Northampton Takes
First In All Categories
Of Potato Contest
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) Students age 8-18 com
peted in the 4-H Potato Grading
and Identification Contest at the
86th Pennsylvania Farm Show.
Three different stations were
set up for the competition and
students were asked to identify
class, grades, and defects found
in potatoes. In the end, all three
categories were added up and
scores were tallied up according
to correct number of answers.
The first table held 40 defec
tive potatoes, each potato having
a different defect. Defects consis
ted of air cracks, blight, bruises,
cuts, cry rot, greening, growth
crack, grub or slug, hollow heart,
misshapen, scab, Rhizoctonia, ro
dent, second growth, shriveling,
skin checks, sprouts, sunburn,
wet breakdown and wireworm
and wiregrass. Some defects were
obvious while others were hard to
catch.
The second tabie held classes
of a group of five or six potatoes
lying on a plate. The table was
also split into two halves, the A
Class and the B Class. The stu
Supreme Champion Hampshire
Earns Top Dollar At Sale
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) The Wetzel family from
Rossiter claimed $5,700 for their
supreme champion consignment
at the 86th Bred Gilt Sale at the
2002 Pennsylvania Farm Show.
This amount has set a new
Farm Show Record for the gilt
sale, the last high being $2,425
back in 1991.
This prize-winning Hampshire,,
a daughter sired by TVOB Sweet,
serviced and due in March to
Billboard 4-3, was noted by
Judge A 1 Christian as a “fine rep
resentative of the breed.”
He said that Hampshires, de
veloped in America with breeding
of European decent, are popular
dents were asked to place the po
tatoes in the best order by ripe
ness for both groups. This section
of the grading contest accounted
for 50 out of the 500 possible
points.
The final test was a race
against the clock, as students
rushed around a table of 100 po
tatoes and marked off those pota
toes that were out of grade. Five
points were deducted for each
minute over the first 60 seconds
of the race. This section was
probably the hardest for the stu
dents to grade out of all three of
the tests.
Individual and group scores
are as follows:
A Team: 1. Northampton,
1382.5. 2. Lehigh, 1289.0. 3.
Adams, 1259.5.
B Team: 1. Northampton,
1265.5. 2. Lehigh 82, 1225.5. 3.
Lehigh 81, 1182.0.
Individuals: 1. Andrew Hower,
Northampton, 468.0. 2. ’ Travis
Hahn, Northampton, 464.0. 3.
Crissy Van Schoirk, Northamp
ton, 450.5.
in market hog show rings and are
excellent market animals because
of the breed’s tendency toward
lean muscle. This animal was no
exception, presenting herself as
“a spectacular individual excel
ling in frame size, length of body,
and muscle volume.”
The second high seller was the
reserve champion Hampshire,
also owned by Kjo Wetzel and
family. The gilt bought $1,050 by
John Tigner Jr. ofHartley, Del.
The 2002 Bred Gilt Sale, which
immediately followed the selec
tion of supreme champion, aver
aged $424 on 177 head of hogs,
and drew in buyers from 13 dif
ferent states.
Senate Version Of Farm Bill:
Analysis Of The Daschle Substitute
Kenneth W. Bailey
Penn State
The Farm Bill is working its
way through the U.S. Congress.
The House completed their ver
sion last year, which contained
only an extension of the dairy
price support program. The Sen
ate ended the year without an
agreement on their version of the
farm bill.
A number of critical issues re
main unresolved, including the
dairy title. The current Senate
version of the Farm Bill contains
a dairy title that uses counter cy
clical program payments that in
crease when milk prices decline.
That bill, referred to as the
“Daschle Substitute,” represents
a compromise from an earlier bill
called Harkin Senate Bill no.
1731. The dairy title to the
Daschle Substitute has strong im
plications for the Northeast dairy
industry.
Dairy Provisions In
The ‘Daschle Substitute’
The dairy title to the Daschle
Farm Bill contains three separate
programs:
1. Milk Price Support Program
2. Dairy Market Loss Assist
ance Program
3. Northeast Dairy Market
Loss Program
The current Milk Price Sup
port Program is extended under
this bill from May 31, 2002 to
Dec. 31, 2006. Thus the program
that supports market prices for
butter, ■ nonfat dry milk and
cheese is extended an additional
four years and seven months.
The Dairy Market Loss Assist
ance Program provides counter
cyclical payments to producers
located outside the Northeast
whenever the altanilk price in
any quarter falls below a rolling
five-year average price. The pay
ment rate is equal to 40 percent
of the amount by which the aver
age price of milk in a given quar
ter falls below the average price
of milk for the same quarter dur
ing the previous five years. So, if
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 12, 2002-A27
the all-milk price in the current
quarter is $l3 per hundredweight
(CWT) and the five-year average
all-milk price for the same quar
ter was $l5 per CWT, the pay
ment rate would be $O.BO per
CWT (($l5-$l3) X- 0.4).
The Dairy Market Loss Assist
ance Program contains three pro
gram limitations. First, it is for
producers located outside the
Northeast (to be explained
below). Second, the payment rate
for an individual producer is sub
ject to a production base equal to
average milk marketings for fis
cal years 1999 through 2001, or
eight million pounds, whichever
is lower. Third, total payments
under the program have a budg
etary ceiling of $1.5 billion for the
period Dec. 1,2001 through Sept.
30,2005.
Finally, the Northeast Dairy
Market Loss Program essentially
provides a federal payment
whenever the federal order Class
I price for Boston falls below
$16.94 per CWT. Thus the feder
al order Class I price which
rises and falls with market forces
is unaffected by this new pro
gram. The program is for pro
ducers located in the 12 North
east states of Connecticut,
Delaware, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, Pennsyl
vania, Rhode Island, Vermont,
and West Virginia.
The Northeast Dairy Market
Loss Program works by provid
ing a federal payment each
month equal to 45 percent of the
positive difference between
$16.94 and the Boston Class 1
price. For example, suppose the
Class I price of milk in Boston in
a given month is $15.94 per
CWT. The program payment
would be equal to $0.45 (($16.94 -
$15.94) X 0.45). No program pay
ments are made if the monthly
Class I price for milk in Boston
exceeds $16.94 per CWT. Pro
ducers under this program face
the same annual production caps
outlined above (eight million
pounds per farm per year). The
program also has a budget ceiling
of $5OO million over the period
Dec. 1, 2001 through Sept. 30,
2005.
An analysis of the Northeast
Dairy Market Loss Program is
provided below for the FY-2002
marketing year. According to the
bill, program benefits the first
year are only available during the
months December 2001 through
September 2002 (10 months).
Analysis for the rest of the bill
and for the remaining period,
marketing years FY-2003 - FY
-2005, is available on ray Website:
http://dairyoutlook.aers.psu.edu/.
Northeast Dairy
Market Loss Program
An analysis of the Northeast
Dairy Market Loss Program re
quires a forecast of the Class I
price of milk for Boston for the
current fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2001
through Sept. 30,2002). Based on
this forecast, the average pay
ment rate under the program is
estimated to be $0.77 per CWT
for the 10-month period Decem
ber 2001 - September 2002.
The next step is to compute the
base level of milk marketings and
percent of milk eligible for the
program payments for each of
the 12 Northeast states. Produc
ers are eligible to receive program
payments on average marketings
for fiscal years 1999 through
2001 subject to the eight million
pound cap.
The applicable state level pro
duction base was computed in
Table 1. Data from USDA’s Milk
Production report for 2000 indi
cates that about 88 percent of the
milk produced in the Northeast
was from farms with less than
500 cows. These Northeast dairy
farms marketed less than eight
million pounds per year.
(Turn to Page A 29)
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