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<onditioned calves:
beef industry's ‘sure thing'
LIGONIER - “If I know
your cattle are going to gain,
I’ll pay more for your cattle.”
That was the word from
Huntingdon county cattle
feeder J. Paul Espy to beef
producers at the May 18 ABS-
Cattlemen’s Spring Field Day
held at Stornoway Farms in
Ligomer.
“We used to have a little
padding. Now we don’t,” said
Espy, referring to the present
cattle market situation.
Because money is tighter,
cattle feeders say they want
more of a sure thing going into
their feedlots. A “sure thing”
means pre-conditioned feeder
calves: feeders that will grow
and gain without any setbacks
due to disease, injury, internal
or external parasite in
festations.
Put another way, feedlot
managers want well-managed
calves off the farm; which
was why Espy joined Penn
State Extension veterinarian
Dr. Thomas Drake at the
Field Day in endorsing the
feeder calf certification
commented they really didn’t rely
too much on drug-induced syn
chronization.
At a field day recently held on
Stornoway Farms, Dr. Dan
Deavers of Penn State talked on
the importance of accurate estrus
(heat) detection.
“If you want your AI program to
be successful, you’ve got to pay a
lot of attention to detection of
heat,” Deaver emphasized.
Reminding those in attendance
that the only sure sign of heat is an
animal standing to be mounted by
another, Deavers gave the
following recommendations for
easier, more accurate detection of
heat:
1) Check early in a.m. and late
(7-8 p.m.) in evening for animals in
heat. 70 percent of mounting ac
tivity occurs between 6 p.m. and 6
a.m. Cows that stand in the af
ternoon generally have heats of
less than 8 hours.
2) Devote half an hour morning
and evening exclusively for checking
heat.
3) Have cows well identified.
4) Keep good records. Bring
along a pencil and notebook to
write down the numbers of those
observed in heat.
Two of the substances on the
market that mimic the action of
prostaglandin (manufactured
naturally by the cow) and which
can be used by beef producers for
synchronization of estrus are
catalyse and Estramate. Syn
cromate-B, used via an implant, is
another substance used to syn
chronize estrus.
program. The program is seen
by cattle feeders like Espy as
a means to an end - the end
result being access to better
and faster-growing calves.
“I went into the cattle
business to succeed,” says
Espy, who feeds out 2,000 head
each year. Espy explained
how he weeded out the slow
growers from his feedlot by
weighing his feeders about
every three weeks, once
they’d reached 875 pounds.
Those not gaming at least
around 2M> 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)