Past Year
(Continued from Peg* AM)
sorry to see you go,” the editorial
noted. “But we understand."
Hog Prices
Recover Slightly
Even with current hog average
prices hovering between
Foragers and grazisra continue to Improve their opera
tions. At this year’s forage conference, a special award for
forage and grazing contributions to the industry was pre
sented to Larry Muller, Penn State Dairy and Animal Sci
ence Department, left, by Paul Craig.
*
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When it comes to improving Relative Feed
Value and maximizing the Crude Protein in
hay. nothing outperforms the New Idea® 5209
Disc Mower Conditioner. Its high-speed disc
cutterbar glides through fields with ease,
even in extreme conditions. And the unique
Ti-Cor® Conditioning Rolls gently condition
the stems, speeding drydown.
36.00-37.50 per hundredweight at
49-54 percent lean, many produc
ers agree that 40.00 per hundred
weight is breakeven.
Before the start of the 1999 state
meeting of the Pennsylvania Pork
Producers Council in early Febru
ary, one packer commented on the
“worst situation the hog producers
have gone through in the history of
the industry.” noted Tom Lcidy of
Jk\ New Idea *
AOCO]
BUILT FOR THE BOTTOM LINE
Leidy’s Inc., Souderton.
And if it was horrible few pro
ducers who looked at prices
plummeting to 10, six, even eight
cents per pound for hogs. The Pen
nsylvania Pork Producers Council
passed a resolution at a meeting
early in March to propose, nation
ally, suspending sow house pro
duction to the National Pork Pro
ducers Council. Unfortunately,
what they were attempting to do
they found out was not considered
by the national council because it
wasn’t legal to do so. It violates
anti-trust legislation.
If prices were horrific for pro
ducers, they were, in some cases,
even worse for packers.
For Hatfield, the largest pork
packer in the region, Phil Clemens,
president, spoke at a Lancaster
county meeting in mid-December.
The great hog depression of 1998
dealt Mows to packers, too.
“I have never been more uncom
fortable in my life,” said Clemens.
“I never want to go through that
market- again.**
Clemens believes “partnering"
is the key.
Partnering with retailers, Cle
mens noted, works in Japan and in
the European marketplace. He
believes it will happen here, given
time.
“We can't have the 1998-1999
scenario happen again,** he said.
The 5209’s reliable design keeps you
mowing and conditioning year after year
With the segmented cutterbar dnveshaft, a
New Idea innovation, the cutterbar is truly mod
ular, which makes for easy maintenance
To see the disc mower conditioner that'll
exceed your expectations not your budget,
visit your AGCO® New Idea dealer today
Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, January 1, 2000-A29
“Retailers have to share profits
back with producers.”
In late April, a lengthy position
paper was advanced by the Nation
al Farmers Union that represented
a consensus of 29 of the U.S. farm
and rural groups. The paper
included policies the National
Agricultural Summit, the leader
ship group organized by the paper,
wants the nation’s political leaders
to adopt
While the pork industry con
tinues to become more vertically
integrated, in step with the poultry
industry, die Summit took steps to
address the issue of increasing
concentration of ownership of bas
ic industries, increasingly restrict
ing producer options.
In mid-May, farm equipment
manufacturer New Holland NV,
based in Amsterdam with North
American headquarters in New
Holland, announced it was pur
chasing Case Corporation, based
in Racine, Wis., for $4.3 billion.
The 1998 net revenues for New
Holland NV were $5.7 billion.
Case's revenues were $6.1 billion.
The merger created a company,
Case-New Holland, with revenues
close to $l2 billion per year, keep
ing up with sales of Deere and
Company, Moline, HI., with sales
of about $l3 billion in 1998.
Fiat S.p.A. in Italy owns 71 per-
See Your
AGCO -
New Idea
Dealer Listed
Delaware
Georgetown
Baxter Farms
Maryland
Dayton
J.D. Mullinix
Pennsylvania
Bechtelsville
Miller Equipment
Bethel
Zimmerman’s Farm Service
Bloomsburg
William F. Welliver
Cresson
Hines Equipment
Glen Rock
Wertz Farm & Power Equip,
Greencastle
Meyers Implements
Honesdale
Marshall Machinery, Inc
Klingerstown
Stanley’s Farm Service
Lebanon
Umbergers of Fontana
Mercer
Ralph W. Kyle
Oakland Mills
Peoples Sales & Service
Quakertown
C. J. Wonsidler
Quarryville
A. L. Herr
Somerset
Lincoln Supply
cent of New Holland. New Hol
land has approximately 6,100
dealers and 21,300 employees.
Case operates through about 4,900
dealers and employs 17,700.
The year reflected a national
trend of “rampant consolidation
and acquisition," according to
Keith Hevenor in an editorial in
Electronic Publishing. The trend
apparently crosses industries. A
year, Hevenor noted, that also saw
J.F.K. Jr. die in a plane crash, 12
students killed in a senseless
shooting at Columbine High
School, the crash of Egypt Air
Flight 990, a U.S. president facing
impeachment, and Turkey suffer
ing a devastating earthquake, he
noted.
It was also the year that a little
known but dangerous virus made
its way onto peach orchards in
Adams County, reported in late
October in Lancaster Fanning.
The plum pox virus was
detected for the first time on trees
in a York Springs grower’s peach
and nectarine orchards. Officials
continue to sort through informa
tion on how the disease arrived in
Adams County, bow it spreads,
and ways to contain and eradicate
it But work must continue, and
quickly, to prevent spreading of
the virus in the spring. European
scientists arrived in
mid-December and a
grower meeting was
conducted in early
November in Bigletville
to deal with manage
ment strategies.
It was also the year
that the Reading Fair
broke ground on a new
site in mid-May, but
cancelled the fair weeks
before it began because
of incomplete construc
tion. A fair was sche
duled for early August
2000.
Below.
Bright Spot
Farmland Preserva
tion
Preservation2ooo is a
new plan to preserve
Pennsylvania's farm
land and open space. A
press conference was
conducted in early Sep
tember on the farm of
Kevin and Audary Roh
rer family. Officials
(Turn to Page A3O)
§0
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