A26-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 28, 1992
National DHIA Report
Major Opportunities Face
Delegates at Fall Caucuses
COLUMBUS, OH The
responsibility and authority of
state DHIAs that serve herds
across state borders will be the
major topic at the 1992 caucuses.
The Lancaster. Pennsylvania situ
ation provided a great deal of
momentum behind this issue, and
many state DHIAs are seeking
clarification on DHIA policy and
bylaws.
“We have a major opportunity
to modify, and possibly improve,
the structure of an organization
that supports increased profitabili
ty of half the nation’s producers,”
states Mike Quesnell, National
DHIA President “We should not
take this opportunity lightly.”
Current policies allow some
flexibility in providing service
across state lines, but the bylaws
assign final responsibility within
geographic boundaries to the state
DHIA recognized by National
DHIA. The National DHIA Board
approved a program to present the
background to caucus particip
ants, generate input, then move
the recommendations through the
policy process that reaches the
delegates at the 1993 Annual
Meeting.
Other topics at the caucuses
include: Quality Certification,
1993 budget, research issues, new
testing plans, DHIA Services,
Inc., and the Value of Records.
Discussions Taking Place with
Allied Cooperators
Following exhaustive discus
sions over the last few years, the
Value of Records issue has
become noticeably quieter. Is the
issue dead or is this the calm
before the storm? “Neither,” cites
Mike Quesnell, National DHIA
president “With new leadership
in the president and CEO posi
tions, we needed a period of time
to establish our personal relation
ships and take stock of the
situation.”
DHIA and AI leaders have had
numerous conversations since the
NAAB meeting in July. The out
come of these discussions and
input from all segments of the
industry was to form a working
group to evaluate new procedures
and relationships that would result
in an increase in genetic progress,
and in the farm use of genetic
information.
“Our hope is the working group
could provide a road map, with
benefits for today and tomorrow’s
dairy producers,” explains Phil
Dukas, CEO. “The development
of the road map should be done in
a non-political setting. The deci
sion to use or not to use the road
map must be made at the policy
level.
The National Association of
Animal Breeders and National
DHIA have approved the working
group. The membership and sche-
I
A
dule have not been released.
Board Approves New Official
NCDHIP Testing Plans
Three new official plans will be
available to dairy producers after
January 1, 1993, as soon as field
and computing service procedures
required for these plans are
implemented.
The new testing plans are Offi
cial DHI-AM-PM (verified by
bulk tank). Official DHI-Milk
Only and Official DHIA Milk
Only AM-PM. In order for a herd
to participate in one of these test
ing plans, all the field and comput
ing procedures for that specific
testing plan must be followed.
Bulk tank verification is offered
as an alternative to the timer in the
AM-PM programs. This proce
dure is based on extensive data
collected under the Innovative
Testing Plans programs. Strict
limits are in place, triggering man
agement follow-up procedures if
abnormalities are observed.
Until January 1, 1994, herds
can utilize these three testing
plans as Innovative Testing Plans
(ITP). After this date, the FTP
category ceases for these three
above mentioned testing plans. ,
Herds participating in any of
these plans (as an ITP) on January
1, 1994, will have four choices:
• They can continue to partici
pate in the same testing plan, as an
Official NCDHIP Testing Plan, if
the servicing DHIA and DRPC
have implemented the required
procedures:
• They can seek service through
another DHIA and/or DRPC if
their present one(s) have not
implemented the procedures
required:
• They can change to another
official testing plan; or
• They can change to a manage
ment record plan, for example,
Supervised Sampling AM-PM.
New Dues Level to Strengthen
The National DHIA Board vot
ed to raise dues one cent per cow
per year to'enable the association
to meet a number of key objec
tives. In addition, a membership
fee will be employed for the first
time to offset some of the per cow
dues.
“Reserves are very low after
years of extremely light budgets,”
cites chief executive officer,
Dukas. “Over half of the modest
increase will go to the bottom line
simply because we need a degree
of financial security in a DHIA
System serving 56,000 members.”
Other reasons for the increase
include increased non-director
involvement and reduced cow
numbers. Salaries are reduced
from the 1992 budget
The membership fee for each
state DHIA and DSPC will
replace a portion of the one-cent
increase. This new structure
reflects the action taken by the
Association
delegates at the annual meeting.
Also, management accounting
is being charged to a departmental
basis to allow the board and dele
gates to assess the cost/benefit of
various association functions, as
opposed to a basic review of line
items.
DHIA Services, Inc. Continues
to Raise Service Levels
to Industry
The service levels of the Tru-
Test project, which supplies
meters to the DHIA industry, are
continuning to increase. Three
new models were released earlier
this year to support the changing
needs of the dairy management
support industry. In addition,
inventory levels and forecasting
systems have been revised to vir
tually eliminate out-of-stock
conditions.
Tim Crawley, in field support,
and David Bressette, internal
operations, work together to iden
tify opportunities to improve
DHIA member satisfaction and
reduce the number of headaches
associated with keeping the large
base of DHIA meters at a high
level of accuracy. Their success is
reflected in the growing volume of
business.
As a joint project, participating
DHIA member organizations
received a rebate in July 1992 due
to the excellent sales volume and
low operating expenses. The sub
sidiary’s directors will meet in late
October to reivew future
distributions.
Extension Will Create
Environment for 1993
Technology Symposium
Representatives from federal
and state Extension programs will
be integrating the 1993 Technolo
gy Symposium, the Extension
Specialist workshop, and related
trade show activities at the 1993
National DHIA Convention in
Reno, scheduled fa- March 7-10.
