Farming Saturday, December 16,1989 Penn State STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) — The Penn State livestock judging team recently completed another successful season. A total of eight students returned this fall from a class of 12 that started judging together in the spring. The team competed at five contests during fall semester, and team members included: Melanie Bow, animal production major from Annville; Jacquelyn Jones, ag sci ence major from Sunbury; Shawn Kauffman, animal production major from Port Matilda; Christ ine McCahrcn, ag education and rural society major from Mifflin town; Jennifer Rose, dairy and animal science major from Cochranton; Kim Schildt, journal ism major from Elizabethtown; Nancy Thomas, ag science major from Slate College; and, Emily Weaver, animal production major from Ephrata. The team was coached by Keith A. Bryan, instructor of dairy and animal science. In early September, the team traveled to its first contest at the Eastern States Exposition, in West Springfield, Mass. Four teams participated in that contest with Penn Slate finishing second over all, having finished second in beef cattle and sheep judging and oral reasons. Emily Weaver scored 829 out of a possible 900 points, and placed fourth overall. Melanie Bow accumulated 270 out of a possible 300 points, to finish fifth in swine judging, and a total score of 802, which was good enough to earn ninth overall. Shawn Kauff man had a good day judging sheep and finished fifth in that species. Eastern National in Timonium, Md., was the second contest of the year. A total of five teams attended the contest, with Penn Slate finishing third in beef cattle and oral reasons, and fourth in swine, sheep, and overall. Chris McCahren led the team by placing tenth overall, and ranking fifth in swine judging, seventh in oral rea sons. and twelfth in sheep judging. Emily Weaver and Shawn Kauff man placed seventh and eleventh, respectively, in beef cattle judg ing. Melanie Bow finished four teenth in sheep. One week after Eastern Nation- Polled Hereford Association Unveils Performance Show System KANSAS CITY. Mo. Showring competition has cap tured the imagination of beef cattle producers since the begin ning of planned breeding ' prog rams. And, up to this point, most showring evaluation was based primarily on subjective visual appraisal. Enter now a system called “Genetic Visions.” The American Polled Hereford Association has just completed a pilot project of the next generation of showring evaluation systems that encom passes visual evaluation, objective measurements, reproductive eva luation and expected progeny dif ferences (EPDs). A ring-side com puter averaged the numbers and compiled the final placings based on judges’ scores of each trait. The introduction of Genetic Visions was in a trial run held Dec. 2 at Kansas State University, Manhattan. For this research pro ject, 24 Polled Hereford bulls and heifers were evaluated and placed in class, followed by champion ship selections. Factors consid ered for ranking included weights, Livestock Judging Team Fin al, the team competed in their own backyard at the Keyston Interna tional Livestock Exposition, in Harrisburg. The team finished sixth overall, with nine teams competing. They also finished sixth in swine judging and oral reasons, and seventh in beef cattle and sheep judging, Emily Weaver placed fourth in swine, tenth in sheep, and eleventh overall. Mela nie Bow continued to do well in sheep judging and fmished fif teenth in that species. One month of practice after the Keystone contest, the team embarked on their fourth contest at the American Royal in Kansas City, Mo. A much larger contest than previously, the American Royal proved to be difficult for all of the teams originating east of the Mississippi River, and Penn State was no exception. Kim Schildt finished twenty-second in sheep, out of 115 contestants, and Jaci Jones placed thirty-third in beef cattle judging. Twenty-three teams competed in Kansas City, and Penn State ranked sixteenth in sheep, eighteenth in beef cattle and twenty-first overall. The final contest of the year was held in Louisville, Ky., in conjunction with the North American International Livestock Exposition. This contest continues to be the “national” contest for collegiate teams with 36 teams and 180 contestants participating. In a tremendously challenging contest, Penn State finished twenty-third in sheep judging, twenty-eighth in swine judging, and thirtieth overall. The Livestock Judging Team continues to be one of the more enjoyable and rewarding college experiences for students with interests in the production of livestock. Although the awards were few for this year’s team, the benefits of participating in a judg ing program remain the same year after year. The program tries to develop in students the ability to think and reason through a com plex series of judgements in a short amount of time, and to com municate effectively with others. In addition, students have the opportunity to travel to livestock operations across the United bull breeding soundness exam, female reproductive tract scores, EPDs for birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight and maternal milk, rib-eye area, fat thickness and frame scores. Also entered into the equation were scores for physical and structural soundness, mobility, eye pigmen tation, feet and sheaths. “We started this project because we wanted to increase the educa tional value and performance orientation of our shows,” said Bill Yowell, Killeen, Texas, chair man of the Polled Hereford board of directors. “Our association has been using some objective mea sures for years, but we feel it’s so important to use the most modem technology available to combine all the factors in a systematic way. “Our goal is to help our mem bers produce documented, super ior seedstock which will increase the commercial man’s profit.” The pilot run of Genetic Vis ions began with collection of objective data (the actual weights, measures and scores) by Kansas The members of this year’s Penn State livestock judging team were, from left, back row: Shawn Kauffman, Kim Schildt, and Keith A. Bryan, coach; front row: Nancy Tho mas, Jennifer Rose, Jacquelym Jones, Melanie Bow, Christine McCahren, and Emily Weaver. States and visit with producers who are actively engaged in live stock production. Lastly, the team members and coach of the 1989 Penn State Swine BY DR. RICHARD BARCZEWSKI Extension Co. Agricultural Agent I University of Delaware In one of my previous columns, I covered some of the items that need to be in order prior to the birth of the piglets in your farrow ing house. I thought it a good idea to follow up on that topic by cov ering baby pig management fol lowing farrowing. Anyone involved in the hog industry realizes the importance of proper care and management as it relates to piglet performance and State University veterinarians and animal scientists. This informa tion was evaluated for each animal by the three judges. Next came the visual appraisal phase with the judges placing their individual scores on each animal. These scores were then combined with the objective scores and EPDs to arrive a t final placings. Judges scoring the traits and visually appraising the animals were Dr. Miles McKee, Kansas State Uni versity animal science professor; Gary Johnson. Beef Improvement Federation Commercial Producer of the Year from Dwight, Kan.; and Lloyd Clarkson, Winfield, Kan., a .member of the • Polled Hereford Hall of Fame. “Our showing of the next gen eration will include all perfor mance data available to help in the decision-making,” said Larry Hcidebrecht, president of the Polled Hereford organization. “This pilot show is a major step in our breed’s commitment to pro viding superior performance seed stock for the beef industry.” ishes Successful Season livestock judging team would like to thank publicly all of the people that contributed to the “success” of the judging program, either Management survival. The most critical time in a piglet’s life is birth and the first three days of life. Research sum maries indicate that 65% of all postfarrowing deaths occur by the time the litter is four days old. Spending a little extra time in the farrowing house during this period can pay big dividends when it comes to overall profitability. One way to save more pigs is to be present at farrowing. While this might not be practical for all oper ations, spending time behind the sow can result in increased num bers of live pitlets. Being present allows you to assist any piglets bom in the birth sack, weak pigs, chilled pigs or any others that might require assistance. It’s often these slightly abnormal or weaker piglets that die soon after birth who can use a little assistance. On a couple of occasions. I’ve seen piglets which, in my opinion, were on the verge of death be brought back to life by holding them, suspended, in a bucket of warm water. Since these pigs didn’t need to maintain their body temperature, thanks to the warm water, they began to feel and look better within a of minutes. They could then be placed at the udder of the sow and encoilraged to nurse, thereby gaining 1 even more strength. I If you are present at farrowing, you may want to trim the umbili cal cords if they are very long, and tie or clamp them off prior to dip ping them in a tamed iodine solu tion. The umbilical cord (prior to drying off) can act as an ideal way for bacteria to enter the body. Dip ping the cord in iodine can elimi nate future problems such as navel ill. Another thing you may to do at farrowing is to assist any weak piglets to nurse to obtain colostrum. Colostrum is the anti body rich first milk of the sow which provides some temporary with contributions toward the team expenses or by allowing the team to stop and visit your live stock enterprise. News immunity to the piglets prior to the development of their own immune systems. Making sure piglets obtain some of this “first milk” can help them fight off any early disease challenges. After the litter has been bom and is nursing well, there is little else that you’ll want to do for the next 24 hours or so. Sometime during day one, you’ll want to administer iron shots to prevent anemia, clip needle teeth and ear notch the litter. For your records, consider weighing each litter as soon as possible after the pigs are bom as a baseline for comparison to 21-day litter weights. This will serve as an indicator of sow milk ing ability and help you in making sow-culling decisions. Castrate the pigs between day three and fourteen. While this may not always be possible with pasture-farrowed piglets, early castration is usually accomplished with minimal stress, I always sug gest that people do this as early as possible. Finally, get on a good vaccina tion program as recommended by your veterinarian. Vaccines offer additional protection to the piglets for specific disease-causing organisms. If you are having prob lems with certain diseases, you may have to vaccinate the piglets twice. Regardless of your herd vaccination program, administer to your piglets. Over the years, I have seen vac cines that were for intramuscular, subcutaneous and even intrader mal injection. Sometimes you might have a vaccine for a particu lar disease-causing organism that needs to be administered in a spe cific way. Never assume that just because you administered one vaccine one way that all are admi nistered the same way. The only way to be certain you’re doing it right is to read and follow the label.
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