Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 68, Greencastle, Putnam County, 21 November 1979 — Page 12
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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, November 21,1979
Dec. 6 set as 7th annual Cow-Calf Day
By DAVID BARR Banner-Graphic Civic Affairs Editor Cattlemen from 15 western Indiana counties are expected *o converge on Greencastle Dec. 6, when the seventh annual Hoosier Cow-Calf Day is held in the fairgrounds Community Building. COORDINATING the 1979 event is James R Baird. Putnam County Extension Agent, who has announced that a
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program of interest to producers and their families has been arranged. Registration over coffee and donuts will begin at 9:30 a m., followed at 10 a m. by a panel discussion bv Purdue staff members Hendrix, Morter, Williams and Singleton on the subject: “Troubleshooting the Cow-Calf Operation.” Lunch, provided by commercial exhibitors and served by Jefferson Township Ex-
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tension Homemakers, will be served at noon with an afternoon program beginning at 1:15p.m. HEADLING the first afternoon session will be Sam Etienne, Ag Division, Indiana Department of Commerce, who will speak on the Indiana Branding and Theft Alert Program Baird said that this presentation will be mast timely and of value to cattlemen in view of
the fact that livestock rustling is on the increase. FOLLOWING a “Beeferen dum” slide-tape presentation by Ken McDonald, a represen tative of the Indiana Beef Cattle Association will speak on the role of the cattleman in the Beeferendum. Some 25 commercial exhibitors are expected to have displays on handling equipment
and animal health products, both inside and outside the Community Building. Area V cattlemen expected to be represented at Cow-Calf Day will come from Parke, Putnam, Vermillion, Vigo, Sullivan, Greene, Owen, Monroe and Clay counties. Invitations have been extended to interested persons in Morgan, Boone, Hendricks, Fountain and Montgomery Counties
Feed aid declines WASHINGTON (AP)-Livest-ock producers received about $63.6 million in aid under the government’s emergency feed program last fiscal year, the Agriculture Department says. The aid, for the year that ended on Sept. 30, compared to $169.4 million in 1977-78, the first year of the program Assistance is provided to qualified producers when their livestock is threatened by drought and other natural disasters. They are reimbursed to cover up to 50 per cent of the cost of feed bought during the emergency.
Lafayette site of Bergland meeting
On March 12, Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland called for a national dialogue on the economic and social issues that affect the structure of American agriculture and rural communities. Thus Secretary Bergland has launched a broad-based public discussion of the issues with the following goals in mind: Evaluate the current structure of agriculture and the forces that affect it, and establish national policies and programs that will best promote the kind of agriculture and rural life Americans want for the future. In order to accomplish these goals. Secretary Bergland has scheduled ten public meetings nation-wide. He will preside at each of these meetings so that he can personally hear the concerns of people around the nation. The meeting in this area will take place on Dec. 18 at Lafayette’s Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge East (located at the State Road 26 and Interstate 65 interchange.) The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. Questions for Secretary Bergland may be presented in writing
Tradition just isn't economical
Family farm just a myth?
