f ) r*M hr MkriMllrai. > ' hw—yh'imli Uwlry Hut huimmii MflwUmi DHMSmtoCMir,OriMM,(MHnl|rM l rA MW Counties Process Complete Using Laptops PAT TORETTI DRPC ARIS Adm. Pennsylvania DHIA’s program for putting laptops in the hands of its technidsns is paying trig divi dends. now that a large majority of field employees have mastered die program. “About 130 of 175 tech nicians are now released to trans mit data to the DHIA processing center,” says Dean Amick, field services director. “For February, the first month in which we have good comparisons on stats for herds sent either electronically or under the old manual system, our turn-around time was 4 days from date of test to die mail for herds prepared on paper, versus only 2.9 days for the electronically submit ted herds. Owing to some changes in the lab and even more techni cians coming on-line, the numbers for the first week of March lode even better; about 3.5 days to ship for paper herds, and only 2.5 days for electronic transmission,” says Amick. Beth Kelchner, a Senior Technician from Lycoming Coun ty, relates a now common experi ence: “I tested a herd Friday night and Saturday, sent the transmis lnsist on Chore-Time and get higher production with lower cost and less maintenance. C-2 feeder H-2 feeder H-2 feeder adult turkey for broilers for broilers for turkeys feeder with plastic pan nipples FOCUS skm and samples on Saturday. The dairyman called me to tell me his papers were in his mailbox on Tuesday, he was so pleased.” Jim Boyer, DRPC manager for Pa DHIA agrees. “The turnaround time statistics are very good. Quick return has always been an important dimension rtf our busi ness. Although we’ve always en joyed big advantages over other DHIAs where the lab tests are done one place and processing is done somewhere else, it’s quite an achievement to be able to knock a full day off turnaround time.” Other advantages cited by Boy er include the reduction in errors and records correction expected at the outset of the project. “Overall, we’ve been able to reduce the number of herds with errors by about a third for those that are pre pared on laptops. That’s still conservative when you consider that until very re cently we weren’t enforcing all the data edits on PC’s, in order to give technicians time to adjust When die folks in the field are more comfortable with the pro gram and die edits get more string ent we’re looking to double or tri ple that improvement.” FLEX-AUGER* Northeast Agri Systems, Inc. Flyway Business Park 139 A West Airport Road Lititz, PA 17543 The program is rapidly gaining momentum. For February, the first month in which full Statistics on the program were available, about 2,5000 f the 3,800 herds processed were sent electronically. While that is neatly two thirds of all herds processed. Dean Amick sees a time when only a tiny fraction of herds will actually be sent on pa per. “Some owner sampler herds, new herds or herds witih special problems may come in that way, but the future is really already here. It’s quite a change from the days back in 1957 when we first computerized and our turnaround time went from same day to ‘only’ 30 days. I guess the computer guys are 'finally catching up with the field.” “Already we’ve had counties that have processed completely on laptops for several months. York was the first to go all electronic, and has been submitting herds that way for about S months now. The region manager f6r that area, Dave Shenk, deserves a lot of credit for pushing the program.” The implementation of PC’s in the field has not been without some adjustments, DHIA staffers note. A help desk- to support DHIA field employees throughout the state had to be established. The DHIA laboratory, long accustom ed to running ahead of the data en try operation, has had to make some changes. And the data entry staff itself, from a high of nine employees a decade ago, has fal len to only two. I%e biggest changes, of course, have come for DHIA’s field technicians. “That’s been the bright spot of the whole thing for me,” says Boyer. “We’ve taken our time with this to insure as much as possible that the laptop program was a technicians pro- swine feeding STORE HOURS: Mon.-Fil. 7:30 to 4:30 Sot. 8:00 to Noon 24 Hr. 7 Do/ Repair Service Ijncaalar Farming, Saturday, March 12, 1994-A29 gram rather than a processing cen ter program. We’ve had a small core of technicians, Anne Brooks in Centre County, Ron Morgan in Mifflin, and Arlen Crider in Franklin who’ve been working closely with us for almost two years. Then we involved a larger pilot group that’s refiied die pro gram further over die last year or so. They pretty much designed -their own Bamsheet program. And that group hasn’t been shy about asking for changes. Many of our technicians have a surprising amount of computer experience, and many more have a genuine aptitude for the work. Still, it’s been a big adjustment. Almost a culture change. They’ve done an outstanding job.” Caren Dodd of Erie County ad mits that in the beginning there was some extra work, and a few adjustments to make, but overall is quite pleased with the program. “AP herds really appreciate get ting their factored milk weights on test day. And the computer adds some prestige to the job.” What’s next for the DHIA lap top program? “We wanted to con centrate most heavily on the initial mining for the Bamsheet pro gram,” Amick says. “But now that twrhnidanii are comfortable with the program, we’re ready to really take off. The simple test day re porting features in the Bamsheet, like milkweight calculations and data editing, will be vastly im proved by die addition of full ca pability for on-farm reporting in the next few months. We’ll be concentrating on hammering out the last details of data entry, and moving technicians toward more V 1 cage syetems and more realtime reporting at our Spring Conferences, which itart at the end of this month.” 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- 1 tion and the quality of your crop. Com, No. 2y-3.11 bu.s.S7cwL Wheat, No. 2 - 3.53 bu. 5.89 CWL Barley, No. 3 - 2,49 bu. 5.33 cwt Oats, No. 2 -1.71 bu. 5.34 cwt Soybeans, No. 1 -6.65 bu. 11.10 cwt Ear Com • old 80.00 ton 4.51 cwt Ear Com - new 90.10 ton 4.51. Alfalfa Hay - 113.25 ton 5.66 cwt Mixed Hay - 111.00 ton 5.55 cwt Timothy Hay - 108.75 ton 5.44 cwt ULTRAFLO* for layers, pullets & breeders authorized master distributor 3B Rri 1-800-673-2580 E3B BUM Ph: (717) 569-2702
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