Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 136, Greencastle, Putnam County, 6 February 1985 — Page 8

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I he Putnam County Banner-Graphic, February 6,1985

Putnam Farm Scene Tips on handling young boars

By MARK H. LEG AN Extension Agent-Ag Making the right decisions in boar selection means genetically-superior progeny, better herd reproductive performance and, thus, greater returns to your swine enterprise. By following a few established procedures producers can better insure a longer more useful life from their new boar(s). Newly purchased boars should be isolated for at least 30 days in clean quarters before mingling with the sow herd. The isolation facility should be located several hundred feet from the rest of the herd, if not on a different farm, and provide adequate protection and exercise. THE CHANCES OF health or parasite problems are greatly reduced by purchasing boars from clean herds. Exactly what health measures are necessary will depend largely on the previous health record of the boar. Regardless of that record, the buyer should have the boars inspected by a veternarian sometime during the initial 30-day isolation period. If the boar has been on a drastically different ration than what you expect to feed, it may be wise to purchase 100 pounds of the ration in order that you can make a gradual transition to your feeding program. Young boars are still growing and should not be underfed. Depending on age and condition boars heading into the breeding season should receive 4-6 pounds of a balanced 14 per cent protein ration per day.

Livestock, grain markets

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Hogs 900. Barrows and gilts moderately active, steady, instances 25 cents lower, with weights over 260 lbs 25 cents higher. US 1-3 210-245 lbs 50.2550.75. US 2-3 210-275 lbs 48.50-50.00, 275-285 lbs 47.50-48.50. US 3-4 325 lbs 46.00. Sows: Moderately active, steady to 1.00 higher. US 1-3 375-475 lbs 40.50-46.00, 475-575 lbs 46.00-48.00, lot 610 lbs 51.50. Cattle: 1100. Slaughter steers and heifers steady to 50 cents lower. Cows steady. Bulls not well tested. Supply good and choice slaughter steers ; 35 percent heifers, 25 cows. Slaughter steers: Choice 2-4 10751150 lbs 65.00-65.75,950-1000 lbs 63.50-

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farm

Mark Legan

THE SIMPLE PRACTICE of test mating can save many dollars spent in lost time and facilities by detecting a problem boar before he is actually put into service. Boars should be test-mated about 7’/ 2 to 8 months of age and after their isolation period. It takes a patient, gentle manager to properly assist a young boar in mating. If possible, a sample of the boar’s semen should be collected and evaluated. While there is no absolute laboratory test for fertility, semen evaluation does make it possible to detect a sterile boar or one of questionable fertility, before your herd depends on him. While boars are selected and managed in many ways it is important to keep the health, nutrition and test-mating of your next purchase in mind so that controlable problems do not arise during the breeding season.

64.25. Mixed good and choice 2-4 1000-1275 lbs 63.25-64.50. Holsteins: Good and choice 2-3 1225-1375 lbs 56.75-58.00. Good 2-3 1200-1225 lbs 54.50-56.75. Slaughter heifers: Choice 2-4 9251100 lbs 63.00-64.25, 800 lbs 59.75. Mixed good and choice 2-4 890-1225 lbs 58.00-63.00. Good 2-3 725-1025 lbs 56.50-60.50. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Grain prices Tuesday at Indianapolis area elevators: Corn No. 2 yellow shelled 2.69-2.77; March also 2.69-2.77; fall 1985 2.44-2.54; January, 1985 2.552.58. SOYBEANS - No. 1 yellow 5.926.06; March 5.94-6.06; fall 1985 5.846.04; January, 19856.02-6.07.

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USDA Secretary defends budget cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) - Agriculture Secretary John R. Block says President Reagan’s budget proposals will help farmers become more self-reliant and less dependent on government subsidies. Block said the plan to reduce USDA’s spending to $38.5 billion in 1985-86 from $45.1 billion this year are tough but “not austere in historic perspective.” But two prominent Democratic farm leaders said that Reagan’s plan to cut 15 percent from the Agriculture Department’s spending programs next fiscal year is unrealistic. Most of the cuts would be in commodity and international programs, which are expected to decline to $10.5 billion from sls billion this fiscal year. New farm legislation to pare price supports and direct payments still further will be offered soon by the White House. The 1985 farm bill, however, will affect USDA program spending in future years, not the period covered by the new budget proposals. Outlays for any fiscal year are generally related to the previous crop year. Thus, the budget for the 1986 fiscal year will primarily cover crops grown in 1985.

