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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 1979)
THE BATTALION Page 3 TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 1979 W$ Professor researches problems Shipping cattle by rail studied •I climbing higher cc th Districl ection ob part in (lit jurors n arol Van« ist whittled mlly oven n notifyinj .'uesday foi d at a local The judge f the trii ge eport that a Electric men told i uranium 1 Sunday, iployeeat it he and lage, esti- By PEGGY C. McCULLEN Battalion Reporter The cost of shipping cattle by (rucks is increasing with the rapidly fuel prices. The result is igher costs at the meat counter. I One alternative method to truck hauling is shipping by rail and a Texas A&M University professor of imal science is researching this ethod. Dr. T. H. Friend, assistant pro fessor of animal science, is par- ipating in a USDA-Texas Agricul- ral Experiment Station funded re- arch program which may put cat- back on trains. Because of a 1906 Livestock Iransportation Act, which says that estock shipped by rail must be loaded, watered, fed and rested for five hours every 28 hours, it has become unprofitable to ship cattle by rail. According to Bill Gentleman in alf News (May, 1979), the railroads uled over 1.75 million car loads of estock in 1916. Today, less than 12,000 car loads of livestock are hauled annually. A self-contained jumbo cattle car at can transport cattle for long dis- nces without rest stops, developed by Gentleman of Amarillo, is being tested. Its profitability, the occurance of pipping fever, and decreased stress tnd shrinkage of the animals is jeing evaluated. tract set- kers have 1 give no it did ei- The old ut rubber bber pro- 1 off their 7 percent Friend, who began an animal be havior program at A&M in the fall of 1977, is studying the behavior of cattle in transit. US DA researchers monitor environmental conditions. Friend uses video cameras in the double-decked rail cars equipped with water troughs and hay racks. Electrical generators, television monitors, and video tape recorders are operated through an adjacent Dr. T.H. FRIEND caboose. The researchers ride in the caboose during the entire haul, up to five days. Recently, Friend participated in a shipment of 163 cattle from Birmin gham, Ala. to Little Rock, Ark. Friend said that during transit, cat tle consumed the same amount of hay and water normally consumed in a feed lot. Battalion photo by Clay Cockrill “From the television monitoring equipment, we were able to tell that all cattle had ample opportunity to drink and to eat,” he added. Re searchers will begin another trip to day, which will haul about 120 cattle from Memphis to Amarillo in three days. The trip will determine op timum space requirements and movement patterns needed in the cattle cars. Fuel shortage will change eating as well as driving habits The fuel crunch may change as many eating habits as driving habits, says a leading energy authority. Texas A&M University Dean of Geosciences Earl Cook predicts large changes in American diets over the next two generations, primarily because of energy’s effects on food production. “Increasingly cheap and abundant energy, mainly from fossil fuels, al lowed us to mechanize agriculture, manufacture fertilizers and pes ticides, then refrigerate food and transport it quickly cross-country where marketers and consumers preserve food by canning, drying and freezing,” explains Cook. As fuel goes up, so will food prices and Americans will substitute milk, eggs and poultry for beef and sea food while consumption of beans will increase and use of frozen food will decrease, he forecasts. Beef is like the automobile, ar gues Cook, noting that both are symbols of affluence and represent inefficient systems. “Of the energy in the plant food eaten by beef animals, less than 4 percent gets to the table in disgest- ible form,” he says. Despite tough decisions on whether to buy chicken, pork or beef, consumers are likely to con tinue to buy coffee, Coca-Cola and beer, no matter the cost, thinks Cook. FARMErS MARKET SANDWICH SHOPPE Introducing Our Own Farmer’s Market BAR-B-QUE SUBMARINE $-1 69 hit-and-run whale recks dream trip act s, will re- s under a gotiations Saturday 79 which ivers con- Oklahoma Employers United Press International HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A madian fishing boat picked up a year-old Welshman trying to sail Be Atlantic in a 17-foot inflatable finghy, but whose dream voyage Bas foiled by a hit-and-run whale. ■ Canadian Coast Guard officials said Paul Parsons had been plucked from his dinghy about 40 nautical miles southeast of Halifax harbor by the Cape Pictou. f But another seaborne adventurer was faring better. ■ Kenneth Kerr, an oarsman trying to row across the Atlantic in the ijSBiallest craft ever used for such a voyage, is “bang on course” but well off schedule, a spokesman said Sun day. B Parson’s rescue came six hours after authorities issued an all-ships ted grove < settlement| ettlementj e so-caM rom Israel ar gas i establisl land near! -ntofElonj for an areai lias iem Leh| Aviv i trike camel It gaveli irstrikeo the Israe uff , u rt said# 1 iup of the*j rder. Shell, three assa rganizatii e organic ; presidet'lH “pious i d to ansfl 'Briarwooif cJlpartmcttis Pre-Leasing Program WE HAVE IT ALL! “For Summer and Fall” 57N J t^r: ★ I, 2 & 3 Bedrooms ★ 2 Swimming Pools ★ Professional Tennis Courts ★ Exercise Room With Sauna ★ Zacharias Greenhouse Disco & Game Parlor Summer ’79 Specials Month to Month 1 1 Bedrooms .. $ 150 00 ; ation, Te««.» ^ 2 Bedrooms .. *200°° allege W 3 Bedrooms .. $ 280 00 JL > 1 t EXTRA .KsrC . DebW Robin 1 n Bios*® .Clay] .m jerattd lined by^ SPECIAL PRICES Summer, Fall, i? Spring! leases signed summer spring and fall only 693-2933 693-3014 1201 (HWY 30) HUNTSVILLE HWY COLLEGE STATION alert for Parsons, an Air Canada baggage handler at London’s Heath row Airport, who set out from Halifax Friday to sail his craft, the Pufia, 2,800 miles to Europe. The blue-eyed, bearded Parsons stocked the dinghy with food and 30 gallons of fresh water to sustain him on the trip he thought would take him two months. Parsons had radioed that a whale had smashed into his raft, damaging the floorboards and throwing some supplies overboard. The coast guard said the ship was expected at its home port of Lunen- berg. Nova Scotia, June 26 or 27. Radio operators determined Kerr had rowed only 120 miles in the last eight days — far short of his 30 mile-a-day target. DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM? BOREDOM - POOR NUTRITION - LACK OF EXERCISE - OVERWEIGHT - UNDERWEIGHT SMOKING OR JUST PLAIN GIVE OUT ? ? LET J&0& CHANGE YOUR LIFE TOTAL FITNESS CENTER FOR THE BETTER. 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