FahtilNg WttffHiy ,Aiif erst 2,158 S Virginia Cattleman (Continued from Page D 2) tleman AI breeds his six best cows and then has them flushed about every three months. These eggs then go into the percentage host mothers or “recips” and the top cows remain open and can be bred again. “It’s not really as much trouble as AI as far as the labor and all,” Wilson notes. “It’s a busy /week but then you don’t have to worry about it for the next 60 to 90 days.” Eastep’s daughter, Karen, elaborates. “If you were AI breeding, you might have to get two in today, and one in tomorrow, and two in the next day. But by using ET’s on all of the recips, you catch them once, give them a lutalyse shot, watch them while they’re in heat and get them in the day of the transplant. You know when they should be coming in.” The donor cows require more attention, however, alnd it does make for a busy week at Lakeview, Karen admits. “Donors get shots every day starting out with one the first evening and the next day getting two shots for five days, and then ending on the last day with one. Then, after you give them that last shot, they should come in heat a day or two later because they also get lutalyse with the last two shots. Then you AI and seven days later you flush and transfer,” she explains. The shots contain a fertility drug which causes the cows’to super ovulate, Wilson reports. “Each time we’ve averaged right in the neighborhood of 20 good eggs. We try to have about 20 to 25 recips ready and we usually use them all, freezing any excess eggs for later use. We AI breed the next so many best purebreds and then we use the bottom half for recips. So they’re all either being flushed, carrying calves, or are the recips that didn’t catch and will be used the next time.” So far the cattleman has 50 embryo calves on the ground or on the way, and he’s been more than pleased with the results. The costs are high, though. The ET service Eastep uses charges $3OO for the first flush, $250 for the second and $2OO for the third, with a maximum of $750 per visit. Then the cat tleman is charged $250 for each successful pregnancy within 60-80 days. “We figure we’ve got an average of $5OO in each embryo and that’s taking into consideration you lose when you put the eggs into these cows and five or six of them don’t catch. Then you’ve got these cows you’re carrying open for 90 days or more, so you’ve lost two calves you’d have had if you’d bred them to a bull or used AI. We might go up to the bam when the 21 days are up and see them in heat, but you can’t breed them back because that would be a successful pregnancy when the service came back to check.” It’s still worth the cost, Karen Eastep and her father believe. “It has to be,” Karen explains. “In stead of having a $4OO half-blood Lamb To Vote WASHINGTON - Lamb and wool producers will have an op portunity during an August 18-29 referendum to vote on whether' they want the American Sheep Producers Council, Inc., to con tinue its market promotion and improvement program on their behalf. According to Milton Hertz, Acting Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, the agreement to be voted on is similar to one approved in 1982, except it heifer you might have a $l2OO full blood heifer or one worth a little more.” And Wilson agrees. “Even if we get a real nice three quarter bull out of a half-blood, he’s still real hard to sell. If you do get him sold, he might, or might not, bring five cents over market price. But if you can price a bull calf out of that same cow at $l2OO, that’s over $1 a pound. And after that ET calf is on the ground, it costs the same to raise it and get him up to a 1,000 pound bull as it did that three-quarter. And you can sell him for more.” KEN CLUGSTON VERNON SEIBEL 665-6775 665-2782 CRAFT-BTLt CONSTRUCTION INC. FARM-HOME BUILDING R.DJ2 MANHEIM, PA. PH; 665-4372 BUILDING & REMODELING FOR— DAIRY RESIDENTAL SWINE POLE BUILDINGS BEEF STORAGE • Corner Systems • Electric Center Pivots • EZ-Tow Pivots VfIIAEV Contact Hammonton, New Jersey Office PHONE * 609*567-3910 Serving Your Total Ag Irrigation Needs QUALITY IRRIGATION SINCE 1953 and Wool Producers On Promotion Program would authorize deductions of up to 6 cents per pound on shorn wool and 30 cents per hundredweight on unshorn lambs marketed in 1986. Deductions from producer in centive payments for 1982 through 1985 were 4 cents and 20 cents respectively, he said. Hertz also said the new agreement would permit USDA to withhold part of any wool incentive payments that might be made to producers on 1987-90 marketings to finance the council’s promotion activities. He said deductions would be used by the council to finance advertising and sales promotion programs for wool and lamb and programs to develop and disseminate information on product quality, production management and marketing improvement for wool and sheep. ASCS county offices will distribute copies of the agreement and ballots to sheep producers early this month. Producers may cast their ballots by mailing or delivering them in person to county ASCS offices by the close of the referendum, Hertz said. Anyone who has owned sheep six months old or older for at least 30 consecutive days during 1985 may vote. Votes may be cast by in dividuals or by cooperatives. Members of cooperatives which cast votes would not be eligible to vote separately in the referendum. The agreement requires approval by two-thirds of the total volume of producers, or two-thirds of the total volume of production represented in the referendum. The National Wool Act of 1954 provides the authority for deductions and for promotion activities. Sheep producers have approved the program in each of the eight referendums held since 1954. In the most recent referen dum, in 1982, 72.6 percent of the producers approved the program. w“i