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 IN THIS ISSUE... March 2002

Corn Profit Tips - Hybrid Selection, Tillage and Rotation

Lower commodity prices continue to force growers to critically evaluate production inputs. Over the next couple issues of this newsletter, we will highlight a list of proven production practices and reminders to help corn growers increase their net income. Most of these involve cultural practices that can be changed without increasing the cash cost of production. Implementing some of these practices requires a higher level of management but these low or "no-cost" crop production considerations, coupled with superior management, skills can help crop producers survive this period of economic stress.

1. Choose High-Yielding, Adapted Hybrids

Corn acreage, soil type, tillage practices, desired harvest moisture, and pest problems determine the need for such traits as drydown rate, disease resistance, early plant vigor, plant height, etc. End uses of corn should also be considered. Will the corn be used for grain or silage? Will it be sold directly to the elevator as shelled grain or used on the farm? Capacity to harvest, dry, and store grain should also be considered. The most important factors for hybrid selection are maturity and yield potential. Other characteristics for consideration are stalk quality, drydown, kernel characteristics, and disease and insect resistance.

Select hybrids that have produced consistently high yields across a number of locations and/or years. Hybrids of similar maturity may vary in yield potential by as much as 30 to 40 bu/acre. Choosing a hybrid because it possesses a particular trait, such as big "flex" ears, numerous kernel rows, deep kernels, or upright leaves, does not ensure high yields; instead, look for yield stability across environments.

Consult results of state, company, and county performance trials before purchasing hybrids. Because weather conditions are unpredictable, the most reliable way to select superior hybrids is to consider performance during the past one to two years over a wide range of locations and climatic conditions. When using university performance trials, choose some of the highest yielding hybrids from the two-year, several-locations average. Results of on-farm strip tests can be used to choose high-yielding hybrids providing there are 10 or more different locations of the stip tests. Results from single on-farm strip tests should not be used to choose hybrids because they cannot predict hybrid performance across a range of environmental conditions. Nevertheless, such tests can be useful in evaluating various traits, such as stalk and root lodging, green snap, drydown, harvestability (ease of shelling, ear retention, etc.), disease resistance, and staygreen.

Results of the OSU Corn Performance Tests can be accessed on line at: http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~perf/. Corn test results are also available from local county Extension offices.

2. Plant Hybrids of Different Maturities

To reduce damage from diseases and environmental stress at different growth stages (improving the odds of successful pollination) and to spread out harvest time and work-load, plant hybrids having different maturities. Consider spreading hybrid maturity selections between early-, mid-, and full-season hybrids for example, a 25-50-25 maturity planting, with 25 percent in early- to mid-season, 50 percent in mid- to full-season, and 25 percent in full-season. Planting a range of hybrid maturities is probably the simplest and most effective way to diversify and broaden hybrid genetic backgrounds.

3. Perform Tillage Operations Only When Necessary and Under the Proper Soil Conditions.

Deep tillage should only be used when a compacted zone has been identified and soil is relatively dry. Late summer and fall are the best times of year for deep tillage. Avoid working wet soil and reduce secondary tillage passes. Perform secondary tillage operations only when necessary to prepare an adequate seedbed. Shallow compaction created by excessive secondary tillage can reduce crop yields. Cloddy seed beds and soil compaction contribute to uneven stands.

4. Take Advantage of Rotational Benefits.

Corn grown following soybeans will typically yield 1015% higher than corn grown following corn. Rotation benefits are most pronounced following legumes such as soybean or alfalfa, especially in reduced tillage systems on poorly drained soils.

Benefits from growing corn in rotation with soybeans include:

•  Better weed control in both crops.
•  Fewer difficult-to-control weeds.
•  The opportunity to rotate herbicides as crops are rotated (which   means that it is less likely that certain weed species will develop resistance to specific herbicides).
•  Less opportunity for an increase in insect pests and disease inoculum. (Cash costs are reduced because rootworm insecticide is not needed for first-year corn.)
•  Lower fertilizer nitrogen use is possible without lowering corn yields.

