Importance of Balanced Ration Is Stressed at Dairy Day
'^ ian 300 persons attend- up in the form of decreased stant effort to achieve the best
Ctt ihe Annual Dairy Day at the production and health problems, possible ration.
|arm and Home Center Tues- Adams explained. He said forage analysis and
- ' .In 'arriving -at a balanced mineral analysis of the farm
- pr y? cttons ration, Adams suggested that the er ’ s feed can be a valuable tool
; l d ?^ y v l n ‘ iorage. should; provide 40 to 50 m setting him on the right path
/ Ps x ?enr’or bore of the dry mat- toward a quality feeding pro
pWMteins and howttrsolve them. t er ..and'-7^-per cent of the g’-am
e. Adams, Penn State energy Crain.'feeding, he said, In feeding minerals, he said,
, ( dairy specialist, spoke -should.'be the “balancer” a free choice supply is not al
&S?PrScUon^ eedinS '- He ‘dcoipmended that the adec l u f e because some an-
' ■ “ fc™«r use forage at whatever imals do not eat their minimum
! the lm P°u Jevef his farm operation allows retirements A small amount
taiwvof glanced rations whph .and'toVd'd’whatever amount of in fe€d 13 also necessary, he
elements and nu- gram , is he cessary to balance said
fnetttfi needed for optimum per- ' t jj e r £t lon The Pollution Issue
fomumce and'health. „ . ~ . „ , „„„ , ~ * c
- ' . , ~ , -He emphasized that grain in He suggested that farmers
He emphasized that good dse if 1S insufficient without Sive the various feed firms a
fattens -can he achieved using necessary additions chance to assist by recommend
many different kinds of combin- mg a comnlete feeding s\stem
ations of bay, corn, gram, and The farmer should think in , R ‘ r . t p ‘ ~ .
Supplements. The important ttnns ora total ration which in- Exten fi o n a«ticultuial enomeer
thing, he explained, is to make dudes 12 to 14 per cent of crude E k “Waste Disnosal and
Sure that the feed contains the protein, 16 to 20 per cent of p% n Hf,r>» rm-it JL-j the
proper balance of such .basics crude fiber, 65 per cent or more natlonal hend to waid a neater
as energy protein, and vitamins of digestibility about 35 per cent emphasis on e nvuonmental con-
He said he has found that of carbohydrates, one to two per rQ j
t6 !^T^ baVe p ™ bl ® ms^ sm = cent ° f non-protein nitiogen and In artlcular> he pointed out
rations built around a high level smaller amounts of calcium lhe R P ew environmen P tal prolec .
phosphorus magnesium, and tlon vln Wash and
. / h3Ve^ Vei l VltammS A ’ B and E the renaming of the AGP pro
low teeete of protein and not Adams noted that it’s difficult gram to REAP, a change not
enough digestible fibei This tQ ackleve the proper balance only in name but in emphasis,
Joes not allow the cow s rumen but he emphasized that efficien t he said.
to worlc properly. herd management requires con- Grout also said that the new
He also pointed out that some
dairymen have serious problems
using a ration built almost ex- -t
clusively around corn silage "
One herd of Holsteins, given all ‘
the com silage the animals
could eat, was producing less
than 10,000, pounds of milk. The *
Cows were “hog-fat” because the ,
radon had high energy hut low -
protein levels.
He cited another example of
a dairyman who ran into serious
trouble with a lot of “downer”
cowd“-'with a ration which in
cluded,* no vitamin or mineral
supppinents during a'-two year
peifwil.
Adams stated that many dairy
men with good quality forage
get better results than some
dairymen who use a combination
of forage and grain. The secret
is in the quality and content of
the feeds and in providing the
proper combinations to get a
balanced diet, Adams emphasiz
ed
He also noted that sometimes
a former can get by for any
where from two months to two
years without serious conse
quences when he feeds an in
ferior ration to his animals How
long tte can get by depends on
the condition of the animal, and ,
the extent to which the ration is The flag swings free and members of
deficient. the family of the late Victor Plastow hoist
But when the ration is defi- it to the top of the flagpole. The flagpole
cient, “the cow is robbing from was dedicated to the memory of Plastow
her own sptem” to make up for during ceremonies at the Farm and Home
the deficiency and sooner or Center Tuesday afternoon in conjunction
later the -deficiency will show
Milk Leukocyte Count Cited As a Herd Management Issue
Dr. Samuel B, Guss, Penn farmers should not wait until
State Extension veterinarian, after the problem already ex
spoke at Dairy Day Tuesday on ists, he emphasized.
the importance of good herd The goal of every herd owner
management practices to main- should be negative milk or milk
tain a tow leukocyte count in whlch has a leukocyte count
roillc. under 500,000. When the count
Leukocytes are white blood caches 1,500,000 the point at
cells which resist infection and whlch rt 18 re J ected at consider
serve2tte udderi first Une S able financial loss to the dahy '
ml man, the problem has already
defense against injury. When ’ r,.. ri ./„
the leukocyte count rises,-the ° ott( r n out , of contlol > Dl - Guss
#^Swa^S?in°ii milkSUf ‘ '“He 'explained that a high
fers, it was expla ed. leukocyte count, even when
Dr. Guss emphasized that the the rejected milk is not consid
responsibility for a high leuko- ered, is extremely costly to
cyte count always rests with the dairymen, because the factors
herd owner and it is up to him leading to the high count result
to correct the situation. He m a loss of milk production of
urged owners to make continual anywhere from five to 25 per
checks of their milk to make cent or more depending on the
sure that the count remains seriousness of the situation
low. Corrective actions should with each animal and the extent
be taken immediately as soon to which all the animals in the
as the, wont begins to rise; herd are involved.
