Fencelines Spring 2015 Letterhead
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Wayne County Center North Carolina Cooperative Extension 208 West Chestnut P. O. Box 68 Goldsboro, NC 27533-0068 Tele: (919) 731-1525 Fax: (919) 731-1511 Spring 2015 Livestock Newsletter of the Southeast Extension District Inside this Regulatory Updates for Swine Producers issue: By Stefani Garbacik, Wayne County A 6 hour CEC class was recently held in Jones County. 1. Regulatory Updates One of the speakers was Christine Lawson, with DWR, for Swine Producers who gave a regulatory update for swine producers, partic- 2. Freeze Branding ularly some changes with the state general permit and the Cattle farm bill. I figured it would be a good idea to point some 3. Foot Scald of these out for those of you who couldn’t attend the class! 5. Forages - State General Permit Updates: Pre-emergency • Soil sampling frequency has been reduced. Your per- application for Spring mit used to require annual soil sampling; this has been weeds reduced to at least once every 3 years. Of course, you 6. Horse Care 101 are more than welcome to 6. Horse Behavior sample every year, in or- Management Tips der to get a better idea of the land and what you’re 7. Forage Management Tips working with, but it is no longer REQUIRED. 7. Save the Date for the • A notification must be sent 67th Annual Jr. to the Regional Office, Livestock Show and Sale along with a 5-day Plan of Action, if waste levels get up into your structural area. This has always been re- 8. BMP Opportunities quired but now it is included in the permit itself. available through • Annual limit of 10 cubic yards of waste for personal use Wayne Soil & Water has been added. The former permit allowed for up to 4 9. Calendar of Events cubic yards per visit to be given for personal use… this is still the visit limit, but an annual number has been added. 2014 Farm Bill • One of the biggest impacts this may have on swine farmers, especially as it pertains to the media, is that North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. In addition, the two Universities welcome all persons without regard to sexual orientation. North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating. Fencelines Page 2 Regulatory Updates for Swine Producers Continued complaints for “agricultural operations” accepted. This means, for example, if must be kept confidential unless a viola- your old PAN for a wean-to-finish opera- tion is determined. This means all rec- tion was 2.0 lb/1000 gal, it would now be ords, samples, photos, etc. must be kept 1.8 lb/1000 gal. You can use your old in confidence until (or unless) an actual values in your current waste plan but if violation is determined to have occurred. you make any changes, you would have Waste Generation Values to use the new numbers. This also • This is not necessarily a regulatory up- means you would be required to update date but it is worth noting! The division all fields to current RYE values when us- has examined, and taken samples, to ing the new, lower N numbers. These determine if new waste generation val- tables can be found at: http:// ues or nutrient content needed to be nutrients.soil.ncsu.edu/manures reevaluated. The take home of this pro- ject was that lower N values have been Freeze Branding Cattle By Margaret B. Ross, Craven & Jones Counties Adapted from an article by Adam Ross, Gallagher Animal Management One of the most important things you can the brand easily visible. do for recordkeeping purposes and tracking Freeze branding setup is fairly simple and your herd is to easily be able to identify straightforward. You will need a set of them. There are lots of methods for identifi- irons, typically at least a 3 1/2 inch-tall cation in the livestock industry. In the cattle brand for visibility and your ingredients: industry, ear tags may work great for some, • Dry ice but for others, ear tags can be a nuisance • Denatured alcohol to try to read from far away and you’ll al- • Pair of clippers ways have a cow who tears • Cooler her tag out- every time. Tat- There are more ingredients to toos are used occasionally, but a freeze brand than a simple it’s hard to see them without a fire and a branding iron. How- head gate and a halter. Here is ever, this method is less where we start looking at an- stressful to the animal and the other method for identifying producer. our herds easily and reliably – branding. Steps to freeze branding: Photo Credit: 1. Place dry ice in a cooler Branding is an age-old tool www.jauerangus.com