D2-Lancaster Farming Saturday, May 24,1986 226 Head Registered for NW Keystone Junior Beef Classic MEADVILLE - Ron Boales, beef extension specialist at Ohio State University, will judge the Northwest Keystone Junior Beef Classic at the Crawford County Fairgrounds tomorrow. In the breeding classes 114 animals have been entered to compete for $lOOO worth of trophies. Entries have been received for the following breeds: Angus, Charolais, Polled Hereford, Shorthorn, Simmental, Limousin, Franklin SHIPPENSBURG - For southcentral Pennsylvania 4-H’ers eager to start the show season, one of the year’s first opportunities takes place at the Shippensburg Fairgrounds next Saturday, May 31. The event is the joint beef and market lamb preview show sponsored by the Franklin County 4-H Baby Beef Club and the Keystone 5 Star Livestock Association. Both shows are open to 4-H members only, with the beef show getting underway at 10 a.m., and the sheep show starting at 1:30 p.m., or at the conclusion of the Fall Direct Marketing Program CORNING, N.Y. - Although New York beef cattle producers are just finishing the spring calving season, they are being urged by Direct Marketing Coordinator Lee Kraszewski to “plan now for fall marketing.” Kraszewski, who is charged with implementing and conducting the New York Beef Cattlemen’s Association statewide program for direct marketing of feeder calves this fall, is continuing the informative phase of the program. “We plan to direct market quality feeder calves in October and November but producers who are in terested in participating will Tulsa To Host Nat'l Polled Hereford Juniors KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Sooner State will be opening its doors to junior Polled Hereford breeders from across the U.S. in mid-summer. Tulsa, Okla., will be the center of activities as the host city for the I3th Junior National Polled Hereford Heifer Show and Forum, July 20-24. There will be an abundance of activities at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds for all members of the family, with the main event being the heifer show on Wed nesday, July 23, through Thursday, July 24. Steve Radakovich of Earlham, lowa, will be the lead judge for the Junior National, and serving as associate judge will be Belted Galloway, Chianina, and commercial. In the steer show, 112 entries are scheduled to compete for the $2OO and $lOO grand and reserve champion prizes. Steer classes will be divided by hip height. Divisional champion and reserve steers will receive a rosette. The 226 head of cattle will be shown by approximately 130 exhibitors. Many exhibitors will arrive today to prepare for Sun- Co. To Hold Baby Beef, Lamb Preview Shows* beef event. The steer show entry fee is $5, and premiums will be paid on the first five placings, as well as for the champion and reserve. There will also be four showing and fit ting classes by age groups. Members from Adams, Cum berland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry, York and Washington County, Maryland are invited to enter their steers and sheep. The sheep show entry fee is $2.50 per lamb, and premiums will be paid to exhibitors of the champion, reserve, and first five placings. Three age groups will be featured NY Cattlemen Prepare need to start getting ready now,” Kraszewski said. He added, “the emphasis will be on quality and this means calves will have to be castrated and dehorned this spring in order to qualify for the pre-conditioning requirements.” The New York Beef Cattlemen’s Association received a $30,000 grant from the State Department of Agriculture and Markets to develop and implement the direct marketing program in order to provide a competitive marketing alternative for the state’s beef cattle industry. Kraszewski said, “direct marketing programs have consistently returned more dollars to producers than Bill Tufts of Hillsboro, Texas. There will also be a Hereford/Polled Hereford steer show at 1 p.m. on Thursday. Highlighting this year’s Youth Forum will be keynote speaker Faye O’Dell of Kansas, Okla. He is a coach and counselor for the Cookson Hills Christian Home, and was previously coach and athletic director at Perry High School. O’Dell combines humorous anecdotes with highly motivational messages addressing national and spiritual values. The Forum will be held Monday afternoon, July 21. The National Junior Merit competition will be the highlight of the week for a number of out- day’s show and take part in the judging contest. The judging contest starts at 2 p.m. and is open to all livestock judging teams and individuals interested in judging beef cattle. The various breed associations will have display booths to promote their breeds. The Pa. Beef Council Queen along with the Pa. Polled Hereford Queen will assist in awarding prizes. The program is open to the public. in the sheep showmanship and fitting contest. For information on the beef show contact Leon Lebo, 717-597-2176, or 597-2618, evenings. Entries should be payable to Franklin Co. 4-H Baby Beef Club and mailed to William Reagan, 191 Franklin Farms Lane, Chambersburg, Pa. 17201. Entries for the sheep show will be accepted until 11 a.m. on show day and may be mailed to Loretta Berkheimer, 1321 W. Lisburn Rd., Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055. Make checks payable to Keystone 5 Star Livestock Association. they would receive by marketing their calves in traditional means- i.e. weekly livestock auction sales.” Kraszewski will, in the next weeks, be making personal contacts with ‘feedlot operators and buyers in Pennsylvania, Virginia and the midwest to deter mine their needs as to volume and quality. This information will enable him to assemble feeder calves at times and in areas to meet buyer demands. Cattlemen interested in this program of direct marketing are asked to write Lee Kraszewski, RDI, Box 120, Coming, N.Y. 14830 for guidelines and information. standing youth being honored for their achievements. In addition, officers and directors for the National Junior Polled Hereford Council will be