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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1976-03-25, Page 21SAVE*SAVE*SAVE • SAVE TIME • SAVE MONEY • SAVE CROP DAMAGE SAVE ALL AROUND BY SPREADING EARLY WITH OUR NEW BIG 'A' CUSTOM SPREADER • We are ready to spread Nitrogen on your wheat now. • For your Frederick Wheat we recommend 200 lbs. Ammonium Nitrate per acre • Consult us for all your chemical & fertilizer needs today! • We have truck spreader or spreaders for rent. GRANTON 225-2360 MITCHELL 348.8433 Jamminimmommommonamammom 41111•=111111111141=11011111111111‘ °MPS A N S GRAINS FEED - $ E S FEETI 1.14.E:11k: HENSALL 262-2527 We're offering special low prices on all new MF farm tractors under 80 pto hp, plus new MF industrial units in stock. Check how much you can save: MF 230 Tractor MF 235 Tractor MF 255 Tractor MF 265 Tractor MF 275 Tractor MF 20 Backhoe Loader MF 30 Backhoe Loader MF 40 Backhoe Loader MF 50A Backhoe Loader MF 711B Skid Steer Loader $500,00 $400,00 $400.00 $400.00 $400.00 $900.00 $900.00 $900.00 $900.00 $500.00 Limited to available inventories until April 30th 1976 MP MassevFergusw We've got other bargain machines in stock, at prices you'll find hard to believe. Come see, come SAVE! SHERWOOD (Exeter) Ltd 18 Wellington St. 235-0743 Exeter MODEL YOU CAN NOW SAVE Times-Advocpte, March 25, 1.976 Pao? 21 Key to livestock success depends on proven performance testing characteristic that can be passed on to a bull's offspring, a fact which can mean improved feed efficiency in the feedlot. Cow-calf producers will have the opportunity to see some of the best performance tested bulls April 1, 1976, when an open house and sale of bulls takes place at the Arkell Research Station just south of Guelph. "We've planned an open forum Bill Stewart's dawn to Southern "dairies" at New Liskeard College of Agricultural Technology on May 4: at Kemptville CAT on May 14; at Ridgetown CAT on May 18, 1976; and a second one at Arkell on May 19. Interested producers can obtain further information on the Beef Cattle Performance Testing Program at offices of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food in each county and district, on the performance tested bulls and will have specialists on hand to explain the Beef Cattle Per- formance Testing Program. Following that, the 12- and 13- month-old bulls will be offered for sale on a'private treaty' basis," Mr. Macartney states. The open house and sale at the Arkell Research Station is the first of several to take place in the province. Others are planned For the past 25 years, Ontario beef cow operators have held the key to improving the productivity of their cow herds. An Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food livestock specialist indicates that the key to success is to choose a bull above average in traits of high heritability. "Through performance testing of bulls the differences in the growth-related traits, such as rate and efficiency of gain and yearling weight are highlighted. Performance testing in this province is done under the Ontario Beef Cattle Performance Testing Program, which is based on feeding bulls in groups," says Ministry beef cattle specialist R. E. Macartney. "The gain of each bull is recorded over 140 days and, at the test's end, each bull is given an index which compares his rate of gain to others in the group. Therefore, a bull indexing higher than 100 on the test gained more rapidly than the group average." The specialist states that rate of gain is a highly heritable Soi▪ l samples During the first three weeks of February I had the privilege of visiting part of of the South Western United States, par- ticularly Arizona and Southern California, The climate is ideal during the winter months at least, 70°F during the day, 40° - 50°F at night with usual humidity 32 - 35%. Unfortunately summer heat can be in the 90° - 110°f range, but the houses and cars are air-conditioned so there doesn't seem to be as much con- cern re the heat as one would ex- pect, It's little wonder that while between 1970 and 1975 the U.S.A. population increased by 10 million people, 85% of the in- crease occurred in 29 Southern and Western States. The biggest increase took place in Arizona, Nevada and Florida. According to a report recently published by the U.S.A. Urban Institute there is a marked shift in population and industry from North-Eastern United States cities to South- Western United States cities. Los Angeles, Houston and Dallas are now among the top ten largest cities and it's predicted that Phoenix, now the 26th largest city in U.S.A., may be among the top 10 by 1980, My reason for drawing atten- tion to the rapidly expanding population in the South-West is to explain the reason for the enor- mous expansion in the number of milk production "dairies" as they are called. The reason for not calling them "dairy farms" is that the operators seldom produce any of the livestock feed used in their business. They strictly produce milk, and in some cases raise the male calves to market weight as feeders. All the feed is purchased. The manure, which was once a real disposal problem, is now being sold 'either to surrounding field crop farmers