V 01.44 No. 17 Pa, Pork Council Proposes National Moratorium To Suspend Sow House Construction ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Fanning Staff LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) Next Friday, March 5, a delega tion of Pennsylvania Pork Produc ers Council (PPPQ represents- This three-generational family runs a farm, butcher shop, bakery, and market to provide customers with meat fresh from the farm. In addition to fresh cuts, Dietrich’s Country Meats, Krumsville, Berks County, makes more than 60 varieties of processed products such as kielbasa, beef sticks, beef jerky, dried beef, Mettwurst, Jagdwurst, and other Pennsylvania Dutch and ethnic foods. Read more about the Dietrichs on page 86. Photo by Lou Ann Good. Pennsylvania’s Dairy Producers Divided Over Compact VERNON ACHENBACH JR. Lancaster Farming Staff HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) The daily industry in Pen nsylvania is unequally divided over the need to join the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, accord ing to testimony presented Tues day during a hearing in the state Capitol. The state House Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee held a hearing Tuesday on proposed legislation that would enable Pen nsylvania to join the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact should the United States Congress author ize it prior to Oct. 1, 1999. While no one testified to any problem with the actual wording of House Bill 170, which was the main issue before the Committee, the hearing exceeded its scheduled time because of discussions and opinions presented as to the effects, need, and wisdom of pur suing expansion of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact and including Pennsylvania. Pro-Compact Representatives of the state’s largest and most influential agri cultural policy organizations Four Sections lives will submit a resolution to the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) that, in effect, asks the USDA to order a suspension on construction of all new sow houses across the country. the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and the Pennsylvania State Grange testified in support of joining the Compact. Those organizations develop policy annually through local membership initiative and dele gate voting, frequently referred to as a grassroots mechanism of poli cy development. Arden Tewksbury, of Meshop pen, founder and president of the much smaller membership Pro-Ag organization, has been a known supporter of Pennsylvania joining the Compact. He said he already ships milk into the existing Com pact states. Robert Junk, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union, tes tified in support of joining the Compact Those two organizations have policy developed by leadership. Representatives for two of the nation’s largest dairy cooperatives Land O' Lakes, and Dairy Farmers of America —| said the cooperatives strongly support Pennsylvania joining the Compact Allen O’Hara, representing the Maryland and Virginia Milk Pro ducers Cooperative Association Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 27, 1999 According to PPPC President David Rcincckcr, a swine produc er from York Springs, the resolu tion is a way of taking a “time out,” he said, from what the industry identifies as an oversupply of Inc., said the cooperative strongly encourages Pennsylvania joining the Compact According to pub lished reports, about half of the The 1999 Pennsylvania Holstein Hall of Fame inductee is Lewis Berkley, Berlin, Somerset County. The honor was given at the Pennsylvania Holstein Association’s annual meeting in Wilkes-Barre last week. In the photo, from left are, Michelle Romes burg, Berkley, Barbara Berkley, Gina Berkley, and Jess Parks. See Story page A 22. $29.50 Per Year hogs, which has sent the nation wide price of hogs plummeting to their lowest ever. The resolution, proposed by the LanChester Pork Producers Coun cil, was passed at the PPPC’s board meeting Feb. 18. The resolu tion calls for a one-year morator ium on the construction of new sow units. Brent Hershey, president of the LanChester Pork Producers Coun cil, helped sponsor and voted for the resolution, which passed by a narrow margin. Of 19 present at the meeting, 10 voted for, nine against, the resolution. The proposal, according to Her shey, passed because the industry is reeling from the lowest prices for hogs in the history of the coun try, he noted. “Industry experts tell us there are more hogs than the capacity to kill the hogs,” Hershey, president of' Hershey Ag, Marietta, explained. In addition, the U.S. govern ment has made monies available to producers to help them ride out the current depressed prices. About $BO million per year is coming from the government to take herds that are pseudorabies positive and render them. The meats are still usable, Hershey noted, but because of the flood of pork on the market, the meat is rendered. “The supply and demand system Md.-Va. Milk Producers member ship is in Pennsylvania. Also, the Md.-Va. cooperative has announced it is entering into a mer- 600 Per Copy is completely out of sync,” Hcr shcy said. If the resolution, one of many put forward by representatives of 50 states at the National Pork For um next week at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., a ques tion arises: how will the morator ium be enforced? According to PPPC President David Reinecker, the resolution asks U.S. Ag Secretary Dan Glick man to find a way to enforce it, but defines no clear way for him to do so. The purpose of the resolution is to ask for a “time out,” Reinecker said. “In one year, we have increased the supply of pork nationwide by 10 percent No industry can grow when the com modity increases by that number of percent.” Reinecker noted that the resolu tion is pointed only at sow opera tions. It does not include new sow units that have been approved for construction or for which con struction is already under way. It doesn’t have anything to do with the construction of new weaning or finishing units. The PPPC requested that Penn State Extension work to draw up the one-page resolution. The resol ution was written by Bob Mikesell, senior extension associate, and Ken Kephart, Penn Stale swine specialist (Turn to Page A 36) ger with the 400-member Carolina Virginia Milk Producers Associa tion with members to Georgia. (Turn to Page A3O)
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