Where have all the dairy bulls gone?
By JERRY WEBB
NEWARK, Del. - A
catalog of changes that have
taken place on America’s
farms over the last 40 years
would have to include such
notable prograss as the
adoption of hybrid corn, the
disappearance of draft
horses, the introduction of
the combine and self-tieing
baler, and a trend toard
bigness.
Scientists point proudly to
their work with fertilizers
and pesticides, and the in
ventors and manufacturers
beam over the
mechanization <?nd
automation they have
brought to agriculture. But if
an agricultural Rip Van
Winkle awoke after a 40-year
snooze and looked around
todays family farm, he’d
understand most of what he
would see. Tractors would be
bigger and better, crops
would be more productive.
He might not fully un
derstand a pipeline milker
and he would miss the milk
T SEED CORN SPECIALS
CONGRATULATIONS ** MUNCY-CHIEF
Michigan
Virginia
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Illinois I'Acre
Massachusetts lAcre
Massachusetts 5 Acre
New Jersey 1 Acre
New Jersey 5 Acre
«E»?gw6S
NO 1 - 25 ACRES-MIDOLE EASTERN STATES & MIDWEST
3 Bu Muncy Chief 5X777 MR 39.50118.50
3 Bu Muncy Chief 5X662 MR 39.50118.50 «
IBu Muncy Chief H 764 MR 29.50 29.50 t *4fa
1 Bu Muncy Chief 3X676 Mh No Charge Gl
266.50 "°0
total savings including Save 24.50
Free Corn $63.00 Total 242.00
All Med. Flats add $20.00
NO 4 -150 ACRES-MIDDLE EASTERN STATES & MIDWEST
20 Bu Muncy Chief 5X777 MR 39.50 790.00
20 Bu Muncy Chief 5X562 MR 39.50 790.00 c .
sBu Muncy Chief H 764 MR 29.50147.50 , fa
5 Bu Muncy Chief 3X676 MR No Charge 34} 5
1,727.50 ’ U O
total savings including Save 147.50
Free Corn $340.00 Total 1,580.00
All Med Flats add $135.00
NO 7 - 50 ACRES-NEW YORK 4 NEW ENGLAND - SILAGE
6 Bu Muncy Chief 5X662 MR 39.50 237.00
6 Bu Muncy Chief SXSSO MR 39.50 237.00
3Bu Muncy Chief H 270 MR 29.50 88.50 ******£
2 Bu Muncy Chief 3X553 MR No Charge n*
502.50 " U 0
total savings including Save 50 00
Free Corn $ll9 00 Total 512 50
All Med Flats add $45.00
MUNCY - CHIEF HYBRIDS
MUNCY, PENNSYLVANIA 17756
cans. But he wouldn’t be all
that baffled - until he was
confronted with the
problems of how cows have
calves with no bulls around.
Think about it. Forty years
ago, even 30 years ago,
every farmer with a few
head of dairy or beef
animals kept a bull. Or if he
didn’t own enough animals
to justify the expense of a
bull, he relied on a neighbor
who did have one. But the
bulls are gone from most
farms today, replaced by the
advances of science.
The fiercest, largest old
bull I ever saw belonged to
one of my boyhood neighbors
- a dairy farmer by the
rather unusual name of Ray
Finkbinder. He operated a
Grade A dairy, which meant
he produced and bottled milk
right there on the farm and
delivered it door-to-door in
the nearby city. Milk was
unpasteurized in those days
and all that was added was
what accidently made its
1 Acre Butch Falconer
5 Acre Lynwood Pierson
5 Acre Tom Kramer
1 Acre
Charles Kramer
Matt Schaffner MUNCY-CHIEF SXSSO
Jeffrey Bettencourt MUNCY-CHIEF 5X776
John E. Bettencourt MUNCY-CHIEF 5X777
Jack Miller MUNCY-CHIEF 5X662
Bernard Beatty MUNCY-CHIEF 5X662
way into the milk can
through a strainer.
Ray had a fine herd of
Guernsey cows so of course
he kept an outstanding
Guernsey bull. Maybe it was
my age and size at the time
that made that old bull seem
so large and so mean - and
maybe it was the large brass
ring old Homer always wore
in his nose. Or perhaps it was
the electric fence strung
around his small compound.
Each day on our walk to
the one-room school, my
brothers and I had to pass
that pen - right next to the
road, and sometimes'Homer
would be there right next to
the fence snorting and
pawing and acting very
bullish. At first it was all we
could do to keep from run
ning past the pen when he
was acting up. But then as
time passed we grew used to
the old fellow and we started
to trust him and the electric
fence that kept us apart.
Homer stayed in that pen
year-round with nothing but
MUNCY-CHIEF H 304 245.3
MUNCY-CHIEF SXBOBB 235.3,
MUNCY-CHIEF 5X552 234
MUNCY-CHIEF 5X552
SPECIAL PACKAGE DEALS
ALL 56 LB. PACK FULL BUSHELS
DELIVERED PRICES - EASTERN UNITED STATES
ALL ADAPTED HYBRIDS
NO 2 - 50 ACRES-MIDDLE EASTERN STATES & MIDWEST
6 Bu Muncy Chief 5X777 MR 39.50 237.00
6 Bu Muncy Chief 5X662 MR 39.50 237.00 _
3Bu Muncy Chief H 764 MR 29.50 88.50 . Otftfe.
