P2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 1984
DRYDEN, NY - The an
nouncement that Peter Comerford,
livestock grading specialist for the
State Department of Agriculture
and Markets, will now be working
full time in beef marketing
highlighted the quarterly meeting
of the Beef Council of the New
York Beef Cattlemen’s
Association.
The meeting was held at Tom
pkins-Cortland Community
College and was attended by
county directors and committee
chairmen of the state-wide beef
organization as well as by mem
bers of its executive Beef Council.
The marketing proposal which
received final government ap
proval was developed by the New
York Beef Cattlemen’s
Association, Cornell University,
and the Department of Agriculture
and Markets. Comerford will work
LIVESTOCK
LATEST
Cornell offers t
UNIVERSITY PARK - A recent
article by S.E. Ackerman and K.
Keshavarz, of Cornell’s Dept, of
Poultry and Avian Science,
discusses the problem of calcium
separation in layer rations.
Appearing in the Ontario Egg
Producers’ Marketing Board
newsletter, the report notes that
the separation of calcium in layer
feeds was observed to occur in all
phases of the feed-handling
system.
Separation of calcium in feed
storage bins was found to result in
variations of between 1-2%
calcium during a typical three to
four day feed-out period. Calcium
separation in mechanical feeding
equipment was found to result in
calcium levels of between 4.5% to
over 9%. The higher levels of
calcium may have been an ac
cumulation of finely ground
limestone over a period of many
days. Samples of feed taken
directly from 11 farm mills had
calcium levels averaging 4.7%
with some samples having levels
as high as 5.2%-5.4% calcium.
While inadequate calcium intake
affects the production per
formance, excessive calcium
intake could impair the production
performance by reducing the
palatability of the diet or by in
terfering with utilization of other
nutrients. Consequently, while it is
extremely important to provide
the laying birds wiht adequate
levels of calcium, both over and
uncer consumption must be
prevented.
The delivery of a high-quality,
nutritionally balanced ration to
every hen in a laying house is not
small task. A feed manufacturer or
farmer can mill a feed that is
exactly right. But by the time this
feed is augered into a poultry
house and dragged 500 to 1000 feet,
and every bird along the line pecks
over the choicest particles, there
may be little resemblance to the
feed delivered to the farm. The
separation of feed ingredients
including calcium is going to oc
cur. The further it is moved and
the more it is agitated, the greater
Comerford announcement highlights
primarily with the marketing of
feeder calves and fat cattle, and
will work with beef cattle
producers, marketing agencies
including the organized New York
Beef Cattlemen’s Association, as
well as with local livestock auc
tions, and with packing houses. He
will work both to strengthen
existing marketing systems and to
develop new alternatives. Much of
this work will be done on a one-on
one basis between Comerford and
the producer.
“Marketing is one of our major
concerns. We need both as an
organization and as an industry to
be doing a better job for the beef
cattle producers across the state..
This new program should do much
to help die individual producer
select the best market for his cattle
and to market these cattle at the
optimum time,” explained Allen
ps on calc
the separation. Unless a feed is
pelleted, some separation will
occur, but even pelleted feeds are
not immune to some separation as
pellets are crumbled.
Because of some calcium
separation in augers, transfer
distances should be kept as short
as possible. In addition, augers
should be kept in good repair to
reduce vibrations.
When air delivery is used, a
distributor or baffle should be used
in the top of the bin to cause the
feed to drop into the center of the
bin.
Farms that mill feeds from high
calcium concentrates have a
couple of options for reducing the
separation of calcium. One option
is to purchase a high-calcium
concentrate in pellet form.
Another is to substitute a part of
the ground limestone with oyster
shell or coarse ground limestone.
There is a consensus that large
particles of calcium are less in
clined to separate. Also, some
consideration is being given to the
use of low-calcium concentrates in
Penn State to host
Poultry Conference
UNIVERSITY PARK Applications are now being accepted for
enrollment in Penn State’s Poultry Sales and Service Conference
scheduled for April 10 and 11.
Registration begins at 9 a.m. on Tuesday in the lobby of the J.O. Keller
Conference Center, and sessions run until 4:15 p.m., with lunch scheduled
for 11:30 to 1:15, and the Poultry Products Smorgasbord scheduled for 7
p.m. at Mountain Acres Lodge.
Wednesday’s seminars begin at 8:30 a.m., with the morning’s last
presentation at 11 a.m. All meetings will be held in Room 402-403 of the
J.O. Keller Building Conference Center.
Cost of the two-day event is $45.00 payable in advance or at the time of
registration. Preregistration is encouraged, and the remittance, payable
to The Pennsylvania State University, may be mailed to: Agricultural
Conference Coordinator, The Pennsylvania State University, University
Park, Pa. 16802. Phone: 814-865-9547.
Lodging is available at the Nittany Lion Inn, adjacent to the Conference
Center, and reservations may be made by contacting the Inn at 814-237-
7671.
Council meeting
Beef
Peterson of Jamestown, president
of the New York Beef Cattlemen’s
Association.
Comerford who has been with
the Department of Agriculture and
Markets for 25 years will continue
to be based at Cornell. Specific
requests for marketing assistance
and more information may be
obtained by writing him at
Morrison Hall, Cornell University,
Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 or by calling
him at 607/256/7712.
The Beef Council approved
participation in efforts to secure a
marketing order that would lead to
a state-wide Beef Check-Off. The
New York Beef Cattlemen’s
Association is working closely with
the New York Farm Bureau to
initiate this Check-Off.
Representing the cattlemen on this
project the Jean Shwartz of
Earlville, Harold Maynard of
EC
ium rat
milling feeds and then metering
the calcium into the ration as it is
augered into the poultry house.
One option used by farms that
mill feeds is to mill only enough
feed to last about one day. While
some calcium separation occurs in
the feed handling system, there is
probably less day-to-day fluc
tuations in the amount of calcium
consumed by a flock.
Since hens will pick out the
larger particles of calcium and
other ingredients, there is a ten
dency for these birds to consume
excessive levels of calcium. To
reduce this opportunity, feeders
should be operated at as high a
speed as possible. If the feeder line
is exceptionally long or if the speed
of the feeder cannot be increased,
surge bins may be located at the
half-way point in the feeder line.
One of the most important
management practices to avoid
excess levels of calcium due to
separation is to force birds to clean
up the feed once each day. When
attempting this procedure, be sure
some birds are not unintentionally
restricted.
ng
ion
The greatest response to the
poultry manure resulted from the 5
ton/acre rate of application. (This
response was similar to the ones
obtained with beef and swine
manure.) The next increment of
manure (ie. the 10 ton rate) gave a
10.4 bushel increase, while the 20
ton rate only increased yield
slightly.
It is of interest to note that the
response to 5 tons per acre of
poultry manure was slightly
greater than the response to
commercial fertilizer when 50
Ibs/acre each of N, P 205 and K2O
were applied (117.9 vs. 113.7
bushels/acre). While the com
mercial fertilizer gave a wor
thwhile response when added to
five tons of poultry manure, the
responses when 10 or 20 tons of
poultry manure were applied were
quite marginal*.
Campbell, Donald Patterson of
Perrysburg, Allen Thompson of
Hunt, Henry Bono of Rich
mondville, and Don Swartz of
Nichols.
A membership drive will be
conducted again this spring and
will be coordinated by the
promotion committee. Council
members voted to hold the annual
meeting in January, 1985 in
Syracuse.
The videotapes of the bulls on the
Study confirms value
of poultry manure
UNIVERSITY PARK - A ten
year study conducted by C.S.
Baldwin, of the Ridgetown College
of Agricultural Technology, from
1972 to 1981, was aimed at deter
mining the effect of beef, swine
and poultry manure, with and
without commercial fertilizers, on
the growth and yield of com.
The study also explored the
levels of phosphorus, potassium,
magnesium and pH as a result of
these treatments. The poultry
manure used was fresh caged
layer manure, from a unit cleaned
out approximately every four
weeks.
Rates of application of five, ten
and twenty tons/acre were com
pared with a control plot receiving
no manure and no chemical fer
tilizer. Plots with poultry manure,
Nutrient value of manures researched 1972-81
ST -
Kind of t '
Manure N PjOg KgO Mg Ca
lbs/ton
Beef 11.4 6.1 14.2 2.1 5.6
Swine 18.0 13.8 9.0 3.2 10.4
Poultry 33.3 33.8 11.8 4.7 51.6
•-represents the 10-year average
This table confirms previous
work indicating the relatively high
value of cage layer manure, and
also the fact that it contains
relatively low amounts of
potassium but high quantities of
calcium (residue from calcium in
the diet). The dry matter level
renorted is about that of fresh
Effect of poultry manure, fertilizer
on corn yield, 1972-1981
Rate of Application
(Tons/acre)
bushel/acre
75.3 113.7
117.9 129.6
, 128.3 134.0
130.5 133.0
* indicates that N, P 205 and K2O were each applied at 50 Ibs/acre
Another important consideration
New York Bull Test which is co
sponsored by the Beef Cattlemen’s
Association were shown during the
meeting. Peterson said anyone
wishing to view the tapes may
contact his county Cooperative
Extension office.
County directors were en
couraged to develop county beef
groups and to assist the
Association in their respective
counties with membership,
promotion, and other projects.
with and without commercial
fertilizer at 50 Ibs./acre of N, P3OO
and 500 were included, along with
plots naving no manure and two
different fertilizer treatments, one
with only nitrogen and one with all
three chemical nutrients.
The manure was applied in late
fall and plowed in immediately.
The commercial fertilizers were
applied in spring. Because of the
long term nature of the trial, a
wide range of planting dates (May
11-28) were experienced, while
harvest dates varied from Sep
tember 24 to October 22. Annual
rainfall varied from 31.95 inches to
43.60 inches over the 10 year
period.
The average nutrient value of
the manures used are shown in the
following table.
manure; manure from high rise
situations or units where some
natural drying takes place before
the manure is removed might show
higher dry matter values.
The ten year averages for the
com yield response to poultry'
manure and/or commercial fer
tilizer are summarized below.
Commercial
Fertilizer
50-50-50*
None
when repeated applications of
manure and repeated single crop
cultures are involved is the change
in soil nutrient levels over time. As
might have been expected, the
effect of poultry manure at the two
highest levels (10 and 20 tons/acre)
with or without commercial fer
tilizer, gave rise to phosphate
levels that were classified as ex
cessive. On the other hand,
potassium and magnesium levels
were relatively unaffected either
by poultry manure alone or in
combination with commercial
fertilizer.
Somewhat surprisingly, the pH
(acidity level) in the soil seemed
unaffected by the manure of fer
tilizer applications. This is sur
prising in view of the high levels of
calcium found in the original
manure, but we must assume that
the natural breakdown
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Dry
Matter
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