A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 31, 1999
Are Best Available Feeds Used?
GEORGE R W. HAENUEN
Retired Extension Dairy
Specialist
University of Delaware
NEWARK, Del. I have
received many requests to
continue writing my free
monthly “Dairy Management”
column.
So, although I am now
retired, I offer this article,
true to the definition of
Cooperative Extension: tak
ing recent research results
and putting them into practi
cal recommendations for bet
ter profitability—in this case,
on the dairy farm.
When I travel through var
ious parts of this great coun
try or abroad in other coun
tries (as I had the privilege in
recent years, including
Europe, North Africa, South
America, East Asia), I see
how dairy farmers use differ
ent kinds of feeds in the pro
duction of milk.
Last year I was working
with dairy farmers in
Romania, a scenic country
with rich, black soils, fertile
mountain pastures, good cli
mate and industrious people,
but their economy struggles
barely above bankruptcy.
Most Romanian farmers
have little or no money to buy
any kind of concentrate to
achieve better than bare
basic 20 pounds milk/day pro
duction from their cows.
During much of the winter
they feed grass hay, often
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mediocre in quality, and corn
stalks, and not much else,
but a few pounds of wheat
bran and/or some turnips
now and then.
Therefore, many of these
dairy farms produce no more
than 8,000 pounds
milk/cow/year-a level of pro
duction some of our older
folks remember from United
States cows in the 19505.
Since then we really have
progressed to unheard-of lev
els here.
For the first time, the
average of all DHIA herds in
Delaware this year is above
20,000 pounds milk/cow/year,
while the non-DHIA herds
achieve about 15,000 pounds
milk/cow/year.
This indicates directly and
indirectly where this great
progress comes from;
(1) DHIA record keeping
aids progress,
(2) DHIA herds use better
genetic resources for
progress, and
(3) DHIA herds .use better
feeding management, than
non-DHIA herds.
In Romania the same
strategies were proposed:
establish a DHIA system,
improve use of A.I. superior
genetics and create an
Extension Service for telling
farmers how to do a better
feeding management job.
There is no DHIA in
Romania, never was and they
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are envious of our U.S. DHIA.
While there is A. 1., it is
used little; it costs money and
farmers have little or no
money. Instead, they use a
neighbor’s bull for free, more
or less.
Nor does Romania have an
Extension Service, and they
are envious of our U.S. sys
tem.
Still, they do have a few
dairy farms with successful
breeding and feeding man
agement that equal our best.
I know a few that have
cows producing above 20,000
pounds milk. They are mostly
larger farms with several
hundred cows, mainly
Holsteins from U.S. sires, but
they are scheduled to be dis
mantled into small farms in
the near future in the process
of privatization of state
farms.
Many of these farms, even
larger ones, still milk their
cows by hand, 20 cows per
person, mostly by women!
What are they feeding
these herds?
For one thing, a lot of com
silage after taking off sweet
corn ears, grass hay, red
clover hay, sunflower oil
meal, turnips, bran, barley,
com, molasses, urea. They
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Dairy Shrine, DMI
Award Marketing
Scholarships
Andrea Dixon is majoring in mar
keting and computer information
systems and plans to graduate in
the spring of 2000. Andrea has
been president of the American
Marketing Association, treasurer
of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
and a member of the GSU Intra
mural Activities Committee.
Andrea’s interest in dairy prod
uct marketing stems from her agri
cultural background of growing
up on her parents’ farm. She stated
that milk marketing demands spe
cial attention and she plans to
work hard to promote the use of
milk and milk products.
Staci Griesbach-($500)
As an animal science and agri
cultural journalism major at the
University of Wisconsin-Madi
son, Staci Griesbach is involved in
numerous activities.
She is the public relations of
ficer for the Association of
Women in Agriculture, co-chair
person for the “Committee at-
Largc” for the Wisconsin Singers,
co-chairperson for Junior Show
Day and recruiter for the College
of Ag and Life Sciences. Addi
tionally, she is an active member
of the National Agri-Marketing
Association, the Saddle and Sir
loin Club, and is a singer in the
Wisconsin Singers Group.
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Receiving All Cows, Bulls, Steers, Calves
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(Continued from Page All)
Currently, Staci is an intern for
the Wisconsin Milk Marketing
Board and enjoys working with
the local markets, fluid and cheese
communications and especially
the dairy producers themselves. In
1998, she was an intern for the In
ternational Marketing Division of
the Wisconsin Department of
Agriculture, Trade and Consumer
Protection and developed skills in
exporting and importing Wiscon
sin dairy products.
Beth Eberhardt-($500)
Beth Eberhardt is currently a
senior at the University of Wis
consin-River Falls where she is
majoring in agriculture marketing
communications with a minor in
food science. She plans to gradu
ate in the fall of 1999.
During the summer of 1998,
Beth had the opportunity to suc
cessfully coordinate the first-ever
Wisconsin State Fair "Moo
Booth.” The experience has given
Beth increased insight of why she
chose to pursue an agricultural
marketing communications major.
She learned a great deal from the
experience, particularly that con
sumers arc not highly educated on
the dairy industry and that it
leaves a large door open for her
future in marketing dairy prod
ucts.