D2—Unostw Farming, Saturday, Hovtmber 17,1984
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Walter Club Calf Sale set Friday
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
AIRVILLE - Remember
Annette Walter’s 1983 Farm Show
champion steer, which topped
previous farm show steer auction
records at $l2 per pound?
Some of “J.D.’s” half brothers
are among the sales listing for the
Walter Family Club Calf Sale, set
for Friday, November 23, at the
Shady Lane Dairy Sales bam in
Quarryville, beginning at 7 p.m.
This is the sixth year that the
Donald Walter family of Airville
R 2, has assembled a collection of
top-quality spring calves,
especially geared toward use as
project animals by 4-H and FFA
members. Assisting with the sale
will be Walter’s wife Marianne,
and daughters Brenda and An
nette. In addition to a sizeable
following of local supporters, this
sale draws buyers from as far
away as Tennessee.
“It started as a hobby,” claims
Walter. “You have to love to do
this, to take this gamble.”
The show success rate of
animals from this sale is im
pressive. Three of ihe top four
entries in the recent October
county beef roundup were pur
chased at last year’s auction. They
included Yorker Jenni Druck’s
champion, the reserve of Red Lion
member Mary Godfrey, and John
Eaton, Jr’s., top placing
heavyweight and contender for the
championship. Eaton’s animal
additionally had won both the 4-H
fair and York Fair top award, over
another sale-mate purchased by
Donald Godfrey, Red Lion, the
reserve winner.
Earlier, at the May premier
show, another Walter sale selec
tion earned championship honors
for Dover 4-H’er Ed Livingston,
placing over the second-high Eaton
entry. Walter, a veteran beef
KILE's 'Golden Fleece'
PIIREBEP FflßAißs.Ch’ & FFCFS *
Truman Calvert of Calvert Farm, Spraggs, Pa. had the first
place exhibit of five fleeces at the Keystone International
Livestock Exposition. The Merino Fleeces were judged on
individual merit and uniformity of type, stable length and
character of the combined exhibit. Calvert also raises
Cheviots, Shropshires and Dor sets.
<o\ r:
Club calf sale preparation means plenty of hours spent in
clipping and fitting. Donald and Marianne Walter admire the
lines of one of the Angus calves taking its turn in the grooming
chute.
producer with a practiced “eye”
for cattle selection, favors animals
of crossed purebred lines,
primarily Angus and Chianina.
“The Angus puts on thickness,
and the Chianina cleans up the
front ends and gives a little more
size and growth,” is his evaluation
of the success of that combination.
The majority of this year’s sale
individuals originated on the same
West Virginia cattle ranch which
produced the now famous
York insurance executive Art
Glatf elter put the steer shown by
Annette Walter, in her final years
as a 4-H’er, on the record books
with bis $l2 bid.
Selection for the annual sale
begins about the second week of
September. In picking his sale
choices, Walters insists on calves
with good width in the back end,
and cleanness of the front aid, for
growthiness and show potential.
After several years of selecting
and observing the raising of his
own youngsters’ project animals,
Walters has definite ideas about a
rookie member’s first calf. Prime
consideration, he advises, is the
animal’s temperament.
“Buy a quiet calf,’’ he ad
monishes. “It’s better for an
inexperienced, small youngster to
have a good, quiet calf, even if it
doesn’t show at the top of its class.
After all, what good’s a champion
if you can’t handle it?”
Observe the calf before the sale,
if at all possible. Notice if the
animal seems relaxed, and if
people can work around it. And,
most important, watch the eyes, he
suggests. If a calf just watches,
follows a person’s every single
move, beware. It may have a
skittishness that might never be
completely tamed.
In three days, Walter figures he
can generally tell a calf s basic
KILE's top feeder calf
Champion feeder calf at the Keystone International
Livestock Expo was exhibited by Pat Barker of Barker
Brothers, Kendallville, Ind. The Angus-Chianina crossbred
calf was out of the Chi bull Ironio.
KILE FEEDER CALF SHOW
CROSSBREDS AND PUREBRED STEERS
OF OTHER BEEF BREEDS
Pens of Five Feeder Steers
I Robert Sherwood WV 2 Michael McClintic
WV 3 Oldfield Cattle Co MO
Champion Pen
Robert Sherwood WV
Reserve Champion Pen
Michael McCiintic WV
CROSSBREDS AND PUREBRED HEIFERS
OF OTHER BEEF BREEDS
Pens of Five Feeder Heifers
I Messick Farms PA 2 Brown s Ranch Inc
PA
Champion Pen
Messick Farms PA
Hog performance really boils
down to two items - environment
and genetics. Because of the
animal welfare issue, researchers
have been taking a closer look at
the environmental end of hog
production. And they’re not just
asking questions like, “How fast
did the pigs grow?” and, “How
much feed did they eat?” They’re
also studying stress factors in the
blood, or the immune system to see
how these things are affected by
confinement. Here’s a sample of
some recent experiments.
