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Show Utah Farm Bureau News Page 2 POSTMASTER: Please Lake City, Utah 84107. September 1975 send Form 3579 to Utah Farm Bureau. 5300 South 360 West, Salt Published each month by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation at Salt Lake City, Utah. Editorial and Business Office, 5300 South 360 West, Salt Lake City, Utah 84107. Subscription.price of fifty cents per year to members is included in membership fee. subscription One dollar per year. price: Non-memb- er The latest parlor game Second Class postage paid at Salt Lake City, Utah UTAH FARM BUREAU FEDERATION OFFICIALS ; Hylon- - cbS'w2KSL .Vic. President Executive Vice President SJr22r3,!Jnt,ne Editor Frank Nlshlguphl, Garland; William Holmes, Ogden; Jack Brown, Grants-villEdward Boyer, Springvllle; J6hn Lewis, Monticello; Stuart Johnson, Aurora; Kenneth R. Ashby, Delta; Mrs. Paul Turner, Morgan; Robert Johnion, Randolph. .DIRECTORS: e; State board okays new awards program Members of the Utah Farm Bureau board of directors have approved a new awards program designed to give recognition to county Farm Bureaus for outstanding achievement in ten program areas. Neil Sumsion, director of field services, said recently: Each year one evening of the state convention is devoted to a recognition program and entertainment. This year will not be an exception. The program and awards will reflect the new system, though. Areas of recognition include: Farm Bureau Women, Young Farmers and Ranchers, natural resources, structure, information, service to members, policy development, local affairs, legislative, and commodity activities. Counties will be judged (primarily on application forms but with verification allowed in scrapbooks and other 'documents) within one of three size categories, depending on membership. The divisions are: members, 0 500 over and members, members. Besides awarding a gold star to the top county in each size group for each program area, judges will name a top winner in each size for overall 0-2- 00 201-50- wide teletype network, suppliers in od 12 two-thir- Counties must reach their membership goal to be eligible for these awards. However, if a county is not able to reach its goal due to unusual circumstances, the judges have the option to award special recognition for outstanding achievement in some program area. Besides the gold star awards to be presented under the new program, other awards will continue as in the past. These include matching funds from the state Farm Bureau for county recognition for membership activities, matching funds for travel to conventions, and Big Hat awards to membership leaders in counties achieving goal. Awards will also eo to counties for greatest percentage of grow th in voting members, total members, and membership renewal. Farm Bureau insurance agents will also receive awards for membership enrollment work. The applications for this year's program have been distributed to county leaders, Sumsion pointed out. Counties should begin now' to account for their activities so recognition can come their way this fall and they can feel rewarded for their contributions to a strong organization. out-of-sta- te service for buyers, sellers Through Farm Bureaus nation- no-lim- cost-of-fo- UFBF launches hay market Hay shortages in Utah and nearby states this spring and summer have resulted in a new marketing service being inaugurated by the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. It will get buyers and sellers of hay together to even out the market. The hay locator service, as Farm Bureau has named it, will serve as a cleaming point for farmers and ranchers who sign up either as sources of hay or as potential customers. Need for service became apparent in early 1975, when stocks of hay were down on livestock owners farms. UFBF provided temporary service then to fill the need. Voting members of UFBF recently received a letter explaining the new service and a listing sheet calling for information on the amount, quality and type of hay available or desired. The sheet also called for information on binder twine and wire needs and use. John Keeler, UFBF director of commodity activities, will operate the program using telephone, teletype and other communication methods to help dairymen, cattle feeders and horse owners get in touch with farmers selling hay. A SI per ton service fee will be charged sellers to help pay the costs of the program, including postage for announcement mailings. One of the most popular games these days, replacing Charades and Password in some circles, is Guess How Much the Russian Wheat Sales Will Boost Food Prices. Everybody's getting into the game, including George Meany and the longshoremen. Arthur Burns, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, is a most enthusiastic player. A few weeks ago, displaying gross ignorance of grain marketing, his guess it was a very, very significant price increase. The other day, playing the rules of the guessing game, he changed his entry to two percent or somewhat increase. That must have seemed like a safer guess, because more as a a couple of days earlier, Secretary of agriculture Earl Butz had guessed percent. Sure, selling wheat to anybody but Americans will raise the cost of food in the short run. If we held onto the of our 1975 wheat supply thats U.S. needs, the price of bread and flour could really drop. The bakers surplus over might