C4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 30,1984
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* - Busipess
if By
Newton Bair
FEED bills too high?
Why are my feed bills so much
higher than my neighbors? The
most obvious cause is that I don't
have enough on hand, so I’m forced
to buy more. But the real cause, if
you look deep enough, is that I
have not bothered to plan ahead in
my cropping system, purchases of
grain and supplements, or ad
justing my needs to the available
supply. So the only cure for my
high feed costs is to take less profit
out of the business.
I’d better look beyond the ob
vious cause of the problem for
what I can do to prevent it in the
first place. If my constant shortage
of feed is forcing, me to owe more
and more to the feed mill or the
bank, I’m fighting a losing battle.
There must be another cause of the
problem that I can do something to
correct. It starts with good plan
ning.
PLAN FARMING SYSTEM
The most successful Dairy
Managers I know plan their whole
operation with a high degree of
predictibility. The easiest way to
do that is to do as many things as
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possible that are under your
control. No, you can’t control the
weather, or prices, or many kinds
of accidental freaks. But you can
control or at least guide the
production or acquisition of feed
crops to satisfy the needs of your
herd. You can also control total
feed needs by adjusting the
numbers of cows and heifers to be
fed. Base your long range plans on
the things that you have the most
control over.
Take the high cost of Protein
Supplements, for example. This is
one place where it pays to grow as
much of your own protein as
possible, rather than buy it. Six
tons of alfalfa per acre will
produce a dry matter equivalent of
around 2400 pounds of protein.
Com for silage on the same land
will produce approximately 1200
pounds, or only half as much. Corn
for grain will produce only about
630 pounds, or only about one
fourth as much protein as alfalfa.
Of course, you need the high
energy at low cost that com silage
can provide, but once the needs for
energy are calculated and supplied
Available with electric or gaso
line power and a complete line
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INC.
by your crop system, plan to grow
as much protein as possible, rather
than excess com which might be of
questionable value on .today’s
market. Even a fifty bushel crop of
soybeans can provide nearly twice
the protein per acre that com will.
Production costs should be
monitored close enough to make a
comparison of the cost of growing
your own with the cost of mill
supplied protein.
Another way of controlling your
own destiny is by timely contract
or purchase of production items,
including feed. A shortage that is
anticipated in the fall can often be
corrected by purchasing the crop
from a neighbors’ field at harvest
time prices. Be a good negotiator.
Take time to accurately estimate
the potential yield and value of a
field before striking a bargain with
your neighbor. It doesn’t need to be
a steal to be a good buy, but it
should cost you less than you would
have to pay later on when supplies
are tight and the market high.
TOO MANY REPLACEMENTS?
How many heifers should you be
feeding? The average dairy
replacement rate is between 20 and
25 percent per year. A good ratio of
heifer replacements to milking
cows is about one heifer under two
years old for every two milking
cows.. When nature gets too
generous with heifer calves, it is
only natural that you want to keep
every critter that comes along. But
when the heifer barn is jammed
with beef and you are buying high
priced feed to keep them, they may
never pay for it. Make sure that
every heifer raised has the
potential for raising the level of
production in your herd.
The cost of feeding a heifer is
high. A Holstein heifer calving will
cost between $lOOO and $l2OO for
feed alone. If much of her feed is
purchased, the cost will run a lot
W June is W
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~° f like pen room, labor and of course
raised carefully weighed the real potential for profitable
against the total feed supply as production H e
well as the other obvious things
Land improvement workshop set
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - A land
improvement contractors
workshop sponsored by the
Schuylkill Conservation District
will be held July 12 at the new
Schuylkill County Fairgrounds
located next to the Penn State
Campus, Rt. 61, Schuylkill Haven.
The workshop is being coor
dinated with the Schuylkill County
Fair Association and the Penn
sylvania Chapter of the Land
Improvement Contractors
Association (LICA). LICA
equipment operators will be
demonstrating excavation
equipment donated from some
major equipment manufacturers
including Caterpillar and John
Deere.
Demonstrations will contribute
to necessary improvements in
preparation for the 1984 Schuylkill
County Fair. The demonstration
will include excavation work to
construct a midway area, water
diversions, vegetated waterways,
stone-centered waterways, surface
Dairylea , Eastern
share services
SYRACUSE, N.Y. Two major
northeastern, dairy cooperatives
have concluded agreements under
which each will produce a service
for the other.
The announcement was made
jointly today by Clyde E.
Rutherford, president of Dairylea
Cooperative and Earl Forwood,
president of Eastern Milk
Producers Cooperative, both
headquartered in Syracuse.
Dairylea will merge its member
supply program into a similar but
larger operation run by Eastern.
Dairylea members will be able to
order by mail a wide variety of
food items, including some
Dairylea products. Eastern’s
Dairy Division trucks will deliver
the items on specified dates to
announced locations where pur
chasers will pay for them and pick
them up.
Some non-food items such as calf
starter and certain sanitizing
chemicals are also available.
Eastern’s Dairy products division
is completing work on a major
warehouse and retail store com-
We have the right size,
weight, shape, price
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DEALERS IN<
drainage drop inlets and sub
surface drainage pipes for soil
erosion control.
Other related manufacturing
companies will be demonstrating
equipment and contributing
materials. These companies in
clude Atlantic Construction Fabric
Inc. demonstrating several types
of erosion control and road
building fabrics; Advanced
Drainage Systems Inc. (ADS)
demonstrating subsurface
drainage tile and road culvert
installation; and Finn Corporation
will put the finishing touches on the
projects by demonstrating a
hydraulic seeding. Hydraulic
seeding is a system of placing
grass seed, lime, fertilizer and
mulch in one operation. Finn
Corporation will also demonstrate
a mulch spreading machine for
spreading straw on hay mulch.
Contractors or township officials
interested in attending should
contact the Schuylkill Con
servation District at 622-4957.
plex in Canton, Pa., which will
open late this summer.
Eastern members will be able to
subscribe to the top-rated Blue
Cross/Blue Shield/Major Medical
plan administered by Dairyleas'
wholly-owned subsidiary, Agri-
Service Agencies Inc. The plan,
includes a million dollar Major
Medical entitlement, uniform
coverage and economical rates
throughout the Eastem-Dairylea
member area and has been rated
as one of the best administered
plans in the nation.
In 1983 the Agri-Service Agen
cies plan paid out $7.8 million in
benefits. During its 14 years in
operation it has paid out ap
proximately $6O million for the
medical expenses of subscribers. A
New York state Workmens
Compensation Group plan and life
insurance will also be available to
Eastern members.
“We’re delighted with the
arrangement,” Forwoodsaid. “We
can do a great deal more for our
members by working together
where it is mutually beneficial.”
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