DS— Lancaster Fe eing, Saturday, November 8,1980 Drought aftermath LANCASTER - The af termath of this summer’s drought will be felt for some time to come, particularly during the long, cold winter months just ahead. And it will be felt right where it hurts most - in the pocketbook. That’s what Lancaster County dairymen heard at a special dairy meeting called by the Extension Service at the Farm and Home Center on Tuesday. In addition, the dairymen were told that additional drought-related troubles may show up this winter in the form of herd health problems linked to nutrition deficiencies m feeding pivgrams. Richard Adams, Penn State Extension nutritionist, told the audience that they could look forward to about a $6O to $BO per cow drop in their cash flow situation in upcoming months. Farmers’ individual financial situations can be further worsened by the drought, depending on how much feed must be purchased. Adams explained that dairymen have been ex periencing primarily only paper profits during the past few years, which are caused by the increased value of their livestock inventories. “Increased prices for inputs will further erode cash flows,” he said. Concerning future prices of feed, Adams forsees little advance in corn prices beyond a range of $3.50 to $3.80 a bushel. But soybean meal prices are likely to advance as high as $l6 hundredweight. As the winter advances, the hay market will tighten hurt to and prices advance, par ticularly in February or March. Nearby breweries should be considered more as a source of feed, according to Adams. Prices of wet brewers grams are now running between $2O to $35 a ton delivered in the State College area, he said. “At present-day con centrate prices,” he said, “you can afford to pay even more for brewers gram, as much as $4O a ton. “Even at that price, you can make it pay m your feeding programs.” Adams gave a word of caution concerning feeding of apple pomice He urged testmg before feeding to determine how much nee hulls or wood chips are in the pomice. While these ad ditions mcrease the ef ficiency of apple processing, they do just the opposite for dairy cows because of poor digestibility. Apple pomice could be fed to young stock or dry cows, but not to milking cows, he said. Dr Larry Hutchinson, Penn State Extension vetermanan, covered a wide range of nutritionally related health problems that could show up this winter. One of these are the mold toxins caused by moldy feed. Hutchinson warned that stunted or insect-damaged com or small grams are more susceptible to these mycotoxms if temperature and moisture conditions are conducive to their development in storage. Suspected feed should be the pocketbook in sampled adequately and tested at the lab at Sum merdale. Nitrates is another area of concern. Dry growing conditions coupled with high manuring practices are one of the high risk situations in which higher nitrate levels can occur. Drops in butterfat levels, such as three-tenths to four tenths of a percent below customary levels, may be linked to feed nutrition. Such drops are generally caused by abnormal function of the rumen due to any number of factors These can include high concentrate-low roughage diet, lack of long stem forage, old poorly fermented silage or the like. “Buffers, even alfalfa hay, can help to bring the but terfat back up,” Hutchinson said. “But you must also look to correct the high risk situations which caused the drop.” A final health problem related to nutrition and feeding is founder m dairy cattle. It can usually be traced to sudden changes in feeding programs, such as BARN PAINTING Call Us Now For Free Estimates PHARESS. HURST ' RD 1, Box 420 Narvon Pa 17555 215-445 6186 BRUNWG) cSpI, switching from an all-hay ration to a high corn silage grain ration at calving tune. Founder can not only affect milk production, but can cause permanent chronic hoof trimming problems, he said. He urged dairymen to pay more attention to ration changes during the two weeks before calving and about four weeks following calving.—DA Need HAY - STRAW -EAR CORN PEANUT HULLS Buy Now and Save! More and more farmers are buying from us for better value and all around satisfaction. DELIVERED —ANY QUANTITY Phone Area Code 717-687-7631 ESBENSHADE TURKEY FARM PARADISE. PA. don Company iTION SPECIALIST’' • Commercial • Industrial IN - FOAMED IN PLACE ~ 717-898-2760 BE
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