Show ring shenanigans
Dairy show officials are keeping a sharp eye out for udder-tampering competitorsBY DON STONEMAN
Canadian breeders can take pride in their genetics, which figured favourably at last month's World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. They could have done without the publicity over a Canadian drug that has allegedly been used for cheating in the show ring.The drug, called Liquamast Aerosol, has been marketed for many years by Rogor stb, the small Canadian subsidiary of Pfizer. The aerosol pushes a drug up into a quarter through the teat. It can also be used to blow up a cow's udder, giving it just the right amount of roundness and uniformity desirable in the show ring. And the latter is precisely what some breeders have been accused of doing at dairy shows in the U.S.
The drug is Canadian and has never been approved in the U.S., but show ring cheating isn't a Canadian problem, says Dr. Terry Howard, superintendent of the dairy cattle show at Madison. The product has found its way into the hands of breeders from elsewhere, he says, as Liquamast is no longer being marketed in Canada.
Pfizer took it off the Canadian market last spring. Sales were falling, and the federal government was requiring more testing on its efficacy, says a source at that company. The remaining stocks were sold out over the summer.
Selected entries in various classes at the Madison show were given an ultrasound test after they left the show ring. No penalties were laid against breeders at the World Dairy Expo for using unethical and perhaps illegal methods to inflate cows udders to make them look better in the show ring.
Howard hints that plans that had been made to crack down at Madison this year were put off for a year. "You might call it a dry run, if you will," he says. "My anticipation is that unless the dairy committee changes their view, [penalties] will be applied next year."
The use of gases to fill up an udder "is one piece of the whole ethics puzzle," says Howard.
Wisconsin's dairy show leaders began to crack down on ethics violators in April at the Midwest Spring National Show. Vets from the University of Wisconsin Madison Veterinary School using ultrasound found that three cows' udders had been tampered with in an effort to enhance their appearance. The cow owners were asked to relinquish their cow's placing. The changes in standings resulted in a new Premier Breeder and Exhibitor at the show.
An ultrasound can distinguish between mammary tissue, milk in the udder, and gas, which is a sign of tampering. Howard says use of the ultrasound test "was not viewed with enthusiasm by all the exhibitors." He compares this year's policy of warning offenders "rather like a warning ticket in speeding." He also says some breeders will likely try to find another source of iso-butane, the propellant in the drug that inflates the udders.
Howard says the problem of cheating in the show ring "didn't arrive just yesterday. Nor will it go away tomorrow, as much as we would like it to."
But he says that Dairy Expo must oppose use of Liquamast Aeresol, since it is not approved for use in the U.S. "I think there was some misunderstanding of that point by some of the exhibitors," Howard says. He says there is a difference of opinion as to whether its use violates the code of ethics.
Mid-October, Howard didn't have the data on cows that tested positive for udder tampering. He expected that the ultrasound would show "several" show ring cattle had been augmented.
Farmers more concerned with high production than good looks and type probably couldn't care less about the whole controversy. But Howard says the show ring has value in the dairy industry. "Milking cows two times a day and shoveling a lot of manure isn't very glamorous." Glamour, he says "is what Dairy Expo provides."
© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Canada shows right stuff at Dairy Expo
BY DON STONEMAN
Your Holstein production herd may share something with many of the top show Holsteins in North America: Hanoverhill Starbuck. Starbuck died two weeks before the World Dairy Expo, but his presence was widely felt at the Holstein show at Madison last month.His five-year-old daughter, Acme Star Lily, claimed her first championship at the prestigious Madison show and then took the Supreme Champion title in the inter-breed show a few days later. But that's only the beginning.
Starbuck brought powerful feet and legs, along with size, to the show ring, says Paul Meyer, product support co-ordinator for Guelph-based Semex Alliance. Starbuck's impact on the show ring was so powerful that more than two-thirds of the top-placing animals at the Madison show had his bloodlines somewhere in their pedigrees.
Show cows are now also production cows. "It would surprise a few people who are critical of the show ring," Meyer says. Cows "have to look awfully dairy or they won't win a class."
Meyer cites nine-year-old Reserve Grand Champion Taraley Astro Sherry, sired by Bridon Astro Jet. Her 365-day record as a five-year-old of over 19,000 kg of milk got her a production award in her class. By comparison, the average production herd averages 12,000 to 13,000 kg per cow.
