Banner Graphic, Volume 14, Number 73, Greencastle, Putnam County, 30 November 1983 — Page 10

A10

The Putnam County Banner-Graphic, November 30,1983

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Reagan yields, signs dairy bill

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN c. 1983 N.Y. Times WASHINGTON - President Reagan, yielding to political appeals from key allies in Congress, on Tuesday signed a bill that would for the first time pay farmers not to produce milk. Reagan signed the bill, which he earlier opposed, after meeting for an hour Tuesday afternoon with a group of Republican and Democratic congressmen who urged him to approve it. David A. Stockman, the budget director, had urged him to veto it and consumer groups and administration officials had asserted that the bill would raise dairy prices by $l.B billion in 1984 while doing nothing to reduce dairy production at a time of rising dairy surpluses. The administration fought against the bill in the closing days of the 1983 congressional session, arguing that it would cost taxpayers $1 billion more over the next three years than the White House proposal, a reduction in price supports for dairy products. In signing the measure, Reagan effectively ended his administration’s fight with the associations of large dairy far-

3 million hens, broilers destroyed so far

Infected chickens killed to halt virus spread

By WILLIAM ROBBINS c. 1983 N.Y. Times , LANCASTER, Pa. - Five hundred federal and state officials and aides have been pursuing a grim assignment here in south-central Pennsylvania, killing millions of chickens that are the livelihood of many of the area’s farmers. Crews of workers, rushing to contain a deadly avian influenza virus that has caused millions of dollars in losses to the state’s poultry industry, killed 500,000 chickens with carbon dioxide gas on Friday, 465,000 Saturday, and continued their work on Sunday on five more farms, bringing the “depopulation” total over the last few weeks to about 3 million. “We’ve identified about 4 million in infected flocks,” said David Goodman, a federal information officer. “We use that terrible word depopulation to avoid saying slaughter, to emphasize that they are not being

Farm Bureau delegates vote on policy issues Dec. 6

Public education, the dairy program and agricultural exports are among topics expected to be discussed and put into action during the resolutions session of the Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc., on Dec. 6 at its annual convention at the Indiana ConventionExposition Center in Indianapolis. Voting delegates from each county will decide the ap-

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mers that had supported him generously in the 1980 election. A White House official said Tuesday evening that Reagan had been persuaded by arguments from the congressional group that the socalled diversion program, paying farmers not to produce milk, would expire in 15 months, and that the congressmen would not seek to extend it. Reagan came under additional pressure because the bill also continued price supports for tobacco and provided discounts on feed corn for drought-stricken farmers. “It was a combination of dairy politics, drought politics, and tobacco politics,” a White House official said, adding that he had not been certain until Tuesday afternoon what action Reagan would take on the bill. Also persuasive to the

killed for human consumption.” “It’s not a very happy assignment,” he said. Nearby, trucks hauling the dead laying hens and broiler chickens lined up to dump their cargoes at a landfill. The special task force, composed of federal and state Agriculture Department staff members, temporary employees and trucks, drivers, and veterinarians from the Army, is trying to keep the disease from spreading to the rest of the country’s $9.5 billion a-year poultry industry. But the crews here learned last week that a new outbreak had flared on one farm in Salem County, in southern New Jersey. The officials quickly added most of Salem County and parts of Atlantic, Cumberland, and Gloucester counties in southern New Jersey to the quarantine list. “We’re still finding sick chickens,” said Goodman. “We find a few new flocks of them almost every day.” He declined

proaches to be taken on these and other issues which affect farm families and food production. Indiana matters will be voted on for state policy and national and international issues will be sent to the American Farm Bureau Federation for action at its convention Jan. 8-12 in Orlando, Florida. The Indiana Farm Bureau public education approach is

farm

president, according to White House officials, was the argument that without the bill, the existing dairy price-support mechanism would remain in effect, and it would go up next year. The current price support is $13.10 per 100 pounds, or about 12 gallons, of milk. In effect, if dairy processors cannot sell their products, the government agrees to buy and store them at the guaranteed price. All farmers are assessed $1 per 100 pounds to help pay for storing the dairy products. Under the bill’s diversion program, producers who participate would be paid $lO per 100 pounds of milk cut from production. The farmers could cut production from 5 to 30 percent. In the last fiscal year, the existing dairy program cost $2.7

