A3B-Lanoaster Farroimg, \Satunday, .November 29,.2003 Penn State Cooperative Extension Capitol Region Dairy Team A HEALTHY BARN Galen Kopp Extension Agent Dairy/Livestock Lebanon County A “healthy bam” is a bam where cows are calm, clean, dry, comfortable, and breathing quali ty air. The best way to assess comfort is to compare the scene in your bam to that of cows in a pasture. Do you see 80 to 90 per cent of the cows lying down and chewing their cuds? It’s that simple. You want to see the cows either using their stalls or eating not just stand ing around not eating, standing partway in a stall, or lying in the alleyways. To be most productive, cows should lie down 10 to 14 hours a day. Standing for long periods of time leads to sore feed that be come susceptible to disease. Provide non-slip surfaces for confident footing, especially in high traffic areas. Grooving for traction should be patterned to complement the cow’s natural way of walking. A well-designed surface provides good footing but is not abrasive. Edges should be smooth. Routine alley scraping or ma nure flushing keeps passageways drier, which helps avoid injury and infection. To avoid injuries, keep cows calm by directing their move ments through rounded curves instead of sharp turns. Circular patterns offer alternative routes for getting to and from the feed bunk. Provide yielding surfaces such as rubber belting around feed bunks to give cows a break from concrete in confinement housing. Or get them out on sod a few hours a day. An inviting stall must be soft and appealing. What you use for bedding is not as important as the commitment to use enough. Regular scraping and bedding keep stalls clean, dry, and com fortable. Galen Kopp Give the cow enough lunging space. The stall should be de signed to restrain the cow until she’s ready to get up. Then it must allow for her forward and upward momentum to make it easy to rise. Strive for optimal ventilation. Does the air smell good? The pri mary cause of respiratory prob lems in cattle is inadequate venti lation. Disease agents are carried through the air on moisture drop lets. Good ventilation reduces moisture content and allows stale, ammonia-laden air, which irritates the lungs, to escape the bam. Learn to spot foot problems early. The standing 1,400-pound dairy cow puts a load of about 3,150 pounds per square foot on the very thin surface of the hoof. As she walks, the pressure shifts to two feet, increasing to 6,300 pounds per square foot or the equivalent of a loaded forage wagon per wheel. With only a quarter inch of hoof protecting the soft, deeper structures of the foot from the rest of the world, it behooves dairymen to address foot care aggressively. Once the problem gets into those deeper structures, there’s not much you can do, and you lose cows. Source: The Pennsylvania Beef Council and the National Beef Association. Pennsylvania Upgraded To Stage IV HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) After working with the swine industry to eradicate pseu dorabies in the Commonwealth after the discovery of the disease in several swine operations in a seven-county area last year, the Pennsylvania Department of Ag riculture is pleased to announce that the state has been upgraded to Stage IV pseudorabies status. Also known as Aujeszkys Dis ease, pseudorabies (“false ra bies”) is a viral disease of swine that causes weakness or death of young pigs. While swine are most susceptible to this disease, cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, cats, and wild life are also vulnerable. These an imals may develop lethal neuro logic problems if exposed to pseudorabies. Humans cannot contract the disease. AJCA Offers Jersey Youth Experience Award REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio The American Jersey Cattle As sociation (AJCA) is accepting ap plications for the 2004 Fred Stout Experience Award. Persons who have significant experience in breeding, managing, and showing registered Jersey cattle, and in tend to make a career in manag ing and/or marketing Jersey ge netics are encouarged to apply. The Stout Experience Award was created by friends of Fred J. Stout Jr., Mt. Carmel, 111., a life long Jersey breeder who died in May 2000. Stout believed that the best learning experiences happen in the everyday world. The award provides partial support for an internship pro posed by the applicant of at least Finding Fuel For Firewood It may be too late to cut wood for the fireplace this year, but it’s just the right time to prepare for next winter. “You always want to split and then dry your wood a full year,” said Mike Powell, sen ior research technologist for Penn State’s School of Forest Re sources. So before the leaves fall, woodland owners are walking through their woods and select ing those trees that will become next year’s firewood. A good firewood tree is not necessarily the straightest and tallest tree in the forest. Powell suggests choosing trees with crooked stems, ruptured bark, or broken crowns. The healthiest trees should be left behind to in crease the future value of the woodlot. “Especially if you want to manage for timber, you don’t want to cut straight