or to commercial operators who are processing it for urban lawns and garden fer- tilizer. Much of it is exported in dried form. I spent a most interesting day with the Chief Dairy Inspector for Riverside County, California, visiting several different types of dairies. The average size dairy herd in Riverside County, which is really the largest milk produc- ing area for Los Angeles and sur- rounding urban communities, is 500 cows. One dairy visited was milking 4000 cows at one loca- tion, plus 2000 at a second dairy and another 100 cows at a third location. On enquiry I was ad- vised the average production for the 4000 cows was 18,500 lbs. of milk at 3.67 butterfat. The other 3000 were about the same but I didn't get the exact figures. The increasIng be about 31 ',4 years, and all the male calves as steers, finished in the feedlot to 1000 lbs. They were a fine looking bunch of steers too. There were 29 full time employees at this large dairy enterprise. There certainly is no sentiment for a cow in any of the dairies we visited if she was a poor producer, a slow milker, or had any udder problems, or problems in either breeding or calving. Ontario farmers might be in- terested to know that an Eastern Ontario dairy farmer and his wife, Mr. & Mrs. Don, Anglin, of Frontenac County, moved to Arizona in 1952 with their family of three small sons. Don and his wife told us it was for health reasons that they came and for- tunately both his health and that of one of their sons is much im- proved. He was one of the first dairy farmers in the State of Arizona to operate a dairy on a small piece of land purchasing all the feed requirements. I read an article in an Arizona newspaper, published in 1953, which gave the history of this new venture. Today he and his son milk 350 cows with about another 100 young cattle and dry cows at the same location. One other son operates his own dairy, milking over 200 cows. I thought it was significant that it was an Ontario farmer who proved it was possible and advantageous in Arizona to operate a milk production unit on all purchased feed. Today every commercial dairy in the State operates on this basis. I found the old saying — "It's a small world" — to be so true, since Don Anglin, this successful Arizona dairy farmer is a cousin of my former colleague in the Ontario Legislature, Dr. Bill Nuttal, who so well represented Frontenac cows at this dairy were brought in twice daily from the feedlot in bunches of 50 at a time, tied in stalls, where their udders were hosed down with high water pressure, then milked, with the milk being moved by pipe-line trough cooling sieves and then into bulk tanks. Each of the milk- ing sheds appeared large enough to handle 300 cows at a time. Some 90 employees, including book-keepers, weighmen, feed truck drivers and cow-men, were employed at the 4000 cow loca- tion. but the office staff and truck drivers served the other two locations as well. I visited two other dairies where 500 and 750 cows, respec- tively, were being milked. Both these dairies were using the con- ventional milking parlour system, excepting there were 15 cows on each side in one parlour and ten on each side in the other. One man kept busy washing the cows' udders and putting on the milkers, which were the new type that automatically withdraw from the cow when no more milk is coming. I felt that an extra helper would have done a better job of producing a more wholesome product. The Chief Inspector expressed similar reservations, indicating he thought further improvements would be made in this com- paratively new labour saving milking technique. Another dairy in Riverside County was using two carousel systems to milk 1000 cows twice daily, Each carousel turn-table provided eight cow spaces. The system seemed to be the easiest from the standpoint of the person doing the actual milking. Two employees milked for 5 hours straight in each carousel, then another 2 employees did the milking the next time around. There didn't seem to be any trou- ble getting the cows to come into the stalls regardless of the system being used. I was advised that choice alfalfa hay, delivered to the dairy, cost $90. to $100 per ton; grain, consisting of barley, milo, wheat, corn or a combination of all or some of these cereals, cost about $120 per ton. Since much cotton is grown in the South West, a great deal of cotton seed meal and refuse from the cotton mills is fed. Some dairies were using brewers grains, beet pulp, citrus pulp and almond shells. Some dairies contracted with suppliers to bring fresh green chopped alfalfa, cereal grains, sudan grass, or sorghum every day to their cows. The one thing that impressed me more than anything else was the fact that dairying and far- Set deadline for claims By MIKE MILLER Associate Agr. Representative Soil samples submitted by Huron County farmers the past two years are increasing in number, as producers endeavour to monitor their soil fertility or establish the levels on a farm they have just purchased. However, a small but growing percentage appear to be poorly done. I see indications of 6-10 quick samples being taken to represent a 50 to 100 acre field. Such a soil test is of no value in either monitoring soil fertility or making recommendations, for with so few samples represen- ting as large and varied an area as what was an entire farm only a few years ago, there are hound to be vast differences in soil nutrient levels. To use such reports to monitor changes in soil fertility is stupid for the next set of quick samples grabbed in 2-3 years may he of a different area — The grower will then be wrongly convinced that his past fertility program was the cause of the sudden enrich- ment or depletion of his soil. As well, to base the fertilizer re- quirements on the results of such tests may lead to gross under fertilization with subsequent lost yield or gross over fertilization and loss of money, depending on where these few samples were grabbed. Growers should attempt to follow the rule of 1 sample or more , acre — on uniform level fields. On fields of rolling land, or various soil types, each of the different areas should be sampl- ed and submitted separately. Don't Delay! Order Today! ming were not done by the same operators. In fact, if a dairy owner had more land than he required to house his herd in the open (of course), he leased the extra land to someone to farm. On further enquiry I was told by every dairy operator that he specialized in milk production, he didn't pretend to specialize in crop production, and none of them felt they could have done both as successfully as they felt their system provided. With their type of climate and the ob- vious availability of feed, although sometimes moved hun- dreds of miles by truck, perhaps they are right. The trend to consolidation of dairy processing plants is pronounced in Riverside County. Six years ago there were 42 bottl- ing plants, today there are 9, with 2 of them going out of business by this spring. Several of the Food Chain Stores own their own milk processing plants. Other processing plants have their own chain outlet through the type of variety stores com- mon in Ontario. The average price of milk to the producer is about $9.90 cwt. Each producer has a quota. Producers did not have to carry a full line of farming machinery, or silage storage. The climate is dry enough to pile the triple-wire tied alfalfa hay bales in huge stacks out in the open adjacent to the fence line feeding areas. Most of the dairies had feed- mixer trucks which discharged the grain and ground roughage feed along the fence-line feeding areas. I spent some informative time with Mr. Otis Lough, University of Arizona Dairy Extension Specialist, re the dairy industry of Arizonia. There are ap- proximately 175 commercial dairies with an average herd size of 350 to 375 cows in the State. The average production per cow on D,H I.A. was 14,500 lbs. a 3.6% butterfat, The general average for the State is over 13,- 000. Here again none of the dairies were growing their own feed. Some of them bought alfalfa or silage corn, or other cereals ready to harvest, In some cases custom operators are engaged to harvest the crop. Some other dairy operators do own forage choppers and trucks to move the forage, or bales, as the case may be,' to their feeding locations. I was surprised to learn corn silage is not in common use in either Arizona or California. With Durum wheat being con- tracted at $7.25 bus., farmers are apparently not interested in growing corn, which doesn't seem to fit into their cropping- the-year around programs very well. I visited one very new modern dairy owned by two farmer brothers with a third partner as the operator of the dairy produc- tion unit of 2000 milking cows at all times. These grade cows had a herd average of just under 20,- 000 lbs. on three times a day milking. All the calves were rais- e d , the heifers as herd replacements, as the average milking life of dairy cows in both Arizona and California seems to Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan has urged farmers to apply now if they have money coming to them from the government's cow slaughter or beef stabilization programs, "I am concerned that some producers who are eligible for payments have not yet made claims to the Agricultural Stabilization Board," Mr. Whelan said. "I am extending the deadline for claims under the two stabilization programs to April 30, 1976, and I urge eligible producers to get their claims in so they may be considered for payment," The beef stabilization program for the year August 12, 1974, to August 11, 1975, offers a payment of 48 cents a hundredweight (liveweight) for all A, B and C quality cattle sold for slaughter during that time. Claim forms for both programs are available from packing plants, public stockyards, sales barns, agricultural represen- tatives and staff of Agriculture Canada's Livestock Division across the country. 4111111111114 ATTENTION FARMERS YOU'RE INVITED TO OUR OPEN HOUSE Tuesday, March 30th 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. • See the latest in International Harvester Farm Equipment • Films all day • Free pancakes N. T. MONTEITH .;% EXETER LTD. 235-2121 "The best in service when you need it most!" • Seed Grain • Grass Seeds Remember ... We Can Mix Grasses & Clovers In Arty Combination You Prefer Phone 235-2081