—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
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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
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Percentage Chianina pairs
Bred percentage Chianina females
1977 percentage Chianina show heifer prospects
1977 show steer prospects
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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
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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
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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