rOL. 33 No. 2 Dairy Herd Replacement: Here Is How These Farmers Do It Successfully BY PAT PURCELL Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series discussing dairy herd replacement programs. LITITZ The most important part of the dairy herd is the milking cow. True or false. The temptation to answer true to that statement is easily understood. Alter all it is the milking cow wmch determines the cash flow of the operation. But although the milking cow generates the month ly income, the future, the survival, the stability of the dairy farm is dependant upon the quality of the heifers. While it may be easier for 'h • r irmer to be attentive to the am.nals which determine the size if tic milk check, if the young Farmers Union Chief Tells State Convention About Opportunities WEST MIDDLESEX An 'opportunity exists for PenusyKa r,i i 1 armors Union members to glide family agriculture away I min profiteering by giant con sil aerates and back to the values ol; i ovidmg a fair income for pro du crs. That was the message N I'ional Farmers Union President rarpenter told members and delegates attending PFU’s annual convention at the Sheraton She Cy Carpenter PA Members To Receive Highest FFA Degree Sixteen members of the Pen nsylvania FFA Association will receive their American Farmer Degrees at the National FFA Con vention in Kansas City, Missouri, this week. The American Farmer Degree is based on demonstrated leadership ability and outstanding agricultur al production, processing on ser vice records. As the highest degree members can achieve, only 728 of •be 416,000 members who earned Chapter and State Farmer Degrees will receive the National Award. stock is not properly attended, the dairy farm’s future will be cut short HERD REPLACEMENT: GOALS, COSTS, CONSIDERATIONS Dairy herd replacement is a multi-faceted and long-term pro ject. A successful replacement program begins with breeding and ends with a successful culling program, with many variables and critical considerations in between. Simply, dairy herd replacement is not only the process of raising healthy heifers. It is much more than that. The goal of any business person is to keep cash flowing by keeping production up and costs down. In an effort to improve milk produc tion and subsequently income the nango Inn here. Carpenter said that if (aimers dOiTt'Stattd up for their rights, Pen nsylvania '-an expect to lose SIOO nullum fiom us economy through expected cuts in dairy prices, and farmers can expect to find their land trading on Wall Street. The family farm leader objected to a possibility outlined in a Jane Bryant Quinn column that appeared in the June 22 issue of Newsweek. Quinn wrote, “Right now, farmers themselves arc the biggest buyers of their neighbors’ properties. Agriculture is not yet Lancaster Ag-Industry Banquet Set For Nov. 24 LANCASTER Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Boyd E. Wolff will be the featured speaker at the 11th annual Agriculture- Industry Banquet sponsored by the Agriculture Committee of The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The banquet will be held Tues day, November 24, at 7 p.m. at the Oldc Hickory Inn, 2363 Oregon Pike, Lancaster. American Farmer recipients from Pennsylvania are: Carl War ren Allen, Granville Summit, (Troy FFA Chapter, Troy Area Senior High School): John Samuel Byers, Shippcnsburg, (Shippens burg FFA Chapter, Shippcnsburg Area Sr. H.S.); Eric L. Code, Roaring Spring, (Northern Bed ford County FFA Chapter, North ern Bedford Co. H.S.); Kenneth R. Diebold, Altoona, (Warriors Mark FFA Chapter, Tyrone Area High School); Frank L. Hartley, Ronks, (Turn to Page A 23) Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 14, 1987 The Guernsey heifers are not contributing to the milk check yet, but they deserve the same attention and quality care as the milking cows. being routinely chopped into neat Hide units and tied with a übixjn for Wall Street’s investment machines. That day will come Ten years from now wheal farms may be packaged for Individual Eastern President Says We Need Regional Approach FORKSVILLE (Sullivan Co.) Laveme McCarty has always had strong convictions about The purpose ot the annual event is to honor those involved in agri culture in Lancaster Countyr Businesses in agriculture-related enterprises use the banquet as an opportunity to pay tribute to their employees and customers. (Turn to Page Al 9) New Eastern Milk Producers president Laverne McCarty, Forksvliie, with his farm team - sons Brian, left, and Tracy, right. They’re milking 85 cows. Retirement Accounts the way apartment houses are today.” filing the instability of Wall " reel markets. Carpenter asked the farmers, ‘ How many of you would like to be farming on land marketing and promoting milk. So it was no surprise this fall when the Sullivan County, Pa., was elected president of the 3700-member Eastern Milk Pro ducers Cooperative. Or when two weeks later he was reappointed director of the Pen nsylvania Dairy Promotion Program. McCarty has been on the go ever since. In Washington, it is predicted the USDA will cut dairy supports 500 a hundred on January 1. This to control surpluses. “But that doesn’t make any Four Sections dairy herd must be in a constant and steady state of transition. Breeding, selection and culling keep the belter producers in the milking stalls. Low producers, whether aged cows, or cows with health and/or breeding problems, reach a point when they are no longer cost effec tive to keep in the herd. They can actually cost the operator more dollars than they make by taking up the stall which could be occup ied by a heifer of better quality. The low producer can cost the bus iness more if kept than replaced. Although it may at first appear simple, the decision to cull an indi vidual cow is a complicated proce dure. Culling does not begin when the cow reaches the herd. Culling subject to trading on Wall Street 9 Current policies arc moving in that direction.” He said, “We do need development and progress, but not as a cheap substitute for a fair {Turn to Page A 23) sense in the Northeast,” Laveme insists. “We’re short. Eastern’s scrambling for milk.” Where is the surplus then? “On the west coast,” he says. McCarty and other Northeast dairy leaders complain that local dairymen shouldn ’ t take the rap for a west coast production splurge. They’d like to sec a regional approach to such dairy problems. To meet that ■ goal, they’ve formed the Northeast Legislative Committee of Farm Cooperatives and hired a fulltime Washington lobbyist $8.50 Per Year (Turn to Pag* A 26) (Turn to Pag* A 22)
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