Dave Slusser, General
Manager
During the last three
months, I have met hundreds
of DHFA members, and
particularly all of the employ
ees of PA DHIA. It is really
inspirational to know that we
have so many friends and
supporters on the farm, and in te( ,hnici an s. I give a report on
the Dairy Induslry. DHIA is the PA DH|A assodatiw and
Laptop
Enters New Phase
PAT TORETTI
Pennsylvania DHIA’s plan to
put computers on the farm on test
day is entering a new phase,
according to Dean Amick, the
PaDHIA’s Field Services Direc
tor. “Out of 175 DHIA techni
cians, all but five have now been
released. It’s time to move to the
next step; test day reporting.” Late
last year PaDHIA began a push to
have all DHIA technicians send
ing paper bam sheet information
to DHIA’s central computer by
the end of the spring. That goal
has been met, and PaDHIA says
its targets of reducing staff and
improving turn around time have
been hit. But new challenges lie
ahead. “The transition to compu
ters has been rough for some tech
nicians,” Amick admits, “but for
the most part people have risen to
the occasion. On any given day we
now have about 90% of the infor
mation coming ip on the telephone
lines. A year ago when we said
we’d being doing this. I’m not
sure if we even believed it
ourselves, but here we are.”
The challenges that remain
include improving the reliability
of transmissions and the quality of
support for technicians. "It’s hard
to telieve in the “information age”
that you have so many phone com
panies with difficulty getting a
connection to a remote computer,”
says Jim Boyer, processing center
manager, “but there are a lot of
mom-and-pop phone services out
there, and moving the data can
sometimes be a real chore. On the
other hand, I guess you think
about the exceptions more than
the rule. We have difficulties with
really only a handful of cases in
more than a hundred transmis
sions per day. Still, it can be frus
trating for the individuals
involved, and they always seem to
come from the same locations.”
Melissa Johnson and Dan Smith,
who help technicians through the
task of moving DHIA data from
the farm, have noticed a change in
the number and kind of calls now
routinely coming in to the DHIA
help desk. “Early on we got a lot
of calls just in the nature of how to
run the basic program. We don’t
see that so much anymore,” says
Smith, “now the questions are
more along the lines of how can I
leave such and such a list with the
farmer, or how do I build a custom
screen, or how to diagnose line
problems or equipment repair.”
Getting the technician help desk
up to speed has required special
effort, admits Smith, who handles
troubleshooting for the ARIS sys
tem when not answering techni
cian calls to the help center. “We
have over two hundred ARIS
users, but we’ve been putting
them on the system one at a time
for about seven years. And many
n „ _ _ , Uncwttr Fanning, SrtURUy, June 4,1M4-E9
Spring Conference Provides Chance To Meet
changing Nationally. Pennsy*
vania is of course involved
with that change.
I have set a policy for
myself to attend at least one
County Committee or Board
Meeting in every county per
year. So far, I have attended
10 county meetings, most of
which involved the field
Program
of them are feed dealers, or vets,
or farmers who’ve already been
using computers for a good while.
Suddenly you add almost the same
number of technicians, with com
puter skills all over the place, from
very sophisticated to no familiari
ty at all. And they’re more
demanding, too. They have to get
the bam sheet information in here
before the samples arrive. It’s
been interesting, to say the least.
We’ve learned a lot about compu
ter support ourselves.”
While the first phase of the lap
top program involved a mandatory
switch from paper to electronic
bam sheets, the next step in the
program will be somewhat more
relaxed. In a deal recently con
cluded with Westfalia, PaDHIA
will offer the Dairy Plan program
to technicians interested in leaving
reports on the farm on test day.
PaDHIA will also be an author
ized retailer for the program, so
farmers interested in buying Dairy
Plan or seeing how it might work
in their own operation can talk to
their DHIA technicians or call
PaDHIA direct at
1-800-DHI-TEST. “In the first
part of the program, we had a
committment to pay for the com
puter hardware by laying off peo
ple in the state office,” notes
Amick, “and as we were reducing
keypunch operators we had no
choice but to move aggressively in
getting the technicians on board.
Some of our people probably
resented that, but we really had no
choice: we’re trying to reduce
costs as much as we can. For the
next step we’re going to offer the
testday reporting to technicians as
a voluntary option. I expect a lot
will be interested and we’re going
to concentrate on those who are.”
In addition to providing test day
reporting, PaDHIA plans to offer
incentives to technicians to sup
port and sell Dairy Plan to inter
ested dairymen. “Not all the
details have been worked out yet,”
says Amick, “but our plan is to
provide a nice financial incentive
to technicians who want to install
Dairy Plan on a farmer's compu
ter. We aren’t asking our supervi
sors to be salespeople for Westfa
lia, but again, those who are inter
ested will be encouraged to show
our members what the program
can do. And of course, there
should be something in it for the
technicians to do that”
PaDHIA plans to begin training
the first group of technicians in the
use of Dairy Plan for test day
reporting at the next DHIA Tech
Conference, scheduled for late
July. At the same time DHIA will
offer a new version of its electron
ic bam sheet program that works
mote closely with the Westfalia
system. DHIA technicians inter
ested in being involved in the pro
ject should plan to attend.
then we have a round table
discussion. The county
committee duties include
evaluating and assisting the
State Association in providing
DHIA services. By all work
ing together, we can do a
much better job serving our
members. If your county has
not yet met with me, please let
me know your meeting dates,
and I will attend. Weekly I
meet with Dean Amick, Dixie
Burris, Jim Boyer and Jim
Garrity. We discuss the
comments and recommenda
tions that come back from the
county committee meetings.