Tethers, Stalls
Or Hogs
Does it stress a sow when you put
her in a gestation stall? And how
long does the stress last? Scientists
at the U.S. Meat Animal Research
Center in Nebraska used cortisol,
blood component, to measure
stress. On the first day of {he
penning arrangements, they found
levels of stress to be highest in
tethered sows. Sows in open pens
had the lowest cortisol levels,
while those in gestation stalls were
somewhere in between. By day
three cortisol levels had dropped in
all groups. And by day eight, there
were no differences in cortisol
levels among sows regardless of
how they were penned. So tethers
and stalls do seem to upset
sows-but they apparently adjust
in about a week.
Forced Exercise
Researchers at the University of
temperament, depending on how it
has settled down after being
haltered and acclimated to being
around people.
Calves going through the
family’s club calf sale will weigh
inthe 375-550 pounds range, and
will be basically halter broken.
“Feed to grow them,” is this
expert’s advice on raising a top
calf. That includes a ration of
(Turn to Page D 4)
Reserve Champion Pen
Brown $ Ranch Inc Gettysburg PA
Grand Champion Pen of The Show
Robert Sherwood WV
Reserve Grand Champion Pen
Michael McClintic WV
SINGLE FEEDER CALVES
350 to 495 tbs Lightweight
1 Robert Sherwood WV 2 Workland & Cattle
Co PA 3 Stanßoadcap VA
500 to 650 lbs - Heavyweight
1 Barker Bros IN 2 Highview Farm OH 3
LynnKyger VA
Champion Feeder Calf
Barker Bros IN
Reserve Champion Feeder Calf
Highview Farm OH
Guelph decided to take a second
look at how forced exercise might
affect farrowing performance.
You’ll recall a similar study in
Georgia where forced exercise
provided only limited benefits to
sows.
The folks in Canada, however,
showed there is some merit to
exercising sows. By forcing a sow
to walk a mile and a quarter a day
from breeding until day 108, they
found that sows farrowed faster.
And fewer pigs died before
suckling. A significant number of
non-exercised sows took more than
12 hours to farrow, whereas all the
exercised sows farrowed within 12
hours.
Artificially Raised
Pigs
Scientists at Kansas State
compared two methods of raising
newborn pigs- on the sow, or
artificially reared after the second
day of age. After three weeks, sow
reared pigs weighed 12.6 pounds
compared to only 6.1 pounds for the
artificially reared group. And just
as bad, the pigs weaned at two
days had only a half-normal
capacity for generating white
blood cells. So their ability to fight
disease was severely impaired.
The argument against artificial
rearing gets even stronger wheig
you consider that many sow*
weaned at two days won’t cycle;
and most won’t settle. '
Tnnriag Back The
Thermostat At Night
The University of Nebraska
decided to see what would happen
when the nursery temperature was
turned back at night for four-week
oid weaned pigs. During the day,
researchers maintained two
nurseries at 77 degrees. But at
night one nursery was kept at 68
degrees, and the temperature was
reduced two more degrees each
subsequent week.
By doing this they saved 31
percent in propane costs and 20
percent in electricity costs. Pigs in
die reduced temperature scheme
grew an average of 10 percent
faster than those in the con
ventional group. Feed efficiency
was similar for both groups. No
pigs died in the control group
compared to 1.6 percent in the low
temperature group.
Using Fat To
Reduce Dust
Scientists at the University of
Nebraska, in two studies, used a
high-fat diet to reduce dust leveb
in a finishing house. Compared to a
normal com-soy diet, the ration,
containing 5 percent tallow,
reduced aerial dust by 49 percent
and settled dust by 29 percent. In
the first study lung lesions in the
control group were more severe
than those in the high-fat group (63
percent vs. 39 percent). The in
cidence of abnormal turbinates
(an indication of rhinitis) was
about the same in both groups.
Pigs receiving tallow grew seven
percent faster on 10 percent less
feed. So despite its higher costs, fat
seems to provide a lot of benefits.
These experiments and others
like them give us a lot of in
formation. Some of these answers
aren’t the kind we like to hear
since they could add fuel to the
animal welfare fire. But the
animal welfare question is like
many others. You can’t make the
right decisions witnout good hard,
data.