Lancaster
(Continued from Pago At)
happening in their bid to move pro
cessing to Raleigh and lab services
to Maryland.
Principal spokesmen included
John Howard, committee chair
man; Bob Wenger, Lancaster pres
ident, Ken Butcher, director. Dairy
Records Processing Center,
Raleigh, N.C., and Glenn Shirk,
county agent. About 100 farmers
attended.
In summary, as reported at the
meeting, the Lancaster board and
the Pennsylvania board have
agreed to a 10-point proposal, fash
ioned by National DHIA, that says
PaDHIA will release Lancaster’s
herds to Raleigh “without the cur
rent contingencies based on execu
tion of a long-term agreement.”
And Lancaster DHIA agrees to
not pursue its move of lab services
to Maryland until National DHIA
has another annual meeting in
March to bring national bylaws and
policies into harmony.
The agreement is for six months.
During the agreement, a working
' from ' state and
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national associations will, among
other dungs, oversee certification
fee pricing. In addition, the bylaw
change issue will be placed on the
four caucus agendas that precede
the national DHIA convention.
In his opening statement. How
ard summarized the events that led
to the present agreement Quoting
from a published report that said
under current policy of National
DHIA, members have the freedom
to choose where their services
come from, Howard said the local
board thought it was doing what
the rules allowed.
“Of the 57 DHIAs in the nation,
Lancaster County is the 17th
largest” Howard said. “The six
states ahead of us have less than
10,300 more cows. If we could
pick up 10,000 cows on test we
would be the 11th largest And we
are only a county organization.
“Some other DHIAs need to go
across their state to get the number
of cows we have. This gives us tre
mendous advantage in running our
field service. We don’t need to
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travel many miles in our concen
trated dairy area. Consequently,
our supervisors lest two to three
times more cows per person than in
most states. This keeps our over
head down.
“We can contract for processing
and lab service from large organi
zations to give us access to the best
technology at competitive cost
With lower overhead, this gives us
the ability to be one of the best
Being independent will give us the
ability to set our rates and prog
rams especially for owner sampler
herds. We want to keep as many
people on test as we can.
“Because of our size and close
proximity to supervisors, the hir
ing, training and supervisor confer
ences can be done with very little
expense. The entire cost to run the
county is about three cents per
cow,” Howard said.
“When you have competition,
the service gets better and the
prices go down.” Wenger said
“That’s the trend and national
agrees that’s the trend But the
question remains how do we go to
Maryland and not be in violation of
national bylaws. With this six
month agreement, we will stay
with Pennsylvania for lab service
and field certification and keep
ourselves within the national
bylaws.”
Butcher said 83 percent of
Raleigh’s cows are on their elec
tronic data transfer systems. “As
we look at the future record pro
cessing, we can see that computing
will move away from centralized
locations to more local associa
tions. A lot of computing and pro
cessing will be done closer to the
farm, and only the necessary infor
mation transferred to a central
location and on to USDA, etc.”
Raleigh is a cooperative with an
advisory board that includes one
member from each of the 16 states
in the association. Lancaster will
become the 17th. According to
Butcher, they have not had a rate
increase since 1985. and since that
time have given more than
$lOO,OOO in a lump rebate to mem
bers on two different occasions.
Meanwhile, they have built
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reserves of $350,000 to be used
against new computing equipment
when needed.
If things go as proposed, the
Lancaster supervisors will have the
pertinent information that has been
transferred from Pennsylvania to
Raleigh when they arrive on the
farm for the October test When the
lest is complete and records pro
cessed, the dairy farmer will
receive the first reports from
Raleigh. According to the 10 point
agreement, Lancaster will permit
DRPC choice for their members,
and Pennsylvania will not compete
in the county.
“DHIA is at a crossroads, and
many important decisions must be
made,” Shirk said. ‘The dairy
industry is also in a state of change,
and DHIA must meet those
changes and challenges of the
industry. I think that’s what your
board struggles with as they try to
meet your interests to make sure
you get the kind of records and ser
vice you need to be current, effec
tive as managers, and competitive
with dairymen across the country.
“Your board has
worked long and hard
the past year, volun
teered in your behalf
to wrestle with these
decisions. They arc to
be commended. They
have taken the leader
ship nationwide to
challenge decisions or
lack of decisions and
policies that need to be
put in place.
“They have your
support, as witnessed
by the more than 1,000
requests for transfer.
That’s solidarity,
that’s unity, numbers,
and power that catches
people’s attention.
“You need freedom
of choice. As an exten
sion agent, I will sup
port either choice you
make. I’ll give them
both my full support.
You have a big deci
sion to make. 1 hope
you think about it very
carefully, talk to your
directors, make up
your mind,” Shirk
said. “You will get my
support if you go
south or if you stay
with Pennsylvania.”
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873 S. Railroad St.
Myerstown, PA 17067
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