Farming, Saturday, July 8, 2000
Legislators Tour Agricultural Businesses
Federal legislative aides tour Burkholder Farms state
of-the-art milking parlor.
CHAMBERSBURG (Franklin
Co.) Legislative aides from the
offices of Sen. Arlen Specter,
Rep. George Gekas, Sen. Rick
Santonim, Rep. Bud Shuster,
and Rep. Tim Holden recently
spent a day learning about Penn
sylvania agriculture. They toured
the Burkholder dairy farm in
Chambersburg, and the Rice
Fruit Company in Gardners to
hear first hand the issues facing
the agricultural production in
dustry today. AgChoice Farm
Credit sponsored the event.
Annual Cattle
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster
Co.) Penn State Cooperative
Extension, The Pennsylvania
Beef Council, and cattle oriented
agri-business companies invite
interested people to participate
in a Fantasy Beef Quality Chal
lenge at the annual Cattle Feed
ers Summer Workshop sched
uled for Thursday, July 20, at
Yoder's Restaurant, New Hol
land.
The event begins at 6 p.m.
with a free ice cream social ca
tered by the workshop sponsors,
while the educational meeting
gets underway at 7 p.m. Wendall
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“Aides and legislators, unless
they are farmers today, do not
really understand what agricul
tural production is all about and
how farming is conducted,” said
Richard Ringer, a loan officer
with AgChoice. “Likewise, farm
ers feel far removed from Wash
ington and what goes on .there.
This day is an educational en
counter for all of us.”
The day quickly put to rest the
idyllic myth of small farm life.
“Legislators and the general pub
lic alike hold on to the American
Feeders Summer Workshop
Landis, a jointly funded employ
ee of Penn State University and
the PA Beef Council, will open
with comments regarding the
Beef Quality Assurance and
Blueprint for Success programs
that he coordinates.
Following will be a discussion
regarding background details of
the Fantasy Beef Quality Chal
lenge conducted last year at
Texas A & M University and re
ported in Beef Magazine. The
Texas program, sponsored by
Merial, Allf
lex, Aglnfo-
Link, and
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ideal of the small, family farm.
Today’s family farms, like the
Burkholder’s, are entrepreneuri
al and must be profitable,” said
Ringer.
“The days of pitch forks and
bib overalls are long-since gone,”
said Stanley Burkholder of Bur
kholder Farms.
Small family productions are
out of necessity evolving into ex
panded business ventures. Both
the Burkholder and the Rice
family businesses illustrate the
new, bigger face of agricultural
business: larger gross sales, high
er risk, greater reinvestment re
sulting in higher debtloads, and
an always uncertain bottom line.
The aides saw for themselves
the complexities of agriculture
production in year 2000. The
Burkholders completed a major
expansion in 1994 that upgraded
their milking, feeding and waste
management systems for greater
efficiency, but more than dou
bled their debt load. The expan
sion has proven more efficient,
but whether the risk will pay off
remains a gamble. Profitability
depends on many factors out of
the Burkholders’ control, factors
like weather, markets and the
economy.
“This business is like a poker
game where you just keep ante
ing,’’ said Mark Rice, of Rice
the Texas Beef Council, evaluat
ed 24 steers of several different
breeds and breed crosses to de
termine the cattle with the high
est net returns. The lesson
learned from the Texas program
was that it’s “tough to predict
cattle by visual appraisal.”
Participants in the work
shop willexperience the
Texas Beef Quality Chal
lenge and then compete in
the Pennsylvania Chal
lenge.
Fruit Company. Most agricultur
al producers feel a squeeze today.
Risk is higher, but the pay-off is
uncertain. With agricultural
commodities, like apples and
milk, the prices paid to the pro
ducers bear no relation to the
prices consumers pay at the
super market What’s worse for
most agricultural producers is
the imbalance of market power
that exists between large food re
tailers and smaller agricultural
production companies. Food re
tail chains are consolidating
every year, with fewer chains
supplying more people, giving
the chains even more buying
clout.
While the face of production
agriculture has changed greatly
over the last twenty years, one
challenge remains constant: acci
dents of nature. Last year’s
drought resulted in a $125,000
From left, Stanley Burkholder, Richard Ringer, Ag-
Choice Farm Credit, 'and CKnton Burkholder, at Bur
kholder Farms.
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loss in crop inventory for the
Burkholders. Some of the Rice
orchards are within the quaran
tine area for the Plum Pox virus.
That virus has cost the European
stone-fruit industry hundreds of
millions of dollars over the last
forty years and has now ap
peared in Adams County.
What motivates agricultural
producers, like the Rices and the
Burkholders to continue? Ties to
the land, working with family,
the fulfillment of producing food
for the public, the lure of self-em
ployment and the satisfaction of
meeting the very challenges that
drive them crazy daily. Do the
rewards outweigh the chal
lenges? It depends on the day
you ask the question.
“You have to be an optimist to
be an apple grower,” said John
Rice, also of Rice Fruit Compa
ny.