Meet Art Baxter , new president of the Pennsylvania Holstein Association BY JOYCE BUPP Staff Correspondent STONEBORO - “I’m automatically a good boy because my father was good,” teases Art Baxter, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth and a twinkle in his eye. Baxter, a registered Holstein breeder from Mercer County, is the Pennsylvania Holstein Association’s new president, in stalled during the annual con vention last week in Pittsburgh. His tongue-in-cheek comment is a personal bit of sarcasm leveled at the hotly-debated “numbers game.” These computer formulas that put a numeric genetic measure on cattle, based on their ancestry, are coming under in creasing criticism from many registered breeders. While sire and dam information is weighted into the formula, critics argue that the animal’s actual performance is neglected in valuing genetic merit As president of the state’s largest dairy cattle breed, Baxter has set two goals for his two-year term of office. The first goal is to encourage and promote the re-evaluation of the indexing program within the Holstein industry. It bothers Baxter that less than five percent of the breed now carries any amount of “numbers” value. He figures that the indexing trend is badly hurting the national association’s pocketbook, too, with deficits now turning up after years of operation in the black. “Why rush to register cattle if they have very little dollar value over commercial animals; why bother to keep the records?” laments the Mercer dairy leader. Baxter wants to see a re emphasis on classification, DV TLER YOUR ESS US CODE pg am# OU i nlder lo Agri-Builder tri-state marine DIST. INC. P 0 Box 121 Deale, MD 20751 PH 301-867-1447 iS OA NEWTON & SON FOUR COUNTIES H.R. WEAVER CO. INC. CONTRACTOR, INC. CONSTRUCTION P O Box 397 R D , Box 816 RD 3, Box 403 Bndgeville DE 19933 Coalport, PA 16627 Annville, PA 17003 PH 302-337-8211 PH'Bl4-672-5751 PH 717-838-3753 reflecting the need to give credit to cows that are capable and deserving of selection as bull mothers. For his own herd, Baxter favors the longevity of animals that prove they can stay in the herd, producing and reproducing year after year. It’s a philosophy that has paid off for the Garden Acres herd. Rolling herd average on 40 head is over 20,000 with 759 fat. That kind of results has earned the Baxter herd the high milk herd award in Mercer County for 1981 through 1984, plus high protein awards in 1983 and 1984. Baxter credits genetics, plus a good feeding program and what he might label his best asset, his wife Alice, whom her husband proudly calls “a good milker.” Type is highly respected here as well. Pedigrees in the herd trace eight and nine generations of Excellents, some with the first four dams over 20,000 milk, 900 fat, and 150,000 milk production lifetime. “And not one has an index,” he observes. Garden Acres values the “good old cows that hang around long enough to see what their daughters will look like.” Young cows which start on the slow slide don’t bother this veteran breeder. He figures a first lac tation of 14-16,000 is a fair start, with a followup second lactation in the 18-20,000 pound range. “Then, at four they can cut loose and hang in the 24-26,000 pound range for years; you don’t burn out big strong cows,” Baxter noted. One example Baxter offers is a daughter of his own Garden Acres Trademark bull, milking since the day of September and holding steady at 100 pounds of milk per (RAM BINS, GRAIN LEGS, DRYERS, FANS, HEATERS, SCALES EARLY ORDER DISCOUNT Now In Effect PHIC BUILDERS 435 King Street Pottstown, PA 19464 PH-215-323-4070 ■/ i I Man of a thousand faces, newly installed Pennsylvania Holstein Association President, Art Baxter, lists two of his goals: to take a hard look at the current index program and rework or restructure it, and to put through a product supply management program. day. And, he’ll tell you she doesn’t have an index. Having made his feelings per fectly clear on the index-numbers issue, Baxter tackles his second goal as a Holstein state leader; a supply-management program. Baxter is ready to work very hard to encourage the organization of supply management, often simply labeled “quotas.” “If farmers are going to be able to be in the industry in five years - if families are to stay in business - then we must have supply mangement.” That could easily be established, adds Baxter, with quotas of 90 percent of a farm’s production over a historic base period. “A dairyman with a million pound base can make it with 50 head, each producing 20,000 pounds. His less efficient neighbor down the road might need 70 cows to attain the same total production. And with growth hormones coming, cow numbers might be cut to 30 for that level. I’m not afraid of isoacids and hormones if we can work within a supply management program,” reflects the Holstein president. W w ***** , 'w-» fMMPM W.R. MOODY, CONTRACTOR 113 Walnut Lane West Newton, PA 15089 PH 412-872-6804 “As it is now, we’re just working harder to sell more for less money.” Supply management. And a rework of the index system. Art OXFORD Learn 100 great ideas to promote and sell more Holsteins at the Holstein In vestment Opportunities, Inc.’s workshop to be held at the Bird-In- Hand-Motel on March 20,1986 from 8:45t04:15. This workshop will review dif ferent factors of selling good Holstein cattle. Effective business, office, and advertising procedures will be learned. Speakers will present programs on photography, financing, and advertising. It will be stimulating, goal oriented, practical, down-to-earth, fun and most useful in 1986. The fee for this workshop is $50.00 per person paid in advance. "