Future Topics:

Plant Maintenance and Stand Establishment
Nutrient Needs
Planting Decisions

-Peter Thomison
 OSU Department of Horticulture and Crop Science
 

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Environmental Streptococcal Mastitis

Environmental streptococci have emerged as pathogens that uniquely affect mammary health as a primary cause of both subclinical and clinical mastitis. The bovine mammary gland appears to be most susceptible to environmental streptococcal intramammary infections during the dry period and early lactation. The importance of the dry period in control of environmental streptococcal mastitis can not be over emphasized. Rate of new IMI during the dry period is 5.5 fold greater than the rate during lactation in a total confinement herd practicing total dry cow therapy. The rate of new infection is not constant across the dry period, but is elevated during the two weeks following drying off and the two weeks prior to calving. Dry cow therapy reduces the rate of new environmental spreptococcal infections during the early dry period. The high rates of new infection following drying off may relate to the lack of flushing action due to milking, changes occurring in the composition of the mammary secretion that appear to enhance streptococcal growth, and/or the lack of a keratin plug in the streak canal. The increase in susceptibility to infection in the two weeks prior to parturition may reflect the absence of milking when the gland is accumulating fluid, loss of keratin plugs from streak canals, or immuno-suppression associated with the pariparturient period. Conventional dry cow therapy has no effect on rates of infection prior to calving and prepartum teat dipping was reported to be of little or no value. The environmental streptococci are a frequent cause of mastitis in heifers at calving and heifers generally suffer as many infections at calving as do older cows.

During lactation, the incidence of clinical mastitis is greatest the first week after calving and decreased throughout the first 305 days in milk. Interestingly, rate of environmental streptococcal clinical cases increases in cows with extended lactations (>305d) to that comparable of cows in peak lactation. Therefore, the use of management practices that encourage the use of extended calving intervals, thus a larger percentage of cows with >305 days in milk, may impact the prevalence of environmental streptococcal mastitis in a herd.

Dynamics of Infections and Clinical Mastitis

Environmental streptococcal intramammary infections tend to be short duration infections with only a relatively few becoming chronic. Average duration of environmental streptococcal infections is 12 days. Approximately 40% of these infections last less than eight days and only 15% lasted greater than ninety days. The two primary means that streptococcal infections are eliminated are the cow's own immune system eliminates the pathogens (45% of infections) and antibiotic treatment of clinical cases (33% of infections).

Approximately one-half of environmental streptococcal intramammary infections cause clinical mastitis during lactation. Severity of clinical signs is generally limited to local inflammation of the gland. Approximately 40% of clinical cases signs are limited to abnormal milk, 50% involved abnormal milk and swollen gland, and only 10% involve systemic signs such as fever and anorexia.

Reduce Teat End Exposure

Exposure of uninfected teats to the environmental streptococci can occur during the milking process, between milkings, during the dry period and prior to parturition in first lactation heifers. This is in contrast to the contagious pathogens where exposure occurs primarily during the milking process. The environmental streptococci have been isolated from bedding materials, soil, rumen, feces, vulva, lips, nares, mammary gland and teats. Feed stuffs such as silages may also be a source of these pathogens and infections of the reproductive tract may contribute to environmental contamination.

Bedding materials serve as a primary source of environmental streptococcal exposure of teat ends as the teats and udders are in frequent direct contact with the bedding materials. In general, all bacterial populations are lower in inorganic bedding materials such as sand compared to organic bedding materials. The numbers of environmental streptococci in sand bedding will vary depending upon the amount of soil in the sand and the degree of fecal contamination once the sand is placed in the stalls and physical injuries during all seasons of the year. Ventilation is critical to maintaining dry conditions and frequently is poor in older facilities. Ventilation problems of older facilities often require great expense to correct or may not be correctable.

Many free-stall barns are poorly designed and contribute to increased incidence of environmental mastitis. In well designed free-stall barns, cows will either be eating or laying down resting. Large numbers of cows standing around or laying in ally-ways generally indicate improper design of the free-stalls or severe over-crowding. Free-stalls built against outside walls or against any solid wall should be avoided as solid walls block the free flow of air, minimize lunge space of cows when attempting to rise and may inhibit stall usage. A slop of 2% to 3% across the building reduces accumulations of urine and water and reduces teat injuries in free-stalls and tie-stalls. A commonly recommended practice in Ohio is to overstock free-stall barns by 10% even up to 20%. We are unaware of any studies designed to determine the impact of such practices on the incidence of environmental strepotcoccal mastitis but would suggest that overstocking will increase the incidence.

Pastured cows are generally thought to be at reduced risk of environmental streptococcal mastitis when compared to cows in confinement housing. However, conditions do exist in pastures that can lead to high levels of exposure to the environmental streptococci. Areas under shade trees can produce conditions of high exposure and pastures that are over grazed or grazed during periods of heavy ran may also lead to conditions of exposure similar to housed cattle. The environmental streptococci are the most significant environmental pathogen in New Zealand dairy herds where cows spend virtually 100% of their time on pasture. Additional research on the association between pasture conditions and teat contamination with environmental pathogens would be beneficial.

