The Daily Republic from Mitchell, South Dakota • Page 5

Duxbury proposes plan to preserve family farms STURGIS, S.D. State Secretary of Agriculture Bob Duxbury says that 1976 programming in his Department will parallel recommendations of the State Plan for Agriculture developed by the Council on the Future of Agriculture during the past year. Duxbury says the plan involves nine important areas of agricultural priority which he termed "crucial to the preservation of the family farm." Duxbury made the remarks Thursday, March 18 during his address to participants of the State Crop and Pest Conference atSturgis. One key recommendation of the Plan, according to Duxbury, is greater emphasis on articulating South Dakota's position on the impact of Federal policies. "In my opinion," he said, "policies set by the Federal Government in areas of foreign trade, import and export quotas, and other regulations affect the prices of South Dakota farm products more than anything we can do on the State level.

State programs are important in assisting South Dakota producers and processors compete in special domestic and world markets, but these efforts have little impact without a decent price. The only avenue open to us for upgrading price or maintaining reasonable profit levels lies in making South Dakota's needs known to decision-makers in Washington who affect those prices. This is not something that any single agency or organization can accomplish; it requires the unity and the strength of all agricultural groups." Duxbury characterized his agency as "a support team for all facets of State agriculture" but admitted that demands for service are more than the Department's budget and staffing can handle. "Inflation has hit our budget hard in the area of travel," he said. "For example, it now costs 30 per cent more for travel than it did just 2 years ago, and travel is essential for all our inspection and regulation simply can't inspect an agricultural product from a distance of 200 miles, that's obvious." Duxbury also said he is concerned over low salaries.

"We cannot expect to attract or maintain qualified workers agriculture needs unless we can compete dollar-wise with other employers," he said. "We nave asked for authorization to reclassify and upgrade 28 positions in the Department," Enrollment up at NSC ABERDEEN Enrollment at Northern State College for the spring semester is up from the same period a year ago, according to Dr. Richard Van Beek, dean of student services at the college. Van Beek said that there were 2223 students enrolled for classes during the 1976 spring semester. That compares with an enrollment of 2155 during the spring semester in 1975 and an enrollment of 2067 during the spring semester in 1974.

Van Beek said the figures did not include extension (off campus) enrollments from the college or enrollment numbers at the Eagle Butte Extension Center at Eagle Butte. Enrollment at Northern State College has started to climb in recent years following a general decline in the late 1960's and early 1970's, Van Beek said. He said that the college might still pick up a few more students this semester. he told the group. STATE HAS Dakota has all the resources it needs to support and' serve a growing agricultural industry, he said.

"However, we must set priorities for those resources and prevent less important demands from overshadowing the needs of the State's farmers and ranchers. There's enough to go convinced of I am concerned that this State's most important industry not be shortchanged in anyway." Duxbury applauded efforts of conference participants in upgrading the quality of South Dakota farm products. "South Dakota takes a back seat to few other states for any reason, and crop and livestock production is no exception," he said. "We have a unique climate and geographic one foot set in the corn belt, and the other in hard-grass country. We are noted not only for our quality, but also for our tremendous varieties and yield." "South Dakota is one of the few states where most major types of wheat are produced in significant amounts, and the characteristics of our protein an international reputation," he continued.

The Secretary reminded the group South Dakota ranks among the top 10 producers nationally for at least a dozen crops, and "when you consider that we're only the 16th largest state in total area, that's certainly something to be proud of." "The natural optimism of South Dakota's farmers and ranchers is perhaps the best thing going for us," he said. "That's something in which the general population of not only the state, but the nation and the world, can take some comfort." A ft Liesday March 23 Republic; Mail: March 24,1976 (5) 'Count fiber producers 9 Wagner Chamber of Commerce president Ed Staudenmicr (right) and 1 fund raiser chairman Joe Stedronsky (center) present Wagner.hospital administrator Gerald.Carl with a check for $3,968 for the new hospital'construction, Staudenmicr reported that the Chamber has now paid all but 11,700 on their $10,000 five year pledge for the new hospital. STURGIS, S.D. "Let's paint a new picture of agriculture with an image showing just how MANY people rather than how FEW are in the food and fiber producing business," a South Dakota State University official has urged. "Some say U.S.

agriculture is highly efficient, which is true, but when they quote figures to prove it showing less than 5 percent of our people produce food for the other 95 percent, it's highly misleading if not just plain wrong," according to Raymond A. Moore, director of the SDSU Agricultural Experiment Station. "You often read that one U.S. farmer produces enough food for 49 other people," he said. "But that one man doesn't ladle Planning a program? Tap bureau for speakers, films BROOKINGS, S.D.

Plenty of enlightening entertainment in speakers and film is available to South Dakota individuals and groups virtually for the asking via two Bicentennial outreach programs at South Dakota State University. The cost of both programs is free to minimal. Under the SDSU Bicentennial Speakers Bureau, 18 SDSU faculty members are available to speak to South Dakota service clubs, schools and community groups on a variety of Bicentennial-related topics. In addition, six members of the SDSU Art Department faculty are available for one-day workshops in sand casting, off loom weaving, relief printing, hand built ceramics, drawing and collage. Communities within a 100- mile radius of Brookings are eligible for mini-grants of $10 each to help pay transportation costs for speakers.

Towns beyond that range can receive $15 grants. Other than transportation costs, there is no charge for a speaker's services. Communities wishing to participate in the outreach speakers program must contact the speakers and make arrangement for their appearance. Upon completion of these details, the communities may apply to SDSU Vice President and Bicentennial Committee Chairman Dave Pearson for a mini-grant. The Bicentennial Film Library features a selection of about 200, 16-milimeter color and black and white films, slide shows, filmstrips, audio cassettes and records.

According to Les Bork, assistant professor and manager-director of the SDSU Audio-Visual Center, the Bicentennial selection, just like the 28-year-old film library, is open for use to any individual Obstacles removed Can family farmers incorporate units? By Russell L. Berry, Associate Professor of Economics, SDSU Can corporations be used to protect the family farm? Before 1958, the answer seemed to be "no." The main reason was thought to be double taxation of corporate profits once when earned by the corporation and once again when the profits were distributed to stockholders. But in 1958, the Internal Revenue Service adopted a rule which allows certain small corporations to be taxed as partnerships. This removed a major obstacle to farm corporations. Since then, farmers can incorporate to provide for retirement plans, sick pay arrangements, stock purchase or stock redemption plans, limited liability, transfer of ownership to heirs and so on.

Family Farms arc Tough In February 1976, the office of Secretary of State reported 466 family farm corporations in South Dakota as compared to 23 before 1958. This is an average increase of 26 per year. Since the 1969 census, the increase has averaged 34 per year. Why so slow an increase? Apparently double taxation is not the only reason why there are few farm corporations. The usual single-family farms must have important advantages.

Otherwise after 18 years there would be many more farm corporations. Some people also believe farm partnerships have much to offer. Some agricultural economists have argued that because farm landlords share crops with their tenants they should share all operating costs in the same way. Thus the share rent lease would be converted into a "perfect partnership." But landlords and tenants have both rejected this idea. Farmers have always had full freedom to create partnerships.

Yet in South Dakota only 12 percent of all farms are partnerships. Most of these are father-son partnerships. Why so few partnerships? They, too, must have important disadvantages as compared to single-family farms. Farm Organizations Compared Here's a comparison of the three kinds of farm organizations in South Dakota reported by the 1969 U.S. Census of Agriculture the latest comparison available: the best way to get a son or son- in-law started farming.

Both have their own farms and livestock, but they trade help and machinery when needed. Sometimes they own a combine or other large machinery in partnership but that's all. Problems of Family Corporations Some partnerships may be tempted to incorporate to limit liability only to find that one or more of the stockholders may be held personally liable. They may also feel that it will improve the management. However, farm corporations need only one steering wheel, too.

They may work reasonably well as long as the father is alive and active as "boss." After that corporations become, in effect, unsettled estates in which the whole family may be locked into the farm business. Thus the operating heir may find that he is the "hired man" to run the farm as directed not by his father but by his mother, brothers and sisters. situation may be much worse than the usual father-son partnership. One solution to this problem may be for the corporation to lease the land to the operator. Even here a share rent can be troublesome too many "landlords." A solution in some instances is to use a fixed cash rent, a fixed produce rent, or a flexible cash rent.

But any corporation that receives 20 percent or more of its income as rent will be subject to double taxation. Because family farms are now so large there is need for better tenure arrangements. Perhaps what is needed is a cooperative that can hold and lease land under conditions that give the farmer most of the security and freedom of owner- operators. Neither partnerships nor family corporations are fully able to meet this need. Northern student to give recital ABERDEEN Merle Fristad, a Letcher bass vocal major, will perform in a joint senior recital on March 25 in the Johnson Fine Arts Center on the Northern State College campus.

He will sing arias from Mozart and Handel and German art songs from Schumann and Schubert. Congressional pay raises criticized Single family Number of farms Percent of farms Land, mi. of acres Percent of land Acres per farm 35,149 87 31 80 894 Partnership Corp. 4,850 262 12 1 6 2 16 4 1,315 5,549 WASHINGTON, D.C. Rep; James Abdnor, whose first bill when he entered the House was to curtail Congressional pay raises, has said he will join in introducing legislation requiring a general election take place between the time a Congressional pay raise is approved and the time it goes into effect.

