A2O-LancMt*r Firming, Saturday, Novembtr 19, 1994
UNIVERSITY PARK. (Centre
Co.) Pennsylvania dairy farm
ers will soon have a new tool to
help control mastitis, the costliest
disease of dairy cattle. A comput
erized expert system developed at
Penn State will be field-tested
over the next several months and
may be available statewide as
early as next year.
Mastitis is the most expensive
cow health problem in the dairy
industry according to Dr. William
Heald, professor of dairy and ani
mal science. “By cutting milk pro
duction, ruining udder tissue and
even killing cows, the disease
causes estimated annual losses of
$2OO per cow. That’s a loss of
about $2 billion in North America
every year,” he said.
Developed by Heald and other
researchers in Penn State’s Col
lege of Agricultural Sciences, the
system can help dairy producers
minimize herd udder health prob
lems. Dairy consultants can use it
to help their clients develop more
effective control programs.
“Having a computerized masti
TOP PRICES FOR ALL TYPES OF BEEF CATTLE
CULL COWS, BULLS, STEERS, alio Down or Cripplod Cattle
Tom Mulvaney,
wStr Efls, ° n ' pA vn
610-258-1670
1-800-789-COWS (2697)
Calls Taken 6 AM to 10 PM - 7 Days A Week
IN PA - Northampton, Lehigh, Berks,
Lancaster and parts of Chester & Lebanon
Counties
★ All Cattle Paid on Hanging Dressed Weight ★
WHAT’S AHEAD FOR
CORN & SOYBEAN
• We Deal In Futures And Options
• Our Only Business is Commodity Futures
And Options
• Same Location And Principals For Over 20
Years
• When Buying options, your risk is limited to
the loss of the premium paid plus all
transaction costs. Buying futures and
options have inherent risks and should be
done only with risk capital.
FOR INFORMATION. .. LITERATURE...
CHARTS... PLEASE CALL
215-821-8111 800-543-8939
LEHIGH VALLEY FUTURES INC.
Suite LL6,2200 Hamilton St., Allentown, PA 18104
The risk of loss in trading futures and options on futures can be
substantial futures and options trading may not be suitable for
everyone You should carefully consider the risks in light of your
financial condition in deciding whether to trade
Dairy Farmers To Have New Mastitis Control Tool
tis knowledge base should help
reduce financial losses due to
mastitis and improve the quality
of milk marketed by Pennsylvania
dairy farmers,” said Heald.
You don’t need to be a comput
er expert to use the program,
either. “We designed it to be user
friendly, so it requires minimal
computer skills,” said Heald.
“Most of the program’s functions
are controlled by pointing and
clicking with a cursor.”
Over the next several months,
Heald will be sharing the program
with veterinarians, DHIA officials,
cooperative extension agents and
dairy farmers in the southeastern
part of the state. Their feedback
will be used to develop a final ver
sion of the program.
The program helps farmers
design mastitis control schemes
based on various degrees of
aggressive treatment. “The system
can’t diagnose the disease in cows,
but it can help producers identify
problems that might be contribut
ing to mastitis on their farms,”
Heald said. “It can then suggest
specific strategies to reduce masti
tis problems in the herd.”
The system incorporates infor
mation about identifying and con
trolling mastitis problems from a
wide range of sources. The pro
gram’s 170 screens are inter
linked, so by pointing and clicking
users can easily retrieve informa
tion on specific mastitis topics
they select. The screens include
text, pictures of laboratory cul
tures and graphical data.
The system targets problems
State Approves Farmland Purchases
HARRISBURG, (Dauphin
Co.) The Pennsylvania Agri
cultural Land Preservation Board
approved easement purchases for
seven farms in four counties,
ensuring that 1,159 acres of prime
farmland will remain in agricul
tural use.
“These farms will join over
460 others that are a part of the
Farmland Preservation Program,”
said State Agriculture Secretary
and Board Chairman Boyd E.
Wolff. “Pennsylvania, with over
on individual farms by analyzing
data from Dairy Herd Improve
ment Association (DHIA) main
frame computers. “It can retrieve
data for individual cows or the
whole herd, show all the related
information and suggest possible
mastitis management lapses,”
Heald said. “Users can download
a herd’s DHIA records using a
modem and evaluate them auto
matically, saving time and effort.”
The system analyzes somatic
cell score (SCS) data as well as
general herd management infor-
57,000 preserved acres, is second
in the nation.
Following are the properties
approved, listed by county,
owner, township, acreage and pur
chase cost:
• Chester —Mary F. Porter,
East Nottingham Township, 176
acres, $450,944.
• Chester —Linda Rice, High
land Township, 113 acres
$397,408.
• Dauphin—Mary L. Boyer,
Washington and Upper Paxton
mation. “It also shows SCS trends
and identifies cows with the high
est SCS in current and previous
months,” said Heald.
Michael Foster, director of the
college’s Laboratory for Artificial
Intelligence Applications, and
dairy science project assistants
Tai-Oun Kim and Joan Cooper
helped develop the system, along
with Patricia Toretti, senior pro
grammer for Pennsylvania DHIA.
The researchers will continue to
refine the system using comments
and feedback from people who
field-test it this year.
Townships, 80 acres, $120,600.
• Dauphin—Allen Shaffer,
Upper Paxton Township, 100
acres, $120,048.
• Northampton—Gordon J. and
Armell D. Mann, Allen Town
ship, 321 acres, $1,026,627.
• York—Brian and Dorothy
Grimm, Peach Bottom Township,
243 acres, $234,708.
• York—Mahlon and Beverly
Martin, Codorus and North
Codorus townships, 126 acres,
$164,675.