Improper milking time hygiene and machine function can contribute to environmental streptococcal mastitis. The key is to milk clean, dry teats and udders with a properly functioning milking machine. An improperly functioning milking machine or improper use by the milker can contribute to increased amounts of environmental streptococcal mastitis in a dairy herd but correcting such faults will not solve environmental streptococcal mastitis in all dairy herds.

Predipping has been shown to reduce new environmental streptococcal infections during lactation by as much as 50% in some herds, although this reduction is not observed in all herds. Failure of predipping to control environmental streptococcal mastitis in all herds likely reflects the complex epidemiology of environmental streptococci. Post milking teat disinfection with germicidal dips is generally considered not to control environmental streptococcal mastitis. Barrier dips are recommended by some individuals as a means of controlling environmental mastitis but their efficacy against the environmental streptococci has not been demonstrated.
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East Central Ohio Forestry Association Banquet

The annual banquet and fund-raising auction is scheduled for Wednesday, April 3, 2002, at 7 p.m. Our speakers will be Joan and George Freeman, the 1998 National Outstanding Tree Farmers. Everyone is invited to attend the banquet and educational fund-raiser.
Our speakers will give a short talk about "Conducting Tree Farm Tours" as they did at the National Tree Farm Convention at Hershey, PA. This will be great to hear since many of us will be giving tours next year as the national convention comes to Ohio!

These outstanding Pennsylvania tree farmers have over 645 acres of hardwoods, have planted more than 51,000 trees and have had five commercial harvests since 1960.

In addition, Jeremy Scherf and John Kehn will be checking to see if any of the upcoming tree farm sign recipients will be willing to get their award at the banquet.

Your donated items will be auctioned off with the proceeds going for scholarships to the forestry camp. Please bring an item to help children have this valuable experience.

The cost to the attendees will be $15 per person. Advance registration is required. Payment can be sent in advance or payment can be made at the door.

For advance tickets contact Dave Wheeler at 330-863-2054.

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Harrison SWCD to Hold Coyote Damage Seminar

The Harrison Soil and Water Conservation District will be holding a coyote seminar on the evening of April 15, at the Pushkarich Public Library in Cadiz, Ohio. The seminar will get underway at 6:30 p.m. and conclude around 8:00 p.m. with refreshments provided throughout. Eric Householder, a Biological Science Technician for the Wildlife Services section of the USDA ,will be the featured speaker for the evening. He will be discussing the many different components of a coyote's life, and how they affect livestock producers today. We will also look at several different coyote kill identification techniques that may be used by producers to identify a coyote kill from other means of death. Both lethal and non-lethal means of control will also be discussed. If you have ever experienced or suspected coyote damage to livestock or would just like to learn more about these creatures, you are encouraged to attend. For more information contact Wade Dunlap at the Harrison Soil and Water Conservation District at 740-942-8837.

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Ag Alternatives for the Future

One method for increasing farm income is to reduce costs by implementing a lower input system such as managed grazing. Managed grazing, sometimes referred to as rotational grazing or intensive grazing, has the potential to increase the profitability of any type of livestock enterprise. One input which isn't lowered through the implementation of a managed grazing system is "management". Managed grazing requires a whole new set of skills on the part of the farm manager.

One way to develop those skills is to participate in the introductory Managed Grazing Workshop scheduled for April 4, 11, 18 and 20 in Dellroy. This workshop will feature basic managed grazing instruction, as well as hands-on problem solving on an area farm. See the attached registration brochure for more information. Listen to what some area farmers are saying about managed grazing:

"Managed grazing is not a cure-all many claimed it would be, but with increasing costs and narrowing margins, it sure is a great cost-cutter."
-Jake Sutton, Jefferson County Dairy Farmer

"We practice managed grazing because it helps us to produce more pounds of beef per acre with less inputs. It's a more environmentally-friendly system which benefits everyone."
-Earl McKarns, Carroll County Beef Producer

If you'd like to learn more about managed grazing, sign up now to participate in the grazing workshop.

