VOL. 31 No. 33
Water, Water Everywhere...
v**
But Dairymen Who Equate Quantity with Be Up The Creek
BY JACK HUBLEY
LITITZ Water. As übiquitous
as cable TV and K-Mart. But, like
much of what eminates from the
picture tube, a lot of nature’s
perfect drink isn’t fit for con
sumption.
Unfortunately, technology
creates the illusion that an
inexhaustible supply exists. A
twist of the wrist and there it is,
tumbling into the kitchen sink at a
few gallons a minute.
And even when our tap water has
been rendered unpalatable by
chemical purifying agents, the
illusion persists. For less than a
dollar a gallon we can have the
really good stuff delivered to our
door
Just how much longer the bottled
water generation will have it so
good is anybody’s guess, as
America flows ever closer to the
brink of a water crisis. According
to historian Charles Bowden, in
terviewed in a, recent issue of
People magazine, the Ogallala
aquifer “will be commercially
Somatotropin In Second Lactation Of Testing Program
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
KENNETT SQUARE - To
publicize the research to date on
bovine somatotropin the
University of Pennsylvania, School
Of Veterinary Medicine invited
members of the national press and
television to an m-barn conference
here Monday.
The research trials conducted at
the Pennsylvania veterinary
school as well as in Kentucky,
Minnesota and Ohio are under the
direction of Dr. William Chalupa
and funded by the universities and
American Syanamid Company.
These research trials are now into
the second lactation of the test
cows to determine the response of
National Press conference in the cow barn at New Bolton Center
Four Sections
useless in a few decades” if
current consumption rates con
tinue. A huge natural reservoir
underlying six western states from
Texas to South Dakota, the aquifer
is being depleted at the rate of 21
million acre feet per year. Its
natural regeneration rate is only
about one million acre feet an
nually.
Unless we somehow learn to
manage our liquid assets in a more
intelligent manner, 25 percent of
the planet’s usable water will be
unsafe by the turn of the century,
according to the National Wildlife
Federation.
While this may bode ill for
humanity, it’s even worse news for
our dairy cows Lending new
meaning to the label “heavy
drinker,’’ a mature Holstein,
Brown Swiss or Ayrshire will
consume about four pounds of
water for every pound of milk
produced, depending on a number
of variables such as forage
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the product. Dr. Chalupa pointed
out that the name bovine growth
hormone that has somehow
emergd as the common name for
the product is a misnomer.
“Somatotropin is not really a
growth hormone at all, but a
protein from a strain of amino
acids,” Dr. Chalupa said. “To
obtain the product requires a
fermentation process where you
put the gene from a cow into a
bacteria. The bacteria grows and
the gene expresses the
somatotropin.”
Administering the somatotropin
is not techinically difficult,”
Chalupa said. “When I look at the
respones of production and in
creased feed efficiency. I think it
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 14,1586
Since installing a water treatment system the Good farm has noted an increase in mil
production, as well as a decrease in problems such alffobteot jpd twisted stomachs.
will be a very cost effective
product.”
“I have absolutely no reser
vation about the safety and
usefulness of this product,” he
said. “If I would have had any
doubts at all, you (the press) would
not have been invited here. I think
the small dairyman will be the
most able to use the product. The
small dairyman with a tie-stall
operation of 40 to 50 cows being
handled by the farmer and his
family can go down the line of
cows and administer the
somatotropin in a matter of 15 or 20
minutes.”
“The final production cost of the
product has not yet been deter
mined. But my own estimate is
that the cost will be between 10 and
20 cents per cow per day. It is an
ideal cash flow unput into the
farming operation. The product
shows an increase in milk
production within a few days after
the first somatotropin has been
used. The farmer is going to get an
immediate two to one return on his
investment.”
“The galactopoletic (increased
milk secretion) action of
somatotropin has been known
since 1937,” Chalupa said. “Until
recently, somatotropin was ex
Dairy Industry Leaders
Hear Penn State Proposal
BY EVERETT NEWSWANGER
Managing Editor
HARRISBURG - Because the
National Dairy Promotion and
Research Board has invited
academic institutions to submit
applications for support for the
operation of a dairy food research
center, a meeting of Penn State
faculty with dairy industry leaders
was held here Thursday in the
Agricultural Building. The
meeting was called to give Penn
State personnel the opportunity to
present their preliminary work on
a proposal and receive support and
input from the dairy industry into
the development of the proposal.
Dr Manfred Kroger, professor
Department of Food Science,
made the presentation for Penn
State showing the many un
dergraduate, graduate and
research programs that give Penn
State excellent facilities and
programs already in place as a
basis to compete for the new
center. “We need to pull out our
$8.50 per Year
traded from pituitary glands of
slaughtered cattle. Little material
was available and it was ex
pensive. With the development of
recombinant technology, sub
stantial amounts of somatotropin
now are available for ex
perimentation.
“We began investigating lac
tational responses to somatotropin
in 1983. Initial studies with
pituitary somatotropin were for
periods of three weeks at different
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uniqueness,” Kroger said. “We
want to present a strong proposal
And the main resource we have is
our people. As we look to the
future, we want to expand and
stabilize the base of the dairy in
dustry. This will give us a shot in
the arm at Penn State and will give
us a tremendous opportunity to
show our commitment to the future
of agriculture.”
Kroger listed the Creamery as
one of the unique features at Penn
State. The ice cream and frozen
desserts program will highlight the
presentation according to Dr.
Kroger. “We have done great work
m this area and want to be
recognized for it," he said. "We
want to receive some funds to
maintain and expand these areas
This can be instrumental .n
making milk more palatable to the
public in a psychological sense and
will eventuallj sell more milk
Dr. Joseph A O'Donnell, vice
president Dairy Research
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