Ontario and Quebec tied for first place in the Holstein state herd competition, followed by Western Canada and ahead of all U.S. competitors.
Steele Brothers Farms of Kintore bred the top Red and White show cow.
Holsteins weren't the only Canadian stars at Madison. More than half of the top five placings in the Jersey show were bred or owned by Canadians, with almost three-quarters of them sired by Canadian-sired or Canadian proven bulls.
Waymar Patrick Nadine, bred by Wayne and Marion Clement of Waymar Farms of Paris, captured the Grand Champion female award of the show for the third consecutive year. In the Supreme Champion of the show category, the cow finished second this year behind the top Holstein. In 1996, Nadine took the Supreme Grand Champion title as well.
Other Canadian breeders who got to show off their prefixes at the show included Doug Wherry and Keith Van Kamp, of Oshawa, who bred Reserve Junior Champion Female Ingledale Regal Brandy 3G, now owned in Wisconsin.
Al and Julie Cunnington of Aland Jersey at Inglewood won Honourable Mention in the Junior Champion category with Aland Remake Nikki. The Reserve Intermediate Champion female, Jaspar Renaissance's Evening, was bred by J. and T. Sparling of Varna, and is owned and shown by Brian and Donna Sayles of Bridon Farms in Paris. At 305 days of lactation, she produced 15,404 pounds of milk, 891 pounds of butterfat (5.8 per cent) and 614 pounds of protein (four per cent).
The Jersey show's Premier Sire award went to Hollylane Renaissance, Hollylane Rosel Sires, a division of Hollyland Jerseys of Corbyville.
Renaissance-sired Hollylane Rene Esmeralda is the highest butterfat production Jersey cow in Canada. At 341 days into lactation she has produced 26,257 pounds of milk, 1,611 pounds of fat and 959 pounds of protein.
Renaissance also sired the Madison Jersey show's Intermediate Champion and Reserve Grand Champion KFJ Renaissance Lacy, owned and bred in Kentucky.
© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Advertisers up the ante
It was the worst possible timing, but milk sales have survived, more or less.Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) cut its promotion deductions by more than 30 per cent last year, at the same time as dairy product prices increased to the processors and the grocer. The cuts were made to bring Ontario in line with the other members in the five-province pool encompassing eastern Canada. Pro-ducers from the other provinces were unwilling to ante up extra promotion dollars.
Fluid milk markets declined in the first five months of this year, but improved June through August. The net decline is still three per cent. Michael Pearce, director of promotions at DFO, says sales have improved because of a carryover from the aggressive promotion programs that DFO had funded in the previous two years. A buoyant economy, new advertising, a short-term increase in DFO media advertising and a series of new product introductions by processors have also helped.
Sharply increased cream sales have made up for much of the skimoff, the increasing amount of fat that is left in the industrial market place from 3.9 per cent milk that farmers sell.
But Pearce warns that the sustained growth can't be expected to continue. While milk advertising spending fell by 42 per cent in the last year, beverage case competitors hiked spending: Soft drink promotions were up 20 per cent; coffee, 32 per cent; frozen drinks and juices, 120 per cent; and fruit juices 21 per cent. - Don Stoneman
© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Trade talks take peculiar turn
European dairy leaders propose cutting domestic prices and pursuing world marketsBY DON STONEMAN
Dairy-producing nations around the world are getting weird as they gear up for the next round of trade talks.European leaders are even proposing cutting their domestic prices so they can compete on world markets, says John Core, chairman of Dairy Farmers of Ontario, and vice-chairman of the national lobby group Dairy Farmers of Canada, who attended an international dairy leaders' conference earlier this fall. "Why would you reduce domestic prices and go after the world market," when the export market is only eight per cent of world dairy production? he asks. "In the past, Europe did not talk this way."
They are looking to replace market revenue with guaranteed income from government that will not encourage increased production - a concept that got a green light under the rules laid down during the last trade talks, but puts dairy farm income at the whim of government spending. European leaders are examining two scenarios. The European Union (EU) wants to cut the prices dairy farmers get for milk by 15 to 17 per cent between 2000 to 2004.
