D2B-Lanc«stef Fanning, Saturday, March 25, 2000
CAROLYN N. MOYER
Bradford Co. Correspondent
ELK LAKE (Susquehanna
Co.) More than 900 farmers
and industry personnel packed
the Elk Lake school for the 11th
annual Susquehanna County
Dairy Day held Friday, March
10.
While at the day-long event,
dairy day participants could
visit with the 68 exhibitors,
attend several educational pro
grams, or bid on a winning pie
from the pie auction.
In one educational presenta
tion, extension agronomist Mark
Madden informed dairy day
participants of the new products
available for corn weed control.
“What’s old is new again,”
said Madden. “ The Environ
mental Protection Agency
(EPA) has mandated that we
use fewer pounds of active
ingredient. The chemical com
panies are taking things we’re
familiar with and concentrating
them or changing the formula
tion.”
Two examples of the newer
concentrated formulas are Dual
II Magnum and Bicep II
Magnum.
Industry mergers are also changing the
face of the chemical companies and new
Glyphosate products will be available in the
coming years.
In the second session of the day, Madden
reminded farmers that pesticide safety
doesn’t end at the field.
“The job isn’t done when you put the
sprayer away,” said Madden, “What about
the clothes? The greatest exposure risk for
pesticides is through the skin. Clothes con
taminated with pesticides put everyone who
handles those clothes at risk.”
Madden continued to explain that the
person laundering the clothes should know
the properties of the product used.
“You need to know if it’s water soiubie or
oil soluble. Different chemicals have different
needs,” said Madden.
Madden suggested that the clothes be col
lected separately and washed as soon as pos
sible, preferably with a liquid detergent and
hot water. Multiple wash cycles or an in
creased amount of detergent might be
needed, and line drying is preferred. After
washing the chemical laden clothes, it’s also
advisable to clean the washer by running a
cycle without clothes before doing other laun
dry.
“The poison is in the dose, not the mate
rial,” said Madden, “Diluting the pesticides
as much as possible can prevent contamina
tion.”
In addition to keeping farm workers safe,
Dairy Day participants learned how to im
prove their dry cow nutrition program. Dr.
Gabriella Varga of Penn State’s Department
of Dairy and Animal Science highlighted the
ongoing research programs at the University
and encouraged farmers to take a look at
their situation.
Goals of the dry period are to give the
mammary gland a time to rest, give the fetus
a chance to grow, and allow for colostrum
production.
“One of the real challenges and what’s
really hard to measure on these farms is the
dry matter intake of the dry cow. It’s only
been in the last few years that we in the re
search end have been looking at what’s hap
pening in terms of intakes in this period,”
said Varga.
“What happens is that the cow will not eat
as much as she gets closer to calving, because
she’s in some discomfort and some pain. So
she slowly goes down in intake,” said Varga.
“What you want to do is provide more nu
trients to meet their requirements.”
Through research on 500 cows tracked
before and after calving, there was a strong
correlation on the amount of feed consumed
before calving and how much was consumed
after calving when rations are increased to
compensate for milk production.
Because fat cows eat less,
Varga recommended that the
cow’s body composition score be
calculated before dry off and
that the ration be adjusted
before drying the cow off in
order for her to get down to an
average score of 3.00 to 3.50.
“Once you start really looking
at the condition of these cows
from a thin cow to a fat cow.
you’ll be surprised to see that
you have some cows that are on
this fatty end. These cows that
accumulate lipid in their livers
are the ones that will have de
pressed appetites, increased
days to first ovulation, de
creased first service conception
and increased incidence of met
abolic diseases,” said Varga.
Another thing that Varga
stressed is the importance of
cow comfort.
“I was at a large farm last
year, and there was a group of
lame cows and it took quite a
while to get those cows from the
bam to the milking parlor. The
farmer put the lame cows in a
group closer to the parlor,” said
Varga. “When those lame cows
only had to walk a short dis
tance, they went up 20 pounds
of milk per cow. Cow comfort is
absolutely important, but very
hard to measure.”
She added that cow comfort
does not end when the cow is
dried off. “Anything you can do
to keep those cows comfortable
during the dry period, whether
it’s bunk space or a maternity
area, is very important,” she
said.
Dollars are the bottom line for
many producers and paying
closer attention to the dry period
can prevent lots of problems
later on.
“It’s very hard to put an
actual dollar values on some of
these diseases that are precipi
tated during the dry period like
ketosis, displaced abomasum,
milk fever, or fatty liver, but
they’re pretty expensive,” said
Varga.
When considering the eco
nomic picture of the dairy
farms, managing risk is also an
important factor. William
Curley, who wears the hats of a
Susquehanna County dairy
farmer and an economic analyst
with the International Dairy
Foods Association,encouraged
people to use forward contract-
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Susquehanna Dairy Da
Offering the winning pies for auction are State Repre
sentative Sandra Major, Rick Campbell, representing
Robin Campbell, Lori Marcy, representing Kay Gow, and
Jean Castrogiovanni.
ing and futures to lock in a
profit for milk.
“There’s no guarantee that
the futures price will be profita
ble,” Curley said.
Several guidelines must be
followed when deciding to use
the market as a tool. First, you
need to know your cost of pro
duction.
“If you can’t recognize a prof
itable futures price based on
your break even price, you
shouldn’t even be in this discus
sion,” said Curley.
Second, Curley warned of the