A3B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday December 20. 2003 Penn State Cooperative Extens Capitol Region Dairy Team RENTING HEIFER FACILITIES Roland P. Freund Regional Farm Management Agent Carlisle Renting livestock facilities is necessary for young families get ting started in the business. They have debt to pay on their cattle and equipment, and adding more debt to own buildings would make the banker very nervous. So they look tor shelter that can be rented to house their animals. It would be nice to say that the space to house a heifer is worth so many dollars per year. The problem is that the dairy farmer would like to find a modern fa cility and all he can find is an old bank barn. Both will house cattle, but how can we evaluate the fa cility to come up with a compara ble cost of use? It is not just a matter of space. Even ignoring ventilation and an imal comfort issues (which we should never do!), the cost of housing includes bedding and labor and manure handling costs which all vary greatly between housing systems. Some years ago I prepared a study looking at the cost of rear ing heifers. Three levels of hous ing investment were considered: • High investment, a slatted floor and freestall. • Medium investment, a “Vir ginia counterslope.” • Zero investment, a bank barn or chicken coop. Let’s look at the annual costs per bred heifer housed as used in that study. (See chart.) Examining these numbers more closely we might suggest that the maximum a renter should pay to rent a Medium fa cility would be $l7O per heifer per year. She could “own” her own structure for that annual cost. Because of location and con venience considerations, the rent er might want to get the use of this facility for $lOO or less a head. Regardless of rent paid, bedding and labor will add an other $5O to annual costs. Now this Low investment bank barn is another matter. The owner should be thrilled to get $2O a heifer per year for it be cause then all his costs are cov ered. In reality it might not be Investment/heifer Loan, repairs, tax Bedding Labor Annual cost Roland P. Freund worth even that. Theoretically, if (and it is a BIG if) the bank barn raises heifers as w'ell as the medi um facility, the renter should pay a maximum of $5O less that he can rent a medium facility for. This is because bedding and labor will cost $5O more for the bank barn than for the medium facili ty. That means that if the renter could rent a counterslope facility tor $lOO then an equal quality bank barn would be worth $5O. Unfortunately most of us can not point to a single old bank bam which raises heifers as healthily as a counterslope. These figures are used to illus trate a process that needs to be followed in coming up with com parable rental rates. Use your own numbers to evaluate each unique situation which you en counter. Make sure that you fac tor in the cost of correcting any ventilation and other inade quacies. In this century when nobody leases a Ford Model T buckboard to provide tor his transport needs, we have to ask why people are still willing to spend good money for the equivalent technol ogy in animal housing. Perhaps the answer is that bank barns are the only alternative available. But we need to be creative and make sure that, whatever housing sys tem we consider, it provides ade quate ventilation, some protec tion from severe weather, convenient access to feed and water, and a reasonable manure disposal system. High Medium Low $1.200 $875 $0 $205 $l7O $2O $lO $l3 $2O 18 $37 $BO $233 $220 $l2O LanChester Pork Council Talks SWAP CHARLENE M. SHUPP ESPENSHADE Lancaster Farming Staff NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster Co.) An estimated 50 swine producers gathered at Yoder’s Restaurant Tuesday to discuss current production issues and elect their board of directors. Issues included animai health, animal welfare programs, and the pork quality assurance pro gram. ion A highlight of the discussion was the new Swine Welfare As surance Program (SWAP) by Erik Risa of the National Pork Council. The SWAP