"I have been against pay raises for Congress all along and I have not accepted the raise I got," Abdnor stated, noting that he has donated his pay hike to the University or South Dakota Medical School. "It is my firm conviction that the people of this country should have more of a say in whether or not Congressmen should increase 'their own salaries," the second district congressman continued. "It's been a disgrace the way Congress has played games with this issue. Not only have we provided means for backdoor approval where a vote is not even taken, but last year we took our raise into legislation on salaries for other federal employees. "Congress has no business hiking it's own pay when one of the greatest needs of the country is to hold down federal spending.

Congress has to set the example and if some members are unwilling the people should decide whether they deserve to remain in office," Abdnor added. or group. A rental fee of from $2 to $10'is charged for the films, Bork said. Bork noted a slide series available on South Dakota. The series covers such topics as Fort Sisseton, Bear Butte, Scenic South Dakota and state parks.

Another slide show revolves around the 1873 Custer Expedition into the Black Hills. SDSU. Speakers Bureau members, their departments and their topics include James Satterlee, Rural Sociology, "Dakota Indian History and David Holden, Botany-Biology, "Discovering South Dakota" (a slide presentation); Jack Marken, English, "Legends and Literature of American Paul Royer, Music, "Illustrated Program on Dakota Indian Music;" Ed Hogan, Geography, "House Types in South Fred Westin, Plant Science, "Appreciating the South Dakota Ed Meyer, Speech, "Populus and Progressive Movement in South Dakota;" R. Esther Erickson, Nursing, "Pioneers in South Dakota Nursing;" Marvin Riley, Rural Sociology, "Hutterites" and "South Dakota's Population Trends, Past and Future" Max Myers, Institute of Social Science and Economics, "Lands, Peoples and'Prospects of the Upper Great Frank Shideler, Agricultural Publications Editor, "Yellow Ore, Yellow Hair, Yellow Pine" (a slide Lawrence Stine, director of SDSU Theatre, "Early Theatre in Deadwood, 1876-90;" John Miller, History, "The Contemporary Relevance of the American Revolution;" Ray Moore, Agricultural Experiment Station director, "The Production of Food-Part of our Heritage;" J. K.

Sweeney, History, "The Revolution, the Republic and Henry J. Kissinger; Wayne Hoogestraat, Speech, "Chautauqua: 1874 to 1933;" Liz Williams, South Dakota Committee on the Humanities, R. Ronald, Prairie Editor and Architect of New Deal Farm Legislation;" and Joseph Stuart, Art, "Illustrated Talk on the Art of South Dakota, 1832 through 1976." Art Department faculty providing onerday workshops include Don Boyd, sand casting: Alice Berry, off loom weaving; Steve Mayes, relief printing; Dick Edie, hand built ceramics; Mel Spinar, drawing; and Fred Bunce, collage. These figures are for commercial farms enumerated by the 1969 census. Corporations represented less than 1 percent of all commercial farms but operated 4 percent of all farm and grazing land.

Corporate farms are larger in part because many of them are ranches that require many acres for an economic unit. Presently, with 466 corporations there is slightly more than 1 percent engaged in farming. Problems of Partnerships We are farm partnerships so few? Why not have two steering wheels on a tractor? The answers to these two questions are much the same. Partnerships work best when one partner is the "boss" and makes the final decision. Sometimes one partner maKes the final decision on crop enterprises and the other on livestock.

But this also has its problems because what one partner does affects the income of the other. If the farm is large enough to support two families why not divide it? This often happens. Some fathers have found this is Area company to expand operations WOONSOCKET Announcement was made by L. J. Van Dyke of Van Dyke Supply Co.

of plans to expand a new industry in Woonsocket, The site will be east of the Local Lumber Supply Co. The ground has been landscaped for proper drainage and the installation of loading docks and construction will begin shortly. The building will be 40 by 120 feet metal clad. The name of the new manufacturing plant will be Van-Lar Plastics, and it will be managed- by Peter Lar- sen. Plastic injection molding products will be manufactured by the company and expectations are for several new employees.

The company expects to be in operation by June. This manufacturing process is presently being done at Van Dyke Supply. The Van Dyke Supply located in Woonsocket, em- ployes approximately 80 people at the present time and expects to increase the number by 10-20 more by this fall. Alexandria senior serves as officer ABERDEEN The Mat Mates at Northern State College are an organization of coeds who cheer during college wrestling matches. Terese Jarding, Alexandria senior, is vice-president of the organization.

