—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Sept. 7. 1974
20
John Hix, left, and Berks County son, oversees the beef feeding on the
Agent James Haldeman share a family’s diversified farm enterprise
moment of mirth at the Rae Hix open near Mohrsviiie.
house on Wednesday. John Hix, Rae’s
Crowd of 600 Attend
Rae Hix Open House
(Continued From Page 1]
Angus are smaller than the
Holstein and some other
breeds used for beef.
Because they are smaller,
they reach their mature
skeletal size sooner. And
once an animal achieves 60
percent of its mature
skeletal size, its protein
needs change. An Angus or
Hereford weighing 500
pounds or less needs from 12
to 14 percent protein in its
ration. From 500 to 750
pounds, the animals can get
along on 11 to 12 percent
protein, and over 750 pounds,
they will gain satisfactorily
on a ration that is just 10.5
percent protein.
Burdette told the group
that the proper ration was
extremely important to the
no radiator
no water pump
no water hoses
no anti-freeze
Deutzdoesit
(SAY DOYfZ)
with its air-cooled diesel engine
~ I And because it s air cooled
'BT'tiT* your eutz tractor cylinder
VoW' head can run 100°
hotter - provide complete fuel
combustion You get more mileage
more power no carbon build up or smoke Come see
this world renowned tractor in action Then compare l
STAUFFER
Tractors DIESEL, IIIC.
317 W Mam St New Holland, Pa
Ph 717 354 4181
cattleman’s profit potential.
“You can’t afford to over
feed your animals, but you
can’t afford slow gainers,
either,” he said. “Last year,
if you borrowed money to
pay for feeders, your interest
-alone on each one of those
animals was running 11 to 12-
cents a day.”
Non-protein nitrogen
sources - chiefly urea - can
be a big help to cattle
feeders, Burdette said,
although he did'add that he
doesn’t recommend feeding
NPN to cattle under 500
pounds. He said farmers
should check their feed tags
so they know for sure what
they’re getting in the sup
plements they buy. Many
supplements, especially the
LPS forms, are not good
sources of calcium.
Burdette told the group,
too, that they should let the
kind of feed they’re using
determine the kind of sup
plement they buy. A feeder
using lots of com silage
would buy a high calcium
low phosphorous sup
plement, while a farmer
feeding lots of alfalfa hay or
haylage would want a
supplement with about equal
parts of calcium and
phosphorous.
Louis Moore told the group
about the same story he’s
told other groups recently.
“If you’re lucky, you’ll break
even in the cattle business
this year,” he said. Moore
feels that the spread between
market cattle and feeders
may widen a bit, but the com
RICH! NOW
is the tine to
B0(S»
SURGE
GLENN E. HURST
RD2, East Earl, Pa
Ph. 215-445-6865
LESTER B. BOLL BRANDT'S FARM SUPPLY INC.
RDI, Lititz, Pa
Ph. 717-626-6198
flf #•* iT-ytr
price would make buying
even cheap feeders an ex
pensive mistake.
“I’m not saying,” the
economist noted, “that no
one should be feeding steers
this year. I know a lot of you
are locked in to feeding
steers because you’ve got a
lot of silage corn, and you’ve
got the silos and the feedlots
and you have to feed them.
You can’t take your silage
down to the Philadelphia
docks, so you’ve got to do
something with it.”
A primary cause for the
slump in cattle feeding
potential is the fact that the
industry has been building
inventories for the past five
years. Moore said that even
though feed lot numbers are
down, there are still enor
mous herds of beef on grass
ranges. He said the cattle
herd now numbers around
138 million, up 20 percent in
five years.
Many of these animals
should be coming to the
market in the months ahead,
Moore predicted, as some
cattlemen begin liquidating'
herds. He said western
ranchers could be bringing a
lot of cattle to market,
especially if the quality of
the grass ranges slips this
fall.
On the subject of bull beef,
Moore said last year was a
good year because packers
were looking for “anything
on four legs”. Conditions this
year are not as good for the
bull meat producer, and
choice bulls are now selling
for a good $lO less than
choice steers. He said he
doesn’t see much of a chance
for bull beef prices to get
back to the level of steer
prices. He also said he sees a
lean two to three years
ahead for Pennsylvania
cattle feeders.
Dr. Sam Guss took the
podium after Moore to talk
about the art of starting
feeder calves. “You can
spend all kinds of money on
vaccines to cure diseases,
but if you don’t eliminate
stress, you’re still going to
wind up with dead calves,”
Guss said.
“Another thing you have to
remember is that all of the
viral vaccines we have now
are made from modified live
has a
PIPELINE for Y
More than 300 dairy bull beef animals were on
view here in the beef barn on the Rae Hix farm in
Berks County. More than 600 visitors turned out
for an open house tour of the Hix farm on Wed
nesday.
virus,” he noted. “And if an
animal is stressed after
getting a live virus vaccine,
it can still come down with
the disease it was vaccinated
against.”
Poor ventilation is the
primary cause of stress,
Guss pointed out. Another
source of stress is putting
new calves in pens with
watercups and no troughs, a
condition which causes
stress because new calves
don’t how how to use
watercups. Guss also
cautioned against giving too
much grain to new calves
because they can’t digest it
properly.
“Give those calves all the
water they can drink when
you get them home,” Guss
said, “and don’t stir them
up. To cure acidosis in calves
that have just gotten off the
truck, you can put baking
GROFF EQUIPMENT
601 East High St
Elizabethtown, Pa
Ph. 717-367-1 221
soda in their drinking water.
Use one pound of soda to
every 20 gallons of water,
and you’ll take care of the
problem.”
Other good ways to
eliminate stress are to worm
calves after they’re eating
well and controlling grubs
and lice.
For home raised calves,
Guss feels the best kind of
feed is soured colustrum.
“Take the first seven
milkings from the calve’s'
mother, put it in a clean
plastic pail, keep, it warm
and covered, and you’ll have
enough colustrum to feed
that calve until it’s weaned,”
Guss said. The soured
colustrum should be stirred
every time it’s fed, and it
should be mixed half-and
half with water.
-V/
2 W State St.
Quarryvilie, Pa.
Ph. 717-786-7225