A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 10,1990
VERNON ACHENBACH, JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Heifer housing, profitable cull
ing, DHIA’s Prostaph testing sup
port, and strategies for staying
competitive for the 19905, domi
nated the topics for part two of
Lancaster County’s Dairy Days.
Sponsored by the Penn State
University Extension Service, the
first day of the two-day dairy days
dealt mainly with BST, keeping
pesticides out of groundwater, and
cow reproduction and production.
Day two, however, included two
pannel discussions by area far
mers. The first group told what
decisions they’ve made over the
past several decades and how
they’ve surivived, and what they
plan to do in the 1990 s to continue
in agriculture, if not dairying.
The second group of dairy far
mer pannelists, provided first hand
information on heifer raising facil
ities they have built, how much it
cost to build, why they chose the
designs they did and what benefits
or drawbacks they’ve experienced.
Starting the day with an update
on paper bedding, Daniel McFar
land, extension multi-county ag
engineering specialist, provided a
basic review of paper bedding stu
dies done by several colleges and
urged farmers to “work with it and
see what works for you.”
He summarized the advantages
of using paper (newspaper) bed
ding: better absorption than straw
or sawdust; lower concentration of
heavy metals; slower (though not
inhibited) bacteria growth;
inexpensive.
On the other hand, McFarland
said there are a few special hand
ling requirements with paper bed
Lebanon Dairy Days Features High Producing Cow
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Fanning Staff
LEBANON (Lebanon Co.)
The potential use of the milk
increasing protein hormone,
bovine somatotrophin (BST), con
tinues to be a topic of much con
cern at area dairy seminars and a
recent dairy day seminar here was
no exception.
However, other aspects of dairy
herd management were stressed
throughout the dairy day talks, and
little time was spent on the ongo
ing debate as to whether BST
should be or shouldn’t be used.
Sponsored by the Lebanon
County office of the Penn State
University Extension Service, the
dairy day seminar featured several
representatives for BST
manufacturing companies, a
Michigan farmer who allowed his
herd to be used in a test, and a local
dairyman who stands undecided
on the issue of whether to use BST
or not, but sells milk from his high
producing herd to a local dairy that
has set a policy of not accepting
BST-produced milk.
All speakers, except for the loc
al farmer, had spoken the day
before to a Lancaster crowd (see
the March 3 issue of Lancaster
Farming) and addressed their areas
of expertise in cow maintenance
and milk production during the
morning session, and then pro
vided a short discourse on how
BST might affect those aspects.
The morning session began with
a talk by Bill Chalupa PhD, from
the University of Pennsylvania,
who talked about the nutritional
needs of high producing cows. In
the afternoon, Chalupa talked
again about the nutritional aspects
of BST-influenced cows.
Chalupa said balance rations
Fighting Mastitis, Selecting Sires Top Concerns
ding: it can compact and may
require more labor. He recom
mended cutting the bedding into
silver dollar-sized pieces and to
use a base layer of straw when
using paper with bedded packs.
McFarland said newspaper has
also been of some concern with
wind. To prevent littering and
wind-blowing problems, he sug
gests using smaller amounts of
bedding and changing more often.
There are some things yet to
learn about newspaper bedding.
When asked, McFarland said he
had no combustibility studies
available to use for comparison
between newspaper and other
types of bedding material.
Within a little more than a
month, McFarland said he is aware
of two incidents one in Lancas
ter and one in Berks counties in
which a burning piece of farm
machinery set near newspaper
bundles caused fires. Both fires
were relatively minor.
McFarland said he plans to do
an informal study, later this year,
of what it takes to start newpaper
bedding on fire.
Later in the dairy seminar,
McFarland again took the podium
and discussed his field of expertise
animal shelter designs and the
effects of ventilation on dairy
cattle growth, health and
production.
McFarland recommended a
series of special buildings for rais
ing calves and heifers which
minimize stress and maximize
growth and health needs for young
cattle, while providing quick and
efficient cleaning, feeding and
monitoring aspects for those car
ing for the animals.
were the key to providing proper
nutrition to high producing cows
and recommended the services of a
nutritionist in developing a total
mixed ration (TMR) from the for
ages and foods available to each
herd owner.
He said that without proper
balancing, some unexpected prob
lems can occur.
According to Chalupa, potential
ammonia deficiencies can lead to
low fat output through starvation
of the fiber digesters in the cow’s
system.
“It’s when we’re feeding only
corn silage or feeding high
amounts of hay instead of silages,
that we could have an ammonia
deficiency. We have run into situa
tions of this and what we sec in the
cow is, the cow’s milk has a low fat
test.
“It has a low fat test because
we’re starving the fiber digesters.
So we need to pay attention to the
soluable protein,” Chalupa said.
“Another thing we need to pay
attention to, is that when we add fat
to our rations we also need to
adjust the bypass protein in those
rations,” he said.
The reason for doing so is
because “rumen microbes do not
use fat as a source of energy.
“When we 30 above three per
cent fat, we add more bypass pro
tein to the ration in order to com
pensate for the lower amount of
microbial protein that will be syn
thesized,” Chalupa said.
"When we formulate rations, we
consider the maintenance require
ment of the animal, how much
milk the animal is going to give
and then how much feed will she
consume.”
According to Chalupa, in con
cocting a ration for a cow in an
Gary Rogers, with the Penn
Slate University, reviewed sire
selection reasons and methods and
provided formulas for dairymen to
use in making sire selection deci
sions. The formulas are flexible
and can be modified to meet each
dairyman’s needs.
Copies of the formulas with
explanations are available through
the Penn State University Depart
ment of Animal and Dairy
Science.
Rogers said the formulas are
based on a number of areas of con
cern in managing a breeding
program.
According to Rogers, the most
important aspect in deciding sire
selection should be milk produc
tion values.
Of the other traits which are cur
rently heritable to a significant
degree, Rogers said only a few
body conformation aspects are
worth concentrating on in order to
indirectly select for healthier
animals.
Rogers said that selecting for
higher udders, better teat place
ment and better feet angles can
apparently decrease the incidence
of udder health problems.
Although there is no national
mastitis reporting program that
would allow finding and breeding
strains of cattle with natural resis
tance to the disease, Rogers said he
did an extensive study of existing
traceable traits and compared them
to apparent resistance to disease.
He said the results of his work sup
ports “what some of you already
know, that selecting for udder and
teat placement does work.”
However, because the bottom
line in any business is profit over
expense, Rogers said farmers
A panel of speakers at Lebanon Dairy Days take questions about high producing cows
from the audience. From the left is Vince Wagner, local dairyman, Ken Nobis, Michigan
dairyman with BST trial herd, Dr. Bob Patton, a nutritionist in for Monsanto, Mike
O’Conner, PSU dairy specialist, Bill Chalupa, University of Pennsylvania, New Bolton
Center and county extension agent host Kenneth Winebark.
attempt of producing about 30
kilos of milk, which converts to
about 80 pounds of milk, farmers
should remember they need about
1.6 megacals of net energy per
kilo. “And that’s not too hard to
achieve,” he said.
“But when we go to higher
levels of production, those
(increased) levels of net energy
can only be achieved by adding fat
to the ration,” Chalupa said.
“If we try to do it (increase net
energy) with grain, we will lower
the fiber content and have all kinds
of problems.
“So, as we go above the 30
should value milk production at
least three times more important
than other qspects.
Rogers said the formulas can
give farmers an easier method for
ranking the top selections for their
needs.
He said that, although it is not
popular, most AI technicians, if
given the formulas, should be able
to rank the sires according to three
major factors; most economical,
best for herd improvement, and
least risk.
In his second presentation of the
day, Rogers also provided guide
lines for profitable cow culling and
longevity. He provided data
gained from studies on culling and
profits and shared a formula to
help farmers help make better
decisions in cow culling.
Basically, Rogers said the deci
sion to cull a cow should be based
on the value of the cull cow and the
costs of raising a replacement cow.
He said that for the month, now
is a good time to cull, because of
relatively good prices for slaughter
cows, and relatively low costs for
raising calves to adulthood.
He also has authored a hand-out
available to farmers through the
extension office.
Robert Ebcrhart, with PSU
department of veterinary science,
talked about Prostaph milk anti
body test for detection of staphylo
coccus aureus mastitis, one of the
two highly communicable forms
of mastitis.
According to Eberhart, staphy
lococcus aureus can go undetected
in a cow for a long time and then be
spread throughout the rest of the
herd, before the original sick cow
develops any visible symptoms.
Kilos, or 80 pounds of milk, we
have to add fat and that impacts on
the amount of bypass protein we
need,” he said.
According to Chalupa, for pro
duction levels at or below the 30
kilos of milk, “about 38 to 39 per
cent protein in a ration would prob
ably be about fine.
“Above, though, and ... we
are getting about 49 percent. Put
more fat in, we need bypass pro
tein. How can we formulate a
ration?” he said.
Chalupa said to begin formulat
ing a ration, the concentrate por
tion of the ration needs first
The disease is believed to be
spread mostly by fanners while
milking.
A test, called Prostaph, detects
(he presence of antibodies in milk
that cows make to fight the bacter
ial infection. Thus the testprovides
an indicitive tool for farmers to
control this highly contagious and
problem disease.
The results of a Michigan Uni
versity study on the test showed an
overall 98 percent effectiveness.
However, during followup stu
dies done by PSU, the test was
only about half accurate in deter
mining which cows had the
disease.
The test is still very good,
though, Eberhart said. He said the
test rated about 93 percent accurate
in determining which cows were
free of the disease.
Eberhart said to use the test
effectively, as it is understood, the
entire herd should be tested if the
herd is suspect He said a culture
test of the milk tank can indicate
whether the herd has a problem.
If so, then a total herd Prostaph
testing can be done. Those that test
negative should be either milked
first, or milked seperately. A
follow-up test on the cows that
intidally tested positive can be per
formed, at the very least. Best is to
have those catde culture tested, he
said.
He also said that apparently far
mers have been doing some things
the right way. Eberhart said that
those who practice milking heifers
first, for whatever reason, are in
effect protecting (heir herd from
future damage, since heifers are
least likely to have the mastitis and
pass it on td the older cows.
Analysis
analysis.
“Starting at 30 kilos, we started
putting in whole cotton seed and
just a small amount of megalac,”
he said.
“1 normally max out my whole
cotton seed at about 10 percent of
the ration dry matter and that will
give somewhere around 5 to 6
pounds of whole cotton seed per
cow, per day.
“A couple of the reasons I do
this: I want only about one third of
my fat to come from whole cotton
seed; I’ve seen cases where higher
levels of whole-cots have been
(Turn to Pago A 29)