By JOHN CUNNIFF AP Business Analyst NEW YORK (AP) - The family farm, in which the dutiful contributions of mother, father and many children add up to a wholesome, hearth-centered and somehow profitable way of life, is a myth, says Walter Russell. Soap operas depict it as fact. Politicians rapturously defend it. Many millions believe religiously that it is a fortress of basic American values. The Agriculture Department gives it official recognition. “It is my opinion,” says Russell, “that the ‘family farm’ that whole image has never existed, and certainly not since the Great Depression.” It’s a myth, he says again. “It’s a perception.” Is such talk mere braying? Who is this man Russell? He was born on an lowa farm that has been in his family for more than a hundred years. He holds a doctorate in agronomy and once was a U.S. Agriculture Department scientist. Now vice president of Oppenheimer Industries, he helps manage hundreds of
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Farm production costs upl4%
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just about everything farmers and other consumers buy these days costs more than it did a year or even a few months ago, but government figures show a wide variation among the specific expense items. Take telephones and electricity, for instance. Both are essential to a modern farming operation in addition to the usual family use of them for casual conversations and televisionwatching. According to the latest Agriculture Department analysis, the overall index of price that farmers pay to meet production expenses was up 14 percent from a year ago. That includes a wide assortment of items such as fuel, fer-
thousands of farm acreage for the Kansas City-based agricultural services company. There do exist families seeking to operate acreage in the manner many people perceive as traditional, says Russell. But their life is hardly idyllic and their efforts are unprofitable, he says. “The system doesn’t lend itself to accepting modern technology,” he explains. “To be competitive today you must accept more technology and capital and management...” “The type of farming envisioned as the traditional family farm is done for tradition, not for good economic reasons. They might grow cotton, for instance, because the land always was in cotton.” Time marches on, and in farming it marched swiftly. Much of U.S. agriculture, says Russell, is made up of three categories of farms. First, he lists the uneconomic family operation in which the husband and wife might hold part-time jobs elsewhere. They operate little acreage. They farm because of tradition and perhaps for enjoyment. Next is the family team, perhaps made
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tilizer, building materials, feeder livestock, feed, machinery and other supplies. By comparison, the average telephone bill paid by farm families for local service this year is up about 3 percent from 1978, and their electricity bill 4 percent. In the case of electricity, however, the increase in monthly bills was held down because farmers on the average used less electricity than they did in the comparable period of 1978. At the same time the price of each unit of electricity actually rose from the 1978 rate. Once each year USDA makes surveys to determine telephone and electricity costs on farms. The surveys arc conducted in
at the registration desk the morning of the meeting or, if you wish to be scheduled to ask a question from the floor, you should send your request as soon as possible to: Project Coordinator, Structure of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 20250. The request should include the location and date of the meeting at Lafayette, your name, mailing address, telephone number, organization (if you are representing one), and a brief description of the issues you want to discuss. Those who are scheduled will be notified in advance as to the time they are to appear on the program. Even if you are unable to attend this meeting, your ideas ai views in writing on the issues that are important to you may be sent to the above address where they will be made a part of the public record and studied with other comments from the public. Your contribution is important. Help set the policies that will affect our entire country’s future. Take part in this meeting and become actively involved!
Seed corn producer uses cobs for fuel
RUSHVILLE, Ind. (AP) - The nation’s largest hybrid seed corn producer cut back on its energy use this year by using corn cobs for fuel. After five years and more than $750,000 in research costs, Pioneer Hi-Bred International lnc. operated modified gasifiers this year at plants in Rushville, lnd. Durant, lowa and Laurinburg, N.C. Nearly $700,000 has been budgeted for additional installations in 1980, Pioneer officials said. Pioneer dries about eight mil-
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July and August and then compared with the previous year. According to the most recent information, the cost of telephone service to farm families averaged $10.60 a month nationally, compared to $10.30 a month in the summer of 1978 Long distance service, however, added another $15.60 to the monthly bill this year, making an average total of $26.20 a month that families spent on telephone service. Measured in that manner, including long distance, this summer’s telephone expense increased by more than 7 percent from 1978, when the charge averaged $24.40 a month, including $14.10 for long distance.
up of two brothers or a father and son or a father, son and uncle who manage perhaps 600 to 1,000 acres, half of which might be rented. They’re a business. And then there is the tightly help group, perhaps made up of family members, that operates thousands of acres. It is highly leveraged and very economic. It is a business, and good business practices govern. “They use all the fiscal tools,” said Russell. They study markets and they know how to market their goods. They raise crops, they sell and buy land, they buy and sell cattle, they run custom feed lots. That is the reality, says Russell. “There is nothing wrong with preserving tradition, but you cannot have economy using the traditional methods. You can’t do what your grandfather did.” The decline of inefficient, smaller farms is documented by the numbers. In 1964 about 205,000 farms accounted for one-half of all farm product sales. A decade later half of all farm sales came from 100,000 units.
lion bushels of corn each year, and about 400 billion BTUs are required for the job. Although the gasifiers cost about $75,000 each and are used only about two months a year, they should pay for themselves in less than 10 years, based on present propane costs, company officials said. While gasification isn’t new, using cobs for fuel required many modifications. A patent application is being considered to cover these features, Pioneer officials said.