Ja| Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council
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Industry, Farmer, Scientist — Working Together Toward A Grassland Program*
Want Good Alfalfa? Watch
You won’t often see a scene such as this. Joe Weimer holds a plant
showing deep root growth-the alfalfa was finally able to locate some
mositure during the 1999 drought. By coincidence, a cave-in found near
a county road revealed a natural underground water course next to Joe
Weimer’s alfalfa crop. Photo by Gay Brownlee
Producers Use CLA, Mini-
Dairies To Move Milk
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Fanning Stajf
GRANTVILLE (Dauphin Co.)
Milk is the original “neutraceuti
cal” or nutrient-pharmaceutical
that can protect the human body,
science has proven.
Simply put, milk harbors con
jugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty
acid present in milk that can fight
certain types of cancer. Milk con
tains about 4-6 milligrams of CLA
per gram of fat (cheese, too).
And pasture scientists are
showing that cows fed high amounts
of forages, including those from pas
ture, can increase CLA in milk by 2-
3 percent, noted Larry Muller, Penn
State dairy scientist, at last month’s
Pennsylvania Grazing and Forage
Conference at the Holiday Inn in
Grantville.
Muller spoke on a session
focusing on value-added dairy mar
kets.
": C: ' - ;
Pennsylvania Forage & Grassland Council
Newsletter Section April 22, 2000
These days, dairy farmers are
struggling with volatile prices, in
creased input costs, decreasing mar
gins, and they receive a smaller
percentage of the retail price. Bever
age consumption, particularly soft
drinks, is on the rise.
More than ever, farmers must
consider the end users of the prod
ucts. And those end users con
sumers are looking for the
“pharma” foods that can add to a
healthy lifestyle.
CLAs are found in unsaturated
fat. Already dairy science (through
a Penn State pilot project) has found
that, through management of nu
trients to the cow, the proportion of
the saturated, or bad fat, can be de
creased, and unsaturated fat in
creased.
In the future, CLA amounts
could potentially be more carefully
controlled. The same CLAs have
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GAY BROWNLEE
Somerset Co. Correspondent
SOMERSET (Somerset Co.)
When it comes to his alfalfa, crop
farmer Joe Weimer of Somerset said
nothing is more critical than main
taining a pH balance of 6.5 to 7.
“The main thing is to keep an eye
on the pH,” Weimer said.
Weimer usually sends a test to
Penn State or to the University of
Virginia. On old plantings, he runs a
soil sample about every third or
fourth year. However, with new
seedings, it is critical to run a soil
sample right away. In two or three
weeks the results will come back.
If the indicators show the soil pH
is low lime it.
“Usually, good alfalfa would take
1,000 pounds to a ton a year,”
DUANE E. PYSHER
Grassland Management
Specialist
Natural Resources
Conservation Service
Harrisburg
I have recently been involved with
helping to conduct several grazing
schools in the Harrisburg area. As 1
was conducting some classroom dis
cussions on several agronomic
topics, it became evident to me that
even though several of the subjects
were designed for beginning grazers,
they were points that many experi
enced graziers may need to revisit. I
will address several of those topics
in this column.
PFGC directors, from left, John Pergosky, Ed Pits, Dick Hann,
Matt Sanderson, Duane Pysher, Marvin Hall, Craig Williams, Ed
Koncle, and Richard Adams. See conference awards story page
12. Photo by Andy Andrews
The
Soil pH
Weimer said. “I have a lime
spreader, so I spread it myself.”
Weimer prefers using hydrated
lime because it goes to work the
same season, which is pretty fast.
Weimer said the lime application
will last 4 to 5 years.
“I like to get six to seven years out
of seed,” Weimer said. “When the
alfafa comes out, I go into two years
of corn before I go back into al
falfa.”
The rotation works out well and
allows some 12 to 20 acres of new al
falfa seedings to go in every year.
The fundamental thing about al
falfa is to avoid wet spots, cautioned
Weimer. Right now, his own acre
age has one vulnerable area where a
wet spot is troublesome.
S.
* Pasture Ponderings ❖
’ - -
When dealing with agronomic
principles of grazing, we need to
think about the basic unit of produc
tion - the tiller or individual plant.
When we have a population of
tillers, they are called a sward. It is
the number and size of tillers in a
sward that makes up the total yield
of dry matter, either as hay, silage,
or pasture. We need to make sure
that we care for these fillers by pro
viding a proper growing environ
ment with all the essential nutrients
such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and
potassium, in a soil with the opti
mum pH level. We also need to pro
vide the tiller with proper
management and that basically in-
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