DES MOINES, la. - “The best
defense against budget cuts is
program progress,” declared Dr.
Frank Mulhem in calling for
restoration of budget cuts for the
brucellosis eradiction program
and an industry sense of urgency to
get the job done. Mulhem spoke to
members of the Livestock Con
servation Institute at their annual
meeting in Des Moines, lA.
A former head of the USDA
agency which administers the
brucellosis program, Mulhem has
recently retired as director of
animal health for the International
Institute for Cooperation in
Agriculture. In that position he
was the moving force behind the
successful effort to eradicate
African swine fever from Haiti.
His long experience in animal
disease control has embraced
eradication of nine animal pests
and diseases, starting with the
eradication of foot-and-mouth
LIVESTOCK
LATEST
LEESPORT Do you know
what is good or bad about your
wool? Why is your wool sorted to a
lower grade? Wool growers in
terested in learning more about the
quality of their wool are urged to
attend a wool educational evening
on May 1, sponsored by the Berks
County Cooperative Extension
Service and the Sheep and Wool
Growers.
Those attending are instructed to
bring a typical fleece from their
flock, tied with paper twine, to the
Berks County Agricultural Center,
just off Route 183, north of the
Reading Airport, at 6:30 p.m. on
Tuesday evening.
Following is a schedule of
evening events: 6:30-7:00 p.m. -
Enter fleeces into show; milk,
coffee and doughnuts. 7:00 p.m. -
“Producing Quality Wool”, Dr.
Clair Engle, PSU Extension
Animal Scientist. 7:45 p.m. -
Spinning Demonstration; Pick-A-
Way Spinners Sue Hollowbush,
Mama Mac Kay, Shirley Waid and
Carol Holland. 8:30 p.m. - Sheep &
Wool Growers Meeting. 9:00 p.m. -
“Looking at Your Wool", Dr. Clair
Engle. 10:00 p.m. - “Questions and
Answers”
Cost of the evening is $l.OO,
payable at the door.
To register and for more in
formation, call the Berks County
Cooperative Extension Service at
215-378-1327. Producers from
Berks, Lebanon, Schuylkill,
Lehigh, Montgomery, Lancaster
and Chester Counties are welcome,
as Penn State Extension Service is
an affirmative action and equal
opportunity organization.
Also on the Berks County Ex
tension’s calendar is the “On Foot
On Rail” lamb show schedule for
May 14 and 16, at Peter Bros., in
Lenhartsville.
Registration begins at 5:30 p.m.,
on May 14, for the live, on-foot
judging portion of the program,
with judging, by Gail Post, com
mencing at 7; 00 p.m.
A carcass evaluation meeting
Brucellosis problem addressed
disease from Mexico.
USDA and the industry are
sending the wrong signal with
regard to brucellosis eradication,
by accepting cuts such as the one
in the federal 1984 budget for the
program, he said. A cut was
inevitable, but the reduction for
the current year (to $63.5 million
from $77.4 million in 1983, which
represented a major reduction
from the previous year) cut fun
damental portions of the program.
“That budget cut forced
reductions in epidemiology,
depopulation of infected herds and
vaccination,” Mulhem continued.
“The results of such cuts won’t be
seen immediately, but they
automatically lengthen and in
crease the cost of the program.
The taxpayers will pay the price.
We must run a tight ship that
eliminates waste and abuse, but
we must fight for the amounts
absolutely necessary to reach the
>r:
'i
Berks County Extension
hosts two sheep events
will follow on Wednesday evening,
at 7:00 p.m., featuring Penn State
extension meat specialist, Dr. Bill
Henning.
The purpose of this event is to
allow producers to evaluate live
animals, including their own, and
the same animals on the rail. The
event will sharpen producers’
judging eyes, and permit
evaluation of flock sires.
A maximum of 30 animals will be
registered on a first come, first
served basis, with each producer
permitted to register no more than
two lambs. Lambs should be
finished and ready for market. The
lambs will be ear-tagged and put
into three, four, or five classes of
equal numbers, with judging of
live and slaughtered animals being
AAd. Sheep
The Maryland Sheep and Wool
Festival will be held Saturday and
Sunday, May srand5 r and 6, at the
Howard County Fairgrounds, West
Friendship, Maryland, from 9:00
a.m. to 6:00p.m. each day.
At the festival, visitors will be
able to see a number of sheep and
wool-related shows, a working
sheep dog demonstration, a sheep
shearing contest, a fashion show,
spinning and weaving demon
strations, an art and photography
show, and the Maryland Grand
Lamb Cook-off.
More than a hundred craft
speople will be on hand to
demonstrate and sell their wares.
Handmade woolen garments,
handspun yarns, sheepskin rugs
and wearing apparel, baskets,
quilted garments, handmade
soaps, herbs, potpourri, etc. will be
found at the many craft booths.
The 1984 Maryland Lamb and
goal.”
When such basic aspects of the
program are cut “the signal goes
out to cooperators that the com
mitment to the ultimate objective
is in doubt. To overcome the ef
fects of this signal is far more
formidable than the technical
aspects of eradicating the
disease.”
Mulhern recalled that a study
conducted by experts outside
USDA in the late 70’s, when he was
administrator of APHIS, con
cluded eradication was feasible
technically and economically if
accomplished in a certain time
frame, but as that time frame is
lengthened the cost of eradication
becomes greater, and if
lengthened beyond a certain point,
the ultimate objective may never
be reached.
“Eradication in the shortest
time possible will produce the best
cost-benefit ratio. Any
J
done on Tuesday. Animals will be
evaluated on the rail, on Wed
nesday, previous to the evening
meeting.
Ewe, ram and wether lambs will
be accepted, with a minimum live
weight of 80 pounds. Lambs will be
evaluated for backfat thickness,
loin eye areas, overall carcass
quality, carcass grade and yield,
and pounds of carcass per day of
age- .
Entry fee wil be $2 per animal,
and a trophy will be awarded for
champion on-foot and on-rail en
tries.
Entry fees should be mailed to
Clyde Myers, Berks County Ag
Center, Leesport, Pa 19533, no
later than May 1 For more in
formation call' 215-378-1327.
and Wool
Festival begins
next Saturday
Wool Queen will be chosen at noon
Saturday. This -young lady will
reign over the festival and
represent Maryland sheep and
wool producers in related ac
tivities throughout the year.
A sheep-to-shawl contest will be
held starting at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
Here, in the course of a few hours,
visitors can see how the sheep is
sheared, the fleece handspun, and
then the wool woven into a shawl.
After the contest, the shawls will
be judged and then auctioned.
Dishes made with lamb and
other refreshments will be for sale
at the various food booths. Rick
Harbaugh, from the American
Sheep Producers Council will show
how to cut and cook one leg of lamb
to serve at seven different meals.
A Sheep Breeds Display Barn
will have over thirty different
breeds of sheep for the public to
view.
at lowa meeting
modifications to lengthen the
program reduce the cost-benefit
ratio. It Appears the program is in
another crisis area and a critical
decision must be made. The im
mediate challenge is to motivate
those involved to accelerate their
efforts and give the program new
momentum.”
Mulhern, speaking as a private
citizen on the basis of 39 years
experience in eradication efforts,
said: “As a first priority, we need
to get 50 percent of the states
brucellosis-free, which could be
done this year. Next we need to
concentrate on class B states,
while reducing infection in class C
states.”
PPHA
directory
HARRISBURG - The Penn
sylvania Polled Hereford
Association has begun its search
for Pennsylvania breeders of these
red and white beef cattle. The
PPHA will be publishing a
directory of Polled Hereford
breeders in Pennsylvania and
nearby states sometime this
summer.
“We hope to have the directory
ready before some of our Standard
of Perfection shows which are
coming up in August,” comments
PPHA president, John Hausner of
Dover, York County. “We’ve just
gone out with a letter to all of the
cattlemen who have registered
purebred Polled Herefords during
the past two years, asking them to
send in their farm information.”
Hausner points out that all
Pennsylvania Polled Hereford
Angus Association marks
CAB sales record
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - Sales of
Certified Angus beef set an all
time record in March, topping the
one-million pounds mark for the
first month since the program was
introduced in 1978, reports Dick
Spader, executive vice-president
of the American Angus
Association.
The 1.06 million pounds of
Certified Angus Beef (CAB)
marketed in March accounted for
gross sales of $2.75 million dollars.
For the month some 9.273 car
casses were certified at the five
participating packing plants in
Kansas, Pennsylvania, Missouri
and Minnesota according to
figures reported by Mick Colvin,
director of the CAB program for
the American Angus Association.
“Certified Angus Beef is the
fastest growing program in the
American Angus Association”,
said Dick Spader. “Angus beef is
being served in over 50 high quality
restaurants throughout the United
States and in many parts of the
world such as Japan, Hong Kong,
Singapore and the Bahamas. In
addition there is a growing list of
some 100 supermarkets and
quality meat shops that handle
CAB.”
One of the largest single outlets
for CAB is the 48-store chain of
Gristede’s markets in New York,
said Colvin. They just recently
began selling CAB and have
scheduled a special CAB in
troduction celebration for mid-
May.
Other grocery store chains
selling CAB are the 14 Gerlands
stores in Houston, Texas; Shop N’
For further information, contact
Mary Streaker, P.O. Box 135, West
Friendship, Maryland 21794 or
phone (301) 823-4037 or 442-2409.
He noted that some states are
being reinfected through interstate
movement of cattle. “We need to
expose the problems created by
interstate movement of exposed
animals which cause all kinds of
problems in states of destination.”
Referring to a checkoff proposal
by USDA to fund 40% of the federal
contribution to the program next
year, Mulhem commented, “I can
see merit in such a proposal, if it is
feasible. However, there must be
some back-up position if the in
dustry doesn’t accept it, or the
investment and progress -in the
program to date would be
jeopardized.”
to publish
Association members will be
entitled to a free listing in the
directory. Non-members can be
listed for a $l5 fee.
“Our new directory will provide
a compact reference for anyone
looking to buy or sell Polled
Hereford cattle,” adds Hausner.
“It will list farms by name and
owners’ names, and will sum
marize each breeder’s breeding
program. Of course it will also
have vital information on locations
of farms, telephone numbers and
addresses.”
Hausner points out that anyone
interested in having a farm listed
in the directory should contact
Sheila Miller, chairman, R.D. #1
Box 325, womelsdorf, PA 19567 or
any PPHA director. Orders for
advertisements and directory
copies are also being taken.
Bag in Philadelphia; Huff’s Food
Town stores in Nashville; and
Food Town stores in New Jersey.
In addition, Oxford Trading Co.
supplies a group of independent
supermarkets in the Boston,
Massachusetts area, and there are
individual stores and high quality
specialty meat stores scattered
throughout the country.
' The largest single producer of
Certified Angus Beef in the nation
is National Beef Packing Co.,
Liberal, Kansas. In March the
packing plant that has long been a
major outlet for high quality beef
certified 6,465 head of cattle for the
CAB program.
“Most retail outlets who serve
Certified Angus beef sign a con
tract with the American Angus
Association and promote CAB to
their customers,” Mick Colvin
said. “However, some of the top
restaurants in the world are
currently using CAB just to
provide their customers with a
very high quality, consistent
product,” Colvin emphasized.
Strict quality standards govern
the CAB program. In addition to
being from predominently Angus
cattle the CAB carcasses must
meet the following seven
specifications.
1. Have at least modest (average
Choice) marbling.
2. Fall within the “A” maturity
range.
3. Yield grade 3 or better for
Prime and no higher than the mid
point of the 3 grade tor Choice.
4. Have lean within the “fine”
texture range.
5. Have fine to medium marbling
texture.
6. Color of lean must be slightly
dark red or lighter.
7. Meat must be moderately firm
with no indication of softness.