even get generous and knock a cent a loaf off the current prices, if the market reached such a glutted condition. But what about next year? With many wheat farmers bankrupt from this years losses (if export controls prevail) and the rest producing only a third of this years crop or less, the price wrould really jump. Look at the car market to see what a surplus does to price. Last year, and again right now, manufacturers have dropped their prices through the medium outreached the demand, gas cars of the because of rebates. Thats big supply prices are being what they are. (Unlike wheat producers, though, auto makers are still covering their costs at the reduced prices.) , If those manufacturers could have sold their surplus cars in Europe or anywhere else, they w'ould have done it instead of cutting prices. Yet if they had, few voices would have screamed: Lets keep these cars in our own country so our prices stay down! That happens with grain, but not with cars or machine tools or any of the other manufactured goods America exports. The right of a producer to accept the highest bid for his product rather than being forced to take a lower bid is at stake in this issue of Russian wheat sales. If American consumers arent willing to pay the same price for grain as Russia, then a farmer shouldnt be forced by export controls to subsidize those consumers out of his own pocket. Especially when, by producing to capacity for the export market, he cuts the unit cost of a bushel of wheat and actually keeps domestic food prices down. But thats a factor players of the guessing game can easily forget, along with balance of trade, hunger overseas, and open-markpromises made to farmers. Idaho and other Mountain States will be included in listings to be published in the Utah Farm Bureau News and a monthly newsletter to leaders. County Farm Bureau presidents will also have the listings. Any interested members who did request a copy by writing to UFBF, 5300 So. 360 W., Salt Lake City, Utah 84107. VIEWPOINT By Booth Wallentine Executive Vice President Utah Farm Bureau Federation Funny Money and grain sales Monopoly is more than a game played by kids with funny money. Monopoly is a game being played by labor unions, and the result is ruined markets for U.S. farm goods abroad and rampant inflation here at home. Some people call that funny money. But there's nothing funny about the monopolistic stranglehold the International Longshoremen's Association and the Searfarers Union currently have over U.S. farmers and consumers and hungry millions in ds et Construction starts on Weber countys Farm Bureau office The Weber county Farm Bureau has begun construction on a county Farm Bureau office building which will provide housing for the county organization as well as office facilities for Country Mutual Life and Utah Farm Bureau Insurance Company. The modernistic, structure will be located on 12th street just east of Interstate Highway 15. Completion date for the new building is set for early November 1975. According to Wayne B. Gibson, Weber conty Farm Bureau president, the office building will be financed by 1,500-square-fo- ot foreign countries. William J. Kuhfuss, AFBF president, says the refusal of unions to load American wheat in foreign bound ships is nothing short of piracy in the ports. Time to put labor in line The time has come for our elected officials to stand up and decide whether our U.S. trade policy is going to be run by a few labor leaders or by the departments of government designated for that function. .Kuhfuss says the unions claim to be protecting consumers against higher food prices is a cruel hoax. Blackmail is an even better word. Crewmen of U.S. ships get a in their paycheck taxpayer-subsid- y amounting to more than $10,000 per year for an average seaman. The g boycott is nothing more than an attempt to force this subsidy higher. With organized labor grain-loadin- county Farm Bureau members and supplemented by a loan from Country Mutual Life, a Farm Bureau affiliate. The building will be owned by the county Farm Bureau and will include meeting room facilities for organizational activities in Weber county. Gibson said portions of the lower floor of the building will be finished by county workers. He added that volunteer fund-raisiactivities are to help finance the building. The Weber county Farm Bureau leader said the office project will add greatly to Farm Bureaus stature in the county and will be a source of pride for members. Weber county membership for 1975 totals 1,461. Architect for the new building is Ronald Hales of Ogden; the contractor is Ben Malan of Morgan. ng now-underwa- looking over their shoulder, Congress recently passed a bill to do just that, but President Ford vetoed it. Now labor is swinging back, using the American farmer and the hungry millions we are responsible for feeding as a club. To repeat, the grain sale Issue is not whether we should sell to Russia. Detente is here. Russia has cash. America needs cash. The issue is not whether the sale will increase bread prices. Labor, not wheat, makes up most of the cost of bread. Will Congress surrender? The issue is whether our elected Congress is willing to surrender the trade policy of the United States of America, the largest trading nation in world history, to a handful of militant labor union leaders. I simply cannot believe they are ready to do that. Can you? Tell your . congressman how you feel! y |