A ‘
He noted that piocedmes
used in milking the held are
extremely impoitant in deter
mining leukocyte counts Ab
noimal milk heids “without ex
ception take over eight minutes
to milk ” Milking should take
five minutes or less, even with
16,000 pound heids, according
to Dr. Guss
He emphasized that the level
of vacuum m milking is ex
tremely important Cows can be
ruined with “either too much or
too little,” he said.
He also emphasized that by
the time a herd leaches the
point of a 1,500,000 leukocyte
count, at least 60 pei cent of the
quarters of the cows in the herd
are giving unsatisfactoiy milk
“It ought to be every daily
man’s goal to have negative milk
(less than a 500,000 count) on
the California test or know the
tiend toward environmental pro
tection has exceeded new
knowledge on the means of
solving pollution problems.
But he noted that research is
underway to. find the answers
Penn State has been working
with equipment which puts
manure in liquid form directly
into the soil and covers it in one
operation
Noting that farmers have been
“recycling manuie through the
soil for manj. years,” he predict
ed that “a lot more lesearch
will be done on how to get nd
of wastes without disturbing the
neighbors ”
Good Management Factors
“Herd Management in „ the
70s” was the topic of Donald
L. Ace Extension dany special
ist, who told dairymen that
“man’s ability to manage” was
the single most important fac- —Systems management, or
tor m successful dairy opera- integrating vanous operations
tions so that they woik at peak effi-
Dairymen, he said, should be ciency
concerned with Cost Squeeze Projected
, William F Johnstone, Penn
Too much overhead, a factor g(- a (- e agncultuial economist,
that takes the profit out of the predicted dairy costs will rise
milk sale faster in the 1970’s than will
Too many pm chases for the p r i ces received for milk, leading
herd size and production level. j- 0 a lower net income for dairy
men
with Dairy Day. Placing the flag is Mrs.
Victor Plastow, left, and daughter, Mrs.
Thomas Warner of Centre County. Max-
Smith, Lancaster County agricultural
agent, assists.
leason why,” Dr. Guss said,
Dr Guss also noted that the
piesent so-called abnoimal
milk program is basically a
penalty system because pro
ducers with more than a 1,500,-
000 count are penalized He said
he thinks a positive piogram of
lewaiding “the good produc
ers” would be moie successful
In discussing the types of
tieatment used to maintain a
low count, Dr Guss emphasized
that the wrong type of tieat
ment can be woise than no
treatment at all
If the cow kicks at you while
being treated with a dip, it
means teat ends aie sore and
piobably the wrong material or
wrong method is being used for
tieatment Improper tieatment
can ‘hum the herd in five
days,” according to Dr Guss
He also noted that the dip-
Lancaster Farming. Saturday, March 13,1971
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Dauymen also can expect the
1970’s to bung greater involve
ment in public issues, such as
milk promotion, Class I base
price and state milk control, ac
coiding to Johnstone
Master of ceremonies of Dairy-
Day was Donald S Eby, presi
dent of the Red Rose Dairy
Herd Improvement Association
(DHIA).
•SSV
*
* ft*>
' s
VO V S
Many local dany equipment
dealers and suppliers had
exhibits and displays for in
spection by faimers
> ,
\ •* ?
J I
Daily Day was conducted by
the Lancaster County Agricul
tural Extension Service in co
operation with the Milk Distri
butors, Milk Maiketmg Coopera
tives and Dairy Breed Associa
tions.
ping does “no good in less than
six months and if you miss one
milking, you have to stait the
six months all over.”
He emphasized the import
ance of working with and get
ting materials thiough reput
able dealers
He noted that some kinds of
udder injections have been
found to contain yeasts that
cause mastitis
Also, the leukocyte count
normally uses near the end of
the lactation This helps explain
why one heid that had several
cows with a 450 day lactation
had problems, he noted.
Noimal good heid manage
ment practices and prompt cor
rective action as soon as the
count moves above the 500,000
level will eliminate this man
agement problem, according to
Dr. Guss.
Too much hired help, for
example.
—Reasons for change Make
a change if it will improve op
eiations, he said, but don’t
change unless there is a good
reason.
—Using management tools
such as iccords of feed costs,
milk production, cow selection,
sire analysis These tools, he
said, can make the diffeience in
operations.
—Direction of the dairy opera
tion Is a fanner concerned only
with marketing milk, 01 does he
want to sell both milk and an
imals’
—Liking his dauy operation.
He said that no matter how
modern an operation, if the
farmei doesn’t like it, he won’t
be able to do a good job with
it
He also predicted increased
production through 1972 based
on factois such as increased
availability oi laboi, a slow
down in the culling rate and in
creased production per cow
He did foresee a possible in
crease in 1971 in the federal
price support level for Class I
milk Under federal law, milk
parity is set between 75 and 90
per cent, the present price of
$4 66 pei hundredweight is about
77 per cent of parity
But he projected a slowing of
the rate of price increases, in
dicating an increase in 1971 of
less than the 15 to 20 cents in
1970
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