The dollar's reverse effect

By WILLIAM ROBBINS e. 1985 N.Y. Times KANSAS CITY, Mo. Sharp increases in the value of the American dollar are exacting a heavy toll from the nation’s farmers, from merchants and bankers in many rural towns, and from the industries and workers that produce farm supplies. The hidden cost of the increased value of the dollar arises, agricultural economists say, because a stronger dollar makes American goods more expensive abroad and reduces foreign demand. In turn, surplus farm commodities that remain in this country lead to lower prices for the consumer and lower income for the farmer. Nationally, the experts say, this cost now amounts to tens of billions of dollars a year. Just for producers of corn, wheat, and soybeans, the toll has grown to a current annual rate of $4.42 billion since 1983, although some of that has been offset by government farm programs, according to one new study. “That’s enough to get a fellow’s attention,” Dwight Roth, a farmer near Harrisonville, about 40 miles south of here, said as he studied figures indicating the impact on his corn and soybean crops. If the dollar’s rise could be reversed, “it would have a tremendous impact,” said Thomas Donohoe, a farm machinery dealer in Harrisonville, an agricultural town of about 6,300 people. “I’m not talking just about farmers,” he added. “I’m talking about everybody on Main Street.” For farmers, the depressed level of exports is not a new phenomenon. The value of total agricultural exports, which had been rising since the early 19705, reached a peak of $43.3 billion in 1981 and then dropped sharply, to $36.6 billion in 1982, and $36.1 billion in 1983 before a small upturn, to $37.8 billion in 1984. Since the dollar’s rise began accelerating about four years ago, farmers and grain exporters have been discussing its impact on agriculture, but until recent weeks no one appears to have attempted a precise measure. Now, however, a new organization, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, has produced figures on the effect of changes in the dollar’s value as part of a broader study of farm programs. The institute was established last year with grants from Congress and the National Corn Development Foundation. It has branches at the University of Missouri, in Columbia, and at lowa State University, in Ames. The dollar has risen, economists say, partly because of increases in American interest rates. Foreign investors buy dollars to put into American bonds, for example, because of the advantages they offer over rates in Europe. Part of the dollar’s increase, some

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Value abroad costs corn, soybean, wheat producers $4.42 billion a year

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JOHN BLOCK 'The right to compete' Block said that even after the phasedown is completed over the next few years, price support and income programs are

miSr Farm Income In the U.S. 1 Wp Nat income of farm operators from farming, In billions of v constant 1967 dollars, adjusted tor inflation. Estimates for 1984 $5 Sourc* Dtosrmtnt o> Agrlcunurt

economists say, is also a result of a foreign perception of the soundness of the American economy. Economists say the strong dollar is one of the principal reasons for a decline in exports that resulted in last year’s record trade deficit of $123.3 billion, reported Wednesday by the Department of Commerce. In physical volume, shipments of major farm commodities followed the general course of farm-export revenue, with slight variations. Corn exports, for example, which had been as high as 63 million metric tons in 1980, totaled 49 million last year. A steady rise in wheat shipments continued until 1981, when the total was 43.9 million metric tons, as against last year’s exports of 42.2 million metric tons. Soybean exports, meanwhile, rose to 25.5 million metric tons in 1982 before beginning a decline. Last year the total was 19.5 million metric tons. The strong dollar’s impact puts an additional burden on farmers already hurt by the interest rates themselves. Interest payments now account for about 20 percent of farmers’ total cash outlays, according to the Department of Agriculture. As total farm debt has soared, reaching about $215 billion this year, the interest costs, averaging about 10 percent, have mounted to about S2O billion a year. A decline in the dollar’s value, according to economists at the institute, would increase foreign demand for agricultural exports, and the effects, they say, could be measured. A 10 percent decline in the value of the dollar, according to their computations, would increase farmers’ revenue by 10 cents to 12 cents a bushel for

