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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (April 12, 1962)
FROM WILBUR LANTZ, GREENFIELD, INDIANA “/ farm 584 acres in partner ship with my brother, Gerald. This includes 160 acres owned by our father. We buy 120 to 130 head of 500-pound steer calves a year, fed to high-good or low-choice grade. In addi tion, we have been raising 2JOOO head of hogs a year. On this farm both cattle and hogs get high moisture corn fed from a Harvestore. Corn is fed whole to hogs through a system of small augers connecting the silo with self feeders. We grind the corn for cattle as it comes out of storage. “Our cropping program in cludes 275 acres of corn, 150 acres of soybeans and 75 acres of wheat under present allot ments. In addition, we graze sheep on 80 acres of pasture land. Some of our fields have been growing corn continuous ly for the past 14 years with im provement in yields over this period. “My problems are: “Virus pneumonia is cutting the profit out of our hog busi ness. W e are thinking of selling off every hog on the place, wail ing six weeks and then starting over with clean breeding stock. Which would likely be the more profitable move: f1) to buy eight weeks old SPF gilts at $50 a head, or take our own sows to the SPF Lab for deliv ery at $60 a sow and sacrifice the sow and the boar pigs; or (2) to shop for gilts farrowed and reared normally in a clean herd? We have heard a lot about lack of immunity in SPF pigs. To what extent is this true, and how serious? “We have been implanting Stilbestrol in our cattle on feed, using three pellets in the ear every five months. Would we get better results, or cut costs, by including Stilbestrol in the feed instead?" MORRISON: Mr. Lantz you have several im portant questions which will be answered in the order raised. 1) In my opinion the decision of whether or not to take your own sows or gilts to the SPF lab or buy 8-week old gilts from the lab depends almost entirely upon two factors: (a) The quality and type of your own sows and gilts as far as farrowing and weaning per formance is concerned from a strict breeding standpoint. Of course, this may be quite dif ficult to determine if virus pneumonia has been bad on your farm. Perhaps some in dication may be ascertained by going back over the rec ords for several years, (b) The quality and type of sows be ing bought by the SPF lab for producing the gilts offered for sale. Unfortunately, many SPF labs have not really paid much attention to this impor tant point and have only met rather mediocre standards of production which can rather easily be secured by the nor mal efficient hog operator. It would be highly desirable for more labs to use only perfor mance tested sows in conjunc tion with SPF pigs. If you feel that the quality of your pigs is equal to that of the lab, I would personally take the sows to the lab for delivery and sacrifice the sow and boar pigs. 2) Since your primary concern is virus pig pneumonia, I would go the SPF route rath er than attempting to pur chase pigs from “clean herds". 3) In regards to the lack of im “* munity of SPF pigs we must understand what the SPF pro gram accomplishes. The SPF program is aimed at the eli mination of viruses, particu larly virus pig pneumonia and atrophic rhinitis. It will not eli minate microorganism or dis eases still prevalent on the farm. A proper immunization program must be followed with these pigs for hog chol era, swine erysipelas, brucel losis, and leptospirosis, etc. The SPF program is no short cut in management and no solution to the problems of raising and selling better pork. Care must be taken to keep the premises disease-free as possible by restricting move ment of trucks, visitors, var mints, etc. If this is done, "dis ease free" pigs do as well and often quite a bit better than other good hogs, particularly in terms of daily gain and feed efficiency. Proper programs are also necessary for both in ternal and external parasite control in SPF hogs. 4) The implanting method is cheaper to use than the in-the feed method of using stilbes trol. This it particularly true if you are well set-up to handle the cattle with a minimum amount of futt and if you do your own work. One disad vantage of the implant meth od, however, it the foct that you cannot "unplant" im planted cattle. Thus, if certain individuals have high tail heads or "ride" other cattle, or otherwise show tide effects little can be done other than to remove them from the lot so they will not annoy the rett. On the other hand, within-the feed stilbestrol it it either pos sible to reduce the usage level or else withdraw it entirely from the ration. I personally recommend about a 24 mg. implant of stilbestrol for fattening cattle with some what less for heifers. I do not recommend reimplanting until at least 6 months time hat elapsed. turn to big earning power BIG wm BIG SIZE . . . and more earning power. The new Allis-Chalmere D-19 nas both. Big—in horsepower (70* PTO hp gas oline, 65* PTO hp LP gas and diesel), in weight (up to 7700 lbs. including liquid ballast, but without wheel weights), in work capacity (5 plows, 20-ft. disc har rows, chisel plows to 18 ft.). Big Size! Long and stable for big im plements, 12 feet 10 inches from end to end. Big tires (15.5-38,16.9-34*, or 18.4 34*), to handle big jobs. copho«.i at antra cost.) Big work capacity! Five plow bot toms. Big disc capacity! New Allis Chalmere T-BAR hitch system gives bonus weight for big pull-type implements. NSW FARM-EASY FEATURES YOU’LL. LIKE First of its kind —a new oilless air cleaner with automatic Dust-Ejector for longer engine life, simpler servicing! New! Quieter! Spark-safe exhaust silencer on gasoline and LP engines. Exhaust-driven turbo-charger provides quiet diesel operation. New! Two independent hydraulic sys tems: 1. Traction Booster system. 2. Complete hydraulic system to operate both mounted and pull-type tools. Investing in bigger earning power is sound farm management. Look at the new D-19 soon, at your Allis-Chalmere dealer’s. You’ll discover there’s a big dif ference in big tractors. Allis-Chalmers Farm Equipment Division, Milwaukee 1, Wisconsin. "Manufocturors ostwaata (corrocfad) Your choice of big plows, 5-bottom semi mounted, 5-bottom pull type, 4-bottom fully mounted, 3-bottom deep-plowing spinner type — all can be used with the fuel-saving advantages of the Traction Booster system. 1 ja«BrVfeJ3LW f ALLIS-CHALMERS fOWH-CtATHt and TIACTIOH lOOSTH or* AKt-ClM*Mri *ad*ma+,