2 Bu Muncy Chief 3X676 MR No Charge
562.50 'UQ
total savings including Save 50.00
Free Corn $127.00 Total 512.50
All Med. Flats add $45.00
NO 5 - 25 ACRES-NEW YORK & NEW ENGLAND - SILAGE
AND HIGH ELEVATIONS
3Bu Muncy Chief H 656 MR 29.50 88.50
3 Bu Muncy Chief SXSSO MR 39.50118.50 _
IBu Muncy Chief 5X442 MR 39.50 39.50 .
1 Bu Muncy Chief 3X553 MR No Charge
246.50 ‘VO
total savings including Save 24.50
Free Corn $59.00 Total 222 00
All Med. Flats add $20.00
NO 8 - SO ACRES-NEW YORK S NEW ENGLAND - GRAIN
AND HIGH ELEVATIONS
6 Bu Muncy Chief SX22O MR 39 50 237.00
6Bu Muncy Chief H 304 MR 29.50177 00 c
3Bu Muncy Chief H 270 MR 29 50 88 50
2 Bu Minn. 806 MR No Charge % J*
502 50 'VQ
total savings including Save 50 00
Free Corn $lO5 00 Total 452.50
All Med. Flats add $45 00
an overhanging tree for
shade in the Summer and a
shelter made of baled straw
in the Winter. For years he
lived what seemed to be a
useful and happy life, never
venturing outside that two
acre lot. On occasion he
would have cow visitors and
each morning and evening
as we trudged past we would
stop to say hello or to test our
bravery by venturing under
the electric fence and into
the pen. It was a game of
chicken - or maybe more
appropriately, bull - where
we would sneak into the pen
far away from the bull and
see how close we could get to
him before the fear of being
trampled or gored caused us
to run for the safety of the
electric fence. We had a lot
of faith in that fence; it
never occured to us what
might happen if in a fit of
thrift old Finkbinder decided
not to spring for the elec
tricity needed to keep that
fence hot.
Like so many good bulls of
West Virginia
West Virginia
New York
Ohio
North Carolina lAcre
North Carolina 5 Acre
Connecticut I Acre
Maryland 1 Acre
Maryland 5 Acre
234
221.4
228.7
221.2
218.7
207.9
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 17,1979
that tune Homer went ott to
become hamburger and was
replaced by artificial
breeding. That technological
breakthrough gave dairy
farmers everywhere access
to the finest bulls in the,,
country and did more to
improve milk ouput than
anything before or since. It
also freed up some land and
eliminated the hazards
associated with keeping a
bull.
Today huge breeding
organizations keep the few
outstanding bulls needed to
breed most of the nation’s
dairy cows. Through science
and a vast organization of
technicians, the average
dairyman is only a phone
call away from the services
of bulls that have proven
their ability to sire top milk
UA'ik
Vo
Some say a girl whose eyebrows meet will have a happy
marriage.
1 Acre
5 Acre
1 Acre
5 Acre
Dave Hedrick MUNCY-CHIEF 5X442
Ralph G. Layton MUNCY-CHIEF 5X777
Steve Klips MUNCY-CHIEF 5X662
Gerald Hauke MUNCY-CHIEF 5X777
Pam Reynolds MUNCY-CHIEF 5X777
Ervin Long MUNCY-CHIEF 5X777
Kathy Spielman MUNCY-CHIEF 5X662
George Bowman, Jr. MUNCY-CHIEF SXB7B
George Bowman MUNCY-CHIEF SXB7B
NO 3 -100 ACRES-MIDDLE EASTERN STATES S MIDWEST
15 Bu Muncy Chief 5X777 MR 39.50 592.50
12 Bu Muncy Chief 5X662 MR 39 50 474.00 c
4Bu Muncy Chief H 764 MR'J.SOIIB.OO
3 Bu Muncy Chief 3X676 MR No Charge
1,184.50 'VQ
total savings including Save 104.50
Free Corn $220.00 Total 1,080.00
All Med. Flats add $90.00
NO 6 - 25 ACRES-'NEW YORK & NEW ENGLAND - GRAIN
AND HIGH ELEVATIONS
3 Bu Muncy Chief SX22O MR 39.50118.50
3Bu Muncy Chief H 270 MR 29.50 88.50
IBu Muncy Chief H 304 MR 29.50 29 50 C A ,
1 Bu Minn. 806 MR No Charge
236.50 °<Qn
total savings including Save 24.50 v
Free Corn $52.00 Total 212.00
All Med. Flats add $20.00
1
j CLIP l MAIL
I MUNCY-CH EF HYBRIDS - MUNCY, PA.
j □ Please Send Free Catalog and Price List.
• Address
I Phone
! PLEASE BOOK ORDER FOR
I Acres Farmed
DELIVERED PRICES
EASTERN U.S.
SPRING 1979
OR
MARCH, APRIL, MAY,
AS NEEDED
producers. For a fee, a
dairyman can introduce top
bloodlines and steadily
improve the genetic quality
of his herd. Unlike the
racehorse business, the
dairyman spends only a few
dollars for the services of a
sire that might have cost
many thousands - a sire that
might have proven himself
by producing hundreds of top
milking cows.
The trend toward artificial
breeding has been so
complete that many of
today’s dairymen have
never owned a mature bull
and most city people don’t
even know what one looks
like.
That’s sort of strange
when you consider that
about half of the dairy calves
bom each year are bulls.
% Po-'T:;
237.1
224.4
190.3
210.2
218.5
225.6
202
222.3
218.1
xres Corn
145