A2B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 1,2002 Penn State Cooperative Extension Capitol Region Dairy Team REDUCING HEAT STRESS IN DAIRY CATTLE PART TWO Glenn A. Shirk Extension Dairy Agent Lancaster Earlier articles focused on how heat stress affects cattle, and the use of shade and exhaust fans to help protect cows from heat stress. This article focuses on the use of circulation fans evapora tive cooling and some other ideas for protecting cattle from heat stress. Circulation fans can be install ed over bunk areas and over rows of stalls. This method does not exchange air as effectively as ex haust fans, but it does take ad vantage of some natural ventila tion, and the barn is still ventilated if the fans should fail. How many fans are needed? One fan will “service” a distance of about 10 times its diameter. In other words, four feet. Fans should be spaced about 40 feet apart (about 10 stalls) and angled downward toward the stalls. Evaporative cooling can help lower air temperatures when the humidity is low enough for evap oration to occur. Otherwise, it can raise humidity levels and cause animal discomfort. The idea is to introduce a very fine mist into the air stream, or to draw air through an evaporation pad or a radiator-like heat ex changer to cool the incoming air. Another method is to wet the cow and use fans to evaporate moisture from her body (the same effect you feel when get out of the water and stand in a breeze). Cows can be sprinkled at Report To Guide Childhood Ag Injury Prevention Efforts MARSHFIELD, Wis. Would you take your child to work at a mine or construction site? Of course not. Yet children routinely are exposed to danger ous situations in production agri culture, where the line between home and worksite has tradition ally been blurred. A report designed to guide na tional childhood agricultural in jury prevention efforts has been published by the National Chil dren’s Center for Rural and Agri cultural Health and Safety. “We hope this report inspires and motivates people to meet the challenge of protecting the nearly two million children who live, visit and work on our nation’s farms and ranches,” said Barbara Lee, Ph.D., director of the Na tional Children’s Center, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wis. The report is an outgrowth of the 2001 Summit on Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention, a federally-funded initiative that brought together nearly 100 farmers, growers, professors. physicians, adolescents, and safe ty professionals, along with rep resentatives of agricultural or ganizations and federal agencies. These attendees used consensus development to generate injury prevention strategies and priori- the feed bunk, with a low-pres sure nozzle that delivers about 0.5 gallons of water per minute as coarse droplets for 3-5 minutes at about 15-minute intervals. The idea is to soak cows to the hide while they are at the bunk and cool them off in the breeze of the fans when they return to the stall area to rest. Other helpful ideas include: • Minimize the time cows stand in holding areas. • Do not crowd cows. Give them plenty of bunk space and watering space. • Minimize their exertion and excitement. Don’t make them walk great distances to feed and water, and keep them quiet be fore and after breeding and at calving time. Feeds dry out faster with in creased air movement and spoil more quickly when temperatures rise. These problems can be mini mized by mixing feeds more fre quently to help keep them fresh er, by feeding more frequently, by keeping mangers and watering devices clean, and by increasing the moisture content of the ra tion. Feed cows a more nutrient dense ration, while also being sure to meet their fiber require ments. Increase mineral intakes to replenish what cows lost be cause of increased sweating, slob bering, and urination. Feeding more buffers, niacin, and prod ucts such as aspergillus oryzae may also be helpful. In all these matters, observe cows closely and work closely with your nutrition ist and veterinarian. ties for the future. The need for the summit re port is underscored by the more than 100 deaths and about 33,000 restricted-activity injuries that occur to youth on farms each year, Lee said. Goals and recommendations include: • Adults will ensure that young children and nonworking youth can grow, play, leam, and rest in protective environments that are free of agricultural haz ards. • Young workers will receive agricultural safety training, guid ance, personal protective equip ment, and adult supervision based on child development prin cipals. • A strong public/private in frastructure will be maintained to ensure the vision, leadership, and national commitment necessary to prevent childhood agricultural injuries. The summit report can be viewed and downloaded in .pdf format by going to http:// research.marshfieldclinic.org/ children. Printed copies are available by contacting the National Chil dren’s Center for Rural and Agri cultural Health and Safety at (888) 924-7233 or (715) 389-4999, or by e-mailing nccrahs@mfldcli n.edu. The Dairy Farm Business Summary: What Is It And What Can It Do For Yon? Sarah Roth Penn State Dairy Alliance UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co) What is the Dairy Farm Business Summary? The Dairy Farm Business Summary (DFBS) is an analyti cal program designed to allow producers to improve accounting and financial analysis techniques, develop managerial skills, and solve business and financial man agement problems. This is accomplished through gathering the information neces sary to complete the analysis and then comparing their farm’s per formance with top performing businesses in Pennsylvania and the Northeast. The information required to complete the DFBS includes: Cash receipts and ex penses, accounts payable and re ceivable, beginning and year-end balance sheets, land resources and use, depreciation informa tion, feed and supply inventory, livestock inventory, and machin ery and equipment inventory. How can the DFBS help you? The Dairy Farm Business Summary provides an excellent opportunity to work with a com puter-based program that will as sist in better data utilization and interpretation, increasing the soundness of management deci sions. After completing the re Soggy Fields May Promote Diseases WOOSTER, Ohio Excessive wet weather throughout Ohio the past several weeks may cause problems with disease develop ment in the state’s wheat crop. Pat Lipps, an Ohio State Uni versity Extension plant patholo gist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Cen ter, said that growers should be scouting their fields for such dis eases as powdery mildew, Stago nospora leaf blotch and head scab. “Stagonospora leaf blotch is being favored by frequent rain showers. We are not seeing too much of it yet because its been a bit too cool, but we are setting the stage for some major problems with continued rain,” said Lipps. “The other disease is head scab and the rains have provided satu rated conditions for this fungus to produce spores on old com res idue. Whenever there are high levels of the fungus in the field, there is always the possibility of having head scab in the wheat if it’s in close proximity to the com residue.” Lipps said powdery mildew, which was noticed earlier in the season, is beginning to advance in some fields and a return to quired input information, a com prehensive report is generated which includes: profitability, li quidity, solvency, labor and capi tal efficiency, and dairy and cropping enterprise analyses. From the report, producers can answer the following questions; What are the effects of key ex penses, production levels, and price risk on the profitability of the farm business? Is production being maximized while control ling expenses? Does the business generate adequate returns to the resources allocated to it? Are ac counts payable and debt pay ments creating a cash flow bur den? The greatest benefit is having the ability to see what actual business and production costs are, thus allowing for tighter cost control and better management decisions, and achieving greater control over the finances of the dairy business. In addition, producers have ac cess to standardized benchmarks for dairy businesses throughout Pennsylvania and the Northeast. By participating in the DEBS programs, producers’ data will be entered into the Top Dairies da tabase. This allows the producer to benchmark their farm’s per formance against the perform ance of dairy businesses across the country. warmer weather will favor its continued spread. “Scouting is probably the first thing growers should do right now. Over the next week, we’ll probably start seeing some Stago nospora develop on the upper leaves of the plant,” said Lipps. “About two weeks after heading, growers should check their fields again because that’s when head scab will probably be seen.” Wheat growth has been varia ble throughout the state. The crop in southern counties is in hill bloom. Throughout central Ohio, wheat heads are beginning to emerge and in northern Ohio, the crop is currently at the boot stage with head emergence likely to begin at any time. The crop throughout the extreme north west comer of the state is the least developed, ranging any where from flag leaf emergence to the boot stage. “The crop normally goes into head in Ohio right before Memo rial Day weekend. This year we are a little bit ahead of that schedule,” said Lipps. “What we’d like to see is the wheat head out as soon as possible and then have a cool period through the flowering and grain filling time. Top Dairies also allows the producer to specify the types and sizes of farms he or she would like to benchmark against, mak ing the information all the more valuable to the producer. Dairy advisors and extension agents also benefit from the pro gram. Special reports can be generated for a group of clients, county(s), or regions provided that data for the minimum num ber of farms are available. Completing the DFBS can be an educational experience and provides a launch pad for discus sion within groups of producers who meet regularly or those who wish to form a group. Without sharing sensitive information, im portant issues such as efficiency and specialization and their ef fect on profitability can be dis cussed. How can you participate? Becoming involved with the Dairy Farm Business Summary is simple. Producers and exten sion agents can contact Sarah Roth at Penn State University. The phone number is (814) 863-8645 or email at sar ahroth@psu.edu. To learn more about the program visit Penn State’s Farm Management web site at http://farmmanage ment.aers.psu.edu and click on the “Dairy Farm Business Sum mary” link. This would provide us with extra days of grain filling which we can take advantage ofiand is essential to adding more bushels to the yield.” In addition to disease develop ment, Lipps said saturated soils have produced some nitrogen de ficiency in the crop. “We are starting to see some yellow areas in the fields,” he said. “Wheat rapidly takes up nitrogen be tween jointing and head emer gence and this is the period when we were getting all the rain.” Unseasonably cool tempera tures are also hitting the wheat crop. Those plants with newly emerged heads are most vulner able to freezing injury when tem peratures drop below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Lipps said signs of freezing in jury damaged florets and shriveled tissue can be seen several days after damage has oc curred. “Yield loss wifi be mini mal if only the top florets of the head are injured. Otherwise, if entire heads are affected, the loss may be proportional to the num ber of heads killed,” he said. Lipps added that a forecasted rise in temperatures should rap idly advance wheat growth throughout the state.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers