COLUMBUS. Ohio The po
tential economic consequences of
a beef producer who tries to breed
cattle with an infertile bull are
huge, said Doug Shaw, Ohio State
University Extension veterinarian.
A bull Breeding Soundness Ex
amination, or BSE, can help en
sure a successful breeding season
by discovering bulls that have
poor breeding potential and im
proving reproductive efficiency
between bulls and cows.
Veterinarians may charge $4O
Agriculture
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Agricultural society dele
gates from throughout Pennsylva
nia recently re-elected two mem
bers to Penn State’s board of trus
tees.
Representatives of local Grange
chapters, farm bureaus, county
fair boards, and other county
based organizations returned for-
mer state Agriculture Secretary
BoydE. Wolff of Dauphin County
and Sen. Roger A. Madigan of
Bradford County to the univer
sity’s governing board for three
year terms that begin July 1 and
end in 2001.
Agricultural societies elect six
members of Penn State’s 32-mem
ber board of trustees for staggered
three-year terms. Other current
trustees elected by agricultural
delegates, with term expiration in
parentheses, are Gordon L. Hiller
(1999), former master, Pennsylva
nia State Grange; David A. Mor
row (1999), consulting veterinar
ian and owner-manager, Arch
Spring Farm; Carl T. Shaffer
(2000), vice president, Pennsylva
nia Farm Bureau; and Obie Snider
(2000), managing partner, Singing
Winners Named At West Central Youth Show
(Continued from Page CS)
spectively in the Jersey breed.
Stephanie’s summer yearling
Lackeys Juno Lilly Bell was
named junior champion and
Timmy showed his spring year
ling to the reserve rosette.
Timmy Lacky also showed his
senior three-year-old Conny Bum
ALI Harmony to reserve grand
champion. The grand champion
Irishtowns Dunker Olie belonger
to Kim Yeager, Greenville. Mer
cer County. Kim’s champion was
a senior two. The best owned and
bred Jersey was Jem Specialist
Adam McMurry has the grand champion Guernsey. Beck
ie Ruffaner, Armstrong County dairy princess presents the
award.
Make Sure Bulls Pass Breeding Test
to $lOO to do a BSE, depending on
how far they have to drive and
how much they do. That may
sound like a lot of money, but it
could save a producer thousands
of dollars, Shaw said.
For example, if a marginally
fertile bull only breeds 30 of 50
cows during a breeding season,
the producer loses the potential
earnings from 20 feeder calves. If
the 20 lost calves had eventually
sold for about $4OO each, the pro
ducer could have earned an addi-
Societies Re-Elect Two Penn State Trustees
Brook Farms.
Wolff received his bachelor’s
degree in dairy husbandry from
Penn State in 1953. For the next
33 years, he owned and operated
Wolfden Farm, a 410-acre dairy
farm in Westmoreland County. He
served as Pennsylvania secretary
of agriculture from January 1987
to January 1995.
Wolff has been active in vari
ous agricultural, community, reli
gious, and political organizations.
In recognition of his many leader
ship and service activities, he has
received numerous awards from
agricultural organizations
throughout Pennsylvania. He was
named a distinguished alumnus by
Penn State’s Department of Dairy
and Animal Science in 1988, was
inducted into Gamma Sigma Delta
in 1989, and received the Friend
of Extension Award from Epsilon
Sigma Phi in 1994. In 1995, the
National FFA organization
awarded Wolff the Honorary
American Farmer Degree.
Wolff has held office in the Na
tional Association of State Depart
ments of Agriculture, the North
eastern State Departments of
Polly Poppy, a five-year-old,
shown by Joy Ellen McConnell.
Lane Whiting of Edinburg,
Lawrence County, showed her
senior two-year-old Milking
Shorthorn, Designer Gene’s Bra Its
Roxy, to grand champion honors
in that breed. Reserve grand
champion went to Tom Reiser,
Cranesville, Erie County, with his
junior three-year-old GWR Big
Red Specklie.
Donna Grace Philson of Mer
cer, Mercer County, showed Hon
ey Creek Midi, a fall yearling to
the junior champion honors. Re
tional $B,OOO in gross income.
“Every cow should have a calf
every year for a producer to be
profitable in the cattle industry,”
Shaw said. “If a BSE helps save
just one calf, it will cover its cost
So a BSE is certainly cost effec
tive, even at the high end of the
cost range.”
There are three parts to a BSE.
First, the veterinarian does a phy
sical exam of the bull to see if it is
physically capable of breeding a
cow. Foot, leg, eye or other body
Agriculture, and the Eastern
United States Food and Export
Council. He was appointed to the
Pennsylvania Ethics Commission
in 1995 and has served as a VOCA
volunteer in Venezuela and Rus-
sia.
Elected to the board of trustees
by the delegates from agricultural
societies in May 1984, Wolff
served as an ex officio trustee
while secretary of agriculture
from 1987 to 1995. He was
elected again by the delegates
from agricultural societies in May
1995.
Madigan, who earned his
bachelor’s degree in dairy produc
tion from Penn State in 1951, was
a dairyman from 1951 to 1964 and
operates a 26-acre crop and certi
fied tree farm near Towanda. He
served as state representative in
the General Assembly from the
110th District from 1977 to 1984,
when he was elected to the slate
Senate representing the 23rd Dis
trict.
Madigan is chairman of the
Joint State Government Commis
sion, as well as the Senate En
vironmental Resources and Ener-
serve junior champion Milking
Shorthorn went to Jessica M.
Whiting, Edinburg, with her
spring yearling Summit Vista ML
Dew. Best animal bred and owned
went to Rachel Anne Kline, Mars,
Butler County, for her six-year
old, Mandy’s Monica-Exp. Kline
also showed the best owned and
bred Ayrshire a fall calf named
Kline Farm Dazzle.
The first and second place
senior three-year-old Ayrshires,
belonging to siblings Elaina and
John Rader, Connoquenessing,
Butler County, were named grand
champion and reserve grand
champion. Elaina’s Homestead-
Acres Cstar Stormy and John’s
lason Kennedy has the grand champion Brown Swiss.
condition problems could lower a
bull’s breeding potential, Shaw
said.
Second, semen is collected and
evaluated. Bulls with low sperm
counts or high percentages of ab
normal sperm could have trouble
getting cows pregnant, he said.
Third, the circumference of the
scrotum is measured. The larger a
bull’s testes, the more semen it
will produce. And, female calves
produced by bulls with larger tes
tes tend to mature faster.
gy Committee. He is vice chair
man of the Senate Game and
Fisheries Committee and a memb
er of the Senate agriculture and
rural affairs, appropriations, and
labor and industries committees.
He also is a member of the Joint
Legislative Air and Water Pollu
tion Control and Conservation
Committee.
Madigan has won numerous
awards and has been honored as
“Legislator of the Year” by sever
al trade and professional associa
tions. In 1995, he was named a
distinguished alumnus by Penn
State’s Department of Dairy and
Animal Science.
Madigan is a trustee of the
Guthrie Medical Center in Sayre
and a member of The Milton S.
Hershey Medical Center Board of
Visitors. In May 1998, he was
elected by Penn State’s board of
trustees as a director of the Agri
cultural Law Resource and Refer
ence Center of the Dickinson
School of Law.
In 1979, Madigan was ap
pointed to serve on the board of
trustees to fill an unexpired term
ending in 1980.
Homestead-Acres Cstar Superior
received the champion and reserve
honors respectively.
Entry number 294, Toll-Gate-
Ayr Sunny Sue, a winter yearling
shown by Heather Irene Bauder
was selected as junior champion
Ayrshire. Reserve junior cham
pion went to Bobbi Jo Bauder with
her spring yearling, Toll-Gate-Ayr
Molly May.
The judges for the event were
Creedin Corman, who placed the
Holsteins, Guernseys, and Ayr
shires and Chad Dechow From
Penn State University. Dechow
was responsible for selecting the
winners in the Brown Swiss, Jer
sey, and Milking Shorthorn
breeds.
“Scrotal circumference will
vary with age and by breed, so j
producers need to know for each
breed what is an appropriate size !
of testes for the age of the bull,”
Shaw said.
The missing link in a BSE is
that it shows a bull has the physi
cal potential to breed cows, but it
doesn’t prove a bull is socially and
mentally capable, he said. Al
though rare, some bulls may have
a poor sex drive or show aggres
sive or antisocial behavior that
keeps them from breeding cows.
Producers should have a BSE
done before buying a bull to be
sure it is fertile. Young bulls just
reaching maturity should be tested
before being put with cows.
Young bulls have lower semen
production anyway, so they’ve got
two strikes against them if a prob
lem is revealed by a BSE, Shaw
said. Approximately 11 percent of
young bulls are either sterile or
subfertile at 12 months to 14
months of age.
“If a bull produced a good calf
crop last year, most producers
won’t think about having a BSE
done before breeding this year, but
bulls should be tested each year
prior to breeding season,” he said.
Breeding Soundness Examina
tions show that 4 percent of pro
ven bulls develop fertility prob
lems between breeding seasons.
Heat stress during the summer can
cause infertility, or severe frost
bite in the winter can damage the
scrotum.
A BSE also should be done af
ter a bull has been sick. Any infec
tious disease that causes fever,
such as pneumonia, can reduce
sperm quality, so it’s good to see
if a bull is still properly producing
semen after any illness, Shaw
sdid.
Often bulls shouldn’t be failed
after their first test, especially if
they are young. It’s common to
get a marginal or unsatisfactory
semen sample from young bulls
because they are not sexually
competent yet, he said. Classifica
tion of young bulls as either satis
factory or unsatisfactory breeders
should be delayed three to four
weeks until a second semen
sample can be taken, especially if
there were any problems taking
the first sample.
Classification also should be
delayed if a bull recently has been
sick. It can take two to three
months for sperm cells damaged
by sickness to return to normal.
“In reality, a truly sterile bull is
rare, so we don’t see many real
disasters with breeding,” Shaw
said. “It’s more common to find
that a bull was subfertile and
couldn’t produce enough semen to
get all the cows bred in the defined
breeding season.”
In Ohio, there are many beef
producers with only 10 ro 20 cows
and one bull, and it may be diffi
cult for them to justify having a
BSE done. To make more efficient
use of the veterinarian’s time and
make the examinations cheaper by
splitting the veterinarian’s travel
costs, several producers in an area
could bring their bulls to one site
and have a BSE done to all the
bulls at once, Shaw said. The only
potential downside to this would
be the possibility of spreading dis
ease among the animals if one bull
was sick.
For more information about
Breeding Soundness Examina
tions, interested producers should
call their local veterinarian or
Ohio Stale University Extension
Veterinary Medicine at (614)
292-9453.