Heat, Humidity Stressful
(Continued from Pago A 1)
of Lancaster Fanning reported on
some of the storm damage to agri
cultural producers in Franklin and
Adams counties.
However, stories of heavy los
ses of poultry in Pennsylvania
have been mostly unconfirmed or
remained unconfirmable by
presstime.
Whatiias been confirmed is that
there were some large heat related
losses of birds, especially in the
Midwest, according to Connie
Bish, a U.S. Department of Agri
culture AMS Poultry Market News
poultry market reporter working
out of Atlanta, Georgia.
Bish said an unofficial tally of
losses, mostly compiled from con
versations with field people, is that
about 3.8 million layers died.
“That’s a pretty large loss. Some
people lost as much as 8 percent of
their flock and they’d like to see
less than a half percent (loss),”
Bish said.
She said the heat that hit the
Midwest and traveled to the East
did cause some “very large abnor
mal mortality,” but the heat also
depressed the quality of the eggs
produced, so the effect was
compounded.
She said the combination of
mortality and depressed produc
tion brought about spot shortages
of eggs and an increase in price.
The wholesale price of eggs
temporarily jumped to over a dol
lar per dozen jumbos following
losses of layers in facilities in the
Midwest.
Bish said Thursday afternoon
that in her eight years as a reporter
for the USDA, she has never seen
such a dramatic price swing.
In one week from July 14 to
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2. Glvaa more energy per lb. of corn.
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July 20 the price of a dozen
jumbos went from 85 cents per
dozen on Monday to $1 per dozen
by Thursday, according to weekly
New York egg market Northeast
quotes (reported weekly in Lan
caster Farming).
From June 20 to July 6, the price
was steady at 80 cents per dozen
jumbos.
During the week from July 21 to
July 27, jumbos started at $1.02
per dozen and ended at $1.06.
This week, egg prices have
dropped again.
Using the same market quotes,
the price of a dozen of jumbos
stayed at $1.06 from Monday
through Wednesday, but dropped
to 98 cents per dozen on Thursday.
(See page 4 for more egg price
information).
Egg prices are controlled by a
supply and demand system that is
largely controlled through con
tracts with a small percentage of
the industry conducting regular
price negotiations.
While the hot season has just
begun and no one can forecast
what the price of eggs or any other
quickly - perishable agricultural
commodity might do in the near
future, Bish said the industry is
recovering fairly quickly.
Bish said that Pennsylvania egg
producers apparently did not suffer
the losses as did egg producers in
states including lowa, Jndianna,
Nebraska and Illinois.
According to Bish, Pennsylva
nia producers actually enjoyed the
benefit of a tighter national market
to increase the price for eggs. She
said that it can take up to six to
eight months for a full recovery,
and in the meantime, because the
price was low prior to the heat
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mortality in the Midwest, she said
she expects the price to stay above
those pre-heat wave lows.
In the dairy industry, milk
demand is normally down during
the summer, and milk production
is normally down.
Again, while there have been no
documented cases of milk shor
tages, some area dairymen have
said that they suffered losses of up
to 20 pounds milk per day per ani
mal on the heel of the mid-July
heat wave.
Most dairy farmers report that
the herds have almost recovered,
despite continuing, but lower heat
In recent years, many dairymen
have instituted several techniques
for cooling cows, mainly using the
cooling properties of evaporation,
protection from the sun, and tunnel
or other forms of strong
ventilation.
Ironically, Bish said that while
the Midwest egg producers suf
fered significant losses (up to 8
percent of a flock with an esti
mated average of almost a 2 per
cent loss overall), those in the
South have had little trouble deal
ing with the heat, leading some to
conjecture that those in the Mid
west are using structures which are
designed more for keeping birds
from freezing than overheating,
while Southern facilities and tech
niques have evolved around com
bating high heat and humidity.
Dairy experts have been advis
ing Northeast and Pennsylvania
dairy farmers to abandon the his
toric dairy husbandry practice of
building against the cold. For
about 10 years the industry has
been changing to buildings
designed for ventilation and cool
ing properties.
Local extension agent John
Schwartz said he knew that poultry
mortality was up, but was not sure
and TEST RESULTS
AXY CORN.
how much. The worst stretch that
he was aware of was from July 14
through July 16.
Even though daytime tempera
tures had risen in days before,
evening and nighttime cooling pre
vented over-stressing of birds.
However, that particular
weekend saw no respite from the
heat. The temperature didn’t drop
below 90 degrees until 2 a.m.
Sunday.
According to Schwartz, poultry
(originally a warm climate bird)
can tolerate periods of high heat, as
long as a break comes. For an
18-hours period the temperature
was more than 100 degrees, he
said.
However, since the nature of the
poultry industry is primarily con
tract production, and occassional
and minor heat losses are not
unknown, there has been no offi
cial reporting or documentation of
significant losses, and that is prob
ably because the losses aren’t
significant
At the University of Pennsylva
nia Poultry lab at New Bolton, Dr.
Bob Eckroade said he hasn’t heard
any confirmed reports of large los
ses in the state or in the Delmarva
region, though he has heard con
versational stories that there have
been some large losses
somewhere.
Others poultry officials in the
Delmarva area also could not con
firm any large losses due to heat
and humidity.
In other production news, tobac
co growers concerned about a dis
ease called “blue mold” are too late
to do anything about it.
In the June 17 issue of Lancas
ter Farming, John O. Yocum, a
senior research assistant at die
Penn State Research Station in
Landisville reported the discovery
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self propelled forage Harvester equipped with a
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kernel.
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Leola, PA 17540 717-656-2321
Located: 4 miles West of New Holland on Rt. 23,11/2 miles
Northeast of Leola on the No. Qroffdale Rd., 1 mile on the
right, opposite Groffdale Mennonlte Church.
UncasUf Farming, Saturday, August 5,19M-A27
of blue mold in a tobacco bed.
According to that report, the
plants found to have been infected
with the fungus were not treated
with a commercial fungicide that
uses the active ingredient metalax
yl. The fungicide is called Ridom
il, and in his article, Yocum
advised that if a plant bed had blue
mold, “it should be destroyed since
the spores are spread by air and
will infect any untreated tobacco.
On Thursday, Yocum said that
there really isn’t anything that a
tobacco grower can do now.
All blue mold discovered is
believed to be caused by a failure
to use adequate protective mea
sures during seed bed preparation,
at seeding and again at last
cultivation.
Yocum said that there are a few
cases in which growers did use the
fungicide but still contracted blue
mold in some plants.
In a comparison of tobacco
grown at the research station
which did not suffer any fungus
infection, the cases of blue mold
appearing in treated plants are
similar in that they were planted
early.
Yocum said it could be very
likely that excessive rain diluted
the fungicide or flushed it away
from the plant in the earlier
plantings.
The other possibility is that it
could be a form of blue mold
which is resistant to Ridomil, the
fungicide approved for use.
Yocum said samples were being
sent for laboratory identification,
but that results wouldn’t be known
for 30 days.
If the blue mold would be the
resistant strain, then producers
could use another fungicide
(Turn to Pag* A 39)