BY , ... GEORGE F.W. HAENLEIN Extension Dairy Specialist University of Delaware NEWARK. DE—Over the last few decades, great emphasis has been placed on better dairy .herd health programs and improved genetics. Thanks to A.I. and DHIA, dairy cows in many coun tries, especially in the United States, have had phenomenal suc cess stories in genetics. Records that I have kept on Delaware dairy herds, in addition to our Universi ty of Delaware herd, indicate an almost 100% improvement in milk production per cow per year since 1959, from 9,400 pounds to 18,100 pounds in 1989, with the fat test changing only slightly from 3.9% to 3.7%. Herd health also greatly bene fitted from the introduction of A. 1., by eliminating, to a large extent, many costly reproductive diseases that used to plague dairy cows and were transmitted from cow to cow by natural service OVER 100 HOUSES SOLD IN THE PAST FOUR YEARS IN THE NORTHEAST! Chore-Time's ULTRAFLOt feeder for layers, pullets and breeders can free you from your chains We have probably been too modest up to now about the merits of our new generation ULTRAFLO® cage feeder vs. the old style chain feeders some of our competitors are still trying to sell you. In fact, the only negative comments about our feeder come from our competition, not our customers. So we would like to point out the bare facts: FEED SAVINGS; On-farm result! show a feed savings of Vi lb. per 100 birth per day - over $lO,OOO per year savings on a 100,000-bird house. Year after year. /*' ¥ EASY ADAPTABILITY: Ours adapts nslly to existing cage systems you may already have. Or choose bom our wide selection of cage styles. 5-YEAR WARRANTY: Our* give* you a 5-year warranty on auger and trough. Their* doean’t In fact, their dealer* derive a large percentage of their income from part* *ale«. ’’J! Our* don’t. MICROPROCESSOR CONTROL: Out control let* you program feeding time to the second, to match the exact time of one circuit. Control number of feeding*, time of each feeding - also 10-second “Stimula tion Cycles" between feedings, to minimise separation, and Improve your birds' feed Intake. SIMPLE OPERATION: “Push-pull" Power Units with VS or Vi HP motor are located in a cage, have hardened steel gears for trouble-free operation. Watering From agn systems Northeast DHIA, IA Contribute To Dairy Genetics bulls. The fight against mastitis also has benefited greatly from DHIA adopting somatic cell count testing as a routine part of a monthly monitoring mastitis herd health program. Since its adoption by Delaware DHIA S years ago, we have progressed 33 percent from 512,000 down to 343,000 somatic cell-count per herd rolling average. However, fertility as part of satisfactory or even improved reproduction has not enjoyed similar progress. There is even indication that the tremendous progress in the production of milk volume, milk fat, milk protein, milk lactose and milk mineral yields has something to do, in a negative way, with the lack of fer tility improvement or even its regression. A study of New York DHIA herds shows that fertility rates are lower in high-producing herds than in lower-producing herds. Pennsylvania studies found signif icantly lower first-service concep TROUBLE-FREE DESIGN: Our feeder has only two moving parts - the one-piece auger plus each drive wheel: their chain has more. Our comers are heavy 12 ga. zinc plated tubing for long life: their comers have a reputation for trouble and short life. vt -y Complete Astern - Feeding, Ventilation, U* to bird* are limited from eat until it etope; birds will hl-gri feed from chain feeders, causing uneven nutrition. ING FEED; Our auger •lowly revolves, remixing old ai new feed; theirs leaves most feed to get stale. BILLED-OUT FEED; Our auger i a grid to prevent bird* from raking, and throwing out feed; neither chi di*k systems prevent feed waste. COST SAVINGS; Oun saves vast amounts of energy costs since M's easier to propel and runs only half as long as theirs. LOW MAINTENANCE; With our 5-year warranty on auger and 20 ga. trough (one competitor has only 22 ga.) - plus no > comer wheel mechanisms to wear out - ours saves you maintenance costs. —i2l V^gyvd^/ degradation of protein in the rumen lower fertility because of liberated ammonia that is absorbed into the cows’ blood stream from the rumen. When extra energy sources arc fed, the free ammonia is bound up by rumen micro-organisms, and fertility is improved. Direct evi dence of the involvement of the percent of rumen-degradable pro tein comes from studies with supcrovulating embryo-producing cows, because fewer embryos were harvested when rations con tained high levels of rumen degradable protein. Levels of urea in the circulating blood of dairy cows can provide an indication of whether, for example, a 19 percent crude pro- PROVEN DESIGN; Over 10 million birds are already on our feeder worldwide- Also, it was proven in 5 years of on-farm testing before introduction. STORE HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 7:36-4:30 Open Saturdays By Appointment Lancaster Farming, Saturday. December 23,1989-A35 ISBSSJnorth airwrtca Gasoline & Diesel Engines Gasoline 6 HP Recoil St A 220 $295.00 6 HP Elect. St. A 220 $409.00 10 HP Recoil St. ALN33O $428.00 16 HP Recoil St. VTBB $795.00 Diesel 7 HP Recoil St. ADX3OO $890.00 7 HP Elect. St. ADX3OO $1,100.00 10 HP Hand Crank St. ADN37 $1,040.00' 10 HP Elect St. ADN37 $1,223.00 11 HP Handcrank St. ADN43 $1,089.00 11 HP Elect St. ADN43 $1,257.00 614 HP Elect. St. Slow Speed ADN43 $1,124.00 12 HP Elect St Silenced ADN4B $1,360.00 14 HP Handcrank St ADNS4 $1,184.00 14 HP Elect. St ADNS4 $1,407.00 16 HP Elect. St. ADN6O $1,447.00 11 HP Slow Speed Elect St. ADN6O $1,748.00 All New With Three Year Warranty Sale Ends Dec. 30 Shirk’s Repair Shop R.D. 2 Box 102 Ephrata, Pa. 17522 PH. (717) 859-2797 I tcin dairy ration will affect cow and heifer fertility or not, because blood urea contents arc related to rumen-degradation rates of pro tein. In recent studies, cows with a blood urea test of 10 mg/dl had a conception rate of 57 percent; others with 10-20 mg/dl had 47 percent: and a third group with more than 20 mg/dl had a concep tion rate of 39 percent. Routine testing for blood urea levels of a few cows in that critical time period of 40-100 days after calving, when new cstrus and new conception is supposed to occur, would be a good new idea. Better monitoring of nutrition and feed ing improves dairy herd health as it relates to reproduction and profit.