Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Assessment Of Gnawing Behavior Of Three Rodent Species On Automatic Speed Control Mechanism Diaphragms From Gm Automobiles, Glenn R. Dudderar, Ren-Rong Hou, Scott R. Winterstein

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

General Motors and the A C. Rochester Company, a subsidiary of General Motors (GM), has found that the rubber diaphragms on automatic speed control mechanisms (servos) were gnawed by unknown rodents. House mice (Mus musculus), Peromyscus spp., and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) were used to test gnawing behavior on 4 kinds of diaphragms. Diaphragms with or without a rodent proof cure formula, which are used by GM, did not influence the gnawing of all test rodent species. Diaphragms with a lubricant (Paricin) were more attractive to gnawing by house mice than diaphragms without a lubricant. …

A Strategy For Integrating Principles And Concepts Of Wildlife Damage Control Into The School Curriculum, Thomas A. Eddy

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

This paper reports an approach to educating today's youth concerning the importance of regulating numbers of wildlife species that threaten property, products and health. The emphases are on preparing teachers to integrate principles and concepts into the existing curricular materials, justifying control measures with ecological understandings and economic information and dealing effectively with sensitive animal rights issues. Opportunities for integration of specific wildlife damage control topics are suggested for lessons in the life sciences, social sciences, health, language arts and mathematics. Examples of conflict between groups of different opinions about the seriousness of a pest's activities or appropriateness of control …

Wildlife Damage Control In Kansas: Private Operators And Public Agencies, L. Andrew Madison, Philip S. Gipson

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

The private industry in wildlife damage control is expanding into territory predominantly occupied by public agencies in the past. There is a potential for overlap and competition in services provided by the public and private sectors in Kansas. We examined wildlife damage control activity reports from the Cooperative Extension Service (CES), Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), and private nuisance wildlife control operators (NWCO) to determine the most common species controlled by each and their overlap in services across Kansas. The CES predominantly controlled coyotes (Canis latrans). KDWP primarily controlled beavers (Castor canadensis), deer ( …

Closing Remarks: Seventh Eastern Wildlife Damage Management Conference, James E. Miller

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

Initially, I want to begin these brief closing remarks by expressing appreciation to Dean Stewart, Phil Mastrangelo, Jim Armstrong, Greg Yarrow, other members of the Program Committee, all of the sponsors, exhibitors, contributors , speakers, and session moderators, and to all of you as participants who helped make this conference successful. As most of you who have ever had the privilege of putting together a conference such as this are well aware, there are always a number of people that are key to the success of the conference who work diligently behind the scenes but are not always recognized. We …

A Comparison Of Deer Hunter And Farmer Attitudes About Crop Damage Abatement In Michigan: Messages For Hunters, Farmers, And Managers, Peter A. Fritzell Jr., Donna L. Minnis, R. Ben Peyton

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

During the last 20 years several states have seen dramatic changes in the size of their white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations and also more frequent debates about how the deer resource should be managed. One central area of conflict between stakeholders involved in deer management is the issue of the lethal control of depredating deer, and how and when programs involving lethal control should be implemented. In the last decade, both Michigan farmers and deer hunters have organized special interest groups to express their dissatisfaction with deer population numbers, deer-caused crop losses, and/or the state's crop depredation control …

Bat Exclusion Methods, William H. Kern Jr

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

This publication is intended to serve as a review of currently accepted methods of bat exclusion. Inappropriate house bat control methods are destructive to our decreasing bat populations and often cause additional problems for the building's owner or occupant. These problems include odor from dead bats, infestations of carrion-feeding flies, and increasing human and pet exposure to bats. Appropriate exclusion methods like winter structure modification for cave hibernating bats or one-way excluders using hardware cloth, plastic sheeting, or plastic birdnetting are the best ways to protect these beneficial wildlife species and correct situations where humans and bats come into conflict.