program was launched in August 2003. This program is a voluntary producer program that offers an objective, scientifically based wel fare assessment of pigs. "SWAP is an objective assess ment of welfare,” said Risa, “(and) is independent of housing or size.” SWAP was developed to assist producers in measuring animal welfare on the farm. Risa stresses that when an operation enters into the program, SWAP “does not certify a person, it certifies the site.” The SWAP program is hopeful to provide an answer to the re cent concerns of the retail food industry for a guarantee that suppliers are using animal wel fare practices. The nine princi ples to be evaluated focus on the area of records, animal observa tions, and facilities. The SWAP program consists of having a certified SWAP edu cator visit the farm to review the operation. After the initial evalu ation. a farm is provided bench marks on how the operation is doing. Benchmarking provides the producer a way to handle the farm’s welfare assessments. However, Risa stresses that SWAP was not developed in re action to the retail industry. The program was started in 2000 as a proactive action by pork produc ers. To summarize the hopes of the program, Risa said, “In the end, JANUARY 10 JANUARY 17 JANUARY 24 JANUARY 24 FEBRUARY 6-8 2004 PA JUNIOR HOLSTEIN CONVENTION FOUR POINTS SHERATON, GREENSBURG, PA FEBRUARY 6 FEBRUARY 13 7 30PM WARREN COUNTY ANNUAL MEETING 4-H BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, PITTSFIELD, PA FEBRUARY 19-21 2004 PA HOESTEIN CONVENTION FOUR POINTS SHERATON, GREENSBURO, PA FEBRUARY 20 FEBRUARY 21 MARCH 3 MARCH 26 APRIL 3 APRIL 16 APRIL 23 APRII 29 Newly elected board members to the LanChester Pork Council were, from left, Nelson Beam, Elverson; Scott Bailey, Ephrata; and Kurt Good, Denver. They are congratulated by board member Peter Day, far right, Ephrata. Photos by Charlene Shupp Espenshade Speakers for the meeting were from left, Dale Spiess, Nichole Boettger, Erik Risa, and Bob Mikesell. its the right thing to do. It dem onstrates our commitment to wel fare.” Nichole Boettger of National Pork Council also addressed what is happing at the national office. In regards to how they are handling the “constitutionality” question of promotion checkoff programs, it is “business as usual” until a ruling is made. Also, Boettger noted the start of an eight-course distance learn ing program. The course examin es different production issues, providing the “science behind the 2004 PENNSYLVANIA HOLSTEIN ASSOCIATION CALENDAR OF EVENTS I 1 30A M DAUPHIN COUNTY ANNUAL MEETING GEO’S FAMILY RESTAURANT, HARRISBURG, PA 9 OOA M PA PDCA JUDGING CONFERENCE FARM SHOW COMPLEX, HARRISBURG, PA 7 OOP M BEAVER/LAWRENCE ANNUAL MEETING 7 30P M CLARION/VENANGO ANNUAL MEETING WOLF’S DEN RESTAURANT, KNOX, PA 6 30P M BUCKS COUNTY ANNUAL MEETING ST MATTHEWS LUTHERN CHURCH, DOYLESTOWN, PA IO OOA M 91 SI ANNUAL MEETING, PA HOLSTEIN ASSOC FOUR POINTS SHERATON. GREENSBURG, PA IO OOA M PA HOLSTEIN CONVENTION SALE FOUR POINTS SHERATON, GREENSBURG, PA 12 3()P M HOLSTEIN USA REGION 2 MEMBERSHIP MEETING HOLIDAY INN, NEW CUMBERLAND, PA 9 30A M PA HOLSTEIN SPRING SHOW FARM SHOW COMPLEX, HARRISBURG, PA 11 OOA M DELAWARE VALLEY COLLEGE GREEN & GOLD SALE DELAWARE VALLEY COLLEGE, DOYLESTOWN, PA 7 OOP M WESTERN PA SPRING SPECTACULAR SALE 4-H PARK, MERCER, PA 7 OOP M SOUTHWEST PA SPRING SENSATION SALE FAYETTE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS, UNIONTOWN. PA 1 1 OOA M PA HOLSTEIN HEIFER SALE PA HOLSTEIN FARM MID'V IJTOWN, PA tactics instead of the how-to,” she said. The courses are available on an interactive CD and allow pro ducers to utilize them when it fits their schedule. Dale Spiess of Boehringer In gelheim and Charlie Francisco of Intervet spoke about animal health products and practices that could be utilized on the farm to improve productivity. At the annual meeting, three directors were re-elected to an other term. They were Scott Bai ley, Ephrata; Nelson Beam, El verson; and Kurt Good, Denver.
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