Indiana
Livestock
Homer City, Pa.
Thursday, Dec. 20
Report (applied by PDA
CATTLE: Compared with last
week’s market: SI. steers .50-1.00
lower. SI. cows: fully steady. SI.
steers: Choice 59.5005.00, Good
56.0060.00, Standard 50.0055.00. SI.
heifers: few Choice 60.0061.00,
Good 53.0055.50, Standard 43.00
51.00. SI. cows: Breaking Utility &
Commercial 36.0040.00, Cutter &
Boning Utility 34.00-37.00, Canner
& low Cutter 29.00-34.50. SI. bulls:
Yield Grade 1 13001800 lbs. 44.00
47.00; few Yield Grade 2 10001400
lbs. 39.0042.50.
FEEDER CATTLE: Steers, few
Medium Frame 1400600 lbs. 48.00
54.00; heifers, few Medium Frame
1380650 lbs. 44.00-50.00, few Large
Frame 2 500650 lbs. 38.0042.00.
CALVES: 179. Few Choice 77.00
80.00, few Good 62.0073.00, Stan
dard & Good 90120 lbs. 44.0052.00,
6085 lbs. 37.0046.00, few Utility SO
100 lbs. 22.0035.00; hoi. bulls 90125
lbs. 60.0080.00.
HOGS: 272.1.001.50 lower. US 1-
2 200250 lbs. 50.0051.50; 1-3 200245
lbs. 49.5050.25; Sows 1-3 300550
lbs. 40.0043.00, 2-3 350600 lbs.
39.0040.50; 80ar527.0029.50.
FEEDER PIGS: 27. 5070 lbs.
31.0037.00 per head.
SHEEP: 45. Few Choice 7085
lbs. 60.0060.50; Good 7085 lbs.
55.0058.00. SI. sheep 15.0020.00.
Japanese fungus may
fight
WASHINGTON - A fungus that
destroys gypsy moths in Japan
may be field-tested against the
pests’ tree-damaging American
cousins next spring, a U.S.
Department of Agriculture
scientist said today.
“The fungus is a potent parasitic
killer of gypsy moths in its Honshu
Island homeland,” said Richard S.
Soper Jr., an insect pathologist for
USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service and leader of the fungus
research team.
The fungus - Entomophaga
aulicae - is known to attack only
gypsy moth larvae, Soper said. But
before USDA uses it to fight these
destructive pests, he said,
thorough laboratory and field
experiments must be conducted to
ensure it will not harm beneficial
insects.
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Nov. lamb prices strong, dip slightly at end
DENVER - Wholesale lamb
prices continued strong for most of
November-hitting a record
breaking 16 weeks at |1.35 per
pound. But the last week of the
month, a slight price spread
developed, with a nickel discount
for heavyweight carcasses.
Most of the lambs going to
market at this time of year are fed
lambs, and due to ideal lamb
feeding weather in most of the
country, lambs gained quicker
than usual. This led to bunching,
and packers were unable to keep
up with the supply. Many lambs
had to remain on feed, throwing
them into the heavyweight
category. This overabundance of
heavyweights was more than the
market could bear, and East Coast
wholesalers dropped their prices to
$1.30 per pound for carcasses
weighing 65 pouinds and up. Prices
for carcasses weighing less than 65
pounds remained stable at $1.35
per pound.
On the West Coast, prices started
the month strong, weakened at
mid-month, then returned to levels
comparable to last year’s prices.
Live lamb prices held steady for
most of November, and prices took
off for feeder lambs as they
became scarcer.
U.S. gypsy moth
“Early 20th century Japanese
scientists first reported oh the'
fungus and how it controls gypsy
moths, but it was impossible to
isolate living specimens and
maintain them,” he said. “For
example, a New England en
tomologist collected specimens in
1908, but was unable to propagate
them.”
Soper said today’s biochemical
technology enables scientists to
keep strains of the fungus alive
while they are shipped to this
country for research.
In Japan last spring, Soper
searched for dead gypsy moths
and isolated from them four living
strains of the fungus. The strains
are now thriving in his laboratory
at the Boyce Thompson Institute at
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Middlemeats continue to be in
demand, with loins and racks
topping $4 per pound in some areas
of the country. Because of low
prices for chucks and legs, some
retailers featured front and hin
dquarter meat this month.
Reports from the Imperial
Valley of California and Arizona
indicate 20,000 fewer lambs are on
feed there than usual, despite good
pasture conditions. Other reports
indicate that fewer lambs are on
feed this year in the Midwest,
while more are on feed in
Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska,
Kansas and Texas.