Many recommendations that
Changes In DHIA Genetic Information
(Continued from Page E 8)
substitute the Parent Average
(PA) for an animals PTA
average. These procedures
apply only to DHIA, DHI and
AM/PM forms oftesting (codes
00-39).
In those cases where
the dam of an animal does not
have a PTA and it is not
possible to locate her parent
age, there will be no PA
available. This will prevent the
system from calculating an
accurate genetic value for the
offspring.
Two circumstances
exist that preclude an animal
having a PTA. First, an animal
calving Tor the First time less
than 4 months prior to when
USDA genetic evaluations
(January and July) arc pub-
lished will not have a PTA
value calculated. However,
the Parent Average (PA) of
such an animal can be substi
tuted until she has a PTA of
her own. Parent Average
(PA) is simply the average of
the PTA's of her sire and
dam. In most cases it will be
possible to locate PTA's for
the parents of an animal. Sire
PTA's arc available from the
USIJA sire evaluation file. If
the dam and daughter were
both members of the same
herd, recovery of the dams
PTA value should he relatively
easy. This will allow the first
calf heifer to have a PA.
When it is averaged with the
PTA of the sire of her calf it is
possible to produce a reason
able estimate on the genlic
value of the calf. The same
situation exists when the PTA
of the service sire is known
and it can be coupled with the
PA of the female to yield a
genetic estimate (PA) on the
calf she is carrying.
A second situation
occurs when the sire (or
service sire) of an animal is a
young sire. This commonly
come from the counties have
already been instituted, one
being the color report forms.
The field service on
Thursday, April 14 completed
the Spring Technician Training
Conferences. There were 14
Conferences altogether of
which 1 was able to attend X
of them. After meeting so
many of our field technicians,
and working with them, I am
more confident than ever
about our future. These
employees work where the
rubber meets the road. They
come into your farm every
month, and provide a service
second to none. They are PA
happens when a herd uses AI
progany test sires. While such
young bulls don't have PTA's,
they do not have PA's that can
be used. When averaged with
the females PTA (or PA) the
result is a reasonable genetic
estimate on the offspring.
Using PAs as
subslitues for missing PTA’s
will also allow better estimates
of genetic merit for the several
age groups shown in Genetic
Profile section of the Herd
Summary II report. Previously
when the sire and/or dam no
PTA, their genetic value was
estimated as breed average
or /,cn>. This grossly underes
timated the genetic worth of
the animals and their offspring.
Herd owners will be
able to tell if PA's have been
substituted for PTA's on the
Individual Cow Page because
(lie headings will indicate
which value was used for an
animal.
Use of Parent Aver
ages in place of missing
Predicted Transmitting Abilities
will enhance the value of the
genetic information that Pa
DHIA provides on the Herd
Summary 11, the Individual
Cow Page and on the calf and
heifer reports.
Genetics progress with
DHIA
How much genetic progress
are we making in our Pennsyl
vania dairy herds? We can
determine the year increases in
pounds of milk, fat and protein
by looking at the averages for
Sire PTA (LBS.) 1990
Milk
Fat
Protein
DHIA in your bam, artd all the
rest of us support them in their
work. Because of the work
they do and the management
information PA DHIA pro-
vides, hundreds of PA DHIA
members will be able to
survive these troubled eco-
nomic times. At each meeting,
technicians shared their ideas
on how to better serve our
members. Another important
accomplishment for our
technicians has been the
mastering of the laptop
computer. Half of the confer
ence time was spent working
on their computer skills with
(Turn to Pago E 10)
tested herds. However, such
changes reflect a large contri
bution front better management
as well as from improved
genetics. Most estimates that
I've sccnindicate that 25- to 33
percent of the annual gain in
production per cow can be
attributed to genetics while the
rest is due to better feeding and
care as well as from better
housing and other environmen
tal circumstances.
By knowing the
average Predicted Transmitting
Ability (PTA) of the sires of
cows wc can estimate the
genetic merit of the cows on
test. We can't come up with a
genetic value for cows not on
test but my guess is that it
would be somewhat lower than
for the animals in tested herds.
The genetics in a herd continu
ously change as the older cows
(sired by bulls with lower
PTA's) sires. PTA values for
the 1990-1993 years inclusive
are shown below:
The average annual
increases in milk, fat and
protein PTA's arc 146 pounds
for milk, 5 pounds for butterfat
and 4.3 pounds for protein.
Moreover the changes from
year to year arc rather consis
tent. Yearly production in-
creases for the same time
period were 470 pounds of milk
16 pounds of fat and 15 pound
protein. Dividing the yearly
PTA increases by the yearly
production increases gives us
estimates of the genetic contri
bution of 31*. 31% and 299 f
for milk, fat and protein.
1991 1992 1993
+513 +655 +BO5
+366
+2O +25 +29
+ 14
+l5 +l9 +23
+ 10