.6—Lancaster Farmlm
I
Complete blood tests are an im- breeding problems. Although the
jortant part of the Project 1870 cows are anemic, this condition alone
vork. This lab technician is counting doesn't seem to be causing the
he while cells in a blood sample repeat breeding. The Project 1870
:aken from the herd of John Behrer, group is trying to get at the root of
Spruce Creek, near State College. Behrer’s difficulties. ‘
Behrer’s herd is experiencing repeat
Working For
(Continued From Page 1(
•eceive from their veterinarians and extension specialists.
- 3 roject 1870 members want to find out why discrepancies
:xist between laboratory findings and field experience.
Along with Guss and other members of the group, we
nsited two of the project herds, a healthy one and a herd with
problems. Both were short drives from the Penn State
campus. Driving to the problem herd, Guss said, “It’s kind of
musual for extension people to get involved in a project like
his. Usually, we take research findings to the farmers. Here,
<ve’ve got people with practical field experience working on
jroblems in the field to develop guidelines that are going to
je used in the field. I think it’s a good approach.”
Dr. Richard Adams, a dairy science specialist at Penn
state and another member of the research project, explained
hat they were trying to take into account all the factors on a
arm that might affect cows. He said they were taking soil
md water samples, feed and forage analyses and, most
mportantly, blood samples from cows in each herd.
hi addition to Adams, Guss and this writer, three other
project members went along that day to the farms. They
were Dr. Jerry Jung, with the U.S. Pasture Research
Laboratory at Penn State and a member of the university,
agronomy staff, and William Stout and David Belesky,
agronomy graduate students. Stout and Belesky are
preparing a research paper on the micronutrient findings
burned up by the study. Stout has been with the project since
ts inception and expects to complete bis doctoral
-equirements later this year.
As we pulled into the lane at the problem herd farm, Jung
explained his role as an agronomist in the project. “Dairy
aimers are moving more and more towards feeding just one
or two crops to their animals,” Jung said, “and this may be
.he cause of some of our problems. They’ve gone to less
oasture, and some farmers feed little or no hay.
“These practices simplify the farmer’s job of growing
feed, but they complicate the task of putting together a
balanced ration,” Jung noted.
Not only are some farmers putting all their eggs into one
oasket, they might even be using bad eggs, seems to be his
message
“In the 60‘s,” Jung explained, “agronomists were con
cerned with boosting the persistence and production in
orage crops. We weren’t concerned with the composition of
.he plants themselves, and now we think that might have
oeen a mistake. Much of the alfalfa grown today, for
example, is deficient in potassium. We need to do more work,
too, on other micronutnents like zme and magnesium. Penn
State’s leading the nation in research on these
mcronutnents in cow health.”
John Behrer’s was the first farm we visited. Behrer has 50
head of Holsteins with fertility problems. Blood tests have
shown that Behrer’s cows have hemoglobin counts some 22
oercent lower than normal, and red blood cells counts as
much as a third lower. He follows Penn State recom
mendations on feeding Behrer told the researchers that he
.ned also to follow recommended fertilizer levels for his
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1 1 :
cropland. Even so, he is having repeat breeding problems.
Some kind of mineral imbalance is apparently causing the
mtertility-anemia syndrome in Behrer’s cows. Since he’s
been a part of Project 1870, the Spruce Creek dairyman has
experienced some improvements in his herd health. The
project is concentrating on the milk fever-downer cow
snydrome as well as the infertility-anemia syndromex. A
Project 1870 report on Behrer’s herd says that the repeat
breedings probably aren’t a result of anemia, but doesn’t say
yet what is the cause.
With the assistance of Mike Behrer, John’s son, Guss drew
blood samples from the necks of the cows in the herd. For the
purpose of blood sampling, all cows in the study are divided
into four stages of lactation, one-to-90 days, 91-to-180 days,
181-270 days and 271 days to dry. Equal numbers of animals
are selected from each stage of lactation, and an attempt is
made to take blood samples from the same animals at each
bleeding. Animals removed from the herd are replaced in the
bleeding schedule by an animal in the same stage of lac
tation.
Water on all the farms is tested, too, and good water, ac
cording to Guss, is the one thing all the model herds have in
common. The water on Behrer’s farm is a bit harder than
normal, because it’s spring water straight from the
limestone soil, but it is pure.
From Behrer’s farm, we went to the farm of Harold Lucas,
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Dr. Jerry Jung, left, and Dr. Samuel Guss check
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Behrer has one of the problem herds in Project
1870. Problem herds were carefully chosen so that
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