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During the Dark Ages, when I was in seventh grade at Heber School, I was required to memorize the Gettysburg Address. I puzzled over the meanings and archaic mentions of time.
Last issue I tested your knowledge to see if you could identify the parts of an engine that were circled. Now I would like to point out what some of the lesser-known or often-neglected parts do and how they are important.
1. Turbo oil feed line: This line takes cooled, filtered and clean oil to the turbo charger. The turbo charger is flooded with oil so the quickly-revolving parts can work properly.
Dear Editor & Fellow Dairymen,
We will soon be facing the most important decision our industry has had to make in the last 50 years. I ask that you give the following thoughts some very careful consideration.
All over our country our dairy leaders are suggesting milk quotas and coming up with complicated plans to cut back our production so as to improve milk prices. They are promoting their plans as a quest for price stability (a worthy goal), but price enhancement is really their main goal, just as it was in their CWT effort.
Bennie Beutler got inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame this summer. One of a good handful of stock contractors that have been so honored.
Stock contractors are an odd lot. They’re not smilers. They’re always on the job…sort of a cross between a prison guard and the captain of a pirate ship! Maybe it’s because they are trying to maintain order in a sea of chaos.
They are merely attempting to match up one cowboy with one animal, neither of which takes orders very well! I’ve had the pleasure to be with several of them when they attempted to relax. Unfortunately, it’s like watching Queen Elizabeth in her Bermuda shorts texting her broker at Billy Bobs!
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist and his colleagues have discovered key gene and chemical interactions that allow Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 bacteria to colonize the gut of cattle. The animals not only host, but can shed the deadly human pathogen.
Many E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks have been associated with contaminated meat products and cross contamination of produce crops. Because the bacteria do not cause cattle to show clinical symptoms of illness, and due to other unknown variables, they can be hard to detect within cattle and the environment.
Getting and keeping good help is a key attribute for any successful business, but things do not always go as smoothly as they could or should. “When we are not satisfied with the work of one of our employees, very often we can point the finger right back at us,” said Brian Vulgamore, a producer in western Kansas. “It is often a lack of training on our part, or not enough time given for the employee to complete the task.” And while there are no bulletproof guides to hire and manage employees, here are a few suggestions to put good luck on your side.
Cumberland County’s John Cope has been named the winner of the 2010 Obie Award, the top honor of the All-American Dairy Show. Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell C. Redding will present the award at the show’s “got milk?” banquet on Tuesday, Sept. 21, at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg.
Cope, of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, is a long-time leader in the Pennsylvania dairy industry and the state and national Holstein communities.
Beef producers have reason to brush up on their global geography – notably in Europe, Russia and the Middle East, if the past eight months are any indicator. A brave new world is expanding for beef exports, according to John Brook, the U.S. Meat Export Federation’s regional director for Russia, Europe and the Middle East.
For Charles Coblentz, dairy farming is the fulfillment of a boyhood dream.
“I can remember working for money when I was 5 years old,” Charles said. “Forty-seven years later I bought the farm that I picked cotton on.”
This year's 4-H grand champion steer at the Iowa State Fair looked a lot like the 2008 winner. That's no surprise — it's a clone. "Doc" is the first cloned animal to win a 4-H livestock blue ribbon at the fair.
