—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 8,1977 16 Imedicine and Acoms may cause stomach and financial woes Many stories and tales have been told about “acorn poisoning” some true and some not. Ripe acoms are relatively nonpoisonous, at least substantially less poisonous than the green or unripe acorns or green oak leaves. Generally, even though all animals of a herd New farm bill considered harmful WASHINGTON, D.C. - “The new Farm Bill is a political compromise that may do more long-term harm than good to American agriculture,” Allan Grant said here last week. Grant, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), referred to the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, signed into law Sept. 29 by President Carter in a ceremony attended by Grant. While supporting many of the basic concepts of the new law, some of which were the results of Farm Bureau recommendations, Grant said that he is concerned that the higher price support loans will interfere with efforts to expand foreign markets for American farm commodities. “The new law may contain mechanisms that would put agriculture on a greased slide back to the kind of government programs that paid farmers not to produce,” Grant said. Neither farmers nor r~m DISTRIBUTORS for \W SCHLESSM AIM'S SEED tORIM (80,000 Kernel Units) PREMIUM SINGLE CROSSES SX 700 - NEW. TOP YIELDER Compare with your top yielder *40.00 MF *35.00 PR 3 WAY CROSSES SINGLE CROSSES *28.50 MF *34.50 MF CERTIFIED WHEAT • Redcoat • Abe •Logan "Arthur 71 • Hart • Ruler (new excellent yielder CERTIFIED BARLEY • Penrad • Rapidian • Barsoy WINTER RYE s s* 5 Bu. WHOLESALE & RETAIL BOYD’S SEED CENTER 306 lona Rd, Lebanon, Pa. 17042 Phone 717-272-8943 / are on a common pasture only certain cows or a small part of the herd become ill. Younger animals especially seem to favor the fallen acorns (under certain conditions it may be the only feed), while most of the herd will pay little attention to them. Acorn poisoning consumers want the kind of farm program in which the government becomes a major buyer, accumulating huge surpluses of gram to hang over and depress market prices, Grant said. He added that farmers don’t like such programs because they cause lower, politically controlled prices. Consumers dislike them because they resent government handouts to fanners. The AFBF president said that the new law’s disaster payment provisions are “significantly” improved over those of the previous law in that they are more flexible and realistic. He also lauded the in creased authorization for agricultural research funds to $B9O million in fiscal 1978 and to $1.42 billion by 1982 as being “urgently needed” by farmers and future generations of consumers. But Grant doesn’t like many provisions of the food stamp part of the 1977 Act. Especially irritating to the AFBF president is the By CARL TROOP, VMD usually occurs only in those years in which there is a rich crop of acrons, and then often only after storms with high winds or other violent weather when a large amount of acorns would fall at one time. A bad storm and discovery of an animal which apparently died elimination of the purchase requirement for food stamp recipients who, under the 1977 Act, will be handed free food stamps without putting up any money of their own. “We support the food stamp concept as a means of assisting those truly in need,” Grant said. “But, we think that only domestic food should be available for purchase with food stamps, and the emphasis should be on proper nutrition.” American Farm Bureau Federation is the nation’s largest general farm organization with more than 2.6 million member-families. V SELLING VI gp jj Full blood Chianina bull Full blood Chianina embryo Percentage Chianina pairs Bred percentage Chianina females 1977 percentage Chianina show heifer prospects 1977 show steer prospects \b & AUCTIONEER Mike Jones SALE HEADQUARTERS Quality Inn Route 30 west of Lancaster PA at Centerville Road Exit (717) 898-2431 suddenly may make one think of lightning, but acom poisoning is another possibliity. In ordinary years pastures with stands of oak trees do not present a problem. Oak leaf or acorn poisoning has been described in Southeast Europe, England, Holland, France, Scandinavia, and the United States. Some of the indications for con sidering acom poisoning are as follows. 1. Of most importance, of course, is the presence of oaks in the pasture with green leaves or acorns available to the animals. 2. Length of illness can vary from a few days to a month or more. 3. Temperature is usually normal. 4. Diarrhea and loss of body condition. 5. Lack of appetite. 6. The animal may stand with a lowered head, arched back, tight abdonimal muscles as if experiencing some colicky pain. 7. Skin is dry, haircoat rough, eyes sunken. 8. Crusty secretions of the 69 LOTS FRIDAY • 6 30 P M NOVEMBER 4,1977 At Lauxmont Farms Wrightsville, Pennsylvania Sr eyes and nose with a dry muzzle. 9. In most advanced cases there is no response to treatment. It must be remembered, however, that not all cases need be that severe. Ingestion of only a few green acorns may produce only a slight loss of appetite, or even more subtle, just a decrease in milk production. Acorns have been blamed FERTILIZE Your WHEAT With ORTHO UNIPEL FERTILIZER , • UNIFORM COATED PELLETS - for even drilling s Ortho • CLEAN AND EASY TO HANDLE will UNIPEL not clo£ up dnlls 10-20-20 ■u C.U tu . CONTAINS FAST ACTING AND (fertilizer) %SJSff N ' TR ° GEN AN ° ChrrrM Chi—d Camawt • HIGH ANALYSIS - less handling and fewer stops while planting : . OTHER ANALYSIS AVAILABLE 20-10-10 13-34-10 16-16-16 10-10-30 AVAILABLE IN BULK OR BAGS CALL TODAY AND PLACE YOUR ORDER SMOKETOWN, PA Phone Lane. 717-299-2571 for prematurely drying cows up. If any of these problems sound familiar, occasional cows off feed or sudden drop in milk for no apparent reason, check the pastures for noxious weeds as well as acorns. This seems to have been a reasonably good year for acorns, and if they and the cows can be kept apart, can be a good year for the cows, too. For further information contact J E. GLASS President of ACA Northeast Region 230 Harrison Avenue Glenside Pennsylvania 19038 (215) 887-0409 EDWARD BIRTIC, Sale Chairman Box 216 RFC 2 Hampstead Maryland 21074
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