If you have a nose for news you'll find complete world, national and district coverage of events as they happen in The Daily Republic To keep abreast of fast-moving events in a changing and often confusing world, read the Daily Republic. Read it every day! Ail this and much more for less than a day The Daily Republic 996-5515 the food out on the table or convert it from cow to cutlet some of those other 49 people process the food, get it marketed, stored, distributed, work in tractor factories or refineries. "We'd be in an awful fix if only one person out of every 50 was involved in producing our food and fiber. If that were true, then we'd have a lot of people just standing around waiting to be fed instead of working." Moore spoke before the annual 2-day Crop and Pest Conference March 17 at Sturgis. He linked the development of agricultural research and its accomplishments with the nation's Bicentennial.

"Our nation's 200th birthday is a time to reflect on what agriculture has meant to our country as well as look at the horizon to see what it will mean to our future," he said. "Organized agricultural research is beginning its second century in the U.S. It was 100 years ago that the first Agricultural Experiment Station was established in Connecticut." Moore, who visited the Soviet Union two years ago, said we rank the Russians in a category where "half of the people are involved in agriculture. He told of seeing huge 4-wheel drive tractors there each with only one driver, the same as on South Dakota farms. "Where were the other people? They were cleaning the wheat, grinding the grain into flour, baking the bread but all were called agriculturists.

We have the same thing going on here but the name agriculturist stops at the tractor driver and we brag about how few people produce the food for all the others." Moore referred to the SDSU publication "Paying Our Way" prepared as part of a Bicentennial and research station Centennial project highlighting activities since 1887 of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service. "One small publication can't do justice to the accomplishments of our South Dakota agricultural research over the past 89 years," he said. There's a whole lot more and I think we've been loo modest in describing our accomplishments. For instance, a new variety of wheat that results in adding only one bushel more an acre to our crop for only one year is worth tens of thousands of dollars Another example cited by Moore was Spear oats, released by the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1974 after years of development. Spear averages up to 3 percent more protein than commonly raised varieties.

Calculated on the state's million acres of oats this could mean 56,250 tons of protein, he said. With protein currently valued at 6 cents a pound we could have an increase in protein from Spear oats alone of nearly $7 million. "During the first hundred years of our country agriculture enjoyed a very prestigious position we had a strong 'ag block' in Congress and we're really lucky for it. In those times our forefathers wisely established the basic legislation that provided for Land-Grant universities to assist farmers in fulfilling their responsibilities of providing food for the population. The quality of food that we have in America is testimony to the success of that early action.

As fewer people have been required to work on the on-farm business of producing food, it has allowed more people to build cars, TV sets, and to do those things that have given us our high standard of living." Most Americans live in Bicentennial towns WASHINGTON, D.C. The American Revolution Bicentennial Administration (AREA) reports that over three quarters of the nation's population live in officially 'designated Bicentennial Communities. As of December, 7,919 communities had been officially recognized for their Bicentennial efforts. The figure includes 26 Indian tribes and nations. Additionally, 608 college campuses and 256 Armed Forces installations had joined the Bicentennial rolls.

Following approval by its 11- member policy board at their December meeting, the AREA has announced that the Communities and College Carripus recognition programs will be cut-off as of March 31 to allow time for processing applications before July 4. The Board also approved a January 31 cut-off date for license applications for Bicentennial commemorative items now being manufactured under license from the AREA. Membership in various Bicentennial Alliances sponsored by the AREA was also growing as the year ended. The number of organizations in Bicentennial Alliances are: Service Alliance 47, Ethnic- Racial Alliance 22, Sports Alliance 19, Hospitality Alliance 8, and the just announced Business Alliance 4. The AREA had also provided official recognition to 209 Bicentennial programs or projects of regional, national or international significance.

The number of Bicentennial projects and events listed in the Bicentennial Informatipn Network (BINET) has risen to over 27,000. The AREA adds about 1,000 additional projects and events a week to the computerized information system. Citing his oftstated belief that the success of the Bicentennial will be judged on the number of participants, not spectators, John W. Warner, Bicentennial Administrator, said: "As we reach the.threshold of 1976, all signs indicate an explosion of and participation in the Bicentennial across the land." Scotland girl wins cook-off Laurie Muhmel, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.

Floyd Muhmel of rural Scotland, was the winner of the Scotland High School Beef Cook-Off contest. This year's contest included preparation of a casserole using one pound of ground beef. The annual contest is sponsored by the S.D. Cowbelles. Miss Muhmel will now compete in the District contest held in Scotland against the Avon and Springfield winners.

Her winning recipe was called Meat-Za Pie. Miss Muhmel is a sophomore at Scotland High School..