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Rains Blessing To Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio Rain
the weekend of May 21 helped
Ohio’s recently planted crops get
off to a good start, although
projected low commodity prices
due to the nation’s high grain sur
pluses won’t be much of a reward
for farmers.
ftamsylvania
Beef Council
(Continued from Pago A 26)
When low milk cows are kept
past breakeven (generally 45 to
60 pounds) or health-compro
mised cows are kept until they
are overtly biologically broken,
they begin to incur double losses
for the dairy. The cows aren’t
putting income back into the
operation. They’re taking up
space that a more productive
animal could be using, and at
the same time they are becom
ing less valuable as beef ani
mals.
Even the healthy appearing
low-milk cow can quickly lose
value as she gains weight
instead of making milk with the
energy she consumes. The per
pound beef value diminishes
rapidly as cows approach BCS
scores of 4 and 5.
“With our cows, we’ve mainly
learned not to hold heavier ani-
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“We expect another year of low
prices,” said Carl Zulauf, agricul
tural economist at Ohio State Uni
versity. “The impact on farmers is
that this will be the second (conse
cutive) year of low hum income.
“It is most people’s opinion that
most farmers who are highly
Regional Center for
Dairy Beef Quality Assurance
SERVING THROUGH EDUCATION. PROMOpON&JRESEARCI 7
mals quite as long," said Jett
Grove. Jeff and his brother Jay
milk 175 cows on their farm
near Shippensburg. He’s been
paying attention to why cull
cows bring the prices they do.
The failure to evaluate is
costly. Dairy farmers can benefit
when they approach their
culling decisions as a positive,
productive, and profitable func
tion of dairy management
and view themselves as contrib
utors of valued food products
instead of salvage price-takers.
The Regional Center for
Dairy Beef Quality Assurance is
dedicated to raising producer
awareness of key management
and decision factors affecting
consumer confidence, beef value
and dairy profitability. To learn
more about dairy beef quality
assurance, contact Tammy
Weaver at (717) 939-7000.
'II/f * « . 4
Crop, Low Prices Aren’t
leveraged can easily stand one
year of falling income,” Zulauf
said. “It’s when you put two or
more years of lower income to
gether that financial strain be
comes more widespread.”
An otherwise dry spring allow
ed Ohio farmers to get virtually all
their own and soybeans planted
two weeks ahead of time, said
Ohio State crop specialists. A con
tinued dry spell would have dam
aged what could become an out
standing crop year, they said.
“We sort of had it pretty nice
this spring in getting crops
planted,” said agronomist Jim
Beuerlein. “A lot of seed got
planted in fairly dry soil, and it
just laid there waiting for water.
“There are some fields with thin
stands now, but the recent rains
will correct that,” Beuerlein said
Ohio and Indiana are well
ahead of the nation’s major soy
bean-growiling area in the West
ern Cent Belt, where planting is
lagging due to rain, Zulauf said
Illinois is the exception, where
planting is right on target
However, it’s still not too late
for western farmers to get their
soybeans planted in time, if the
weather starts to cooperate. Favor
able growing conditions could add
to the nation’s already high stock
pile of soybeans.
U.S. soybean producers also
face competition from overseas
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oilseed growing areas, where un
proved weather conditions are ex
pected to raise production, Zulauf
said. In particular, Malaysia’s
palm oil production is expected to
return to normal after sustaining
drought from the El Nino weather
pattern, he said.
Meanwhile, last weekend’s
showers in Ohio didn’t seem to be
evenly distributed, leaving some
fields still thirsty for water. Den
nis Baker, an agriculture/com
munity development agent for
Ohio State University Extension
in Darke County, said “Any
amount of rain would help” but
the weekend’s showers were spot
ty and sparse in the west-central
Ohio county.
In Wood County, an Ohio State
research branch received almost
an inch of rainfall last weekend
while some nearby areas received
about two inches, said Paul
Houdashelt, manager of the
Northwestern branch of Ohio
State’s Ohio Agricultural Re
search and Development Center
(OARDC). “It was highly variable
up here,” Houdashelt said. “There
are some portions of the area that
are excess in moisture, and other
areas that are adequate.”
OARDC’s Northwestern
Branch received 1.22 inches of
precipitation for the month as of
May 23. compared to 5.26 inches
for May 1998. April brought 5.7
inches of precipitation compared
to 3.47 inches in April 1998.
Farmers usually finish com
planting and are well into planting
soybeans by late May. This year,
some com is as high as 3-4 inches
in northwestern Ohio, while soy
beans are just starting to emerge
from the ground, Houdashelt said.
“We were concerned about how
the dry weather was going to af
fect com stands,” said agronomist
Peter Thomison. “If we can get
some more rain it wouldn’t hurt us
any."
Young plants not only need
moisture to help them grow, but
rain also washes herbicides into
soils to be effective on weeds.
Beuerlein said that relatively cool
temperatures helped keep weed
population down while farmers
waited for rain.
Ohio’s wheat crop is looking
"excellent,” said plant pathologist
Pat Lipps. There is some concern
that rainfall could spread a fungal
disease known as head scab,
which caused major losses in 1995
and 19%, he said. However, the
dry conditions over the past month
has probably prevented the scab
fungus from producing spores,
which should limit the number of
infections this year.
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