A32-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 25, 1995
International Sales Of Semen Growing, Domestic Slips
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
LANCASTER (Lancaster
Co.) The sale of dairy cattle
semen produced in the United
States has been growing interna
tionally; while domestic sales have
been stagnant, a reflection of
decreasing numbers of domestic
dairy cattle, according to Dr. Gor
don Doak, president of the Nation
al Association of Animal Breeders
and Certified Semen Services.
Doak was the featured speaker
at the 31st annual meeting of the
Atlantic Breeders Cooperative,
held Wednesday at the Eden
Resort Inn, in Lancaster.
The cooperative meeting
included a business meeting, as
well as reports from different
officers in the cooperative. The
meeting also served as an orienta
tion for the cooperative’s elected
directors and representatives to the
February Milk
Production Up
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) —Milk production in Pen
nsylvania during February 1995
totaled 820 million pounds, 4 per
cent above last year’s production,
according to the Pennsylvania
Agricultural Statistics Service
(PASS).
The number of milk cows in the
state during the month averaged
641,000 head, up 2,000 from
January, and 4,000 more than
February 1994.
Production per cow averaged
1,280 pounds in February, 110
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In Doak’s presenation to the
group his second public speak
ing engagement before a member
organization since 1976, and both
times at Atlantic’s annual
meeting he outlined the trends
in the dairy industry toward fewer
farms, fewer cows with higher
milk production, and the asso
ciated decrease in the need for
semen.
At the same time, the costs of
producing semen have increased.
A trend that has served to keep
economic balance within the artifi
cial insemination industry has
been the increased sales of semen
internationally.
According to Doak, since 198 S,
export sales have tripled, while
domestic sales have decreased by
almost 10 percent.
He showed a graph that
extended the trends past the year
pounds less than January’s pro
duction per cow of 1,390 pounds,
but 40 pounds more than February
1994.
Milk production in the 22 states
surveyed during February 1995
totaled 10.4 billion pounds, up 4
percent compared to production
during February 1994.
The number of milk cows aver
aged 8.09 million head, up 7,000
head from a year earlier. Produc
tion per cow averaged 1,287
pounds, 51 pounds more than
February of last year.
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2000, indicating that eventually,
sales of exported semen could
become more financially impor
tant than domestic sales, although
Doak said he didn’t believe it
would continue that far.
The point he was trying to make
was that the U.S. artificial insemi
nation industry is going to have to
start working on developing types
of cattle semen tailored to the
needs of non-domestic buyers.
In effect, he said that the U.S.
industry can’t afford to treat inter
national sales of semen as a benefi
cial sideline business that will con
tinue without regard.
He said those markets must be
understood and products deve
loped to compete with the increase
in semen production in those other
nations.
Further, he said that he didn’t
think that given that much of
the dairy genetics coming from
other nations are basically derived
from genetic programs developed
here that the price of imported
semen should naturally not be able
to undersell domestic semen.
He also said the beef cattle and
swine semen sales are increasing
and will provide opportunities for
increased sales.
In other business, Harry Roth,
general manager of the coopera
tive, gave an overview of the
cooperative’s favorable business
position, which also reflects the
larger trend in semen sales of less
member sales and increased
income from non-member and
export sales.
He also reviewed the proposed
merger with two other artificial
insemination cooperatives under
Dr. Gordon Doak, president of the National Association
of Animal Breeders, Is guest speaker at the annual Atlantic
Breeders Cooperative annual banquet meeting.
the Federated Genetics, and the
question that he said faces the
cooperatives: “Can we somehow
continue to accelerate our genetic
progress through progeny testing
and yet contain overhead cost?”
The answers, he said, may lie in
two possibilities. He said that tech-
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nological breakthroughs in selec
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