Cl6-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 25, 1992
Livestock Notes
BEEF EXPO
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
The 1992 Pennsylvania Beef
Expo, March 26-29 at the Penn
State Ag Arena, promises to be the
best one yet
The Expo is a joint venture of
the Pennsylvania Cattleman’s
Association, the Pennsylvania
Department of Agriculture, and
The Pennsylvania State Universi
tys Department of Dairy and Ani
mal Science. This third annual
Expo has been extended an entire
day to accommodate a very suc
cessful youth program on Sunday.
An educational symposium is
on the agenda for Thursday, March
26. A proven highlight of the annu
al Expo, this year’s symposium
will be no exception, focusing on
vaccination programs for beef
cattle.
Outstanding guest speakers will
address such topics as why vac
cines somedmes do not work, how
the environment of the animal will
effect the response to a vaccine,
vaccinadon programs for cows and
calves, the economics of a health
program. Injection site dssue dam
age in the carcass, and consequ
ences of extra-label use of drugs.
The Expo program will condnue
on Friday with the Performance
tested Bull Sale and the Pennsylva
nia Polled Hereford Association
Sale in the evening. On Saturday,
four other state breed associations
will conduct their sales, including
Angus, Salers, Charolais, and
Simmental.
LARGEST SAWMILL
“?9C<ve&.-T&eenjba&e-
HARDWOOD BOARDS
{AIR DRIED at KHJV DRIED)
1 JK
FROM -H. PER FOOT
WALTER H. WEABER SOIVS BVC.
RD#4 BOX 1255 LEBANON• BA 17042 J u ,oO<L /
PHONE# C 717) 867-4603 y UofW" a
BAX# (717) 867-2271 UQVf' Jl gotf 0
The program concludes on Sun
day with a full day of youth events,
including steer and heifer shows.
Mark your calendar today and call
your local extension office early
next year for registration
information.
IMPLANTS IN
DAIRY-BEEF
CALVES
A preliminary summary of our
work with implants in young
dairy-beef calves indicates there is
probably no advantage to using a
second implant in the calves up to
18 weeks of age.
In a recent trial, we implanted
the calves with one of two different
implants on day two after arrival in
the bams (three- to seven-days of
age), and another group on both
day two and day 32 with one of the
two implants. The results so far
indicate no sufficient advantage to
the second implant, but a single
implant on day two will increase
performance of the calves by about
10 percent over controls.
Although there was a slight
amount of variation in the type of
implant that was used (zeralenone
or progesterone + estrogen), it will
probably not be a significant
factor.
LAMB MARKETING
BILL PROPOSED
According to the American
Sheep Industry Association (ASI),
lamb marketing needs help. While
buy direct
FROM FEINHSYEVAISIA'S
2000' Minimum quantity of random width and length.
All orders must he picKed up with a side loading trucK.
Cash or Pa check only.
higher retail prices indicate an
increased consumer demand for
lamb, wholesale prices have
dropped by 20 percent or more.
Live prices have dropped as much
as 41 percent in the last three years.
Part of the problem, according
to ASI representatives, is inadequ
ate reporting of prices of lambs,
wholesale, retail, boxed lamb pelt,
and offal sales. The USDA now
provides prices only for wholesale
carcasses and some live lambs.
Since the wholesale price is basi
cally set by the Northeast region of
the United states, it reflects only
about 30 percent of the lamb mark
et, according to Peter Orwick,
director of government affairs for
the ASI.
Senator A 1 Simpson (R-WY)
has proposed that the USDA estab
lish a lamb price and supply report
ing service which would mandate
that the USDA expand its report
ing dramatically. In addition to
various live, carcass, wholesale,
and by-product sales, the USDA
would also monitor sheep and
lamb inventories, price and supply
relationships between retailers and
breakers, and information on the
import and export of sheep by
categories (including cut, carcass,
box, breeder stock, and sex).
Simpson’s bill was co
sponsored by 10 other Senators
and will likely be paired with the
Dairy Bill. If passed, the bill could
be in action by late summer of
1992.
“HEALTHY” MEAT
SALES UP
Sales of “healthy” meats
those marketed as low fat, low salt
—increased dramatically between
1986 and 1990, and are expected to
increase through 1995, according
to a recent report in the “National
Provisioner.” The study notes the
retail sales for healthy processed
meats rose from $0.5 billion in
1986 to $lO.l billion in 1990.
The study concludes that con
sumers are moving away from
weight loss attempts on short-term
diets and instead arc eating health
ier meats which fit into a long-term
goal of weight control and a gener
ally more healthful life style.
The healthy meat demand has
had an impact on the school lunch
program as well. For instance, the
standard for ground beef purchases
by the USDA for the school lunch
program now includes bids for
low-fat (less than 10 percent fat)
ground beef.
Low-fat ground beef (LFGB)
will require different handling than
conventional hamburger in the
school cafeteria setting. After test
ing some of the LFGB products
earlier this year, the USDA found
positive acceptance of the product
among school children. It is inter
esting to note that schools arc
reimbursed by the USDA on the
basis of how well the students con
sume products which arc pur
chased by the USDA.
Based on research partially sup
ported by checkoff funds through
the National Live Stock and Meat
Board, the USDA has conducted
evaluations of several types of pro
ducts as reflected in their revised
standards. Several bids have been
accepted at a wide variety of
prices.
Several new LFGB products are
on the market at retail. Monfort
(Conagra) has introduced a pro
duct called “Healthy Choice”
which is only 4 percent fat and is
made with oat flour and beef stock.
Keystone Foods will soon intro
duce a frozen quarter pounder in
the range of 6 percent fat
This trend to lower fat processed
meat products has affected the
price of some meat cuts, and high
fat beef and pork trimmings are
currently selling at extremely low
prices. For instance, regular pork
trimmings (SO percent to SS per
cent fat) are selling wholesale at 16
ccnts/pound and 50/50 beef trim
mings are less than 40 cents/
pound. On the other hand, very
lean trimmings are at or near his
torically high prices.
The meat industry has tradition
ally blended higher fat products
with low-fat products, many from
cull dairy cows or imported meat,
to increase the value of the fatter
trimmings. In this way, imported
meats have actually increased the
value of domestically produced
meats.
Processing practices are chang
ing and, if the trend continues, will
put further price pressures on the
higher fat products. Fat cannot cur
rently be removed economically
by hand, and more research should
be done on removing the fat
mechanically. Thus far the only
mechanical removal of fat
involves a mild heating process
which is unacceptable for some
uses of the low fat meat products.
If the price spreads between lean
and fat meats continue to widen,
packers will soon be able to pay
premiums for leaner animals. To
some extent, this has already
occured in the pork industry. Ulti
mately, the market will force the
prices for lean market animals to
reflect their value.
CURRENT CONCEPTS
ABOUT CHINESE PIGS
Considerable interest and
debate was generated when
announcements surfaced that sev
eral million dollars would be spent
to quarantine, import, and main
tain in the United States strains of
(Turn to Pago Cl 7) '
% LEBANON
\ f
\W I E
|
* 322 W