What Leading Alfalfa Growers Do To Produce Quality Hay, Jimmy C. Henning, Garry D. Lacefield, Buddy Sims

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa is the highest quality forage legume crop grown in Kentucky and is the number one cash hay crop. Hay raised by Kentucky farmers has been recognized for its quality at local, state (state fair and Kentucky Alfalfa Conference), and national (American Forage and Grassland Council) hay contests. The testing records of the Kentucky Department of Agriculture also document the high quality alfalfa hay of Kentucky. However, little has been written about the farm practices used to produce high quality alfalfa hay in Kentucky. The current practices of top hay growers may be helpful in defining the options available to …

How To Make Your Alfalfa More Profitable, Clive Holland

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

As a perennial plant, alfalfa can be expected to continue to live and produce for an indefinite period of time. Why then do stands need to be replanted every few years? Is modern seed available today, weakened and unable to live up to the perennial label? What about yield? How does your stand measure up? Are you barely making the state average, or struggling to even meet this modest yield level?

The first harvest each spring can produce over 40% of the yield in a single growing season. Why is a stand slower growing in the spring than you would …

Role Of Alfalfa In Animal Diets, Jennifer L. Garrett

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa forage use has increased in all classes of livestock - dairy, beef, horses, sheep, and swine - during the last 40 years. The highest utilization of alfalfa by livestock is found in dairy cattle diets. Additionally, the use of alfalfa as a grazing crop has also undergone a considerable increase with the use of new grazing management techniques and the development of new grazing varieties.

Alfalfa's strength as a forage crop is its high nutritional value. Alfalfa is higher in protein, minerals, and net energy than grasses and small grains. High quality alfalfa also helps to promote intake, especially …

Saving Those Valuable Leaves During Haymaking, Michael Collins

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Field dry hay needs to be reduced from near 80% moisture to 20% or less to prevent spoilage during storage. Drying hay to safe baling moistures often takes several days. Sources of loss during forage harvest include mechanical losses such as mowing, conditioning, chopping, raking, packaging and handling as well as respiration and leaching. The general relationship between forage moisture concentration at harvest and losses during the field and storage phases is shown in Figure 1. Harvest losses are greatest for very dry forage and are low for very wet material like direct cut silage. However, the latter is subject …

Alfalfa As A Grazing Crop: Progress Continues, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This makes the third consecutive year that I have talked about "Alfalfa as a Grazing Crop". At our XIII Kentucky Alfalfa, I, along with five other speakers, discussed several aspects of grazing alfalfa and all agreed that the concept had tremendous potential.

This past year I reviewed some of the discussion of our XIII Conference and shared some of the activities going on in research and educational programs throughout the region. In addition, I announced the date for a National Alfalfa Grazing Conference to be held in Nashville, Tennessee. The Conference was held July 29 and was a big success. …

Control Of Johnsongrass And Other Weedy Grasses In Alfalfa, Jonathan D. Green

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Johnsongrass is considered one of the major weed species that infests alfalfa in Kentucky. Other weedy grasses such as large crabgrass, foxtails, barnyard grass, and fall panicum can also interfere with alfalfa production. Low infestation levels of these grasses may not create significant concern, but high infestation levels can result in reduced yield, alfalfa hay quality, and/or shorten the life of the stand.

Opportunities For No-Till Alfalfa In Kentucky, Jimmy C. Henning, Garry D. Lacefield, Andy Anderson

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

There is a rising interest in the use of alfalfa in pastures, especially for dairy cattle, beef stockers and as supplemental summer grazing for cows with calves. Kentucky has the land resource to support 2 million acres of alfalfa without reducing acres in cultivated crops. Acres of alfalfa seeded for pasture use would be in addition to the 350,000 acres presently used primarily for hay. However, these additional acres are rolling and erodible and therefore alfalfa should be established by no-till methods.

Establishing Alfalfa Following Alfalfa: How Long Do We Wait?, Monroe Rasnake

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

It has long been recommended that alfalfa fields be rotated to another crop such as com for at least one growing season before reestablishing alfalfa. One reason for doing this is that insect and disease levels build up in the old alfalfa and this time is needed to allow them to die out. Another reason is that alfalfa plants have been shown to produce compounds that inhibit the germination and growth of new alfalfa seedlings. This is called autotoxicity or allelopathy.

Recently researchers from other states have indicated that it may not be necessary to have a full growing season …

Foreword [1995], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This is the front matter of the proceedings.

