>A» —uriwaSrar farming, Saturday, June 30,1984
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Getting Through Summer
Summer can be a challenging
and stressful time for cows - and
man! If the heat doesn’t get you,
the humidity will, not to mention
all those other problems such as:
off feed, mastitis, poor test, flies,
poor conception, etc.
Ideally, cows should have shade
in summer with feed and water
close by. On many farms this
requires that cows be stabled
during the heat of the day. The
problem then becomes keeping the
stable cool and dry and the air
fresh. This requires moving alot of
air.
Open up the barn. Remove side
panels if necessary. Open the ridge
along the full length of the roof
peak. If you are constructing a new
bam, keep the roof and ceiling
high. If necessary, us fa lot of fans
to displace stale air and to create
breezes around the cows. And don’t
forget the feeding area; if you
want cows to eat, the feeding area
has to be enticing, too.
Radiators
Some farmers are interested in
evaporative cooling - sprinkling
roofs, misting, pulling air through
wet filters, etc. These techniques
may reduce temperatures slightly,
but they may also increase
humidity levels in the stable. Thus,
the comfort you gain from lower
temperatures may be offset by the
discomfort caused by higher
humidity. The excess moisture
could also increase the incidence of
serious infections such as coliform
mastitis.
Another alternative to
evaporative cooling might be the
use of radiators. Recently, I’ve
heard farmers discuss this con
cept, but I’ve had no experience
with it in stables - only with cooling
engines. Circulate cows’ drinking
water, or recirculate well water,
through radiators, and pull in
coming stable air over these same
radiators. This may help lower air
temperatures while minimizing
the problem of excess moisture.
However, you will probably have
some condensation on the
radiators. As I mentioned before,
I’ve had no experience with this,
and so I can’t make any guaran
tees. But, if you are in the mood for
experimenting, it might be one
idea to try. I would be interested in
your experiences.
Mastitis
Remember, mastitis organisms,
especially the environmental types
such as coliforms and strep non
ags, thrive in warm, moist, filthy
conditions. These conditions
abound during the warmer months
of the year. Thus, we need to step
up our guard against these types of
infections during these high-risk
months.
One of the best practices is to
keep the cow’s environment clean
and dry - no easy task! There is no
substitute for this! That means
keeping the stall bed and rest
areas clean and dry. These are
areas of most intimate contact
with cows teat end. Also avoid
excessive water to wash udders
and be sure the cow’s udder and
teats are dry before the milker unit
is applied.
Keeping the bam well ventilated
will help keep it drier. This will
tend to reduce the population of
bacteria and other microbes in the
environment and make your job of
preventing mastitis easier.
Then, don’t forget to fence off
that farm pond and those swampy
areas in your pasture. Don’t let
cows wade in water and tramp
through stagnant bodies of water;
if s a good way to pick up coliform
mastitis. For the same reasons, we
want to keep our scrape alleys,
feed lots and rest areas clean and
dry,too.
Another common time for
picking up coliform mastitis is at
calving time. This is true for other
kinds of mastitis infections, too.
You’ve gone to all the effort and
expense of clearing up old in
fections and dry-treating cows;
now, let’s not fall short at calving
time! Provide a clean, dry
maternity area. The best place is a
section of well-sodded pasture
fenced off specifically for this
purpose. During inclement
weather, use a clean box stall that
is lavishly bedded with long straw.
When it comes to preventing and
fighting mastitis, there is no
substitute for good sanitation!
Teat dipping, individual cow
towels, dry treating, machine
maintenance, proper milking
techniques and good cow care are
other important aspects of an
effective mastitis prevention and
control program, but for them to
be most effective, they must be
combined with good sanitation.
All this cleanliness and good
sanitation, if started early enough,
will do a lot to reduce fly problems
too, especially if combined with the
effective use of fly sprays, baits,
etc.
Feeding and Fat Test
It’s difficult to keep cows eating
and testing well during hot
weather. Shade and ventilation
will help.
To support high levels of
production, cows need to consume
a lot of feed. Consuming and
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digesting feed, especially forages,
is work and it increases a cow’s
body temperature. Thus, it’s no
wonder a cow wants to eat less
feed, especially forage, on hot days
- she wants to keep cool.
This presents two problems.
Less feed intake means less milk
produced. The other problem is,
she is a ruminant, and she needs to
maintain minimum forage intake
to assure normal rumen function
and fat tests; good fat tests depend
upon a normal funtioning rumen. If
this cow was a high producer,
chances are, we were feeding her
maximum grain and minimum
forage. So, if because of the heat,
she backs off on her forage intake,
we have serious problems. She is
no longer meeting her minimum
forage rumen activity fat
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s
Commodity Credit Corporation
recently announced further details
of the sale of $9O million worth of
grain to private exporters for
resale to African countries hard
hit by severe drought, Secretary of
Agriculture John R. Block said
today.
The action implements the
announcement made by Block on
May 18.
Block said the Kansas City, Mo.,
commodity office of the
Agricultural Stabilization qnd
Conservation Service has issued an
invitation for offers from private
exporters, listing the designated
countries and the CCC com
modities available for purchase.
CCC will make available for sale
corn, wheat and rice valued at $9O
million at CCC’s acquisition cost.
Exporters will acquire the com
modities on a competitive bid basis
and pay all processing costs plus
the cost of transportation to the
importing country, Block said.
Bids from exporters must be
received in the Kansas City
Commodity Office by 4 p.m.- EOT,
July 13. Successful bidders will be
notified by that office by the close
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tests, and her general per
formance and well being are
quickly affected.
So, on hot days, let’s be sure our
cows are meeting their minimal
forage requirements. If necessary,
reduce grain intake to maintain
forage intake. And, to reduce the
heat of digestion, feed high quality,
easily digested forages; this
should encourage greater forage
intake.
The summer may get hot, but if
we can keep our cool and use our
heads to concentrate on the im
portant tasks of summer
management, we and our cows can
make it. It’s worth a try!
The Extension Service is an
affirmative action equal op
portunity educational Institution.
of business July 18.
Designated countries to which
exporters may sell the com
modities are: Angola, Benin,
Botswana, Cape Verde, Central
African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia,
Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea
Bissau, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Sao Tome,
Senegal, Somalia, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Togo, Upper Volta,
Zambia and Zimbabwe.
To be eligible to receive these
commodities, each country must
agree that purchases under this
program will be in addition to
normal commercial purchases and
existing food aid commitments.
Block said USDA has established
procedures to assure this.
Fifty percent of the quantity of
commodities sold under this
program to exporters will be
shipped on U.S. flag vessels if
these are available at fair and
reasonable rates.
Further information on this
program is available from William
Randolph (202) 382-9254 or Larry
Fuell (202 ) 382-9241, both of whom
work for USDA’s Foreign
Agricultural Service in
Washington.