AlB-Lancast«r Farming, Saturday, February 22,1986
Heifer raising - a new angle , synchronisation and tie stalls
BYJOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
EAST BERLIN - Call it what
you like: mass mating, timed
insemination, breeding by ap
pointment. Whatever the label, a
breeding technology developed for
the beef industry can be a positive
dairy management tool, given the
right set of circumstances.
At least that’s the way the
Rodman Thompson family sees it.
The Thompsons operate a 62-
head milking herd on East Berlin
Road, near the western York
County border. This has been home
for Jane, Rod and their children
since May of 1959, when they
moved their 26 milking registered
Holsteins away from development
pressures in Bucks County.
The farm they had been renting
there belonged to the Duchess of
Luxembourg. Core Creek flowed
just fifty yards away in the valley,
spawning the name Core-Dale,
etched in a giant stone in the barn,
for the farm. Thompsons had kept
their Holsteins in the barn that had
originally housed a Guernsey herd.
But post-war urban sprawl, in the
form of Levitown, was en
croaching on the area’s farmland,
and eventually the Duchess’ estate
went underwater. Today, this farm
lies under the lake of the Core
Creek Recreational Park.
After farming for about twenty
years in York County, Thompsons
had the opportunity to expand
acreage with the purchase of an
adjoining property. They were
somewhat crowded for heifer
and the tie-stall barn
that came with the purchase of
fered adaptable heifer housing.
Oldest son, Rod, Jr., was milking
his own strmg of cows, daughter
Rod Thompson and daughter Shirley Trimmer demonstrate
the method of inserting estrus synchronization hormone
implants in heifers. Implant goes in the back of the ear.
Snow let a wintry look to the pasture and farmstead at the Rod Thompson family’s
Core-Dale farms.
Shirley and her husband Larry
Trimmer were raising their family
in a new home between the two
farms and Roy, the youngest,
planned to join the family business
after high school graduation.
Along with raisng her own
family, Shirley had maintained an
intense interest in the family herd.
She opted to take charge of the calf
and heifer raising end of the dairy
operation at teh second barn, with
Larry lending a hand as needed in
his time at home away from his off
farm job.
But a move of Rod, Jr.’s milking
herd into the second tie-stall bam
and a burst of heifers from the
Core-Dale coincided to stretch the
freestall-tvpe facilities to the
seams at the home farm’s heifer
pole barn.
“That was creating a crowaea
condition and they weren’t where
they could be as easily watched; I
couldn’t spend as much time ob
serving them as I wanted to,”
Shirley relates.
When they ran across an article
on heifer estrus synchronization, in
a Select Sire publication, the
Thompsons were initially skeptical
of the idea. They related the idea to
their local Atlantic technician,
Charlie Greist, who encouraged
the family to investigate the
technique a bit further.
After a bit more education on the
method through a representative
from the CEVA Laboratories,
originators of the Syncro-Mate-B
technique, Thompsons decided
they liked what they were hearing:
animals could be at any stage of
their estrus cycle; they could be
easily be timed to freshen tor the
critical milk-base setting period;
plans could be arranged well
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ahead of time for the day’s extra
help that would be needed for the
implanting; all calvings should
also fall within a reasonably short
length of time.
Shirley is quick to emphasize one
point: “This heifer management
tool; it suited our needs at a par
ticulartime.”
That need was ten heifers in
ching past the Thompson preferred
breeding weight and age. They aim
to breed heifers at 17 months and
freshen no later than 27 to 30
months, earlier with exceptionally
large, growthy individuals.
On hand for the first implant
procedure were not only the CEVa
rep, but breeding technician
Greist, and plenty of family hands
to round up, corral and lend
assistance. While it required
perhaps a few extra hours of labor
at the time, Thompsons still see the
method as time-effective, com
pacting the work load into a few
hours, rather than individual
heifer chasing for endless days.
Catch chute, clippers disin
fecting solution and brush and
sterile syringes were among the
list of supplies on hand to make the
implanting work smoothly.
Cleanliness is emphasized from
beginning to end - even the
recommendation to use fly control
sprays if the implanting takes
place during fly-prone weather
The implant resembles about a
three-fourth-inch piece of clear
plastic breeding rod, with a clear
yellow insert in the center - the
synchronizing hormone progestin
Using a special syringe-like tool,
the implant is inserted just under
the skin in a clipped, sterilized
area on the back of the heifer’s, ear.
The slight bump of the implant can
be felt when it is properly in place.
