B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 9,1981
Farm Business
Good records necessary
for machinery decisions
LANCASTER It’s relatively
easy to figure about how much
your next tractor will cost. But
what about after purchase? If that
new tractor is either under- or
over-sized, it can continue to cost
you money. And conversely, if it’s
the right power unit for the job, it
will make money for you.
Machinery management is
nothing new. However, with farm
equipment becoming larger, more
sophisticated and more costly, the
stakes are now higher than ever
before.
Too often, machinery purchases
are based on hunches, tradition, or
a rough guess of time available for
doing certain jobs.
“But sound machinery decisions
often depend on being able to
accurately anticipate your future
needs,” claims Massey-Ferguson
Agri-business Economist Dennis
Sharpe. “That’s why records are
essential.”
Many fanners spend little tune
on this “homework”, however. The
problem may be that record
keeping is tune consuming. To
make this job manageable, only
It’s time
NEW HOLLAND - Although the
seed may just have gone into the
ground, it’s not too early to think of
a pre-season chopper checkup.
Such a checkup now or in the
near future can mean faster silo
filling later with reduced fuel
consumption, according to Howard
Wmey, of Sperry New Holland.
No matter what machine you
use, the basics are the same.
Chopping to the right length of cut,
proper lubrication, knife shar
pening and shear-bar adjustments
are the mam points. All are things
to take care of ahead of season.
Built-in sharpeners simplify the
chores but too many machines are
operated with too-wide kmfe-to
shear-bar clearance that robs
power and boosts fuel use. The
other fuel waster is a too-fine chop,
notes Winey, who is product
manager for forage equipment at
New Holland.
For haylage, he says, the best
choice seems to be between l/4th
A pre-season checkup and adjustment of a requirements. Chopping to the right length of
forage harvester now can mean faster cut, proper lubrication, knife sharpening and
chopping and silo filling later. Also, the shear-bar adjustment are the main areas to
checkup can substantially reduce fuel check in a review of a harvester.
News
keep practical records. The data
should be simple to read and refer
to, and not cluttered with un
necessary details.
The first priority should be a
record of work and no-work days
each season for your particular
soils and practices.
“It doesn’t matter what you’re
growing, you must keep good
records of your planting ex
perience each year and relate
them to your potential yield and
profits,” Sharpe says.
“You need those records and
what they tell you about average
number of working days available
during the critical time spans in
spring and fall in order to make
good machinery management
decisions.”
The second priority is a history
of maintenance and repairs on
each major piece of farm equip
ment. “It’s important to know how
much you’re spending for repairs
(parts and labor) on each
machine,” contends MF’s Sharpe.
“This kind of information is
particularly useful when deciding
the best tune to trade a machine.”
for chopper checkup
and 3/Bth inch theoretical length of
cut. This is fine enough to get good
consolidation m the silo to prevent
spoilage. It is also just about
coarse enough to avoid most of the
dairy digestive problems
associated with no-hay rations.
Chopping finer than 1/4-inch can
be expected to lower butterfat test
and lead to cow health problems
unless you also feed some hay,
says Wmey.
Another pre-season check item is
the overload protection on your
harvester. Clutches need to be
checked to make sure they’re free
to function properly. Another item
is easy to overlook, according to
Winey. That’s the safety equip
ment.
Sometimes there’s a temptation
to remove shielding. Usually it’s
not a matter of forgetting to
replace the shields when machines
are operated without them. In
stead, it’s more likely to be a
matter of hurry on the part of the
Personnel
changes
LANCASTER - Several ad
ditions and changes to rosters of
personnel have been announced
recently by leading companies in
the field of agribusiness.
They include:
Majone Grant, a Penn State
graduate in animal production, has
joined Curtiss Breeding Industries,
Inc. as assistant field operations
manager. Along with teaching A.I.
schools, she will assist with shows,
exhibits, distributor contacts and
sales.
Wid P. Crawford has been
named president of Pfizer
Genetics, Inc., one of the three
operating units of the Pfizer
Agricultural Division. He will be
responsible for all operations of
Pfizer’s hybrid seed business. A
native of Eastland, Tex., Crawford
joined Pfizer in 1958.
James F. Spurrier has been
named general sales manager for
A.O. Smith Harvestore Products,
Inc. He will be m charge of all line
sales functions and supervise
division and area sales staffs
throughout North America.
Also look at operating costs
besides those for maintenance and
repairs. A record of fuel and
lubricant costs for tractors and
combines, plus ownership costs,
can help you nail down total cost
per hour of operation. That's
important information when
making replacement decisions.
tractor driver who is tempted to
skip shield replacement to save a
few minutes.
That’s the reason pre-season
service is so important. You go
over the machine before you have
to hurry out to get chopping.
For com and sorghum or sudax,
the best choice in length of cut may
vary, depending on crop maturity,
moisture content and whether
you’re feeding beef or dairy cattle
says Wmey. Of course you have to
chop fine enough to avoid problems
with your silo unloading equip
ment. Usually, a 1/4-inch is near
the mark.
If com or sorghum are being
harvested at a not-quite-mature
stage for dairy cattle you may not
need as short a length of cut as for
mature com Intended for beef
cattle. A fine chop works for beef.
In either case, it’s important to
chop the crop fine enough to pack
well in the silo. Trench and bunker
WHAT'S NEW
Bull joins Curtiss
- ELLBURN, Dl. - Eng-Amer
Pelimore - ET (40H2947), a young
Holstein bull bred by William and
Gary Behm, Adrian, Mich., has
joined the battery of Holstein bulls
at Curtiss Breeding Industries Inc.
He will be sampled nationwide
through the Curtiss Blue Chip
Program.
Pellinore’s dam, a Very Good
Grey leaf spot
problems seen
increasing in corn
KINSTON, N.C. - The
movement toward minimum
tillage practices by farmers in the
humid bottomlands of the
mountainous regions in the East
has increased problems with grey
leaf spot, a com disease capable of
significantly affecting yield and
standability, says Dr. Rodney
Edmondson, corn research
scientist for Funk Seeds In
ternational in Kinston, NC.
“Problems with grey leaf spot
are compounded by minimum
tillage practices, and therefore
incidence of the disease seems to
have increased m recent years,”
Dr. Edmondson says.
“The fungus overwinters in com
plant residue left on the surface,
providing a steady source of in
fection for the next season.”
The disease exhibits greyish,
elongated lesions on the leaves, up
to two inches long. Dr. Edmondson
explains. “The symptoms are very
distinct and occur most often after
flowering,” he adds. “Older plants
seem to be more susceptible to the
disease.”
This predisposes the plant to
stalk rot, stalk breakage and
premature death. Reduced grain
Product combines
grinding.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL - A
new product available from A.O.
silos may need a slightly finer cut
than tower or sealed silos.
You can get good results with
any type of silo with good
management, Winey emphasizes.
But generally, you need a fairly
fast removal rate or cold weather
to avoid spoilage in a trench silo.
That’s the reason the trench may
seem attractive to large feedlots
where silage removal is fairly
rapid. That’s also part of the
reason smaller herd operators
tend to choose a tower silo instead.
There’s less spoilage where less
silage surface is exposed to the air
between feeding times m a tower
silo.
THINKING
BUILDING
r~^
I READ LANCASTER FARMING'S I
I ADVERTISING TO FIND ALL I
| YOUR NEEDS! j
daughter of Imperial Knight, has a
Cow Index of +2066 pounds of
milk, +66 pounds of fat with a
repeatability of 50%.
Sired by S-W-D Valiant, a suc
cessfully proven A.I. sire with a
PDM of +1560 pounds and a PDT
of +2.45, Pellmore should sire
stature and dairyness as well as
good udder support.
test weight and lodging are
responsible for thousands of
bushels of lost yield annually.
Dr. Edmondson says fields
where grey leaf spot is a problem
should be plowed after gram
harvest. “That cuts down on the
amount of infection that might
occur the following year. Com can
be cut for silage, too. Removing
leaves and stalks gets the disease
off the field.
“The important thing is to do
something with plant debris if the
disease is a problem,” he con
tinues. “Also, crop rotation would
help, although that may not fit into
a grower’s operation or marketing
situation.”
Of course, plant resistance to the
disease is another important
management tool. “At Funk, we’re
screening for hybrid resistance to
grey leaf spot,” Dr. Edmondson
says. “G-4525A shows some
tolerance to the disease.”
Growers suspecting grey leaf
spot infection in their fields should
contact their county extension
agent or a independent consultant,
Dr. Edmondson says, to confirm
the disease’s presence before
making management decisions.
weighing
, f
Smith Harvesters Products, Inc.,
offers the advantages of finely
ground high-moisture grain with
precise automated weighing for
users of continuous flow,
automated feeding systems.
The new product, called the Wa-
Matic, is specifically designed for
use in smaller dairy and swine
production operations.
It combines into one efficient
unit two Harvestore system
products, the grain weigher and
thehanunermill.
The new unit may be set to weigh
and grind a pre-selected quantity
of high-moisture grain. It offers all
the advantages of the well-known
Harvestore system Wa-Ro-Matic
with the capacity of ham
mermilhng, rather than rolling,
gram.