A22—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, march 5,1983
3X milking improves production & health*
BY DICK ANGLESTEIN
LANCASTER - A pair of 3X
milkers from Lancaster County -
one still on the grueling schedule
and another who has gone off -
sang the praises of the triple bam
time on Monday.
J. Kenneth Hershey, Kinzer, and
Robert H. Kauffman,
Elizabethtown, told of their ex
periences during the opening
session of Lancaster Dairy Days at
the Farm and Home Center.
With tongue in cheek, Kauffman
explained one of the advantages;
“It’s nice being in the bam for
the late milking at 10 p.m. and not
having any salesmen come.’’
But both Hershey, who is still on
the 3X schedule since last July,
and Kauffman, who was on it for a
year and a half and now off it for
the past year and a half, admit
there are other definite ad
vantages.
The main pluses are the increase
in production and better herd
health.
The main disadvantage, of
course, is the extra labor
requirement. Their main advice
concerning labor was not to at
tempt 3X milking with the same
number of people who might be
doing the more traditional milking
twice a day.
“It does get burdensome and you
better have extra help,” Kauffman
said.
Hershey added a herdsman
before he went on the triple
schedule.
“We haven’t been sorry that we
went on it,” he said.
“It improved the health. The
main thing was the breeding end of
it, particularly the silent heats.
There was a lot less stress on those
70-lb. milking heifers and the 120-
lb. cows.”
Lancaster Dairy
LANCASTER From fans to
flies and from gams to genetics, a
variety of speakers covered the
gamut of production management
at Lancaster Dairy Days Monday
at the Farm and Home Center.
A full-house audience heard no
less than 10 speakers cover that
many different management
topics.
Here’s a brief summation from
these talks:
Larry Hutchinson, Penn State
Extension veterinarian, outlined a
vaccination program, stressing the
vaccines that most frequently need
to be used and when they should be
used.
The vaccmes he stressed as most
needed are the IBR-PI3, Lepto and
Brucellosis, particularly when
bringing animals into the herd.
Many of the other vaccines are
needed when particular diseases
are disgnosed.
••It’s best to develop a vac
cination program with the vet
specifically for your herd,
depending on particular
requirements,” Hutchinson said.
"Then review and update it
twice a year.”
Robert Graves, Penn State ag
engineer, covered cow comfort.
“Remember, there’s a dif
ference between a distribution
system and a good ventilation
system,” he said.
"An air distribution system does
not manufacture fresh air. ”
Feeding was discussed by
Richard Grdman, dairy
nutritionist from the University of
Maryland.
Erdman cautioned dairymen
may be cutting off their nose to
spite their face if they decide to cut
protein in the ration for short term
savings.
“1 urge you not to look at cutting
protein to save money,” he said.
"Cutting protein intake
definitely decreases digestibility.”
Kauffman echoed the reduction
in stress.
“It’s especially good for those
first-calf heifers,” he said.
“We had some milking up to 100
lbs. a day and there’s not as much
stress.
“I can’t recall one serious case
of mastitis during the time we
were on it.”
Next, panel moderator Glenn
Shirk, Extension dairy agent,
turned to the amount of extra milk
from 3X milking.
Hershey estimated a 15 percent
overall increase and 20 percent
higher among fresh cows.
“We had a cow that always
peaked at about 95 lbs.,’’Hershey
said.
“After she freshened, she’s at 40
or 42 lbs. a milking.
Kauffman explained that when
they went on the schedule other
changes were also made, such as
new facilities and feeding.
“But there’s no doubt that the
biggest part of the increase came
from the 3X milking,” Kauffman
said.
“We were milking about a 17,000-
lb. average before and in ode year
went to over 20,000. Now, we’ve
slipped back to about 18,000 after
going off.”
He further explained there were
having some calving and breeding
problems, which were not related
to the schedule.
Both dairymen went to 3X
feeding, too. Hershey fed the same
total grain but a little more forage.
Kauffman went to total mix three
times a day with a top dressing of
grain to producers over 60 lbs.
Both dairymen said they were
pleased with the 3X schedule -
when the labor requirements can
He said the most basic thing that
farmers can do to be more feed
cost efficient is to unprove their
forage through better harvest
timing.