elected. Other special activities at the Tulsa Show will include a livestock judging contest,. speech, scrapbook and beef bowl competitions as well as team and individual showmanship contests. For more information on the 13th Junior National Polled Hereford Heifer Show and Forum, contact the American Polled Hereford Association Youth Department, 4700 East 63rd St., Kansas City, Mo., 64130 (816) 333-7731. Fleece Day scheduled In Berks Co. WOMELSDORF - Wool will be the watchword at the second an nual Fleece Day and Sale scheduled for June 7 Amazing Acres near Womelsdorf. The event gets underway at 10 a.m., with craft demonstrations and displays of fleece and sheep that will be offered for sale. A sheep shearing demonstration is Recognizing Feed Problems How often can you blame production problems on the feed program? Not too often. Deficiencies in health, en vironment or management cause most problems in a hog operation. But occasionally, the feeding program is the culprit. When it is, I have found that feed problems fall into one of these categories: Low Feed Intake Even though this one’s a little hard to believe, inadequate feed intake is a common nutritional problem. For example, you might house sows in partially slatted pens and feed them on the floor. You provide the recommended 18 to 20 square feet per head, but it’s difficult to spread the feed out enough to provide the same amount of feed for each sow. So you have some sows getting only two or three pounds of feed each day. Feeding stalls are an effective solution but they’re also expensive. A cheaper answer is interval feeding. Feed twice as much every two days or three times as much every third day. When the “boss” sow gets her 10- or 15-pound share, there’s enough left for the timid sows. Except during the coldest times of the year, this scheme does a nice job of keeping sows uniform.,.. Feed intake in the farrowing house can be a problem too, especially during hot weather. Commercial drip coolers are a good investment. I’ve even seen effective drip coolers that were made from Mi-inch black plastic with a small hole over each sow. Holes can be made in the plastic line with ear tagging pliers. Constructing enclosed hovers for the baby pigs will also let you lower the farrowing house tem perature during the cooler months. That will help increase sow feed intake. Market hogs can be short changed on feed intake. The empty feeder is an obvious cause, but a full feeder with clogged holes will have the same effect. The waterer has to be working, too. Hogs without water will stop eating within a few hours. Moldy Feed It’s no secret that moldy feed can cost you a lot of money. When the mold toxins are high in con centration, the results are easy to see swollen vulvas, prolapsed rectums, feed refusal, vomiting or abortions. But there could be just enough of the toxins present to cause losses that aren’t so obvious like slower rates of gain or lower feed efficiency. If you discover a mold problem, the best alternative is to get rid of scheduled for noon, with carding machine demonstrations running from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wool dying with natural dyes will also be featured. Amazing Acres is located in Berks County, four miles north of Womelsdorf on Route 419. For information call Debbie Mikulak, 215-589-4023. the moldy ingredient. If that’s not practical, dilute the moldy ingredient with uncontaminated grain. Use only clean grain for gestation feeds. Two aggravating things about moldy grain: 1) The grain may look and smell normal, but stiU contain mold toxins. 2) Moldy grain can sometimes be diluted to as little as 100 pounds per ton, and still cause problems. Not Following Directions Most commercial feed com panies provide adequate levels of nutrients in their supplements and premixes when they’re added at the recommended amounts. If you add 30 pounds of premix instead of the usual 50, the cost per pound of rain will be higher even though the cost per pound of fttd will be lower. The mistake we see most often is when producers make gestation feed with com and supplement. Most companies require a mineral pack in addition to the com and supplement. Leaving the mineral pack out will save a few bucks, but it also shortchanges the sow on some critical minerals like calcium, phosphorus and selenium. As a result, the sow may not cycle or settle normally or she may have increased incidence of mastitis. Low Supplement Levels Even when feed is mixed properly and according to direc tions, deficiencies can occur. For example sows should get 18 grams of calcium and 14 grams of phosphorus each day. If you’re feeding five pounds per head per day, that translates into .8 percent calcium and .6 percent phosphorus. If you’re feeding less than five pounds, these per centages should be increased. That’s where some companies fall short. Vitamin E is another nutrient that’s often short, in my opinion. Many feed companies will match NRC guidelines for vitamin E, but little more. Increased storage time, pelleting, or molds can have drastic effects on vitamin E. Why? Because it’s antioxidant. It acts like a preservative. So it’s the first vitamin to go. The symptoms of vitamin E deficiency are endless white muscle disease, mastitis, gut edema, stomach ulcers just to name a few. How much vitamin E should be added’ For gestation, prestarter and starter diets, 20,000 to 30,000 I.U. per ton. For grower and finisher diets, 10,000 to 15,000 I.U. will be adequate. At these levels, you’ll spend a little more for some good insurance. Biotin, another vitamin is often supplemented at low levels, or not at all. Limited research is showing improvements in production when sow diets contain 400 mg of biotin per ton. That costs less than one penny per sow per day. Summary When you suspect a nutritional problem, check for obvious things like low feed intake and mold symptoms. If it seems more complicated than that, don’t hesitate to ask the Extension Service for help. That’s why we’re here.
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