trees,” he said. Powell also suggests avoid ing trees that are difficult to split by hand, like black gum and elm. Nevertheless, leaving too many of the same species may lead to Pseudorabies Status States achieve Stage V status when they have been at Stage IV for at least one year with no new outbreaks. Stage IV is considered a surveillance stage where there are no known positive swine, and routine surveillance at slaughter plants is occurring. Last year, Adams, Berks, Franklin, Fulton, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York were lowered to Stage 111 status, a mandatory herd cleanup stage where positive herds are depopu lated. Since that time, the Penn sylvania swine industry has par ticipated in additional testing requirements prior to the move ment and sale of certain catego ries of swine. “The swine industry and the Department are working hard to eliminate pseudorabies in Penn two months. Preference will be given to proposals that involve on-farm practical management of registered Jerseys or working with Jersey Marketing Service in a cattle marketing experience, such as the annual All-American Jersey Sale. Applicants must be high school graduates. To apply, submit a one-page resume summarizing work experience, skills, and qual ifications with a cover letter. The cover letter should specify the ap plicant’s personal and career goals, including plans for achiev ing them. It should also explain how the Fred Stout Experience would benefit the applicant in achieving these goals. The letter must specify the length of intern- competition with more desirable trees, said Jim Finley, professor of forest resources at Penn State. Which species make the best firewood “depends on prefer ence,” Powell said. All hard woods, or deciduous trees, have some value as firewood. “Yellow poplar, willow, and cottonwood generate the least amount of heat and won’t last as long as an oak would. Lower-quality oaks like scarlet and pin make good fire wood trees.” Locust bums long est and generates the most heat because its wood is the densest per unit volume. According to Finley, many people choose to cut dead trees for firewood because they believe that the wood is dry, but this is a fallacy. Finley explained how dead trees benefit the forest, “They slowly return nutrients to the soil, serve as seedbeds for some plants, and provide habitat for important insects, amphibi ans, and other animals. You sylvania once again,” said Agri culture Secretary Dennis C Wolff. “After intensive surveil lance, including testing of more than 46,000 swine from over 400 different farms, Pennsylvania has been upgraded to Stage IV status statewide. If Pennsylvania keeps the current rate of progress, we expect that the Commonwealth will qualify once again for Stage V status in April of 2004. At that time, Pennsylvania would offi cially be designated as a pseu dorabies-free state once again.” Wolff added that until Penn sylvania reaches Stage V status, current pseudorabies testing re quirements must continue in order to exhibit swine at Pennsyl vania fairs and shows. ship, type of experience, and the expected date of completion. Two letters of support must be requested by applicants. One rec ommendation letter must be from a breeder of registered Jerseys (excluding family members). The second recommendation should be written by a teacher, mentor, or previous employer. These let ters must be sent directly by their authors to the AJCA office. Applications and letters of sup port must be postmarked no later than Feb. 1, 2004, and addressed to the Fred. Stout Experience, American Jersey Cattle Associa tion, 6486 E. Main Street, Rey noldsburg, OH 43068-2362. Ma terials submitted by fax and/or email will not be accepted. want to retain both standing and fallen dead trees the bigger the better.” Felling trees is dangerous. Fin ley cautions against felling trees with vines in the stem or crown, which may present a safety haz ard. And if a log is covered in vines, homeowners beware; this may be poison ivy. Landowners who lack experience with a chainsaw should hire a profes sional to cut their trees, said Powell. “There are a lot of things that can happen if you don’t have the proper training and the proper equipment. People think that because they can buy a chainsaw that they know how to use it.” Publications in the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension’s “Heat ing with Wood Series” are useful resources. To view or download the publications visit: http:// pearl . agcomm . okstate . edu / forestry / heating / or www.o suextra.com. You can also obtain a free copy of “Managing Your Woodlot for Firewood” from the Heating with Wood series by contacting the Pennsylvania For est Stewardship Program: (800) 235-WISE (toll free); RNRext@psu.edu; Forest Stew ardship Program, Forest Re sources Extension, The Pennsyl vania State University, 7 Ferguson Building, University Park, PA 16802. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and USDA Forest Serv ice, in partnership with the Penn State’s Forest Resources Exten sion, sponsor the Forest Steward ship Program in Pennsylvania.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers