Lancaster farming. (Lancaster, Pa., etc.) 1955-current, April 19, 2003, Image 193

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Teaale
TEAGLE 8080 TC BALE PROCESSOR
• THE TEAGLE 8080 TC Was Developed To Feed Both
Round and Large Square Bales, As Well As
Chopped Silage For Bunk Feeding.
• It Will Handle Both Dry Bales and Silage Bales. Max
Round Bale Size: 4' Long x 5' Diameter. Max Square
Bale Size 51"x74”x98” Long
• The Machine is Equipped With A Two Speed _ _ , , _ . _
* Gearbox Which Controls the Speed OfThe Fan - *° D °' Re ™ te h s Tractor Feeds A Valve
Assembly Driven Off The PTO Shaft, Material Can Bank On The Machine All Hydraulic Functions Are
Be Thrown Close To The Machine At Low Speed. Or Performed By Way of Cable Controls Mounted On
Up to 50’At High Speed. The Tractor.
Isogk BALE
shredders
VERSATILE
• Chop and feed the
wettest silage bales.
• Chop dry hay, straw,
and corn stalks
• Discharges to either, or
both sides for free stall
bedding
• Optional hose
attachment for hard to
reach areas and
mulching application
• Models available to
handle all sizes of round
and big square bales
MANEUVERABLE
• 3 point mounted to operate in close quarters
EASY TO OPERATE
• Load bales with 3 point bale handler, no loader
required.
• Simple durable construction
• Operate with as little as 60 hp
100 Stover Drive 100-120 Lehigh Ave - PO Box 928
Carlisle, PA 17013 Batavia, New York 14021-0928
717/249-6720 716/343-5411
Serving Farmers Through Farm Equipment Dealers Since 1961
CUMMNGS and MUCKER, he.
• Minimum Horsepower Required is 60 HP.
• Twin Cross Beaters Are Driven Through The Main 2
Speed Gearbox With Chains and Sprockets.
• Floor Apron Cham, Loading Ramp, Discharge
Chutes, One With A Swivel Motor, Are Driven
Hydraulically.
MULTIPLE BENEFITS
• Improved Payability, less waste
• Feed silage bales directly into bunk or fenceline
feeders. Pre-chop material for TMR mixer.
• Improved absorption ability of bedding
material, less bedding required.
• Clean comfortable beds.
• Easier handling of manure with chopped
material
Distributed By:
WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTORS
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 19, 2003, Foraging Around-El9
Grazing Turned Farm Around
(Continued from Page E 18)
with a registered Holstein herd
and with the feeding philosophy
that all his cows needed was a
little bit of grain. This resulted in
breeding difficulties and loss of
body condition. He decided to
purchase a herd of Jerseys in
order to begin cross breeding
and producing cows that would
be better grazers.
However, he didn’t get the re
sults David had hoped for. The
Jerseys and their cross-bred
progeny lacked the production
he expected and had a tempera
ment that he found unaccept
able.
David’s current thought is to
stay with Holsteins but to pro
vide more supplementation to
them. He aims for the cows to
get SO percent of their dry mat
ter intake from pasture with the
balance coming from 13 pounds
of shell com, 5 pounds com si
lage, and 5 pounds of soy hulls.
He is also selecting Holstein sires
that are smaller in stature, have
deep bellies, and are high in
components. While he had been
pursuing a spring seasonal herd,
David now has a calving season
in the fall and one in the spring
with roughly half the herd calv
ing in each.
Irrigation Challenges
'** *r
In the last few years, David
has experimented with irrigation
to extend the pasture season. A
creek runs along the border of
his farm and provides an excel
lent source for irrigation. In
2001, he purchased a traveling
hose irrigator and used it on a
limited basis. But he started too
late and wasn’t able to graze
through a dry spell as he hoped.
This past summer was even
drier and he started irrigating at
the start of the drought. While
he was able to continue grazing
for most of the summer, David is
now having second thoughts
about the wisdom of irrigating as
opposed to purchasing forage to
replace pasture.
Irrigating required a lot of
extra labor, tractor use, and
headaches this past year and
made it harder to accomplish
other jobs in a timely manner.
Counting the use of a tractor on
the irrigation pump, a tractor to
move the irrigator from paddock
to paddock, his labor, the depre
ciation on the irrigation equip
ment, and fuel and repairs,
David calculates it cost him
nearly $25,000 to irrigate for 120
days this past year. He feels that
is roughly the same cost as pur
chasing the same amount of
dairy quality forage need to re
place the droughty pasture and
is seriously considering whether
to irrigate or purchase forage in
the future.
Measuring Dry Matter
David has also been interested
in measuring and improving the
amount of pasture dry matter
that his cows get from pasture.
When he first started grazing, he
didn’t have a good handle on
how to judge the amount of pas
ture to allocate to the cows. He
decided to purchase an Allistair
George electronic capacitance
meter to help him measure the
pasture dry matter. The meter
cost $,1200 and allowed David
to quickly measure the dry mat
ter in each paddock and put to
gether a rotation plan. While he
relied on the meter quite heavily
in his first few years using pas
ture, David has not used it much
in the last few and feels that the
meter allowed him to train his
eyes.
A more recent technique he
has used to increase dry matter
intake on pasture is to clip the
paddocks before the cows enter
them. This past summer, David
used a rotary mower to mow
down paddocks 24 hours before
the cows entered them. This
greatly cut down on refusals and
increased the amount of pasture
the cows were consuming. It
took about 45 minutes to cut
down each four-acre paddock
and he found that cows pre
ferred the cut forage to any that
was left standing near the fence
row.
The Bottom Line
Grazing has turned the
Surprenant farm around finan
cially, from just breaking even to
making money. In the mid to
late 1980 s as a confinement
dairy, David’s net prof Moss
from his Schedule F form
(Turn to Page E2l)