A 20 —Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 1,1980
- Good Herd
Performance
Starts With Good
Feeding
The forages and gram
crops you harvested this
summer and fall will
probably form the nucleus of
your dairy feeding program.
Chances are, your herd will
be consuming these forages
throughout the entire winter
feeding program and well
into next year’s growing
season.
Needless to say, the
quality of the feeds you have
in storage now can have
drastic effects on your
herd’s health and per
formance - your profits - for
many months.
Nutrient quality of our
feeds this year may vary
from that of normal years,
and thus it may be
necessary to re-formulate
your dairy rations to com
pensate for these variations.
Some of our drought
stricken corn silage has been
running higher in protein.
Some corn silage, and
other crops, were ensiled at
lower-than-usual moisture
levels; these feeds may have
undergone abnormal fer
mentation which could result
m spoilage and mycotoxm
production, heat-damaged
protein, abnormal acid
levels, etc. Silo gas was quite
prevalent, too So, excess
nitrates and non-protem
mtrogen may be a problem
m some forage supplies.
Palatability and digestibility
could also be affected.
I am not attempting to use
scare tactics to get you
undully alarmed; I only
want to emphasize that this
is a good year to do a lot of
early forage testing in an
attempt to prevent problems
before they occur.
Daily
Pipeline
By
Glenn A. Shirk
Extension
Dairy
Agent
Feeding Meeting
This is a good tune to
remind dairymen m and
around Lancaster County
that a dairy feeding meeting
has been scheduled for
Tuesday, November 4
(election day) at the Lan
caster Farm and Home
Center from 10:00 a.m. to
2:30 p.m.
Topics will include: The
Dairy Feed Situation -
quality, supply and pnce
outlook; Special Health
Problems Related to
appetites,
Nutrition
foundering, fat tests, mold
mycotoxm problems, non
protem-nitrogen and
nitrates; Managing Dairy
Herds to Keep Cows Eating,
Healthy and Productive;
and Feeding Alternatives
and Economics.
For some dairymen, feeds
are m short supply and
purchased feeds are ex
pensive. They may fmd it
expedient to graze many of
their fields this fall, or to
shop wisely and stock up on
necessary feeds. Or, it may
be an excellent time to cull
the herd and to merchandise
some heifers.
In other words, reduce the
herd to the size of the feed
supply available. Put your
lumted supply of feed into
the heavy producers - the
cows that are earning you a
higher return over feed
costs.
If necessary, the revenue
from sale of cattle could be
used to purchase necessary
feeds for the remaining
higher producers. It would
be a costly mistake to short
change the higher producers
or to stunt a heifer’s growth
by underfeeding.
Making Feeding
Programs Work
Work closely with your
feedman and your
veterinarian. Health,
nutrition and herd per
formance go hand-m-hand.
Invest in forage testing, and
remember, the test results
can be no more accurate
than the sample you submit
to the lab. Even consider
testing your forages several
times throughout the winter
and spring months,
especially if you have a
larger than average herd.
I realize this can get to be
very expensive, but im
proper feeding and poor herd
perturmance is far more
costly. ,
Don’t stop just with forage
testmg. Also request a
recommended feeding
program, one for the dry
cows plus one or more for the
milking herd. And, be sure to
have your program updated
frequently, whenever there
is a change m forage intake,
forage quality or herd
health.
Remember, too, the kind
of feeding program which is
recommended for your herd
can be affected more by the
accuracy of the information
you put on the questionnaire
form (cow weights, forage
intakes, etc.) than by the
kind and quality of forage
tested. Read that last sen
tence again; it is very im
portant.
In other words, weigh the
forages several times —to
get an accurate average
intake, being sure to deduct
for the forages that are
refused or wasted.
Tax course offered
Penn State will offer a Advance registration is
Fam Income Tax and requested, and early
Social Security Short Course registration is advised due to
or l£ ec r l2 - J anticipated large at-
The five-day course is tendance
approved for continuing
education credit by the
Accreditation Council for
Accountancy, Washington,
O.C. and is sponsored by the
College of Agriculture in
cooperation with the In-
ternal Revenue Service,
Pittsburgh.
And, remember, a herd
receives a balanced ration
only when the cattle are
consuming exactly what the
program recommends. If the
cows are not eating what is*-,
recommended try to find Ok J
reason why that’s easier
said than done and have
the program re-formulated
based on their actual feed
intake.
Good feeding, good herd
performance, and good herd
profits seldom just happen
They usually result from
attention to a lot of details.
Contact your feedman or
your extension agent for
forage test kits and feed
program request forms.
For further information
contact your county ex
tension office, phone
394-6851 requesting the flyer *
and application form for the
Farm Income Tax and
Social Security Short
Course.