to estimate how soon the task force might finish its work. Wherever infected chickens are found, the whole flock is destroyed. Through Sunday, 55 flocks have been killed. In Pennsylvania, 4 million of the 61 million chickens in the affected six-county area have been quarantined on 70 farms. At least 54 of those farms are here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania’s most productive agricultural area. The quarantine also includes parts of Berks, Chester, Dauphin, Lebanon, and York counties. Normally, most of the poultry products from this area are shipped to the Philadelphia and New York metropolitan areas, Goodman said. In Lancaster County alone, farmers shipped 40 million to 50 million broilers a year before the avian influenza virus hit. Avian influenza is usually a relatively mild infection, and the chickens often recover. But veterinarians have been sur-

expected to involve teachers, school finance, and additional funding from “people taxes” rather than the property tax. The “back to basics” teaching approach including mathematics, science and language, is anticipated, according to Farm Bureau officials. Since Indiana is one of the leading states for exporting farm commodities, agricultural

billion. The cost, plus the fact that it did nothing to combat the mounting surplus of dairy products, has led to a variety of government proposals. The administration’s approach had been to reduce the guaranteed price support as a way of discouraging overproduction. Dairy farmers and their allies in Congress rejected any attempt to give the secretary of agriculture the authority to reduce the price support level, and the issue became perhaps the most contentious farm measure in the last few years. Supporters of the diversion program argue that it will work to reduce costs to both the federal government and the consumer. This was the theme expressed Tuesday by Sen. Rudy Boschwitz, R-Minn., Rep. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., and Rep. Thomas J. Foley,D-Wash., who

prised at the virulence of the strain that has struck here. Although the virus is not infectious for human beings, veterinarians on the task force staff fear the contagion could be carried from flock to flock on visitors’ apparel. It could also be transmitted through shipments of live fowl to markets and processing plants. Sentries have been posted on infected farms, allowing no one except farmers and the work crews near the long, costly poultry houses that dot many of the farms in this area. On unaffected farms, trucks continue to arrive daily to collect eggs that are now selling for about 16 cents a dozen more than they were before the contagion erupted in late October. Only a small part of that increase is a result of the epidemic, industry experts say, and they are unable to determine how much that part might be. Egg prices normally rise substantially during the

exports are gaining considerable attention by the Hoosier farmers producing them. Farm Bureau is expected to continue to support the current contract sanctity law recently enacted by Congress which would honor contracts signed with foreign countries planning to buy, among other items, Indiana produced grain and livestock products. This law provides some protection to

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is the House whip. To White House officials, Foley’s presence was an obvious indication that Democrats would have also attacked Reagan if he had failed to sign the bill. Thus the main opponents of the measure were some consumer groups, as well as Stockman and others, who felt that signing it would set a poor precedent. Also present Tuesday were Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., Sen. Walter D. Huddleston, D-Ky., and Rep. Larry J. Hopkins, RKy. These legislators, all from tobacco-producing areas, said they had argued that tobacco price supports had become “hostage” to the dairy measure. Both Helms and Boschwitz are in tough re-election fights, and White House officials indicated that Reagan was sympathetic to doing what he could to help them. Helms is being attacked in North Carolina by critics who contend he has failed to protect local interests because of lost influence at the White House. Reagan signed the legislation Tuesday without comment. The White House simply issued a one-sentence statement announcing the action.

Thanksgiving-to Christmas season. The affected flocks of laying hens amount to about 1 percent of national totals. Although broiler-chicken prices are also up, industry experts attribute the rise to seasonal influences. Most of the disease is among layer flocks. If the task of destroying the chickens seemed gloomy to Goodman, the results approach disaster for farmers like Galen Martin, a 34-year old egg producer, his wife, Nancy, and Paul Wolgemuth Sr. and his son, Paul Jr. “It was like the black plague,” said the elder Wolgemuth, who had just lost 65,000 chickens valued at $2 each. Martin, who had just lost his flock of 54,000 chickens, said: “The thing that makes it even worse, besides the birds, we’re losing production, and right at the time when egg prices are highest.”

producers in case of an embargo. Concluding the business session on Dec. 6 will be the election of a president for a twoyear term. President since 1976 is Marion Stackhouse, a hog producer and grain farmer of Westfield, who will be a candidate for re-election. No other candidates have been announced.