A24-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 2, 1993 —A FOCUS I Dairy i Improvement Association^ Dixie L. Burris, membership development, Call 1-800-DHI-TEST for information. Pa.DHIA Announces Annual Meeting STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association’s sth annual meeting of the corporation is set for March 19-20, at the Radisson Hotel Pittsburgh in Monroeville. The Radisson is only 20 min utes from the heart of Pittsburgh, directly located adjacent to the Monroeville Mall and Greater Pittsburgh Expo Mart. All Pa. DHIA members are in vited to this informational meet ing. Last year was the first time Pa. DHIA traveled outside of State College for the corporate meeting. Again this year we plan to travel to meet the members. In March we had a favorable turnout of 250 attending members, state DHIA leadership, and repre sentatives of the dairy industry. We anticipate this year’s atten dance will increase. Fayette. Washington, and Westmoreland counties have agreed to host this year’s Pa. STATE COLLEGE The Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association Board of Directors recently clarified its position with regard to a controv ersial issue in the industry. The issue has been visible in the media during the past year and has become known as the value of records issue. In stating its position, the Pen nsylvania DHIA Board made it clear that they support the general Average Farm Feed Costs For Handy Reference To help farmers across the state to have handy reference of com modity input costs in their feeding operations for DHIA record sheets or to develop livestock feed cost data, here’s this week’s average costs of various ingredients as compiled from regional reports across the state of Pennsylvania. Remember these are averages so you will need to adjust your figures up or down according to your loca tion and the quality of your crop. Com, No. 2y - 2.31 BU. 4.13 CWT. Wheat, No. 2 - 3.28 BU. 5.48 CWT. Barley, No. 3 - 1.71 BU. 3.66 CWT. Oats, No. 2-1.52 BU. 4.74 CWT. Soybeans, No. 1 - 5.30 BU. 8.85 CWT. New Ear Com - 52.83 TON 2.69 CWT. Alfalfa Hay - 121.75 TON 6.09 CWT. Mixed Hay - 1-12.50 TON 5.63 CWT. Timothy Hay - 140.50 TON 6.01 CWT. DHIA Annual Meeting. With the counties assistance, we plan to feature a trade show to take place parallel the meeting, a spouses’ program offering cre ative craft ideas chaired by Mrs. Adam Derr, an awards banquet fo cusing on this year’s success, a Hawaiian dinner theatre for your entertainment, and a meeting that will focus on sharing ideas and building commitment as an asso ciation. The program allows for oppor tunities to leant more about the as sociation, a chance for the associa tion to understand your needs and concerns, a chance to recognize the past year’s accomplishments and the coming year’s goals, as well as a time to socialize with other members and representa tives of the dairy industry. Within the next month Pa. DHIA members should be receiv ing invitations to the 1993 Annual Meeting. Plan now to attend the meeting to represent your leader ship ideas for the association. Directors Clarify DHIA position that other organi zations benefiting from the use of DHIA information should begin taking more responsibility for the cost of collecting and producing the information. With increasing pressure to allow more competi tion in the DHIA records business and more competition due to tech nology advances in computing, all DHIA’s are hard pressed to find the resources needed to continue ■ to provide high quality services to Cheese, On-Farm Prices Slump, Refunds Offer Help UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre Co.) It could have been all that milk diverted from fluid to manufacturing use over the Thanksgiving holiday, or that the supply pipeline was full for Christmas, or cheese buyers wanted to just wait-and-see until the new year, or all of the above, but cheese prices slumped more than 4 cents on blocks and 3 cents on barrels on Dec. 4 at the National Cheese Exchange. That was the largest drop in 10 weeks, but that’s as far as they went. There was nb more change up to Dec. 11, however, with the support price atsl.l2apoundfor blocks, the new market price of $ 1.20 puts it within the range of sales to Commodity Credit Cdrporation (CCC). When the market price of butter, powder or cheese drops to 110 per cent of the support price, CCC will accept bids for sales to the govern ment. And that’s what happened already with a Western processor selling over9B,ooo pounds for the first block cheese purchase by CCC in 20 months. There’s good reason for a wait-and-see attitude from dealers. There’s a lot of uncertainty. For example, milk production is still up 3 percent in October; there is the uncertainly of how USDA will adjust bulter-powderprices in January; also is the question of who will be the head of USDA next year. There are other questions, such as, will there be a support price charge? What will be the effect of feed quality and prices on produc tion? And finally, how fast will producers react to lower milk prices? Here They Come Lower prices ht the farm are here already, following the Minnesota- Wisconsin Price Series that started down in August. With the help of cheese prices fading, the M-W dropped another 21 cents to $11.84 for November. That’s a loss of 75 cents in four months and 64 cents less than last November. Pa. DHIA workshops are begin ning to take place across the state. You need to decide if one of the dates and places will work into your schedule. The workshops can be sche duled through your regional mana ger or technician, or by calling the state office at 1-800-344-8378. The topics that seem to be the most popular are the Herd Sum mary 11, Unbundling of the reports, Somatic Cell Count and Dairy Comp 305, and the laptop computers. Members will be able to bring their own reports and ask ques tions. Winter workshops for mem bers can help to appreciate the val ue of the data that’s printed on each of the reports. You will be able to keep abreast of the dates, times and places of the meeting and we would encourage you, if one is not scheduled in your area, to inqurc about gelling one scheduled- The meetings have taken place as kitchen meetings to meetings in a particular location or even by cir cuits initiated by your technician. We arc also able to do larger group settings. Most recently, we had a group in Lebanon County and was attended by DHIA members and non-members, plus feed consul tants, veterinarians, farm credit personnel and other agribusiness people. Everyone had a chance to ask questions pertaining to the reports and participate in seeing the vari ous reports that can be generated using the laptops and Dairy Comp Position On Value Of Records members. This is an issue that ulti mately affects all organizations using DHIA data, not just DHIA. Contrary to some reports in the media, however, the Pennsylvania DHIA does not and has not advo cated the withholding of Somatic Cell data from the USDA or from AI organizations in order to achieve a resolution to the value of records issue. PA DHIA has pro vided SCC data to the USDA for TOM JURCHAK Lackawanna Co. Extension Agent Winter Workshops Scheduled 305 software. for the time and place nearest you, The date will appear on this and, if you don’t sec one sche page in the DHIA calendar. Watch duled, please let us know. several years and agrees with those who say that progress for the dairy farmer through the use of somatic cell data in bull evalua tions should not be held up on account of another issue like'the value of records debate. On the contrary, PA DHIA believes that members should ben efit from their participation in the program in every possible way. To withhold SCC data from bull proofs would certainly hurt the Even if cheese prices don’t drop further, the M-W price would have to fall lower to make it profitable to sell cheese even to the CCC. Uniform or blend prices to producers in all three federal orders in Pennsylvania dropped below a year ago in November for the first time since late in 1991. In New York-New Jersey it was 38 cents; in Eastern Ohio-Western Pennsylvania it was 2S cents and in Middle Atlantic it was 41 cents. Producers and handlers in the Middle Atlantic Order will see a new class of milk in their November pool. In the past, there were only two classes of milk: Class I for fluid use and Class II for everything else. Then Class in was added to include only butter, powder and cheese. Now you have Class Ilia for butter and powder, and Class 111 for cheese. Class 111 is calculated on the M-W price, but Class Ilia is deter niinted by local butter and powder prices and the cost of making skim milk into powder. In the Northeast, only the New England and Middle Atlantic orders will have this new class. In New England it will be $ 11.06, and in the Middle Atlantic order it will be $ll.OB. This compares to $11.90 and $11.92 for Class 111 milk in those marketing areas in November. The change will affect the blend price depending on the amount of milk going to butter and powder that month. The change was requested to reflect the product price differences and was expected in all federal orders. Refunds Ready Don’t forget to apply for your assessment refund as soon as you have your December milk check. Your local ASCS office is ready with forms if you shipped less milk in 1992 than you didin 1991. It may be the best Christmas present you get in January. Happy DHIA member and other dairy producers as well, which is not in keeping with the association’s mission to provide the best possi ble service for a reasonable priec. Only by keeping its sights firm ly set on helping Pennsylvania DHIA- members stay competitive through increasingly effective use of DHIA information can the association meet the challenges of the future. New Class Price
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