and pour denatured alcohol used to identify different live- on top of it – look for a slightly stock. One option that many people are us- soupy mixture that the irons can rest in. ing is freeze branding. The science behind 2. Place irons in the dry ice/alcohol soup. this method is killing the pigment-producing 3. After about 15-20 minutes you should be cells in the hair follicles and replacing the able to see a frost ring coming up about natural hair color with white hair- making Fencelines Page 3 Freeze Branding Cattle continued halfway on the branding iron stem. to about twice the size of what the fin- 4. The animal needs to be in a head gate. ished brand will look like. It usually takes Use the clippers to shear off a square about 20-30 days for the scab and hair to patch on the area of the animal where fall off of the brand site, and then you will you want to place the brand. notice fine, white hairs (like peach fuzz) 5. Spray the clipped area with alcohol -this growing back in place of the brand. allows for dirt/dust particles to be rinsed This method of branding cattle stands out off and will transfer the coldness from the well and makes it easy to identify cattle iron more easily. from farther distances than trying to read 6. Apply the brand. Time for branding is ear tags. It is also less stressful and less around 45-50 seconds for dark hide ani- painful for the cattle. After applying the mals and 60 seconds for white animals brand for just a few seconds, the coldness (the longer time is to kill the hair follicles actually numbs the site, unlike the hot and actually have the brand end up being brand where the burn will last for a while. bare skin). If you have any questions about freeze After the brand is applied, you will see a fro- branding your cattle, feel free to call your zen indentation for about 5 minutes of what local Cooperative Extension Office and the brand will look like. It will then swell up speak to your Livestock Extension Agent. Foot Scald Jean-Marie Luginbuhl, Extension Meat Goat Specialist Submitted by Paul Gonzalez, Sampson County What is foot scald? tion of wet pastures with temperatures Foot scald, or interdigital dermatitis, is above 50° F allows the bacteria to per- an inflammation between the toes sist away from the goats or sheep for caused by the microorganism Fusobac- longer periods of time. Trimming the terium necrophorum which is normally long hair that covers the hoof may help present in ruminant feces and is always the area dry out faster, and thus may present on grazed pastures . Foot scald help in the prevention of foot scald. At affects both goats and sheep. the NCSU Meat Goat Research and Ed- ucational Unit, cases of foot scald are When does foot scald usually occur? mostly observed in spring while nursing Foot scald occurs most often during per- does and their suckling kids are control- sistent rainy weather or heavy dew such grazed on pastures. Young kids are as spring with temperatures above 50° very susceptible, but does will also be F. Persistent moisture on the skin sof- affected. Under wet conditions, cases of tens the skin and damages the tissues foot scald have also been observed in between the toes, thus allowing the inva- summer and fall. sion by F. necrophorum . The combina- Fencelines Page 4 Foot Scald Continued What are the symptoms of foot http://goatsupplies.netfirms.com/ scald? • 1 gallon costs ~ $23.00 The first signs of foot scald are limping ∗ 11.2% zinc sulfate solution already and (or) holding limbs off the ground. prepared Foot scald is characterized by inflamma- ∗ squirt solution on affected areas tion of the skin between the toes. The Liquid Zinc Sulfate (Premier Foot Care) skin appears pink to white in color, from Premier1 moist, raw, and very sensitive to the http://www.premier1supplies.com/ touch. In advanced cases, the affected • 1qt costs $23.00, 1 gal costs ~ areas may also have a characteristic $41.00 bad odor. Affected animals need to be ∗ mix 1 part Premier Foot Care with 3 treated, because foot scald often can be parts water followed by foot rot. ∗ squirt solution on affected areas How to treat animals which have foot 15% copper sulfate crystals (CuSO4) scald? from Tractor Supply Individual cases of foot scald can be http://www.tractorsupply.com treated topically using solutions of cop- • 15 lb container costs ~ $69.99 per sulfate or zinc sulfate (see products ∗ used to get rid of algae in ponds below) by squirting the solution between ∗ 6 ounces (170 g) CuSO4 crystals + 1 the affected toes.