BYJOYCE BUPP Staff Correspondent BAIR Now that we have it, where should we go with it? In a nutshell, that’s the question John Shenk, Penn State ag researcher, posed to forage producers after demonstrating a promising management tool at the February 3 York forage seminar. That tool is the mobile infrared spectro computer, a complete and compact feed analysis lab installed in a van Equipped with computer terminal, infrared hght scanner, a weighing system and microwave oven for drying wet materials, the unit can read and print out an analysis of feed materials in less than two minutes. Development of the forage analysis computer took five years to study and experimentation and cost a half-million dollars. Shenk estimates it would take $75,000 to put a comparably-equipped van operator on the road full time, serving a group of farmers who would subscribe to the Analysis service on a regular, perhaps monthly, basis “The average dairyman could increase profits $6O to $BO per cow with ready access to this machine,” figures Shenk. A $2O to $3O charge per cow per year would seem a reasonable amount for the service. Calculating a step further, Shenk says it would take a sign-up representing 2500 cows to make the van operation a profitable venture With average family-size herds of 57 cows, one van would have to do feed analyses for only 44 herds to operate in the black. VORIS SEED CORN is EARNING it s Place In The Market Year After Year. Study The Chart Below For A Number Suitable To Your Needs or Call For Additional Information VORIS GROWTH HARVEST SEED CORN CHARACTERISTICS STRESS TOLERANCE CHARACTERISTICS Best “ Price Days To Pop Plant Stalk No Drouth Leal Dry Test Per Variety Maturity (000) Heiehl Quality Till Diseases Down Weitht Unit V 2381 98 20-24 T 1 1 1 2 1 3 51 50 V 2491 110 21-24 M 2 2 2 1 3 2 51 50 V 2532 112 20 22 T 3 1 1 3 1 3 51 50 *V25$l 114 20 22 T 3 1 2 2 1 3 - 51 50 V 2592 117 21 24 S 1 3 3 1 3 1 51 50 *V 2601 118 20 23 M 2 j 1 3 1 3 51 50 V 2642 120 .20 23 S 1 1 2 2 2 3 51 50 • 1 excellent to 5 poor * CAN BE FOUND IN 1980 PA STATE HYBRID CORN TEST REPORT nriOT CCCn pn FINEST QUALITY SEEDS SINCE 1925 KIIOI OttU liU. MOUNT JOY. PA PH: 717-653-4121 New spectro-computer can save $6O on dairy feed bills “ThatVall it is, just a farm management tool," says John Shenk of the infrared spectro computer, in troduced to York forage growers during the county hay clinic. With an estimated half-million dairy cows in Pennsylvania, there’s potential to keep numerous computers blinking away at silages, hay and gram materials Shenk admits the feeders already doing a top-notch ]ob will not be the operators to benefit the most from the space-age service They’re already doing an. ob viously good job of feed ration balancing. Those operations that would stand to gam the most from a regular analysis service are the large-number herds, where feed is used in large tonnages and forages can change rapidly in nutrient value “■ Value of the program depends solely on the accuracy of the feed samples For a true picture of the complete feeding program, all feeds must be tested, since the protein, fiber and TDN m silages must be balanced with that from grains and hay products. Among the approximately 80 forage producers who came from as far away as Maryland for feed analysis, the computer evoked interest, praise and little doubt that the service will become an accepted part of future feeding programs How soon, and just who will offer the service, remain the only real questions surrounding the establishment of regular analysis routes. Some growers were delighted with their computerized forage report cards, while others scrat ched their heads over the results. Frank Wilmot, Summit Hall Turf Farm in Gaithersburg, Maryland, came up with a 22 percent protein analysis on a mostly alfalfa with some bluegrass hay made in rotation with the farm’s turf cropping. “Food’s an energy source and we can’t afford to be as wasteful with it as we’ve been in the past,” Wilmot mused after the meeting He sees the computer as havmg tremendous potential toward that purpose. “I think it’s neat'” was * Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 14,1911—C31 Forage growers clustered around Penn State ag researcher John Shenk and his infrared spectro computer as the mobile lab sampled and analyzed various forage products. reaction of Faith Peterson, who’d brought a sample of the forage for the family’s cow-calf operation at New Oxford. And another dairyman planned to go home and push a pencil, after the computer told him to stop feeding the high-moisture corn stored m his silos and start adding 40 percent supplement to his dairy ration, for recommended levels of NEED MORE ROOM? i Read Th ® Classified *n you ouy, move «vc*/ Real Estate Ads the J-R CONSTRUCTION SERVICE 717-933-5740 jgSaL*i REPUTATION! y* We couldn't buy one, or borrow one WE HAD TO EARN IT Ten years of “earthy services" with You r the satisfied customer, always uppermost in our mind. EXCAVATING - BASEMENTS - ROAD BUILDING GRADING - WATER LINES - TRUCKING - DITCHING LANES - LAGOONS - DAMS & PONDS - TOPSOIL LAWN SEEDING - SHALE - STONE PREPARATIONS OUR SPECIALITIES Fully Insured Free Estimates Lebanon, Berks & Northern Lancaster Counties J-R CONSTRUCTION SERVICE Rt. 1, Myerstown, PA 17067 Phone 717-933-5750 protein. The researchers are now drawing up guidelines for a pilot program to take the van on the road to the feedlots of the state’s dairy and livestock operators. Funding of the continued program seems to be the only real roadblock that remains to infrared spectre computer’s revolutionizing farm feeding.
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