Although the Technology Sym
posium has been in place for
years, this is the first time that all
related meetings have been coor
dinated under one environment
linking the DHIA leadership to
specialists and developers of new
educational and management
programs.
Dr. Basil Eastwood, USDA-
Extension, is helping to establish
the steering committees at this
time.
A Special Welcome to
New Faces in the Crowd
We want to devote some special
space in this issue of our newslet
ter to welcome these new state
managers to the DHIA System.
You already may have had the
opportunity to meet them in the
past few months. They are:
• Randy Gaebe North Dakota
DHIA * George Gramling Mid-
East DHIA • Laurie Lancaster
Idaho DHIA • Raymon Nance
Arkansas DHIA • Donna Stege
man North Dakota DHIA.
The best to each of you in your
career. Welcome to the DHIA
team!
DHIA Involved with
International Direction
of Electronic ID
National DHIA, in harmony
with the (Milking) Equipment
Manufacturers Association, is rep
resenting the U.S. to establish
global standards for electronic
identification of dairy cattle. This
effort of the International Stan
dards Organization (ISO) has pro
duced a unified code structure,
and is currently developing com
munication protocols.
The standards are essential to
the viability of this technology
since cattle carrying the tags must
be read by all readers in use
throughout the marketing chan
nels. The three major firms
involved in the technology are
Texas Instruments, NEDAP, and
Destron/Anitech.
Three meetings have been held
in Europe over the last year. The
fourth, and possibly final meeting,
will be held in the U.S. in January
1993 and will be hosted by
National DHIA.
Call for Nominations for
National DHIA Awards
Here’s your opportunity to
nominate DHI leaders for national
leadership awards. Winners will
be honored at the 1993 National
DHIA convention in Reno, March
3-7. Award categories include:
H. Victor Joachim Distin
guished Leadership Award
honors a DHI dairy producer and/
pr spouse who has held a leader
ship position in DHI or the dairy
industry.
Penn State Condenses
As Budget Shrinks
READING (Berks Co.) The
Berks Campus of The Pennsylva
nia State University may eventual
ly become a four-year institution
within the Penn State system,
according to proposals being
made next week.
The Pennsylvania State Univer
sity, due to a 3% % state funding
cut, has initiated a plan to reevalu
ate programs and campuses in
order to consolidate and reallocate
resources. The University Future
Committee (UFC) was formed to
examine the university as a whole
and make recommendations to the
president regarding possible cuts
and reallocations.
The UFC, in a report to be
released Monday, will make
recommendations that Berks
Campus become regionalized
with the Allentown and Schuylkill
campuses in an effort to cut admi
nistrative costs and combine
resources. This is just one of many
proposed changes to restructure
the Commonwealth Education
System (CES) which consists of
18 commonwealth campuses
throughout the state.
The regionalization process
would take a number of years to
complete. “Each stage could take
a year or two, with total restructur
ing by the year 2000,” said Dr.
Frederick H. Gaige, Berks Cam
pus executive officer. “This is all
subject to approval.”
The regionalization of com
monwealth campus would reduce
administrative and other costs.
This, along with combining or eli
minating programs that are under
enrolled, would provide more
money to enhance student and
academic services.
Berks Campus would likely
become the “hub” campus for the
Council Announces 1993
Keystone Cornucopia
HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.)
The Pennsylvania State Coun
cil of Farm Organizations
announced that the annual Key
stone Corniicopia legislative
reception will be held at the Hilton
in Harrisburg on February 22
between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
“As always, our event will fea
ture the products of Pennsylvani-
MILK.
IT DOES A
BODY good;
National DHIA Outstanding
Service Award presented to a
DHI manager, university worker
or dairy industry person who has
dedicated their career to DHI.
Martin A. Wilson Memorial
Award honors a person who is,
or has been employed by, a state/
regional DHI in a management
position for at least five years and
has been dedicated to improving
and providing leadership to DHI.
Nomination forms will be mail
ed to state offices by November
15. All nominations must be mail
ed to the National DHIA offices
by January 1, 1993.
Editor’s Note: These news
notes were published in the Fall
issue of DHIA Communicator
from National DHIA, Colum
bus, Ohio.
region, due to the existing resour
ces already in place. According to
Gaige, “We have the land, hous
ing facilities, and strong commun
ity support.”
In the past five years, Berks
Campus has more than doubled its
land size, and greatly increased its
student population. The campus
now spreads over 240 acres, about
half of which is. currently being
used. This makes it the fourth
largest Penn State campus in
terms of land size.
Student housing has also been
added to Berks Campus recently,
housing almost 400 students on
what had previously been an all
commuter campus.
The campus receives strong
community support as well.
Approximately $5,5 million, sev
eral buildings, and 131 acres of
land have been given by thb local
community to develop the
campus.
In turn, Berks Campus has
made more resources and prog
rams available to the community.
“The primary goal of the cam
pus will continue to be service to
the surrounding areas and provid
ing a quality eduation close to
home,” said Kimberly Murphy,
director of University Relations at
Berks Campus.
The Future Committee, com
prised of faculty, deans, staff and
students, has gathered reports
from each of the colleges and a
number of administrative depart
ments in addition to the CES.
Recommendations by the
Future Committee must be
approved by University President
Joab Thomas before any changes
may actually occur. A decision
from Thomas is not expected until
the spring.
a’s number one industry,” said
State Council President Ernie
Miller. “Agriculture is the biggest
contributor to our State’s eco
nomy, and the food industry is one
of our biggest employers.”
Tickets to the event are avail
able for $25 each. For tickets and
information, contact Kris Stouwie
at (717) 234-4311 or Mary Grimm
at (717) 259-9657.