Cattle Field ANDY ANDREWS Lancaster Farming Staff MAYTOWN (Lancaster Co.) Commercial feedlot owners, cattle breeders, cow/calf operator!, and others are invited to attend the annual Pennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association (PCA) Held Day and Tour on Saturday, June 17 to begin here at the Lloyd F. Furman Memorial Park. In the past, the focus of the annual field day. which includes tours of several farms, has cen tered on the challenges faced by breeders and cow/calf operators. For this year’s event the focus has shifted to not only the brood cow operators, but those who feed to finish. The event in June will examine how commercial feedlots use food waste products as the cattles’ prim ary food source. “Over the years, the focus has always been on the cow/calf opera tions, mostly because the purebred operations were more likely to host something like this at their farm rather than a commercial producer or feedlot producer,” said Chet Hughes, Lancaster County lives tock agent Hughes, who chairs the educa tional events of the field day. said that the PCA has recognized that the beef feeding industry is a vital part of the overall cattle industry in the state. Lancaster County has a /o OFF ALL ACCESSORIES INSTOCK • Fireplace Tool Sets • Fireplace Screens • Solid or Plated Brass • Trivits • Cast Iron Kettles • Hearth Rugs • And Much, Much Morel 40 -60° ° OFF ALL HALCYON®, SAMSONITE & TELESCOPE RATIO FURNITURE IN STOCK (40% Off on Special Orders) lelesmne 5 piece ®r D^ G FOCUSED ON A WORLD OF LEISURE ALL GRILLS ON SALE! FREE 906 E Main SL (Rt 322) Ephrata • (717) 733-4973 1 Block East of Rt 222 1-800-642-0310 Day To Examine Use Of By-Products As Feed- Source lot of feedlot producers. Impor tantly, those same producers are near some major food processing plants that can supply the process ing by-products used to feed beef cattle. The focus of the event will be on thecomercial aspects of the indus try and the activities in the south eastern part of the state, said Bill McCoy, president of Lancaster Stockyards and chairman of the event The event will accommo date up to 600 people. The PCA wants to involve the input of the feedlot producers more in the coming years. McCoy said the emphasis will be on how pro ducers can use the waste products to make up for the high cost of feedstuff. In the southeast portion of the state, a “deficit com area,’’ said McCoy, producers have rela tively easy access to the by products from bakeries, chip mak ers, and other processors. “Lots of waste can be fed to the cattle/ ’ said Chet Hughes, and this represents a unique and viable marketing opportunity for producers. Several farms comprise the tour. Two of the farms, the Barley Farm in Conestoga and the Nissley Bros. Farm in Mount Joy, use food by products. Barley’s Star Rock Farm, which finishes about 1,800 head of cattle per year, uses noodle waste provided by a local food pro- • 4 Sling Chairs lass Top Table irs To Choose Retail $789 $ 473 TVS' mbrella Retail $296 • Tank • Gas • Assembly • Delivery wuumutuimt For Example Modal KM R tr. Retail $O9 Sale /«OFF ALL FIREPLACE DOORS INSTOCK Featuring: Schaefer, Stall and Fireguard, Etc. (Special order* 10% Off) HATTARAS HAMMOCKS • Hand Crui cessor. The Nissley Farm, which finishes about 300 head of cattle per year, utilizes potato chip by products provided by a local chip manufacturer. Another farm tour will be con ducted of the Dwipht Hess Farm. Mount Joy, which finishes about 300 head of cattle per year. The program begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Uoyd F. Furman Memorial Park in Maytown, in the western part of the county. There, buses will board on a staggered schedule to three different destinations. At noon, the buses will return and lunch will be served by the PCA’s Keystone Ribeye Sandwich crew. After lunch, Charles Brasilia, Pen nsylvania secretary of agriculture, will address the group. The after noon schedule will include a repeat of the sessions from the morning. Scheduled to speak at the field day are the following: • Harold Harpster, Penn State research on feeding food process ing by-products. • John Comerford, Penn State beef specialist, on how to interpret good teed efticieny in cattle, ■ John Burt, Lancaster County conservation district technician, on controlling soil erosion and feedlot runoff. • An ag engineer to discuss new facilities. In using food by-products material which provides an excel- •Made in the USA lualii rnStws, ac Nw 9Nv6Oorl ■■■! No Rainchacks M No Layaways Haws; M-T-W 104; TM-T 1M; M. 10-4 lent source of energy and nutrients for cattle shows a lot of prom ise. according to recent Penn State research. Hughes said that Penn State has analyzed all sorts of materials for feed quality, includ ing cardboard, newspapers, candy, snacks, “a lot of stuff. Producers realize the potential here in Pennsylvania. “The stumbling block has always been the handling and the tuning of getting these things in the proper amount and working with the source. “The biggest handling chal lenge is to ensure enough of the by Official Holstein Pedigrees: (Contlnwd from Pago A 29) tool for merchandising decisions later on. When they come back to buy another bull, they’ll look back at those pedigrees. “Everyone should have a pedi gree to work with on their own herd,” he said. “It’s a valuable, us able tool for managing.” He added he uses the pedigrees when mak ing breeding decisions as well. Pedigrees can be ordered at the time the animal is identified with the Holstein Association, at a dis count rate. They can also be order ed at any time during the animal’s lifetime. Updated classification and DHIR information is added periodically. Teresa Kissling, or Robesonia, Pennsylvania, said she also uses pedigrees in their marketing acti vities. She updates the pedigrees regularly, such as after classifica tion and when the Sire Summaries ate published. She also updates pedigrees on high-profile cows for their ET program. “We actively sell cattle year round, and offer a wide range of cattle to our buyers,” she said.' “It’s definitely necessary to have new pedigrees on hand with up dated information. You just can’t sell cows with an old pedigree.” The Kisslings merchandise about 60 head of cattle annually, including both open and bred heif ers, mature cows, and bulls. Their milking herd is currently at 63 cows. Kissling said she also used the pedigrees for a sale they had last K,c i Wfl LANCO I I LI CONCRETE KIfS WALLS ! J WE DO SCS WORK • ALL TYPES OF POURED WALLS • Retaining Walla • Bunkar Silos • Manor* Pits (circular or rectangular) • Slatted Floor D**p Pits • Footer* • Flatwork CONTACT STEVE PETERSHEIM, JR. P.O. Box 256. Bird-In-Hand, PA 17505 717-291-4585 • (PAX) 717-291-4686 iSMuritay; Juria io; product is available from the pro ducer at the right time. That’s (ttffi cult to achieve," said Hughes. Another important aspect of the field day is how farmers can make use of the program information to become better stewards of the land, according to McCoy. Also scheduled is a tour of the Cameron Estates and Donegal Plantation for the spouses. There will be a lot of activities for child ren at the park. For more information, contact Chet Hughes at the Lancaster County Cooperative Extension, (717) 394-6851. November. “We normally order the three-generation pedigree, but we needed some extended pedi grees for the sale,** she said. “Some of those pedigrees have Very Good or Excellent dams se veral generations back.” The buyers appreciate the pedi grees, she added. “Basically, if they’re buying good quality ani mals, they do want a pedigree and do appreciate having it there. The bull studs are definitely happy to have a pedigree.” Harlan and Judith Borman in Kingdom City, Missouri, agree that pedigrees are important to have when merchandising. The farm milks about 130 head, with 150 replacement heifers. A spokesman for the farm noted that for potential buyers who visit the farm, or for sale consignments, the pedigree information is good to have on hand. “The computer records on our farm can only do so much,” she said. ‘The type infor mation on the three-generation of ficial pedigrees is valuable to have.” She noted the ancestry informa tion is also valuable to have on the official pedigrees. While she nor mally only orders the three-gen eration pedigrees, she was able to use the longer pedigrees to trace one cow family back several de cades. “We normally only get the basic pedigrees, but that time we were able to go all the way back to the 1940 s with that animal,” she said.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers