Com
pact issue. One by one, the Farm Bureau,
Grange. Farmers’ Union, and the state’s major
dairy cooperatives. Dairy lea. Dairy Farmers of
America, Land O’Lakes and Maryland and Vir
ginia Milk Producers, all presented testimony at
the hearing solidly bearing one united message.
Pennsylvania’s dairy producers need Dairy
Compact enabling legislation.
One recurring theme through several presenta
tions of testimony was that dairy farmers are hav
ing difficulty paying their bills, as input costs
have continued to rise while milk prices remain
at price-levels of years ago.
Daniel Smith, executive director of the North
east Dairy Compact which is presently pricing
Class I milk in the six New England states, ad
dressed that same issue in his supportive testi
mony.
“It is allowing farmers to stay more current
with their bills. The expectation of wholesale
dairy fanner sellouts has stemmed,” said Smith,
of the legislation which has added as much as
$1.30 and as little as a few cents to the Class I
price paid to New England’s producers of fluid
class milk. According to Smith, the pricing me
chanism has added eight cents per hundred
weight to all milk produced in the Compact area.
The Compact currently sets the Class I price at
$16.94 per cwt, and pays producers the amount
between the level and the Federal Order Class I
price. As Federal Order prices rose during the
winter, the Compact’s “extra check” diminished
in amount As Federal Order prices drop with
seasonality, the Compact is designed to collect
the over-order premium to hold the Class I to the
established $16.94 level.
As expected, it was the processor and manu
facturing side buyers of raw milk which
voiced some opposition to the floored Class I
prices which would result if the Compact’s pre
sent $16.94 was extended to Pennsylvania-pro
duced drinking milk. Presentations by the state’s
Milk Dealers Association and Food Merchants
Association criticized the Dairy Compact pro
posal as not in keeping with the intent of the
Dairy Compact Hearing Held
1996 Farm Bill and a short-term
program currently designed to end
in less than a year.
Most vocal in opposition was
Hershey Foods Corporation,
which used I.S million pounds of
milk daily, or S percent of the
sale’s production, according to
presenter Audrey Throne, man
ager of dairy ingredients for the
candy giant Hershey’s position is
that “the free market is the best
way to price milk.”
Under cross examination, the
Hershey representative acknow
ledged that the bulk of the food
company’s milk purchases are not
Class I fluid priced.
The Pennsylvania Milk Market
ing Board, represented by chair-
Seminar To Discuss Urban Tree Establishment Practices
WEST PITTSTON (Luzerne
Co.) —Establishing trees in urban
and suburban areas is no easy task
these days. Growing a healthy tree
is not as simple as digging a hole
and planting the tree. Many times,
conditions are such that trees will
not survive more than a few years.
Whit is it so difficult to grow
trees in urban and suburban land
scapes? As we build or rebuild our
cities, towns, and suburban resi
dential communities, we change
physical and chemical seal proper
ties, or completely remove top-
man Beveriy Minor, did not lake a
position pro or con on the Com
pact issue but applauded the hear
ing committee for its efforts.
Chairman Minor noted that certain
of the Compact’s elements are
similar to those of the PMMB, and
the Board assumes that it would
continue to perform its functions
if Compact participation did be
come reality. The PMMB prices
milk produced, processed and sold
within the Pennsylvania state
borders, about 20 percent of the
state’s total milk production.
Lancaster Senator Noah Wen
ger. acting chair of the Agriculture
and Rural Affairs Committee,
quizzed many of the pro-Compact
supporters on the likelihood of in-
soils, the growing medium for our
trees. In other situations, we are
compacting soils for sidewalk
paving to the point at which roots
cannot grow. With compacted
soils comes poor drainage which
can kill trees. Chemically, soil pH
is driven upward when construc
tion debris is left in soils. Land
scapers then cuta small opening in
the concrete and plant a species of
tree that requires good drainage
and an acidic soil.
On April 16, a seminar titled
“Establishing Trees In Urban
creased milk production in re
sponse to a higher Class I price for
milk.
Northeast Compact executive
director Dan Smith acknowledged
that the Compact has changed the
area’s supplies more than antici
pated, with milk flowing in from
outside areas and diluting the
pool, and that a hearing process is
under way to tighten the rules.
Under the Compact regulations,
if production in the pricing region
grows more rapidly than the na
tion, and causes the Commodity
Credit Corporation to purchase
excess supplies, monies from the
Compact must be used to pay for
those extra CCC purchases. In an
ticipation of that possibility, a
Areas” will examine new research
on plant establishment techniques
that Cornell University’s Urban
Horticulture Institute and others
across the nation have been work
ing on for years. The seminar is
scheduled for the National Insti
tute for Environmental Renewal in
Mayfield. Preregistration for the
program is required and an $lB fee
will cover lunch, breaks, and a
packet of reference materials.
The day will be full of usable
practices from site assessment and
modification to plant selection and
luge portion of the February
Compact premium, 14 cents per
cwt which would have been pud
out in March, was escrowed. If
CCC purchases from regional
oversupply are not necessary,
those escrowed funds will be dis
tributed at a later date to the Com
pact’s producers.
Senator Wenger’s office and
the Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee expect to take some
time to study and evaluate the
hearing before generating any fur
ther action.
“We will be in the process of re
viewing the testimony and will
discuss the next step,” says Chet
Weaver, chief of staff for Senator
Wenger.
transplant strategies. The seminar
is also designed with a hands-on
session that will be held outdoors
in the afternoon.
If you are a landscape contrac
tor, architect, designer, civil engi
neer, horticulturist, forester, ar
borist, shade tree commissioner,
municipal official, or planner, and
wish to learn die latest findine*
that are improving tree establish
ment and survival, attend this
seminar. For more information,
contact Penn State Cooperative
Extension at (717) 825-1701.