He leaned toward high moisture
ear corn to use the cob as a fibre
source to improve fat test. As far
as alternate feeds are concerned,
he said a good look must be taken if
they are both nutritionally and
economically feasible.
Reproductive efficiency was
explained by Mike O'Connor, Penn
State dairy specialist.
“If you want to stress one thing
in your breeding program, make it
Panel urges farmers to act on milk surplus
BY DEBBIE KOONTZ
LANCASTER - When the milk
surplus was recorded at 1.7 per
cent in 1979, dairy specialists
became concerned, but as the
percentage increased to last year’s
high of 10.2 percent, the concern
slowly turned to bewilderment
causing these same specialists to
reciprocate with farmers for
answers.
”What are you going to do about
the surplus?” was the question
asked by a panel of seven dairy
representatives at Lancaster’s
Dairy Day, Tuesday, as they
reiterated the same question the
almost 200 dairy farmers gathered
had asked them.
During the morning session,
Truman Graf, agricultural
economist from the University of
Wisconsin,' said everyone’s
responsible. "Everybody is
pointing the finger at everyone
else, but it’s all our problem.”
To support his statement, Graf
pointed to statistics indicating an
increase in dairy cow numbers for
the first time since 1953.
Lancaster Dairy Days panel members for discussion of 3X milking include, clockwise,
Glenn Shirk, dairy agent moderator; J. Kenneth Hershey, Kinzer; and Robert' H.
Kauffman, Elizabethtown.
be worked out. when they came back were greeted “I’m sure glad to see you. I
Hershey explained he and his with these words from their herd- didn’t get anything besides the
wife went on a short vacation and sman: milking'done.”
Days highlight management
unproved heat detection,” he said.
"If you do that, the other things
will fall mime.”
He held up 80 percent as the goal
that dairymen should strive for
- concerning heat detections.
Harry noth, president of the
National Association of Animal
Breeders, outlined the updating of
the genetic base, which will first be
shown m the sire summary m
January, 1974.
"The updating is due to the in
flation that has taken place m the
bull proofs over the past 10 years,
similar to the inflation m the
USDA’s recent Farm Paper
Letter agrees with his statistics,
and says "Though the number of
all cattle and calves on U.S. farms
may be down from five years ago,
dairy cattle numbers are up ac
cording to the annual cattle in
On Tuesday afternoon, Lancaster County Dairy Days featured this panel of dairy
specialists discussing the milk surplus and answering farmers’ questions. The panel
includes from left, Truman Graf, ag economist from the University of Wisconsin: Lynn
Staulbaum, National Milk Producers Federation; Edward Coughlin, director of Ag
Marketing Service with USOA’s dairy division; Henry Geisinger, Pa. Assn, of Milk
Dealers; George Brumbaugh. Pa. Milk Marketing Board; Boyd Cook, Dairymen, Inc.; and
Alpheus Ruth, Lehigh Valley Farms.
dollar." he explained.
Genetic growth has shown about
a 1000-lb. increase smce 1974.
All bulls will go back to zero and
sire summaries will be adjusted
accordingly. Bulls will still be
proportionately. ranked m the
same way but will have lower
numerical ratings. Some of the old
tuner bulls could come out minus.
Cow indexes will also be ad
justed back to a new base.
Linear trait . appraisal was
reviewed by Ronald Long, of Select
Sires.
He explained that individual cow
traits will now just be described
ventory. At 11,066,000 head, dairy
cow numbers are up one percent
from the 10,939,000 recorded in
1978. And that rise is sharper in the
top dairy states.”
A breakdown in the increase of
dairy cattle m the top five states
and not show a preference of one
over another or comparing it to
some fictitious ideal cow.
••This is a step in the right
direction and is just some of what
will be happening in the future in
trait evaluation,” he said.
In other discussions, the dif
ferent types of flies and how to
control them were covered by
Sharon Barnett, of ICI Americas,
and Lancaster Dairy Agent Glenn
Shirk set the stage for the day with
a review of dollars and - sense
decisions facing dairymen in the
80’s.—DA
according to USDA reads thus:
Wisconsin has 1,830,000 head
today, up one percent from the
1.810.000 head of five years ago.
California, which now has
940.000 head, had only 846,000 in
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