The EU has proposed a direct payment to producers of about C$140 to $180 per cow to make up for the shortfall. Small farms and farms in mountainous areas would also get a quota increase. This plan would reduce export subsidies by $3.2 billion in Europe and pay compensation of $6.2 billion. In the long term, if prices are reduced, there will be income support, Core says.
The United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Italy have proposed a 30-per-cent across-the-board price reduction, loosening of quotas in 2000 and ending them by 2006. The goal is for the countries to be competitive in world markets. "It is controversial to say the least," Core says.
American representatives are also talking about opening up their markets and taking away domestic supports. But Core has his doubts. He points to the recent wave of protectionist actions in the American West, as state governors bent to the will of their electorate and effectively closed borders to Canadian exports that were legal under trade agreements.
© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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Separating feeder fact & fiction
Ongoing Lambton trials monitor a variety of conditionsBY DON STONEMAN
Listen to cattlemen talking around the coffee shop and you'll hear it costs more to put a pound of gain on a heifer than on a steer. But is that really so?Answers to that question and other long-held beef feeding beliefs are behind the on-farm trials conducted over the last five years by Lambton Future Feeders, a loosely organized group of feedlot operators in southwestern Ontario. In truth, the old axioms haven't always held water, according to Bryan Boyle, Lambton county ag rep.
Trials in recent years showed that Ontario-bred calves were just as good or better in the feedlot than Western Canadian calves, Boyle says, with economics being the bottom line. The same rules applied when heifers are compared to steers in a side-by-side feeding comparison, with matched pairs of steer and heifer calves totaling 56. Heifers gained weight more slowly than steers in the trial. But they went through substantially less feed, leading to increased efficiency. Overall, the cost per pound of gain was cheaper for heifers than for steers.
"The fact that it was anyway close is good for heifers," says Boyle. Pricing trends at sales tout steers over heifers. The steers used in the Lambton trial were priced at $1.16 per pound, compared to $1.06 to $1.08 for the females. The calf prices were based on averages of sales at the trend-setting Peterborough Cattlemen's Association annual sale in Lindsay. At slaughter, Lambton Future Feeders lost nearly $20 per animal on steers put through a trial yard at Wyoming last year. But heifers put an average of $49 per head onto the profit side of the ledger during the same trial.
At slaughter, steers averaged $97.32 per pound live weight; heifers averaged $96.33.
Feeding steers was more costly in two ways, says Boyle. First, farmers paid too much of a premium for the steers over the heifers. The negative margin that the farmers paid for the steers was too much to overcome in that market. Second, feeding heifers proved to be less costly than feeding steers in terms of the feed consumed.
"We know to the pound what they ate," Boyle says. Corn silage was priced at $28 per tonne of 35 per cent dry matter, based on seven bushels of grain corn per tonne at $4 per bushel. Cattle were fed one per cent of body weight of grain corn as soon as possible when they got into the feedlot, increasing to 1.5 per cent when calves reached 800 to 850 pounds, when it was increased again.
Lambton Future Feeders ran its 1997-98 feeding trial as a strategic alliance with producers in Peterborough county. Prices were based on the weighted average of the top 15 per cent of sales at the Peterborough Cattlemen's Association annual sale. Calf owners were paid for half of the value of the cattle upon delivery to the Lambton yard. They received the other half of the value of the finished animals, minus half of the expenses, when the cattle were slaughtered. The cattle went on feed Nov. 20 and were slaughtered in seven groups between Mar. 23 and June 8. Prices were settled on a carcass basis, based on a premium program offered by Norwich Packers, which demands that cattle be fed according to a specific program.
Calf raisers were able to evaluate their breeding programs, including breeds and individual bulls and cows, based on post-weaning and carcass traits rather than just weaning weights, Boyle explains.
Cattle were implanted with estradiol H or S, and then reimplanted with Revalor H or S after 90 days on feed. Heifers and steers were matched as closely as possible, so that no one could claim that a poorer group of steers was matched with top-notch heifers, Boyle says. Each Lambton feeder member put several thousand dollars into a pool to buy cattle, feed and pay a yard operator to feed and care for the cattle. At the end of each feeding trial the money in the bank is paid out and the group disbands. Former participants as well as new ones are free to reinvest in another round of practical on-farm style research.
© copyright 1998 Agricultural Publishing Company Limited.
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