Marketing Quality Alfalfa Hay, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa hay is a potentially marketable-profitable product if--if quality is satisfactory to meet buyer's needs, if it is packaged such that it meets buyer's feeding program and can be transported efficiently, if in sufficient quantity, if storage site is accessible by truck or trailer, and if it is competitively priced. Meeting these minimum criteria only means the hay is potentially marketable; only after it has been sold does it become potentially profitable.

Producing Quality Alfalfa Hay, Jimmy C. Henning, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Hay is one of the most versatile of stored forages in that (1) it can be kept for long periods of time with little loss of nutrients if protected from weather; (2) a large number of crops can be successfully used for hay production; (3) it can be produced and fed in small or large amounts; (4) it can be harvested, stored and fed by hand or the production and feeding can be completely mechanized; and (5) hay can supply most nutrients needed by many classes of livestock. Hay is, therefore, the most commonly used stored feed on most farms. …

Harvesting Hay For High Yield And Quality — More On Bale Ventilators And Other Harvest Aids, Michael Collins

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

In some areas of the country, producers store a substantial portion of their forage for winter feeding as silage or haylage. However, hay remains the most popular storage method for forage. Hay stores well for long periods and is better suited to cash sale and transportation than silage. Mechanical conditioning, which gained acceptance during the 1950's is probably still the greatest single change in hay harvesting and storage technology during this century. However, a number of other noteworthy changes and innovations have occurred in recent years which have helped to reduce the extent of losses during hay harvesting and storage. …

Role In Alfalfa In Livestock Feeding Programs In Kentucky, Donna M. Amaral-Phillips

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa, the "Queen of the Forage Crops", is a highly versatile forage crop which can be grazed directly by livestock or harvested as hay or silage. With the development of new alfalfa varieties, increased pest and weed control, and increased demand from livestock owners, the amount of alfalfa fed to livestock will increase. As with any forage crop, proper harvest and feeding management is necessary to reap the benefits.

Fencing For Optimum Grazing, Larry W. Turner

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Controlled or rotational grazing can result in better utilization of forage resources. By better forage management through controlled grazing, producers may increase profitability of cattle/forage systems. To effectively develop a controlled grazing system, however, fencing must be used to subdivide the pasture into sub-fields or paddocks. The animals may then be rotated among the paddocks to optimize forage and beef or dairy production from the system. Alfalfa grazing can play an important part in such a system.

Planning the "best", or optimum, fencing strategy should be done with the overall goal in mind of improving profitability. Key factors that describe …

Grazing Alfalfa — Momentum Continues, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

In my presentation at our XIII Kentucky Alfalfa Conference held here last year, I stated. that interest in grazing alfalfa was at an all time high. Five other speakers followed me on the program with presentations about alfalfa grazing. Steve Osborne discussed alfalfa grazing trials in Monroe County. Ken Johnson talked about the Do's and Dont's in Alfalfa Grazing. Dr. Roy Burris talked about alfalfa grazing from a state perspective and Mr. Warren Thompson discussed the topic from a national perspective. Professor Joe Bums concluded the grazing portion of the program with grazing alfalfa experiences in Tennessee.

Despite a rather …

Alfalfa Weed Control — Strategies For Success, James R. Martin

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Field evaluation, cultural and chemical practices are key ingredients of a successful weed control program in alfalfa. A weak link in any of these components could lead to reduced profits and possibly shorten the life of an alfalfa stand.

Managing Alfalfa Diseases, Paul C. Vincelli

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Diseases of alfalfa can limit productivity of this valuable forage crop. Alfalfa diseases can reduce forage yield, reduce forage quality, and decrease stand persistence. The effects of diseases can be dramatic, such as sudden stand loss due to Sclerotinia crown and stem rot. Often, the effects of alfalfa diseases are more subtle but are no less important. For example, alfalfa plants with Phytophthora root rot sometimes regrow slowly after cutting, resulting in a stunted stand showing no other obvious symptoms of disease.

