B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 5,1981
Are foot baths, coveralls & boots in poultry’s future
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
BIRD-IN-HAND Will foot
baths, coveralls and boots become
everyday working tools of Lan
caster County poultry operators?
They could and likely should,
according to a poultry professor at
the New Bolton Center of the
University of Pennsylvania.
Prefacing his belief by the
statement that it would probably
be considered as another ivory
tower dream. Dr. Robert
Eckroade, associate professor of
poultry pathology, told a group of
Lancaster County poultry
operators that the baths, clothing
and boots could become very in
strumental in helping to prevent
spread of disease among flocks.
“If I was investing as much
money as you are spending on
birds, I know they would be among
the items I would consider,’’ Dr.
Eckroade said.
He went on to explain that on a
recent trip to Ghana, West Africa,
he traveled quite far into the in
terior of that protein-starved
nation to its largest poultry
operation. And to get on the
property, he had to use a footbath.
And incidentally, chickens sold
for $2O apiece and eggs for 62 cents
apiece. (What would that do for the
locally depressed industry?)
The measures to help prevent
the spread of poultry diseases were
just one of many topics discussed
by the New Bolton staff member at
the session Monday night at the
Bird-in-Hand Restaurant.
Also speaking briefly at the
Farm Business
News
Beacon Milling award
At the Annual Marketing Conference of The Beacon Milling
Company, Inc., held at Wells College, Aurora, N.Y., Aug. 5- 7,
a 30-year Service Award was presented to Chester C. Wiest,
right, S & D Area Manager in the York-Adams Area. Cer
tificate is presented by President Wilbur L. Townsend. Wiest
was also presented with a diamond service pin. He and his
wife Betty, reside at 313 Blue Ridge Dr. York, Pa.
Roth gets Breeders post
KANSAS CITY - Harry Roth,
Operations Director, Atlantic
Breeders Cooperative, was elected
vice president of the National
Association of Animal Breeders at
its 35th annual convention recently
in Kansas City, Mo.
Roth, who has been a member of
the board of directors for four
years, will serve a two-year term.
The convention delegates, in
cluding both management and
directors of artificial breeding
organizations around the United
States, were challenged by Kansas
Governor John Carlin to become
more active politically.
dinner meeting sponsored by
Farm Bureau were various
representatives of that company
and John Hoffman, secretary of
the Pennsylvania Poultry
Federation.
Hoffman held out little im
mediate hope for recovery from
the “worst depressed period” the
poultry industry has ever en
countered.
“I’m accepting more and more
the explanation that we’re dealing
with a new type of economy,”
Hoffman said.
“The public is getting more and
more conservative witff food and
slowing down such purchases.
They’re going back to leftovers.
“The American consumer was
wasteful with the food dollar.
“Our industry is just not ad
justing its production to this new
economy.”
He held out hope that the Reagan
economic program will help.
“But it will be a very gradual
improvement - years in the
making,” he said.
“I go along with the forecasters
palling for 15 to 16 percent interest
rates by the beginning of the year.
“There are good signs the
federal program will work, but it
won’t happen as fast as we might
hope.”
Dr. Eckroade boiled' - down a
poultry disease lecture, which he
said he usually gave to his
students.
He urged poultry operators not
to forget about problems just
because they go away after a time.
Carlin told the group that far
mers must do a better job ot
education and communication and
must learn to be more unified if
they expect results.
Nearly 480 attended the four-day
meeting which included visits to
Missouri dairy farms, as well as a
trip to the Truman Library in
Independence.
Delegates also got a glimpse of
the developing technology for
embryo transfers through a report
by former Pennsylvanian George
Seidel, now with Colorado State
University
Trio of Farm Bureau representatives who Eugene Soliday, nutritionist; Michael Zapach,
spoke to group of Lancaster County poultry general manager; and Clayton Detwiler,
producers this week include, from the left, poultry serviceman.
“Find out what went wrong in
your flock so that it can be
prevented the next time.” he said.
.He explained that the poultry
industry is better at preventive
medicine than both the beef and
pork people, but there is still room
for improvement.
One of the initial areas of con
cern he stressed was the need for a
uniform level of immunity among
chicks even if they come from
different sources.
He also pointed to problems with
vaccination.
“Too many mistakes are being
made in vaccination programs by
farmers who are too busy doing
other things,” he said.
He also explained that if he were
a poultry operator he’d require
•a j
Md. unveils latest wheat variety
Miller, should prove to be a cost of fertilizer, especially
popular wheat in soybean-wheat nitrogen, an important additive few
double cropping systems because higher crop productivity under no-;
of its early maturity date and other till cultivation methods. Visitors
ripgirahlp characteristics. Foun- saw several projects at the Wye
dation seed, produced during 1980- Research Center focusing on
81, will be available through nitrogen sources and rate and time
foundation seed organizations this of application,
fall, and small amounts of crop Soybeans, an ever popular
seed should be available by fall Maryland crop, received con
-1982. Larger amounts of seed will siderable attention from resear
follow in 1983. chers, with 58 varieties tested
An increasing concern m the under varying conditions at the
agricultural community is the high Queenstown research site.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - More
than 1,000 of Maryland’s
agricultural producers and con
sumers saw a broad range of farm
related research activities at the
University of Maryland’s Wye
Research Center last Tuesday.
At the Center’s “Crops and Soils
Research Field Day,” taxpayers
who underwrite most of the
research there, previewed a new,
hardy variety of wheat for
Marlyand farmers; yield and
economic tests of fertilizers;
disease and pest resistance among
different varieties of Maryland
crops; small crop research on
fruits and vegetables; and the use
of small vegetable crops as partial
energy sources to power farm
equipment.
Fifty-two separate research
studies were on parade for the
crowd composed of part-time to
large-scale farmers, agri
businesses, state officials and the
general public.
A highlight of the, day’s activities
was the unveiling of Severn, a new,
high-yield wheat variety that has
undergone six years of ex
perimental research by scientists
for . the Maryland Agricultural
Experiment Station. Severn is the
second Univerity variety of wheat
to be released in the last five years.
With a seven bushel per acre
advantage over Arthur, (currently
Maryland’s most widely planted
wheat variety), Severn promises
early maturity, excellent baking
quality and good disease
resistance, according to James R.
Miller, chairman of the Univer
sity’s Department of Agronomy.
Weighing in at 59 pounds per
bushel, Severn grows to a height of
40 inches, with 29 percent lodging
and 93 percent winter survival
rates, and “headed” over the six
year test period in Maryland on or
about May 12. East of the
Chesapeake Bay, Severn has
shown a slightly earlier heading
date and somewhat higher winter
survival rate.
The Severn variety, according to
«C2 v k it
health records for his incoming “Gunboro is a major problem iA
birds. Pennsylvania flocks at the suil|
“I’d want to know what hap- clinical level, ”he said,
pened during grow-out,” he said. “Good sanitation is better than
He pointed to people as the vaccination.”
principal carriers of infectuous He said that his study has proven’
disease agents into flocks. that gunboro can be decon-
Subclinical diseases, which don’t laminated out of a chicken house,
cause deaths but cut into egg The study also involved gunboro
production and feed conversion, in a nine-house operation in
will become more and more im- Lancaster County,
portant, Dr. Eckroade said. Through the use of a footbath,
He also urged farmers to become boots and coveralls, it was
familiar with posting a chicken to eliminated,
discover the problems in their Michael Zapach, general
birds. manager, explained some of the
Eckroade pointed to a study history of the Bucks-Montgomery
he did concerning gunboro, which Farm Bureau and showed slides of
stressed the importance of its various facilities and services,
sanitation.
Awards were presented to area food merchants by Pa-
Secretary of Agriculture Penrose Halloweli, center, at the
recent 81st annual convention of the Pennsylvania
Association. Clockwise from upper right are Robert
Eshleman, Paradise; Robert Kinsley, Tannersville; Henry
Bomberger, Elm; Elmer Zimmerman, of W.L Zimmerman &
Sons, Intercourse; Richard Hurst, Oregon Dairy Market
Lancaster; and Thomas Zweier, Lebanon'
Food merchant honors