The wool market was quiet for
most of November. Due to the
strength of the dollar, imported
finished products are able to enter
the country at prices well below
that which American mills can
produce. Thus, U.S. mills have had
a hard time generating new
business, but sales of top improved
by the end of the month.
A few loads of fleece wool sold
for $1.40 per pound clean delivered
to the mill. One clip out of Idaho
sold with whiteface staple length
58’s going for $.90, whiteface lambs
wool for $.BO, blackface lambs wool
and aged ewe wool for $.65.
Another clip from Idaho sold for
Soper injected spores from his
collected specimens into native
gypsy moths and got a kill rate of
over 90 percent under laboratory
conditions. A USDA rearing
facility in Otis, Mass., supplied the
gypsy moths.
The fungus lies dormant in the
soil most of its life, Soper said.
After the fungus becomes active, it
releases tiny spores that land on
the gypsy moth larva’s body. The
spores then germinate and bore
into their host to feed and grow,
eventually killing it.
“In Japan, the fungus sweeps
through gypsy moths like a disease
epidemic until the moth population
simply collapses,’’ he said.
Recently, entomologist Mitsuaki
Shimazu of the Forest and Forest
Products Institute, Tsukuba,
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Livestock Nutritional Services
Lancaster Fanniaf, Saturday, Pscsatesr 22,1M4-Al7
$.8186, which was staple ana from Northern Colorado feedlots
French combing 54’s with some moved at $.68.
56’s. The biggest news from the wool
Shearing season is underway in market was the $1 million sale of
the Imperial Valley. About 170,000 choice South Dakota, Montana and
pounds of lambs wool were sold Wyoming wool for export to
were blackface 58/60’s bringing Mexico. The wool included 19 to 22
1.685 to $.71, and wfaiteface 60/62’s micron matchings which were
bringing $.BO to $.Bl. About 56,000 skirted and bellies removed at the
pounds of mixed grade lambs wool shearing pens.
Check coastal zone requirements
NEWARK, Del. - Rural com
munity leaders and state officials
should be aware of their respon
sibilities when using funds from
community development block
grants (CDBG) or urban
development action grants
(UDAG) in a coastal zone area.
According to University of
Delaware extension community
resource development specialist
Daniel S. Kuennan, local projects
involving either type of grant must
comply with their state’s coastal
zone management plan.
“It’s important for public of
ficials to know whether a project is
covered by this plan, since in that
case it must be reviewed by the
appropriate state officials,” the
specialist says.
If the project is in a coastal state
with an approved coastal zone
management plan and impacts on
the coastal area, the proposal must
be submitted to the state coastal
zone management director and a
determination made as to whether
the proposed actions are consistent
with the state’s plan.
“This is one of the respon
sibilities which the federal
Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) passes along
to rural communities which accept
CDBG or UDAG funding,”
Japan, joined Soper for biological
studies aimed at determining the
conditions under which the im
ported fungus would thrive in U.S.
forests. The scientists are using
growth chambers programmed
with environmental conditions that
approximate those of Penn
sylvania, New-York and the New
England states where gypsy moths
are particularly destructive.
According to Soper, the fungus
might someday be used as a
microbial insecticide against
gypsy moths:
OUR
TO
IN 1985
Kuennan explains. “A community
cannot submit a request for
release of funds for either program
until it has received approval from
its state’s coastal zone
management program.”
Coastal waters, adjacent
shorelands, land-ocean areas, salt
marshes, wetlands and beaches
are all covered areas.
“Local officials can usually
breathe one short sigh of relief,
since certain CDBG or UDAG
activities are ‘categorically ex
cluded’ from the National En
vironmental Policy Act (NEPA),”
the resource development
specialist says.
Exclusion from the NEPA
requirements does not mean
automatic exclusion from coastal
zone requirements, however.
“Unfortunately,” says Kuennen,
“there has been some confusion
about these two distinct sets of
regulations.
Although local coastal zone
management plans vary from
state to state, they generally ad
dress development and en
vironmental issues. And by law,
HUD cannot release funds for a
community’s CDBG or UDAG
projects if these are inconsistent
with a state’s coastal zone plan.
“The fungf would be raised in
deep-tank fermentation,” he said.
“Then they would be harvested,
and their threadlike structures -
called mycelia would be ground
into a wettable powder for
spraying over moth-infested
forests. As the powder regained
moisture, it would produce the
spores that attack the pest.”
Technology already exists for
producing microbial insecticides
against such pests as spruce
budworms and leafhoppers, he
said.
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BESI
YOU