Insertion of the implant was
followed with a two c.c. injection of
a hormone mix of additional
progestin and estrogen.
Nine days later, the implant was
removed. Hormones were
dissolved, the tiny capsule outer
shell had softened, and could easily
be removed from beneath the skin.
Within 48 to 54 hours, the Thomp
sons were to expect the first signs
of heat. “We actually started to
observe signs of heat even a little
earlier than that,” according to
Shirley.
In the interim, matings had been
carefully selected, and the
coinciding heats even allowed for
splitting of semen units Rod, Roy
and technician Greist all assisted
with the insemination procedures
Five of the ten heifers settled on
the first service. The remaining
five all conceived on the second
service.
All calved normally, within time
spans of five days of the due date
None lost a fetus, and six of the ten
had heifer calves
“But we still prefer to breed on
natural service,” Shirley em
phasizes again “This is a
management tool If we needed to,
we’d synchronize again. It offers
the genetic advantage of selecting
proven A.I. sires for heifers, rather
The Thompson family gathers in their tie-stall heifer raising
facility: from left are Shirley Thompson Trimmer, Tammy,
Roy, Jane and Rod Thompson, with Chad and Amy Trimmer
up front with a four-legged friend.
Cold Springs Tony Delight accepts a hay handout from
Chad and Amy Trimmer. The two-year-old will freshen shortly
and sell at the young cow and bred heifer sale of the Penn
sylvania on Parade extravaganza the last week of March.
than breeding them to a barnyard
bull.”
Use of that tool at Core-Dale
hasn’t been necessary, however
The second stall barn is again
availalbe for heifer raising, and
the Thompson family is sold on the
benefits of tie-stall care for
yearling and bred heifers.
Tied each day in the stalls,
heifers become familiar with the
routine. After morning feedings of
corn silage, clover-timothy hay
and fifteen-percent protein gram
mix, they’re turned out for pasture
exercise, and to facilitate stall
cleanup.
“Tie stall care allows for more
individual attention, better health
care, feeding according to weight
and need,” says Shirley. An added
bonus is that when they freshen,
they’re accustomed to coming into
stalls and being tied.” And, with
Chad and Amy Trimmer often in
the barn while their mother works
with the young stock, these hiefers
soon become used to voices, toys,
and people moving among them
Estrus cycles are charted on the
heifers starting at 14 months of
age, with heat detectors put on
individuals scheduled to display
heat signs. Monthly herd checks
keep track of individuals to watch
and conception successes, flagging
silent heats and reproductive
problems before they become
critical
Wilson appointed Ag Deputy
HARRISBURG - Gov Dick
Thornburgh has announced the
appointment of Kirk R. Wilson,
former deputy executive assistant
to the governor, as deputy
secretary in the Department of
Agriculture
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“This administration has been
well served by these very com
petent people in the past, and I am
confident that they will continue
their records of outstanding public
service in their new positions."
said Thornburgh, in announcing
several executive promotions
The extra care being paid to
replacements is already paying
off.
“Our two-year-olds are
averaging two thousand pounds
more now than our heifers used to
in their first lactation,” affirms
Jane. A few of the most recently
fresh heifers put orf DHIA testing
are milking over 80 pounds daily,
with none below 65-pounds-per-day
production.
Thompsons see this as a step
toward their long range goal of
both improved genetics and in
creased individual production.
Long-term goal at Core-Dale, says
Jane, is to up their present 62-head
average of 16,300 and 600 fat to the
20,000-pound area on 50 head, to
provide a desired income level for
the families involved.
Showing and merchandising get
their share of attention at Core-
Dale Their 1986 show schedule
opened with a debut at the Farm
Show, and summer shows are
already penciled on the calendar
Headed for the March 28 Penn
sylvania On Parade Holstein sale
at Harnsburgh is a growthy two
year-old, due to freshen this week
Sired by Mars Tony, she’s from a
herd favorite, a Very Good, 22,000-
pound Conductor daughter of the
noted Cold-Springs Star Codec
cow. an EX-92-2E Ivanhoe Star
bred and developed by Marylander
Marlin Hoff
Wilson, who was elected mayor
of Carlisle (Cumberland County)
last November, is a former radio
and television reporter in
Harrisburg and spent three years
on the staff of the House of
Representatives He also has
worked for the Governor’s Energy
Council and the Governor’s Press
Office
In his new position. Wilson will
be responsible for the bureaus of
Marketing, Farm Show and
Agricultural Development.
He will be paid an annual salary
of $45,000