Like most crop diseases, alfalfa diseases are most effectively managed by integrating as many control measures as practical. …

Nitrogen And Boron Fertilization Of Alfalfa, Monroe Rasnake

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Very little current research data is available on the response of alfalfa to nitrogen application at establishment or to the addition of boron. University of Kentucky recommendations (AGR-1 Lime and Fertilizer Recommendations) indicate that zero to 30 pounds of nitrogen per acre may be applied at seeding for alfalfa. No nitrogen would be recommended when soil nitrogen levels are likely to be adequate such as where manure or high levels of nitrogen fertilizer had been applied to the previous crop. Annual applications of boron at 1.5-2.0 pounds of elemental boron per acre are recommended.

Neighboring states differ in their nitrogen …

Advances In Alfalfa Variety Development And Testing, Jimmy C. Henning, Leonard M. Lauriault, Linda G. Brown, Garry D. Lacefield, Paul C. Vincelli, John C. Parr

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is historically the highest yielding, highest quality forage legume grown in Kentucky. It forms the basis of Kentucky's cash hay enterprise and is an important component in dairy, horse, beef and sheep diets. Over 300,000 acres of alfalfa are grown annually in Kentucky, with state yields averaging between 3 and 4 tons per acre.

The development and testing of alfalfa varieties is a dynamic process that impacts all Kentucky farmers. The Kentucky Alfalfa Variety Testing program was re-started in 1990 and is carried out through the efforts of several people, including Leonard Lauriault, Linda Brown …

Foreword [1994], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This is the front matter of the proceedings.

Suburban Deer Management: A Matter Of Perspective, Paul D. Curtis, Daniel J. Decker, Rebecca J. Stout, Milo E. Richmond

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

Many metropolitan areas in the eastern United States are experiencing management conflicts associated with overabundant deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations. Sometimes these deer populations exceed the biological carrying capacity of available habitat and wildlife acceptance capacity (Decker and Purdy 1988) of local residents. For nearly 2 decades, a deer management controversy has been developing in Durand Eastman Park and the Town of Irondequoit, located in the greater Rochester metropolitan area, Monroe County, New York. Three local citizen organizations concerned about deer are described, and each has promoted various nonhunting alternatives to reduce human-deer problems. For 15 years, the New …

Opportunities And Challenges In Handling Nuisance Wildlife Damage In North Carolina, Peter T. Bromley, Carl Betsill, Rodney Cannon, Jon F. Heisterberg, Edwin J. Jones, William T. Sullivan Jr., Perry Sumner, Randall C. Wilson, David D. Woodward

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

The current procedure for handling wildlife nuisance problems in North Carolina requires the landowner, manager, or lessee to obtain a Wildlife Depredation Permit from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), except when an animal is caught damaging property. The Wildlife Damage Committee of the North Carolina Chapter of The Wildlife Society bas evaluated the policy. Current laws and regulations do protect valuable, native wildlife species, but these requirements are unsatisfactory for handling routine nuisance wildlife problems. Citizen demand for assistance could be satisfied better if existing legislation were rewritten to provide the Commission more latitude in declaring certain animals …

Wildlife Damage Management On A Public Water Supply, Paul J. Lyons

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

Wildlife populations can pose a variety of problems to managers of public water supplies. Further, new federal and state regulations governing the management and protection of drinking water supplies require greater consideration and mitigation of these problems. The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) manages watershed lands that provide high quality drinking water to more than 2.4 million people in Massachusetts. This water originates from the central and western portions of the state, from 3 watersheds and 2 reservoirs that also provide habitat for a wide variety of wildlife species. In recent years, the MDC has evaluated the impacts of various wildlife …

Propagation Of Bamboo As Blackbird Lure Roost Habitat, Richard D. Flynt, James F. Glahn

Wildlife Damage Management Conference

Bamboo and native cane species have been suggested as optimal lure roost habitat for shifting blackbird winter roosts away from objectionable urban/suburban sites. As the second phase in developing this potential concept of alleviating conflicts with blackbirds, we report on information gathered from the literature, consultations with bamboo horticulturists, and on-site visits to previously developed bamboo plantations to select desirable species of bamboo for this purpose, and to identify preferred propagating techniques. Bamboo species Phyllostachys rubromarginata and P. nigra henonis ranked highest in terms of greatest cold tolerance, greatest propensity for lateral spreading, and most suitable structure characteristics for maximizing …