Who or What Determines Your Feeding Program? How is your feeding program developed? Is it determined by you, or by your feedman, the silo man, your veterinarian, your machinery dealer, your loan of ficer, or perhaps by your cropping program, the weather, or by what other dairymen are doing? All these people plus weather, feed and price situations help deter mine how well your herd will be fed and how well your cattle will per form. This business of feeding cows deserves a lot of attention. You should have a well-planned pro gram. It can be designed by you, if you know what you are doing, or by someone else who understands dairy nutrition and is able to discuss feeding programs with you. That is easier said than done, but it is something worth striving for. Be a stickler on details. For ex ample, make sure the cows are ac tually consuming the feed they are Introducing to the Mid Atlantic Area The Nitterhouse Upright Bunker Siler Featuring a single component design for fast erection and completion. The sections bolt together and the tongue and groove creates a sealed wall surface. The sections may be dismantled and re-located, customers may select any length or width in increments of 5 feet 2 inches In addition to silage storage, these upright units may be used as retaining walls or manure pits. MANI 4 ill BUNKI Concrete Products Inc. K| | ttornni Farm Products Division r* I I I l ■ W Box N Chambersburg, Pa. 17201 717-264-6154 Daily Pipeline By Glenn A. Shirk 4 Extension Dairy Agent /* supposed to be eating - correct pounds, the right kind and quality of feed, and fed at the right times and in the right manna:. If the cows are not consuming what is recommended, have the program recalculated. la other words, give the program a chance to work, and don’t let “outside interests” mess it up. A good feeding program needs a good boss - one boss - not a lot of different bosses pulling in a number of different directions. Hut boss can be you, or it can be someone off the farm in whom you have confidence and can trust There are many different ways of feeding cows properly, but the important thing to remember is that some concepts can’tbe mixed. That’s why a feeding practice that works for one fellow may not work for another person who is feeding under slightly different cir cumstances. With a well designed feeding pro gram, a knowledgeable person can decide if other concepts and feeds TONNAGE TABLE FOB 8 FT. SIDEWALLS* 40 WIDE 30 WIDE ||| !>*V V ; 4 >Ol '*\i V J being used by other farmers or be ing promoted by the news media or by salesmen, will “fit” your pro gram. To have a workable feeding program, all the pieces have to fit. A well-planned feeding program has many benefits: it helps you feed the herd properly; it also helps you plan cropping programs, harvesting schedules, how to store and handle feeds, and it helps you to plan your feed purchases. One Loss is Enough Just last week, I observed a good example of good planning in ac tion. The dairyman was interested in putting 141 good quality haylage for his milking herd. He had a seal ed storage unit As you know, the weather does not always cooperate at harvest time; such was the case with him. He wanted to salvage some rained-on alfalfa, Jxit he did not want to put poor quality feed in the sealed unit on top of bis good quality haylage. He already took one beating from the rain damage. He was not about to self-inflict a second beating upon himself by putting in ferior feed into the site. If he did this, he would be forced to pot this power quality feed through his milking cows. The production be would have lost by doing this would have been far more costly than the rain damage already experienced, or even a complete loss of that par ticular cutting! Instead, be decided to press the rain-damaged crop into a horizon tal plastic tube. (Another option would have been to bale it) Now he has the opportunity to manage his feed supply and utilize it to its fullest potential He can handle this poorer quality forage 50 WIDE 00 WIDE *CASED ON LEVEL HU WITH 45 US PER CO FT. separately and feed it to heifers and dry cows. An important word of caution at this point: be certain that any forages you are putting up, particularly those damaged crops you are trying to salvage, have sufficient nutritive value to be fed; even heifers and dry cows - your future producers - deserve something better than junk feed! This is unlike another dairymen I visited earlier this summer whose first cutting of alfalfa got old and stemmy and “went down." To add insult to injury, it also got rained on. The day I was there, he was putting it into a sealed unit. “The cows would eat it better if it was chopped and if it went through a fermentation" he reasoned. True, but how much milk will they produce on it and how will it affect herd profits? I have yet to see any fermenta tion process increase the nutrient content of any feed! Palatability - yes. Digestibility can be either in creased, or decreased with ensil ing, depending on circumstances; so can palatability. If you really wanted to improve palatability of this poor stuff, let it get a little on the dry side so that it heats up and carmalizes during the ensiling pro cess; you’ll drive the nutritive value down even further, but cows will still love it! Control Your Feed Situation It is important to provide yourself with opportunities for be ing able to manage your feed sup ply - to have access to the right land of feeds for the right cows at the right time, so you can utilize all of your feeds to their fullest poten tial. This can pay big dividends in these times of rising costs and Designed to Your Needs_to Yoor Specifications” • Pole Barns • Poultry Houses • Dairy Barns • Horse Stables To help you plan your building and write your own specifications, a professional Snavely field representative is ready and willing to assist you. He can help with everything from selecting the site, determining the size, and drawing the plans, to selecting materials, figuring costs, and scheduling delivery. Snavely's has been doing business lor over 100 years and has satisfied thousands of area farmers. And their factory fabricated panels, walls, trusses, etc. not only make erection easier and faster but also save you considerable money. For a no-charge, no-obligation consultation on your building require ments, phone, visit or mail the coupon below Landisville, PA 17538 150 Main Street 717/898-2241 Lancaster. PA 17603 351 W. James St 717/394-7277 (Type of Building) I plan on building about Name Address City State Phone Number / - Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 25,1951-Dl3 softening milk prices. This usually requires sufficient storage facilities for separating feeds by kind and quality. This is easier to do in a hay mow, where you can stack hay accordingly. However, for silage, you’ll need several silos, stacks, bags, etc. And, that can become costly. The cost and in convenience of this has to be weighed against the added benefits, which can become a big guessing game. Nevertheless, it’s a concept worth exploring. A good feeding program can be a guide to help you plan your feed purchases. As a dairyman, part of your profits are determined by how good a buyer you are. You can follow the example of a young dairyman I visited last year, who had to purchase most of his'feed. He determined how much and what kind of hay he needed and was successful in purchasing a bam full of hay in advance of the winter feeding program and in ad vance his need -at that season of the year when it was early enough for him to be able to be choosy, and when prices were still reasonable. As a result, he had a sizeable quan tity of fairly uniform hay, which be could test and around which be could formulate a balanced radon. In other words, he was in control of his feeding program and the per formance of his herd, at a time when many other dairymen were in desperation and at the mercy of current markets - and market situations can be mighty unmer ciful at times! “This is fine, but I can't afford to borrow money to make advanced SmidySoyt... RM BUILDINGS • Riding Arenas • Utility Buildings • Hog Houses • Cold Storage avely & Sons, Inc. 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