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expected to average $3 billion to $5 billion annually in the 1989-91 period, about the same as in the 19705. “The priority No. 1, as I see it ... is to provide for a phased withdrawal from commodity price programs,” Block told a news conference on Monday. “Another priority is helping to assure that farmers have money to plant crops and stay in business.” Some other programs such as conservation assistance and loans to power cooperatives by the Rural Electrification Administration would be scaled back or virtually eliminated by Reagan’s budget proposals. Former Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland, now executive vice president and general manager of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said Reagan’s proposal to wind down REA lending completely by 1990 was illfounded. Bergland, who was attending the association’s annual meeting in New Orleans, La., said in a telephone interview that “we’re going to resist this mistake with all our might,” particularly in the

com, about 20 cents a bushel for wheat, and about 50 cents a bushel for soybeans. The same principle would apply to other agricultural commodities, the researchers say. While benefiting farmers, they say the price improvements would also cut costs of government farm programs by reducing the outlays for price supports and subsidy payments. The reverse effect has already occurred, the economists say. As the dollar has risen, reducing foreign demand for agricultural exports, prices have fallen and farm program costs have increased. From 1979 to 1983, according to Wharton Econometrics, a research organization in Philadelphia, the value of the dollar rose more than 30 percent in comparison with an average of major foreign currencies. In 1984, the rise accelerated. The dollar rose 15 percent, while corn prices fell about 20 percent. Without the 1984 rise in the dollar, if the institute’s calculations are correct, a 1985 corn crop equaling last year’s total of 7.5 billion bushels would be worth about $1.25 billion more than farmers can expect to receive under current conditions. A wheat crop like last year’s 2.6 billion bushels would be worth $1.75 billion more, and a soybean crop of the size of the 1.9 billionbushel harvest of 1984 would rise in dollar value by about $1.42 billion. If the dollar could be rolled back to the 1979 level, the change in farm prices would be substantially greater, according to economists in the research group,

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House, where there is a Democratic majority. Rep. Kika de la Garza, D-Texas, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, who also was at the New Orleans meeting, said he thinks the REA proposal stands “little if any” chance in the House. “It’s a market-oriented program now,” he said. “The problem is, there’s no market.” Block was asked about concerns in Congress that the Reagan budget plan and the administration’s forthcoming proposals on general farm legislation would jeopardize the family farm in America. “I don’t accept that at all,” Block said. About 95 percent of the nation’s farms are family operations and “corporations don’t want to be in farming, there’s too much risk” in agricultural production. He said farmers “don’t want to be a ward of the state.” “They want their profit out of the marketplace,” he said, and “I believe American farmers can compete ... and they deserve the right to do so.”

although changes above 20 percent in the exchange rate would have a smaller relative impact on demand and prices, according to Abner W. Womack, one of the institute’s directors. Although not all economists agree, Daniel Otto, an agricultural economist at lowa State University, stands with a majority that contend each dollar received by a farmer generates $2.5 to $3 for suppliers and others affected by their purchases. If true, a $4 billion increase for farmers would mean a rise of about sl2 billion for the overall economy. On the other hand, economists say any increase in farm prices is likely to produce some increases in costs eventually for consumers. So far, the strong dollar has helped keep inflation under control and helped make imported goods available at lower costs. Whatever the effect on the rest of the economy, the impact projected by the institute would come as a welcome respite to Dwight Roth, the Harrisonville farmer. After stepping down from his tractor, his face still stinging from a snowstorm, he sat down to review figures on the expected costs of this year’s plantings. And all he could see, under current conditions, were losses for both the 80,000 bushels of corn and the 25,000 bushels of soybeans he expects to produce. An increase of only 10 cents a bushel for the corn and 50 cents a bushel for the soybeans, he noted, would increase his returns by $20,500. That, he observed, would be greatly appreciated both by his family and his banker.

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