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Show By Robert S. Murdock County Agricultural Agent A NEW ONE FROM THE USDA RESEARCH ADM. USDA scientists have developed develop-ed a test to determine the degree de-gree of fatness of live cattle, sheep or hogs. It will be especially espec-ially useful to purebred breeders breed-ers in selecting their young bulls to be kept for breeding stock. They indicate that there will be little use for test of cattle or hogs for the feed lot. The test which calls for laboratory lab-oratory equipment and techni-, techni-, cal skill, employs a drug called antipyrine. This is injected into the blood stream of an animal and is dissolved immediately and then begins to be eliminated after two and one-half hours in cattle. Blood samples are taken tak-en every hour for four hours and the rate of elimination from the blood is recorded. The fatter fat-ter the animal the greater is the concentration of the drug in blood samples. Because of the size of the animal, an-imal, hogs and sheep can be tested faster than larger animals. ani-mals. The tests are now clear enough, the scientists ,say, to open up the field for critical breeding test to prove the her-itability her-itability of the high or low producing pro-ducing fat characteristics. It is pointed out that this will be especially useful to breeders in the selection of prospective herd sires and also females. We will be hearing more of this as time goes on. The use of antipyrine offers another possibility possi-bility in the future in determining determin-ing greater efficiency in meat producing animals. BACK SCRATCHERS To aid your livestock, in the pasture, to rid themselves of flies, mosquitos, etc., a homemade home-made back scratcher is hard to beat. Here are a couple of ways they can be made: Two poles, well planted 16' apart. 6' high with four strands of used barbed barb-ed wire hung between the poles to run from the top of each pole and hang about 1' from from the ground between the poles. From each pole a guy wire ran the other way to about 10' to a dead man in the ground. A newer type model, and one I like better, is just as simple and effective. This consists of one pole 6' high, firmly planted with 4 strands of barbed wire coming from the top each way down to a dead man in the ground. Wires and poles must be thoroughly wrapped( several layers) with burlap and tied on with string. These rubbing devices are treated with 1 part 25 DDT emulsion or Methoxychlor 25 emulsion, to 4 parts of NEW or CLEAN diesel or stove oil giving a 5 emulsion. One gallon gal-lon will treat a rubbing device thoroughly. It will wet it but not over-soak it, this is important. impor-tant. One treatment will last ' one month and will take care of 100 to 125 beef cattle. Rubbing devices should be placed near salt and mineral licks in pastures. This is one of the greatest boons to livestock operators in insect control for Hornfly protection. pro-tection. It costs nothing to build, it takes no time to treat, the treatments treat-ments run about 75 per month per 100 head. |
