A26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 3,1984
DHIA: Working for
BY WENDY WEHR
LANCASTER
times have you heard complaints
about DHIA? You know, the
supervisor was in such a hurry the
other month that he mixed up the
calving dates on two cows, and
then it took three months to get it
corrected. Or the computer at “the
College” was down and the DHIA
report never arrived until nine
days after the tester was at the
farm. Or the county directors
voted to give the supervisors an
across the board per cow raise
when one of the supervisors has a
really poor error rate.
You’ve heard those complaints
about DHIA, and you may even
have grumbled and groused about
the program a few times yourself.
But let’s face it. DHI has the
potential to be a powerful
management tool in your dairy
operation. And if you’ve got
problems with your county DHI
program, you’ve got to take some
of the responsibility for those
problems yourself.
Bob Kindig, president of the
state board of directors of the Pa.
Dairy Herd Improvement
Association, and Jay Mylin,
supervisor and county manager
for the Lancaster County DHIA,
both have strong feelings about the
usefulness of DHIA to dairymen.
But they also realize there are
problems with DHIA, and that’s
why they’re willing to go out of
their way to make a contribution to
the success of the program.
DHIA in Lancaster County is
exceptional because it’s by far the
largest program in the state,
employing 18 full-time supervisors
and some additional samplers to
service roughly 1,500 herds in the
county. But what makes for
successful management of this
program could be useful in other
county programs as well.
“We have an excellent staff in
Lancaster County, and the board of
directors is the best group of
farmer/businessmen to work for,”
says Jay Mylin. He notes that the
directors have set policies that
establish a solid groundwork for
the county’s DHI program.
He also emphasizes the support
that the board of directors give the
supervisors. They’ve set up a pay
scale that provides a “fair living,”
says Mylin, and the directors
tackle all the issues, concerns,
problems, or questions that the
supervisors present. Part of doing
Recording milk weights correctly is only one small part of
being a successful DHIA supervisor. Jay Mylin encourages
supervisors to do a few extras and take time to talk to
dairymen about their records.
what’s best for dairymen in the
long run is providing quality
service in the present.
Mylin’s role in the smooth
running of Lancaster County DHIA
is fairly new. Although he’s been a
supervisor for 15 years, he began
as county manager only last April.
He handles hiring and training of
new supervisors, supervisor
problems, materials and equip
ment needs, and sales training. He
also attends the director’s
meetings to represent the
supervisors.
How many
A current project oi
caster County DHIA is writing a
policy booklet. The booklet will
pull together and update the
policies established by the
directors and outline the
responsibilities of the farmers and
supervisors that are a part of
DHIA.
So the work of the county
directors is one part of the suc
cessful program, but the individual
working relationship between
supervisor and dairyman has a lot
of influence on dairyman
satisfaction with the program too.
In hiring new supervisors, one of
the first things Mylin looks for is
the applicant’s ability to relate
well with farmers. Ability to work
well by himself, responsibility, and
initiative are other important
characteristics for a supervisor,
and dairy farm experience isn’t
necessarily a prerequisite.
Along with his county manager
duties, Jay still has his own full
time testing circuit. He is
responsible for 95 herds in the
Manheim area, some 30 of which
are owner-sampler. In addition, he
has the extra responsibility of two
samplers who work for him,
although Jay does all the book
work and visits all of his herds at
least every other month.
Over the 15 years the number of
dairy herds on DHIA in his area
has grown. Now in the Manheim
area 88 percent of the cows are on
test.
Mylin describes his relationship
at many family-run dairy farms
where he tests as “almost being
part of the family,” visiting once a
month and watdung the changes
that take place over the year. And
caring about the dairy operations
and doing a few extras does make
for greater satisfaction for
everyone.
Ear tagging calves and getting
all the records that used to be all
dairymen , because of dairymen
scattered here and there into one
calf book is one thing supervisors
can do for farmers who are just
starting with DHIA, says Mylin.
Explaining the procedure for
registering or transferring
animals with the breed association
is another help.
Many times, too, the DHIA
supervisor is simply a good source
of information about “what the
other fellows are doing,” about
what particular feeding programs
or breeding services are working
for someone else.
And of course explaining DHIA
records is another important part
of the supervisor’s service to the
farmer. Mylin spends varying
amounts of time going over
records with farmers according to
their needs, devoting little tune to
farmers who obviously understand
them, and more time with new
DHIA members and dairymen who
want to start looking at their
program in a different way.
“Everyone does use their
records differently,” says Mylin.
And use of feed information is a
good example. “Some farmers
carefully weigh out the feed, while
others make wild guesses.” But
Mylin does try to encourage
dairymen to be more interested in
their feeding information, because
income over feed costs is the
bottom line when it comes to ef
ficiency.
Mylin cites record-keeping as
one of the main advantages of
DHIA. It forces the farmer to keep
up his records each month,
whether it’s simply keeping an
accurate record of fresh dates or
carefully developing feed costs per
cow.
“One of the things that convinces
me that record-keeping pays,”
comments Mylm, “is that I’ve only
ever had two herds drop out. This
is the best test that the monthly
DHIA fee is worth the money.”
Bob Kindig, a Conestoga
dairyman and the current
president of the state DHIA board
of directors would whole-heartedly
agree on the usefulness of DHIA
records.
“After you’ve been on the
program, you wonder how people
can manage a dairy operation
without that information,” says
Kindig. He emphasizes the im
portance of the figures in the in
come-over-feed-costs column.
“You can look down over the
pounds of milk produced and get
one view of the cow, but if you’ve
got to pump a lot of grain into her,
is she making you any money?”
And he emphasizes that there’s
lots of valuable information
provided in the DHIA report, but if
the records are used only to cull
the right cows or analyze the two
year-olds and project what they
should make as mature cows,
participation in DHIA is worth it.
But “selling” DHIA is not Bob
Kindig’s only responsibility. As
part of the state board of directors
his job is to see that the DHIA
policies are carried out and that,
as he says, “Dairymen get the best
service possible at the lowest
possible cost.”
Of course Pa. DHIA does have a
paid general manager, Philip
Dukas, but he consults regularly
with Kindig and the state directors
to see that actions are following
board policy.
Right now, the board is in
vestigating the purchase of their
own computer, which is one of the
last physical ties that DHIA still
has with Penn State University.
Having their own computer would
probably increase turn-around
time on records, which is so im
portant to the participating
dairymen.
But selection of a new computer
system must be made carefully.
They want a system that will
provide maximum useful in
formation for dairymen, as well as
(Turn to Page A3B)
Jay Mylin, DHIA supervisor and county manager of the
Lancaster DHIA, shares his thoughts about service to the
Robert Kindig, president of the Pa. DHIA board of direc
tors, discusses the management value of the DHI records and
considers areas for improvement jp the program.
Reading the milk meter is practically second-nature to Jay
Mylin after 15 years of experience as a DHIA supervisor.