04-lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 6,1993 MM Beef Briefs mk CLOSING THE GATE ON A BULL We often talk about how impor tant it is to turn a bull into a breed ing pasture, but we often forget how important it is to get the bull out of the pasture in a timely manner. Extended calving season are costly and can be very disruptive to good management programs. Just think about it; if we can wean a 500-pound calf on October 1 this year, but allow that calf to be bom a month later next year, it will cost about 35 pounds of weaning weight. There was no change in growth of the calf or feed require ments for the cow, but we ended up with fewer pounds to sell to pay the bills. The major reason for an extended calving season is failure to get the bull out of the pasture. One effective method of handling bulls in most small herds is to turn him in with the cows for 60 days, pull him out for 60 days, palpate the cows, remove the nonpregnant cows, then turn him back out with the cows. This method helps to force a concise calving season, but also reduces the inconvenience of separating a bull to just two months. It is no small thing to also force palpation of the herd and culling of open cows. As we’re noted before, a cow who does not produce a calf one year will never make up for the lost income in her lifetime. Management can also be more closely controlled with a defined, HERNIA? No hernia is unrepairable, even after sev eral previous failed attempts. We special ize in outpatient hernia repairs, and most patients are able to return to full work with in several days. PLEASE CALL COLLECT OR WRITE FOR MORE INFORMATION: MID ATLANTIC SURGICAL SERVICES 217 Harrisburg Ave., Suite 201 Lancaster, PA 17603 (717) 295-5454 MOST INSURANCE ACCEPTED Need Your Farm Buildings Painted? Let us give you a price! Write: Daniel’s Painting 637-A Georgetown Rd. Ronks, PA 17572 (or leave message) (717) 687-8262 k r Spray on and Brush in. Painting by John Comerford Penn State Beef Specialist short calving season. The nutri tional requirements of the cow change drastically between the last third of pregnancy and lactation. Protein requirements double and energy needs are nearly doubled. With cows calving on the first of February and some still calving in April and May, there is no way an effective job can be done in feed ing these cows. Some them are cither being grossly overfed, or more likely, some are not gelling what they need. Secondly, part-time managers will find it helpful to concentrate their management time during a shorter calving season. It is essen tial that cows be well managed during calving because more dol lars can be lost by poor manage ment then than at any other time. Third, an effective vaccination and health management program can be accomplished. It will do no good to give certain vaccinations to cows that have already calved, while the liming may be just right' for those who are 30 days from calving. Extended calving seasons will result in putting the cows through the chute twice or, even worse, not doing anything because all of them can not be treated on the same day. Finally, we constantly shoulder a marketing problem with feeder calves in Pennsylvania because of small numbers. The addition of extended calving seasons that cause more variation in age and weight to the calf crop just com pound the problem. Uniformity has value in calf production, so condensing the calving season to make calves more uniform in age and weight can add dollars to your pocket. The 1993 Pennsylvania Beef Expo will be held in Slate College on March 25-28. The educational symposium will focus on “Making Money with a Few Cows.” There is a little change in the symposium this year. It will be held at the Toftrees Resort just down the road from the Meat Ani- 3 Reasons Why Your Next Cage System You save feed, electricity and parts with Chore-Time’s Ultraflo feeder. Ask any grower who has an Ultraflo Feeding System. Call or send for our list of 76 farms with 182 Ultraflo houses in the Northeast. Heavier Cages Chore-Time Cages are 11.2% Heavier, That’s Over 314 Tons More Wire Per House! (Based upon 108,000 bird house. Call or write for actual test data) Over 14 Million Layers In Our Region Since Chore-Time introduced the Ultraflo Feeding System in 1985, over 180 houses have been sold in our sales area which is Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and New England- Think about it' In only 7 years, 1 out of every 3 layers in our region has been switched to Chore-Time with Ultraflo! Many farmers bought one Chore-Time house and after seeing the results purchased more. Some large farms have replaced all their non-Chore-Time cage systems with Chore-Time cages and Ultraflo feeders. Can over 180 houses and 14 million layers since 1985 in the Northeast be wrong? Why not check out the facts for yourself? Call today or send for the list of all Ultraflo hpuses in the Northeast. Better feeder, Better cages, Better reasons to GO CHORE-TIME Pennsylvania Beef Expo Should Be Reason Number 1 A Better Feeder Reason Number 2 Reason Number 3 ) Northeast Agri Systems, Inc. Flyway Business Park 139 A West Airport Road Lititz, PA 17543 (717) 569-2702 1-800-673-2580 mal Evaluation Center. This change will allow us to have multi ple sessions running simulta neously and being repealed during the day. This will allow us to cover much more material, and particip ants can pick and choose what will interest them the most. The remainder of the week will include the annual meeting and Forage Handbook Available UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) Pennsylvania farmers looking for information on hay quality, harvest management, and other forage topics can order an extensive forage handbook from Penn State’s College of Agricul tural Sciences. The publication costs $2B and has more than 200 pages of detail ed information on soils and forage fertility, forage quality, species se lection and establishment, harvest management, hay and silage pre servation, pastures, forage pests, forage-animal systems, and forage economics. “The handbook is meant to be a comprehensive guide for forage growers,” said Dr. Marvin Hall, banquet of the Pa. Cattleman’s Association, the Performance- Tested Bull sale, purebred sales from five breeds, and a youth steer and heifer show. You can get more information and registration materials by con tacting me at (814) 863-3661. See you there! assistant professor of forage man agement in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “It con tains a vast amount of information useful for anyone who works with forages.” The forage handbook contains material contributed by agronom ists, dairy and animal scientists, entomologists, and agricultural economists as well as information from the U.S. Department of Agri culture’s Pasture Laboratory. For more information or to or der a handbook, contact Forage Handbook, c/o Lisa Crytscr, De partment of Agronomy, The Penn sylvania State University, 116 Agricultural Sciences and Indus tries Building, University Park, PA 16802, (814) 865-2543.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers