EXTENSION CORNER PA DHIA Assists With Early Evaluation of Progeny Test Sires by Larry W. Specht The early evaluation of young sires under progeny test is most desirable. It allows the owner of such sires, either an Al unit or a breeder/syndicate group, to start banking semen on bulls that appear likely to be worthy of extensive use. It also permits the early removal of bulls that will be average or below in genetic merit. This saves onfeed, labor and hous ing costs. Official sire evalua tions are produced twice a year by the USDA Animal Improve ment Programs Lab (AIPL) and sires cannot be promoted or merchandised until they have at least one USDA-AIPL. sum mary. However, decisionscan be made about the best and the poorest sire prospects from early first lactation data on their daughters. A program is available from PA DHIA that locates all cor rectly identified daughters of a sire that are on a production testing program. Development and testing of the procedure, was a joint effort by the PA DHIA staff and Penn State's Dairy and Animal Science De partment. Breeding organiza tions provide a list of sires from their progeny testing program and the PA DHIA processing center runs the program. Five breeding studs and two breeder/syndicate groups cur rently pay the costs of summa rizing the information. The procedure involves taking the lactation-to-date production on each first calf heifer of a sire and comparing it to the produc tion of first lactation daughters of other sires in the same herd. CONSULTANT DR. DAVID T. GALLIGAN, VMD, MBA Pregnancy Rate Analysis % OPEN COWS 1%) toKX 80% 60% 40% p < .05 (Wllcoxan Rink Sum) 20% 30 40 60 60 70 60 80 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 DAY IN MILK 1908 19Q1 (PCI Progrsm) 1908 (PQ Program) Pregnancy Rate Analysis Through the use of Pennsylva nia DHIA records new ap proaches to measuring repro ductive efficiency are being de veloped by Dr. J. Ferguson and Dr D. Galligan at the Center for Animal Health and Productiv ity, New Bolton Center, Univer sity of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. These new techniques allow produc ers and veterinarians to investi gate herd fertility problems and to evaluate reproductive man agement programs. Through the ARIS system, reproductive data can be donwloaded from herds subscribing to DHIA and run through various computer evaluation programs developed The lactation-to-date figures are estimated to a 305 day basis and mature equivalent (ME) factors are applied before the daughter-herdmate comparison is made. While USDA-AIPL "official" sire summaries are calculated using a far more so phisticated procedure, the re sults from the PA DHIA method rank the sires in virtually the same order. If your herd is participating in a progeny test program with one or more studs it is important that you as a cooperator pro vide the DHIA technician with the calving difficulty score for each and every calf born on your farm. Good identification is needed in the field in order to locate the largest possible number of daughters of a sire. Missing or incorrect registration numbers, eartag numbers, breed codes, and/or birth dates on an animal, her sire or her dam will make it impossible to include her in her sire's summary. Loss of daugh ter information may be as high as 15 to 20 percent on an indi vidual sire. Improving identifi cation increases the efficiency of the progeny test program. Additional numbers add reliabil ity to the production estimate. It may also permit the owners of the sire(s) to distribute less se men per bull tested. Progeny testing of young sires by Al units is largely responsible for the accelerated rate of ge netic gain that has occurred in the U.S. dairy population in the past two decades. The produc tion record information made available through the DHIA pro gram is an integral part of the process that allows the breed ing industry to select the best potential parents of the next generation of the U.S. dairy herd. 1900 -I- 1980 at the Center fro Animal Health and Productivity. The figure shows an evaluation of the preg nancy rate on a herd subscrib ing to a prostaglandin synchro nized breeding program. At calving, 100% of cows are open and overtime they became preg nant. The rate at which they become pregnant (pregnancy rate) is related to the heat de tection rate and the conception rate of the herd. The graph shows thatthe protaglandin pro gram has dramatically increased the pregnancy rate as indicated by the faster decline compared to previous years. By using DHIA data in conjunction with new approaches to information management bettdr decisions can be made. Calving Ease Reporting by Larry W. Specht Reporting of calving ease infor mation on A.I. sires has been underwayforseveralyears. The first scores were collected by individual studs and forwarded to the Mid-States Processing Center at Ames, lowa. Publica tion of the results is coordinated with the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB). The first records on calving ease were reported by individual herd owners on forms supplied by the Al unit. Recently, collection of the data has moved to the DHIA program. Most DHIA record processing centers make it possible for the DHIA techni cian to report birth difficulty scores on the monthly barn sheet. The system of scoring is as follows: Score Calving Difficulty 1 No problem 2 Slight problem 3 Needed assistance 4 Considerable help needed 5 Extreme difficulty The score reflects, in the herdowners judgement, how difficult is was for the animal to deliver the calf. PADHIA started collecting calv ing ease data in early 1992. The processing center assembles the information and reports it to the studs twice a year. The Al units pay for this service and forward the data to the Mid- States Processing Lab for sum marization. The major reason for collecting and distributing the information is to avoid the use of bulls with high EDBH scores on heifers that will calve for the first time. Very little problem is encoun tered with cows initiating their second or later lactations. EDBH stands for Expected percent of Difficult Births in hleifers. The average EDBH Value for a sire is 9 percent with a range from 3 to 23 percent Most bulls have values between 6 and 12 per cent and very few sires have extremely high values. But the high EDBH values are the im portant ones to know about 1 Reporting of the data "on-the farm" is extremely important for young sires in a studs progeny test program. It is desirablethat we get as many births reported as possible on the progeny test bulls but it is equally necessary that births from all other sires used in the herd are reported because the latter are used for within-herd comparisons. This approach neutralizes the effects of some herds feeding better, having larger heifers at calving time and/or doing a better all around management job at the time of calving. Reliability (REL) and the num ber of calvings are reported for EDBH to indicated the accuracy of the information. The greater the number of observations the more accurate EDBH values are in predicting calving difficulty. If your herd is participating in a progeny test program with one or more studs it is important that you as a cooperator provide the DHIA technician with the calv ing difficulty score for each and every calf born on your farm. Infinity Page 4 Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 5, 1993-Cl5 HEARING RESULTS On April 20,1993 a hearing was held in State College, PA on charges of violations of Official rule #l7 against Calvin 0. Watson, owner of Little Pond Farm, RD 2, Box 406, Troy, PA. WELCOME NEW MEMBERS ON TEST SINCE DECEMBER 1992 Adtmt Horizon Farm Btavar Hudack Farm Standard Way Badford • James + Marcy Ladton Horizon Farm William Barkman L & L Holsteins Green Valley Farm Richard Janna Hearn Robert Q Reptogle Berks • Glenn A Davis Ridge Runner Jerseys Daniel M Hoover Jacob H Leiby Bruoe S Zuber Blair Vernon A Martin Bradford * Merton Haikness Jay & Kelly Andrus Georg# Mallory Marlene Wilber Michael Davis Roger Alexander Ada Huffmaster Np N Tuck Event! Vanderhoof Walt Shaffer Bucke • Grant ♦ Wolfe Butler - Larry A Schnur Steve Lundgren Cambria * Krug Farms Centre * Samuel K Esh Helen Fettenberger John Z Stoitzfus Dan B King Jr Henry M Click Jr David C Esh Myra L Buck Daren Brown Willow BankFm Clear Mt View Hlstn Amos E Stoitzfus Elam Stoitzfus Cheater Robert +Betty Peifer Christ Q King Bryann Huf + Pat Jenkins T + T Grossman Clearfield Dennis + Janet Shaw Columbia Corey C Wolff Pen Col 2 Crawford Breezy Dale Swiss Dorothy S Irwin Pat Liszka Lester R Mast Ann See Martha Stoitzfus Louise Hawk Tim Hutchison Gail Allen O Darlan Farm Cumberland • Maple Haven Dairy Hensel Hill 2 Feaaer Farms Erie - Brian Cooper Ward Farms Fayette • Hoke Farm Franklin • Rick Harshman Willow Bank Jerseys Dale Carbaugh Steven E Ruby Huntingdon • Keith Coddmgton Johnny Middagh Jr Scott Feathers Indiana - Daniel Beiler Jeffereen - Mfce Shaffer Wayne + Rita Shaffer Jack E Kuntz Juniata - Melvin Hart 4-Sons Carl Burd Steve Long Gerald Spigelmyer Lackawanna - Elwood White Daniel Chilewski Garden Spot Red Roae Amos K King Henry F Bawell Samuel E King Enos E Zook Lebanon John W + Anne Burkholder Jay W Good Luzerne Kenneth Ryman McKean Dale + Bambi Daub Mercer • Don Kathy Cornelius Xanadu Jerseys Mifflin Melvin + Judy Peachey Amos M Yoder Paul E Fink Steven D Kerstetter R + A Holstems John ♦ Paul Ruhl Bill ♦ Sue Sellers Montour William J Hagerman Northampton Carol Kloiber Elly Hushour Perry Lamar H Wise Aardn M Nolt Edwin W Potter Daryl Lisa Schafer Timtohy L Andrews Snyder Mark Stover I Weaver Brownstone Farm John W Boonie Jsy Michale S Shehan Somerset Craig R Mlaker Raymond + Edna Yoder Rural Reflection Fm Nu Venture J M Farms Susquehanna Earl Frances Forwood JES View Farms Denis&Jane Halstead Dale+Jeanne Jordan Tioga Jay H Graham Gerald Hurd Jr D+ J Jerseys John Bonme Kendrick Rocky Trail Farms Union - Chester L Bender Amos 0 Zimmerman Shoemaker Bros Kaiser Run Jerseys Curvm S Hoover Leroy Troester Jr Venango Schwabs Dairy Jerry + Kathy Beary Washington • C T Thompson Dairy James W Miller SalviniDairy D&O Holstein Wayne Paul Kolmger EJS Ayr Willow Farm Peter & lleana Seman Gerald Brussell Jr J K Farms Adam Kennedy John & Liz Madsen John Wetmore Westmorland Ralph + KeHey Sager Wyoming - O'Bnen Robert J Robert J O'Brien York Honaycrest Farms Dennis Conrad Hollow Hills Alpines Cont'd from pag«3 is held on a monthly bases. He has been a memberof the State Board since 1980, John gradu ated from Otto Sobering Col lege. Cary, Illinois. Pisgahview Farm aims to pro duce quality milk based on a family oriented farm. The DHIA program has been very helpful inthedecision making. Records are reviewed frequently to keep abreast for changes that need to be made on a regular basis. Mr. Watson was found guilty of fraudulent activity in violation of the National Cooperative Dairy Herd Improvement Program Rules by increasing the milk weights recorded by the DHIA technician on the PA DHIA barn sheets on October 6, 1992 on twoseparatecows. He was also found guilty of inflating his roll ing herd average via the fraudu lent practice of lengthening the intervals between the milkings on July 24 and July 25,1992. Sanctions were imposed on M r. Watson as follows: 1. The lactations of the two cows involved in the October 8, 1992 charge were declared un official. 2. The rolling herd average for the entire herd was declared unofficial asof January2l,l992. A new official average will not commence until the terms of probation, listed below, are met and the lactations of the cows involved have ended. 3. Official privileges will be avail able under probationary condi tions which shall last three years. Mr. Watson will be subject to random verification testing at his expense for the probation ary period. 4. In the event of other rule violations during probation, all records of all cows in the herd shall be declared unofficial ret roactive to January 21,1992. In addition, there will be a three year suspension of all official privileges beginning on the date of the rule infraction. At the end of the suspension, Mr. Watson may apply for reinstatement of official'privileges on conditions to be set by the Board of Direc tors Mr. Watson’s right of appeal under the association’s Bylaws expired on May 13,1993 George T. Cudoc Jr State Director Northwestern District George resides in Valencia. Butler County with his wife, Aileen and three children, John 15, Marie 13, Adam 11. George is a graduate of Penn State University with a BS in Animal Science. He is the Farm Man ager for Marburger Farm Dairy Inc. with 270 Register and grade Holsteins, farming 380 acres and renting an additional 300 acres Also owner of Crown-Jewel Hol steins consisting of 30 cows and 30 heifers. DHIA testing since 1978 upon arrival at the Marburger’s. George has served six years on the county board as president George was re-elected to the State Board on February 11 at the District meeting. He has served on the Finance Commit tee 2 years, and Planning Com mittee 1 year. He currently is the chairman for the DRPC Committee. George feels that in the future, DHIA probably will turn its at tention to more analytical type programs than just data collec tion.
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