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Key to Profitability in Beef Cow-Calf Operation is Grazing

If you were asked what the single most important management factor affecting profitability in a commercial beef cow-calf operation is, would you respond: A) Calf Sale Price;  B)Weaning Weight;  C) Feed Cost; or D) Herd Reproductive Performance? While I suspect this question will be missed often, the answer is feed cost. A recently completed analysis of 225 SPA Beef Cow Business Records completed on herds in Illinois and Iowa from 1996 through 1999 showed feed cost was the overriding factor determining profitability, explaining over 55% of the herd-to-herd variation.

Why is it that feed cost becomes such a determinate of profitability? The main reason is the tremendous variation that we see between operations. These 225 herd analyses had an average annual feed cost of $205, with a range from $54 to over $530. Producers fail to recognize that feed costs include not only the cast costs of mineral, protein, and supplemental feed, but also pasture and hay costs. These include land costs, machinery expenses, fertilizer, seed, and others.

Feed costs will generally make up about 60% of total annual cow cost, making it a critical factor to monitor. Analysis of SPA data show that cost control, not amount of production, separates profitable commercial herds from unprofitable operations.

Feeding hay to beef cattle is expensive. Harvested feed makes up a large percentage of the total feed costs, so anytime we can reduce harvesting feed, and let the animal do the harvesting, we can lower feed costs. The average cost of hay per ton for SPA cooperators was $60 per ton with some as high as $110 per ton for harvested hay.
 

Reducing the cost of feeding during the winter is key to lowering production costs and increasing farm profits. One popular method of reducing hay feeding is to utilize stockpiled tall fescue. Stockpiled tall fescue is a more economical feed source than hay. An alternative to feeding hay or stockpiled tall fescue is to graze winter annual forages. Winter annual forages have two main advantages. First, the forage quality is generally higher than stockpiles tall fescue or grass hay. Lactating cows can perform satisfactorily on these pastures with little or no supplementation.

We are in the third year of a winter annual grazing program for beef cows in Illinois where the cows graze a combination of turnips, spring oats and corn stalks or spring oats, cereal rye and corn stalks. The cows graze from November 1 until March 7 each winter. The cows on the turnips, spring oats, and corn stalks have average daily gains of 1.11 lbs/day, at a cost of 55 cents per day. Cows grazing spring oats, cereal rye and corn stalks have average daily gains of .93 lb/day with an average cost of 49 cents per day. These figures include seed costs, fertilizer, machinery costs, propane to heat water, and a little supplemented hay. The average producer's hay feeding daily costs will vary from $1.25 per day to $2.50 depending on the quality of hay fed. Most producers will feed hay for 120 to 150 days. If we figure 55 cents per day for turnips/spring oats-corn stalks for 120 days we are talking about a cost of $66 per cow, whereas if we fed hay for 120 days at $1.25 per day, we are talking about a cost per cow of $150.00; or it would cost us $84 per cow more to feed hay for 120 days versus grazing.

We can see similar types of cost and performance from stocker cattle on winter annuals. Working with a producer in Illinois using cereal rye, calves average daily gains of 2.65 pounds per day at costs per pound of gain at 15 cents per pound. In addition, winter annuals can be used as ground cover on row-crop farms to reduce soil and wind erosion, and improve soil organic matter.

We are now looking at using annual and perennial ryegrass for winter grazing in a comparison with the winter annuals crop. Several producers are making aerial application of turnips, cereal rye, spring oats or ryegrass into standing crops to use as fall grazing. Cost for this type of program is around $25 to $30 per acre. The grazing periods range from late October to mid May the following spring. This is a relatively cheap way to winter cows in comparison to feeding harvested feed.

Winter annuals in combination with crop residues and stockpiled grass can be a very economical way to winter beef cows and improve the profitability of the beef herd.

-Ed Ballard
 University of Illinois

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Sincerely,
 

Mike Hogan Extension Agent Agriculture & Natural Resources  Community Development

Ken Simeral Extension Agent Agriculture & Natural Resources Community Development

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Trade names are supplied with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by Ohio State University is implied.

All educational programs conducted by Ohio State University Extension are available to clientele on a non-discriminatory basis without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability or Vietnam-era veteran status.

OSU Extension will provide accommodations to handicapped persons needing assistance to participate in Extension programs. If you require some type of assistance/accommodations to attend programs, utilize written materials or visit the Carroll, Harrison, or Jefferson County Extension Offices, please contact that office or TTD#1-800-589-8292.

Visit Ohio State University Extension’s WWW site “Ohioline” at: hhtp:/www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/
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Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keith L. Smith, Director, Ohio State University Extension.
TDD # 1 (800) 589-8292 (Ohio only) or (614) 292-1868