A44rUancaster Farming, Saturday, June 7, 2003 Milk Tester (Continued from Page A 43) western Lancaster County. About 12 years ago, his circuit returned to the eastern half of the county, in the areas around New Holland and Farmersville. Risser recounted changes in milk testing technology and dairy production over the past 50 years. At the beginning of his career, Risser said, a herd producing an average of 400 pounds of butter fat per cow was doing well. Today, a herd needs to average close to 1,000 pounds butterfat (with corresponding milk pro duction) to be considered “good,” Risser said. Advances in artificial insemination (AI) and genetics, herd management, and feeding are the chief reasons for the pro duction increases, according to Risser. For many years, testing for butterfat was one of the most time-consuming parts of Kisser’s job. Equipped with a portable, electric-powered centrifuge and a jug of sulfuric acid, he conducted the butterfat tests for each cow himself right on the farm. The process involved “spinning” each milk sample twice in the 24-sample centrifuge, along with specified amounts of sulfuric acid and hot water. Spinning the mix ture caused the fat to rise into the narrow neck of a special sample container. The butterfat percent age was read by using gradated marks on the neck of the con tainer. The sulfuric acid was danger ous to handle, Kisser remem bered. He told about the time when he accidentally spilled a jug of it on himself. By taking quick action, Risser was able to wash the corrosive agent off his skin in time, “but the clothes were goners,” he said. ATTENTION DAIRY FARMERS LANCO Dairy Farmers Co-Op Inc. 1373 Beaver Dam Road, Honey Brook, PA 19344 Lanco Wants You To Check Out Our Numbers 60 Cent Somatic Cell Premium. Broken in 5 segments down to 400,000. 55 Cent Over Order Premium 50 Cent Hauling - No Stop Charges On 4 Milking Pick-Up Over 800 Members In PA & MD 7-Fieldmen To Cover All Your Needs 11-Local Haulers f tf- No Equity Deductions, Marketing Fees, Market Administrator ' Test Fees or Membership Fees. We are a farmer run and controlled grass roots co-op and milk marketing division of Allied Federated Co-op, Canton, New York, Call us today! We are truly farmers coming and working together. 315-858-0312 - 717-789-9685 - 717-993-6808 V IDEAL LEAF TOBACCO Plans to buy Type 609 tobacco in Pennsylvania of the 2003 crop. Ideal Leaf Tobacco Co. 6414 Abilene Rd. Farmville.Va 23901 434-390-7165 Risser calculated individual and total butterfat production for each cow from the butterfat per centage and milk production fig ures. He also performed a feed cost analysis. “It was an all-day job,” Risser said. “When you left the farm, the herd records were complete.” The job changed in the early 1970 s when the Pennsylvania DHIA began sending its milk samples to Penn State. At that point, the university lab took over the butterfat testing. It soon began to offer new services, too, including protein and somatic cell counts (SCC) tests. At that time, a farm wife asked Risser what he was going to do with all his time, since he no longer had to perform butterfat tests. “I’m going to shave every day,” Kisser quipped. The addition of more herds to his circuit over the years, how ever, kept Kisser’s schedule full. He continued to wake at 3 a.m each morning in order to “have a leisurely breakfast” before driv ing to the dairy farm scheduled for the day. Normally, he logged a six-and-a-half day work week. Higher production in recent decades served to shuffle the schedule. When some producers began milking three times a day, Kisser sometimes found himself in the bam at odder hours than before. Having worked a few dec ades on a more or less consistent morning and evening milking schedule, the adjustment was a new challenge for him. “The midnight shift got to me,” he said. Another significant change Kisser has seen in the DHIA pro gram is that many herds today are tested at only one milking per month, alternating between a.m and p.m. from month to month. In earlier years, testers kept to a strict twice-per-month schedule. A particularly trying time came in the early 1990 s when a group from Lancaster County elected to withdraw from the Pennsylvania DHIA and form a new association. Risser was the only tester in the county to re main with Pennsylvania DHIA. A number of farmers chose not to go along with the break, however, and Risser’s circuit “was kept full to the end,” he said. Even with all its hardships, hazards, and inconveniences, Risser ultimately found his pro fession rewarding. “What I got the greatest satis faction out of was to see a young fellow I could give a few pointers to and see him go with it,” Risser said. He also enjoyed the bit of flexi bility his schedule offered. “You had a given circuit to do within a month. If you worked ahead, you could take a few days off,” he said. Risser has lived with diabetes for the past 15 years, a condition he said he was able to manage well while continuing to work a normal schedule. The rhythm of the tester’s job working several hours a time during milking shifts, then being able to take a break was “made to order” for a diabetic, he said. Now he will be allowed to exer cise even more flexibility in his daily life. One of the things he’ll devote more time to is his love of vegetable and flower gardening. Risser lives with his wife, Lois Anne, on the property where he grew up just outside of Lancaster. He and Lois Anne have three grown children Carol Ann, Ron, and Mary Ellen and four grandchildren. Risser summed up his career as a milk tester in a way that makes it clear why he stayed with it for five decades. “It’s been a joy to me, helping fanners with their operation,” he said. USD A Announces First Meeting Of Biotechnology Advisory Committee WASHINGTON, D.C. The USDA’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC2I) will conduct its first meeting June 16-17 in Washington, D.C. The meeting will take place in the Vista C Room at the Wynd ham Washington Hotel, 1400 M Street, N.W., from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., both days. The AC2I consists of 18 mem bers representing the biotechnolo gy industry, the seed industry, in ternational plant genetics research, farmers, food manufac turers, commodity processors and shippers, environmental and con sumer groups, along with aca demic researchers, including a bioethicist. Pa., N.J. Agriculture Secretaries Meet To Discuss Animal Health HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Agriculture Secretary Dennis C. Wolff announced that he and New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Charles M. Kuperus will meet with the Animal Health and Diagnostic Commission (AHDC) to discuss animal health issues at their June meeting. “As a result of a shared border and common agriculture indus tries, Pennsylvania and New Jer sey have a strong history of coop eration in animal agriculture,” Wolff said. “Our cooperation has included surveillance for diseases such as avian influenza in poul try and for pseudorabies in swine. I look forward to continued coop eration with New Jersey on agri cultural issues.” Wolff added that Pennsylvania would certainly be looking with The committee will develop an approach to examine the impacts of agricultural biotechnology on American agriculture over the next five to 10 years meeting this task. There also will be prelimi nary presentations and introduc tory discussions on two sub-areas of the committee’s work: new bio technology-derived nonfood uses of row crops and impacts of bio technology throughout the entire food production and distribution system. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Schechtman at (202) 720-3817 or via e-mail at mschechtman@ars.usda.gov at least three business days before the meeting. interest at New Jersey’s new Hu mane Standards Rule and its po tential impact on the agriculture industry. Created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1988, the AHDC is a fifteen-member de partmental administrative com mission designed to function as a quality assurance mechanism in the animal industry. AHDC over seas a broad range of animal is sues, such as animal health con cerns, disease surveillance, field investigations, research projects, and emergency management. Through recommendations pro vided by the Field Investigation Committee, the AHDC identifies emerging issues that impact- the food animal populations and other animal health problems.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers