A2B—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 19,1981
Good breeding ,
By Ann Miller
DOYLESTOWN - In 1973, under
the supervision of - James Me
Caffree, the Delaware Valle>
College registered Holstein herd
mixed with a few Brown Swiss
climbed to the top of the Buck* Co.
DHIA with a herd average of 16,665
pounds of milk and 680 pounds of
fat. Their registered Holstein herd
has remained number one in the
county since that time.
In the years that followed, the
college added registered Ayrshir.es
and began testing the three breeds
separately, laying the groundwork
for even better within-breed herd
management.
Remarkably, in 1981, not only
was the DVC Holstein herd number
one in milk and fat with .20,579
pounds of milk and 742 pounds of
fat but their Brown swiss herd was
second in fat in the county and the
top small Brown Swiss DHIA herd
in the state in both milk and fat
with 17,073 pounds of milk and 740
pounds of fat.
The DVC herd was started on
DHIA testing before 1945. Richard
Smith, a DVC 1968 graduate, took
over as superintendent of the herd
in the late 19605. He conquered
mastitis, breeding, and feeding
problems and laid the ground work
for excellence in the breeding and
feeding programs. Smith heavily
used Osborndale Ivanhoe and
Greyview Skyliner in the Holstein
herd. Later, under the
management of James McCaffree,
Round Oak Rag Apple Elevation
had a big impact when used on the
Ivanhoe daughters and grand
daughters.
Presently, the DVC herds are
being managed by James Harner
who has continued the breeding
program with selected sires.
Holstein first-calf heifers are
coming to milk with good type and
production sired by Marvex, Jet
Stream, and Jerry.
Student participation on
breeding program research in
fluences the selection of service
sires. The DVC breeding program
objectives include using top bulls
in the country to improve but
terfat, production and sound,
functional type. The present new
herd replacements are offspring of
Jemini, Creek, Milestone, Sooner,
Elmer, and Valiant.
In April 1981, the Ayrshire herd
was awarded a trophy by the
National Ayrshire Breeders Ass’n.
for having the highest milk
production for Ayrshire herds of 5 -
14 cows. The DVC Ayrshire herd
average 16,828 pounds of 4 percent
milk in 303 days and was the third
highest Ayrshire herd in the nation
regardless of herd size.
The foundation Ayrshire cows
were donated in the early 1970 s
from Rolling Hill Farm, Laneway
Farm, Va., Pine Lake Farm, N.Y.,
Reidina Farm, Ardrossan Farm,
Camille Lyden, a senior who hails from Rosedaie. Md.
DVC's current highest producing Brown producing her current lactation.of 21,128 weighs out the grain to feed the cow she is individually
Swiss is DVC LOA Mickey, VG 88, who is pounds of milk, 997 pounds of fat on 351 days. mans jing for a year.
Crystal Spring Farm, N.H.,
Delchester Farm, and Meredith
Farm, Ma. Albi, Hi-Kick, and
Commander Star have been the
dominant sires used in recent
years.
Approximately 60 percent of the
A.I. duties are shared by herdsmen
David Douglass and Larry
Queripel. The remaining 40 per
cent is handled by local A.I.
technicians. The younger cows are
bred back about 60 days after
calving, however the older,
heavier producing cows are bred
closer to 90 days post calving.
Hamer contributes much of the
DVC dairy herd’s success to the
feeding program. All forage is
tested to provide a balanced ration
for each individual cow. Each cow
gets separately weighed amounts
of Agway 32 percent Pro-Right
grain and high moisture com in
accordance to the cow’s stage of
lactation and production needs.
Grain is fed three times daily. Com
silage is fed m the morning, alfalfa
haylage is fed at noon and hay is
fed in the evening. Hamer at
tributes the successful production
of the herds to the production of
quality forages, managed by Larry
Hepner and George Gross.
The DVC dairy is maintained for
the purpose of teaching with the
philosophy that the students should
work with the best quality dairy
cattle. The success of the dairy
program depends on the input of
many people. The daily tasks could
not be completed satisfactorily
without the help of the students,
many of whom arrive with no dairy
experience.
Freshmen and sophomores at
the college have courses in basic
sciences. The dairy science
juniors learn management with
emphasis on dairy techniques for
success, which stresses skills in
animalhealth including injections,
dehorning, calving assistance, and
culture work to determine types of
mastitis. Students also learn the
basics of feeding, milking and
proper record keeping.
Each Senior has the opportunity
to select a recently fresh cow and
develop her individual feeding
program by balancing the amount
of grain, forages and supplements
for three months of her lactation to
maximize income over feed costs.
This year, the Senior class has
been experimenting with amounts
of buffers (magnesiumoxide and
sodium bicarbonate) to add to the
grain and will be recording its
effects on butterfat yield.
DVC has an excellent calf
raising record with a 95 percent
success rate. Someone always
tries to be in attendance at calving
time.
The calf is fed two quarts of the
dam’s colostrum immediately and
is maintained on colostrum milk
feeding are keys to DVC dairy herds
for 5 to 6 feedings. Calves are
raised from day one to three
months in individual calf hutches.
They are fed whole fresh milk in
the quantity of 10 percent of their
body weight per day until they are
weaned at 8 to 12 weeks.
At three months, they are moved
to inside group pens housing two to
five calves each. They are fed
Agway T.C.R. (Total Complete
Ration) along with hay until 10 to
12 moi)ths of age, at which time
they are taken off grain, moved to
a different barn with an outside
exercise lot and fed hay and silage.
They are kept on this no grain
feeding program until 2 weeks
before they freshen at an age of 25
to 26 months.
The excellent calf raising record
enables DVC to participate' in
selling of animals for breeding
stock. Most animals sold go as
bred heifers, but occasionally they
will sell an open heifer or a milking
cow.
Most animals culled are
removed from the herd for
breeding and health reasons. Other
culling, Harner explains is
necessary due to limited space
available. Careful consideration is
given to the value of the cow with
respect to the depth of the
pedigree, the cows production and
functional type when determining
those to be culled.
DVC consigns occasionally to
sales. A DVC Astro Annabelle
daughter sired by Monitor was sold
in the 1979 Pennsylvania Holstein
State Convention Sale for $6,000.
One o! the reasons DVC keeps'
topping the county DHIA is that 5
of their Holsteins produced over
30,000 pounds milk, 2 of these were
DVC barn complex is the home of the highest producing
herd in Bucks Co., a title they have helcf for 9 consecutive
years.
first and second in the county for
milk during 1981. DVC Capsule
Duchess produced at 6.3 years - 305
days -31264 M -934 F and in 365 days
-35040 M -1067 F. Their second
highest cow as DVC Astro An
nabelle 2 E 91 who produced at 8.0
?*A' *
' i.*'-
tV ' „ ,
James Harner, superintendent, left, and
John Plummer, chairman of Dairy Husbandry,
right, point out the excellence in mammary of
this EX aged Holstein. Both Harner and
Plummer are also part cf the dairy husbandry
faculty at DVC.
years - 305 days -30332 M -1015 F
and in 365 days -33877 M -1146 F.
DVC’s current highest producing
Brown Swiss in DVC LOA Mickey,
VG 88, who produced at 8.0 years -
305 days -19596 M -922 F and to date
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