Stornoway BY DEBBIE-STILES RENZI Staff Correspondent LIGONIER-If there was anything else, we’d do it,” says Jim Caims, manager of Stornoway Farms, in Westmoreland county. This herdsman’s confidence is not exaggerated. Cairns has covered all the bases in the registered Red Angus herd he manages, the result being a 45-day breedmg/calvmg season in conjunction with a working AI system. Cairns, and Mrs. Donald McLennan, the owner of Stor noway, place considerable em phasis on performance. The 110 registered Red Angus cows and 35 commercial cows at Stornoway are expected to conceive by AI in a 45 day period, as heifers to calve at 22-24 months of age, and all to wean one calf per year. Artificial insemination is the cornerstone of the operation, Caims says, the ideal way for them to get calves by $lOO,OOO bulls without the expense and worry of buying and main taining these sires. First-calf heifers are bred the first week of May, cows the third. When breeding season starts, the animals are put in groups of about 50 each. Healthy amounts of both grain and corn silage are fed through the breeding season, along with pasture. Marker bulls are used for heat detection. “I will breed for 16 days. Then Dr, Barnett (their herd veterinarian) will come and give any cows that are ready (right stage of estrus cycle) an injection of Lutalyse,” said Cairns. He Manager Jim Cairns gives Field Day participants an overview of the Stornoway Farms operation. Pre pounds a day are sold right then, he told the group. “Preventative health programs are very important for the small herd producer,” says Stornoway herd veterinarian Albert Barnett. Lost pounds due to preven table causes could mean weaning at 400 pounds instead of the more profit-potential 600 pounds. Espy admonished cow-calf producers to invest in a better breeding and pre-conditioning program, for their own financial well-being. -V.'-'* * » *Vi 4 t\ * W • * ♦ * osts ABS-Cattlemen's Field Day “Checking heat is not a passive job,” Deavers told producers at the field day, which was jointly co sponsored by the Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association Penn State, Stornoway Farms, and American Breeders Service. The best way to find out which cows are in heat, Deavers instructed, is to get the cows up, work them toward a corner, and get them close to each other, milling around together. Deavers attributed Cairns’ success with AI to the herdsman’s persistence in checking animals for heat. Another part of the Stornoway success formula is found in owner McLennan and manager Cairns’ refusal to accept anything less than complete adherence to a 45- day calving season. Any cows that fail to calve within that specified time frame are not given a second chance. “We sell those cows before the next calving starts,” Caims said. When breeding is completed, the cows are turned out with the bulls. “Keep it as natural as possible,” advised Cairns. Cows are all given vitamins A and D and Nasalgen prior to calving. They also get Coli-Bac, which herd vet Dr. Barnett reports his eliminated calf scours. Based on birth and weaning weights and other selected criteria, heifer calves at Stor noway are divided into three groups. Top calves are herd replacements or are sold to other breeders as such; the rest become feeder calves, or are auction bound. Elinor McLennan, who with husband Donald McLennan established Stornoway in 1972, credits the Famj’s smooth-running operation to her manager Jim Cairns. She also has high praise for her Penn State University advisor. “One of the best decisions we ever made was asking Dr. Erksme Cash to act as a consultant,” says Mclennan. Cairns agrees with McLennan; “It’s good to know you have someone with the skill and knowledge backing up your management decisions.” Dr, Cash is Professor of Animal Science at Penn State. Cairns’ enthusiasm is obvious as he talks about the farm he’s managed since its establishment by the l3 years ago. “I’ve got good equipment, good animals, good facilities, good help -I have to do a good job! ” f • »v«’« v>Vt **♦•» 4'* MMiudt #‘»V# 4 it it Stornoway relies exclusively on AI service for its herd of Red Angus. Pod* Prose w | 5y *'** f Kenneth B. Kephart Extension Livestock Spec. ' University of Del. A As a protein source for hogs, soybean meal is tou’gh t* beat- Yes, you might find supplements like distillers grains or alfalfa meal that may be cheaper or good sources of vitamins. But their protein will be lower in quantity or quality or both. To get a source that’s superior to soybean meal in digestibility or amino acid levels, you’ll probably need to buy a milk by-product. And that’s an ex pensive proposition. This doesn’t mean soybean meal is perfect. The protein level may be less than that claimed on the tag. Moisture and fiber can be too high. Or the meal can be overheated during processing. Any of these factors, under the right conditions, can affect hog per formance. Three methods exist to process soybean meal-the hydraulic process, the expellee process and the solvent process. Both the hydraulic and expellee methods use mechanical force to squeeze oil out of the beans before processing them into meal. Since the squeeze method is an inefficient one for getting the oil out, these processes are seldom used in this country. In the solvent process, which is typically used today, the beans are cracked and heated slightly. The oil is extracted by a volatile solvent. The residue is then dried and subjected to a final toasting. If the heat (related to temperature, pressure, time and other factors) during this final stage is too low, the trypsin inhibitors will not be Soybean Processing destroyed, protein digestion in the hog will decrease and hog per formance will suffer. If the heat is too high, amino acids could be tied up With the carbohydrates or, even worse, they could be destroyed. Unfortunately, the amino acid that seems to be affected most by heat is the one that’s first limiting in a swine ration-lysine. Checking for Quality How can we test for some of these things? W.L. Vandergnft at the University of Georgia recently reviewed this subject. Trypsin inhibitor levels can be tested in directly by checking for an enzyme called urease. If the urease ac tivity falls between .05 and .20 pH, the soybean meal has been properly processed (.05 is over processed, .20is underprocessed). Does it ever get out of this safe range 7 Reports from North Carolina State University show that from 1981 to 1983, when thousands of soybean meal samples were tested, urease ac tivity was on the increase, but still within the acceptable range. The average urease value for these three years was about .08. Although we should be con cerned about the level of heat during processing, it appears that most processors maintain good quality control during this stage. What about protein, fiber and moisture levels 7 Vandergnft points out that this is an area that’s often overlooked. Listed below are the nutrient levels typically guaranteed for soybean meal. (Turn to Page E 4)