Gerald Miller, 77, of Cochranville, still drives the back
roads and highways of Chester County traveling from one
dairy barn to the next to collect milk samples and perform
calculations for dairymen.
Accomplishments Last 15
DAVID SLUSSER
General Manager
PA DHIA has made major
accomplishments over the last IS
months. Our quality standards has
held or improved. 78% of our
records are usable for genetic eva
luation. Our lab quality control
score was 99%, field ser
vice staff is the best trained in the
nation. We have three in-depth
training sessions a year. All of our
ISO technicians are using laptop
computers and electronically
transmitting data. PA DHIA is the
only stand alone full service
DHIA Cooperative in America.
The PA DHIA Board of Directors
govern and control, a full field ser
vice, a modem up-to-date milk
testing lab, and a Dairy Records
Processing Center. We offer more
innovative programs than anyone
else and we have a highter percen
tage of cows on A/P testing than
anyone. Our Herd Summary I and
II reports are first class and are a
result of member input through
Lancaster Farming, Pages E-6 to E-9
Miller , Pa.DHIA Together For 50 Years
our District Delegate meetings
and DRPC Committee, Our turn
around time is second to none.
If the truth was known, or could
be told we could probably boast of
the highest percent of useeb'e
records, and the highest percent of
identified cattle. Most likely we
are the best all around DHIA pro
vider in America.
As we improved and developed
our service, we made great strides
in our efficienty, and continue to
do so. We have thirty less employ
ees than we did IS months ago.
The downtown office was closed,
the lab employees became DHIA
employees, we have gone to a one
day annual meeting, the Laborat
ory Director and the Membership
Relations Director have been
combined. Because of the large
number of herds switching to A/P
testing, our overall gross income
has dropped considerably. In other
words, our members as a whole
with the fee adjustments are
spending less money for testing
A NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS & CUSTOMERS
Dixie L. Burris, Membership Development
Call 1-800-DHI-TEST For Information
Pennsylvania Dairy Herd Improvement Association
r v DHIA Service Center
I > Orchard Road, University Park, PA 16802
June 3, 1995 Issue
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
UNIONVILLE (Chester
Co.) A self-described “gypsy,”
after more than 50 years and six
cars, Gerald Miller, 77, of
Cochranville, still drives the back
roads and highways of Chester
County traveling from one dairy
bam to the next to attend milkings.
He is familiar with many of the
parlors and stanchion setups in
Chester County, a lot of the cows,
and every dairy farmer on his
circuit.
Miller is the most senior techni
cian on the staff of the Pennsylva
nia Dairy Herd Improvement
Association (Pa.DHIA). It is a dis
tinction that brings mixed emo
tions, he said.
On one hand working any job
more than SO years is an achieve
ment On the other, it means there
are fewer peers left.
“I feel good,” he said recently,
while testing milk at Brooklawn
Farms Dairy in Unionville.
“Except for this knee," he added,
pointing to his right knee. “It’s
worn down, otherwise I’d move
around faster.”
While he installed testing
devices on the double-six milking
parlor machines, and checked
Months
this year than they did last year.
We lowered DHIA testing cost to
our members.
As a result of our top service
and our new efficiency, cow num
bers on PA DHIA test has stabil
ized. Cash flow has improved,
opportunity for improved field
technicians income has occulted,
we are repaying our loans, and
membership confidence in our
cooperative has improved.
As your General Manager, I
have spent more than half my time
on the road meeting with mem
bers, and making farm visits. I am
trying to attend every county com
mittee meeting at least once a
year, and I want to attend as irua>
local annual meetings as possible.
Last fall I attended over 30 annual
meetings and more county com
mittee meetings.
The staff and employees of PA
DHIA cares. They work hard for
you and they want you to succeed
in farming, we work hard at our
motto “PA DHIA Cares.”
them, he talked about the possibili
ty of having his knee repaired and
how fast recovery is these days
with such surgery.
Meticulously, but also routine
ly, he positioned a white plastic
foam insulated base loaded with
pre-numbered milk test containers,
and a checklist
As the cows came into the par
lor, he marked down their number
and as they finished being milked,
he took the appropriate container
and filled it with milk from the
testing apparatus.
He talked about the merger
between Chester DHIA and
Pa.DHIA, the changes in national
DHIA, the dairy industry and, in a
sense, current living conditions.
He smiled and cajoled with the
assistant herdsman. Ben Bartlett.
They talked about the fox hunts
that are held in the area, with
Brooklawn Farms serving as host
for a fox hunt every year.
The two men said the hunts are
filled with lots of people talking,
their cars, horses, dogs, the sounds,
the smells and the sheer entertain
ment of watching these people and
their horses thunder through
woods and pastures and leap over
rail fences.
Bartlett said became to the farm
tecendy and watched the crowds
and commotion from the parlor
barn area.
Miller said he’s seen them and
said they were impressive. It is one
of the more unusual sights he’s
seen, being a DHIA technician.
While Miller was single when
he started working for DHIA, he
has not been on the toad alone for
all those years. His wife Freida
Luella is also a DHIA technician,
though since she started later, she
doesn’t quite have in as many
years.
Together, they have been serv
ing Chester County DHIA mem
bers for 30 years, doing things
from taking milk samples, doing
reports, checking charts for con
versions, to entering data into a
portable computer and sending the
Technicians Summer Conference, Indiana PA June 16-17
Board Meeting June 27-28
Board Meeting August 29-30
Board Meeting October 24-25
Board Meeting December 19-20
Annual Meeting, State College February 16, 1996
Vol 10 No. 1
information over the telephone to
the records processing center.
The accuracy required of the job
is, and always has been taken seri
ously by Gerald and by the people
he woiks with.
These are records which need to
be used to track a dairy herd in a
variety of ways for a variety of
reasons to catch drops in milk
production, trends in butterfat or
protein production, the health of
the udder, monitor reproducuon
times, etc. in order to make
money.
Dairy farmers who can’t make
money selling milk or cattle have
to sell something else.
It’s a fact of life that having
good records and being able to use
them gives a dairy farmer an
edge knowing as much as pos
sible about the herd’s performance
is the first step in being able to
detect and correct problems. It’s an
ongoing process.
And Miller has been almost as
ongoing.
On April Fool’s Day, 1943,
Miller joined the team atPa.DHIA
as a technician, traveling from his
coal mining hometown of Wes
temport, Md. to State College
where he spent a couple of weeks
learning testing techniques and liv
ing in a boarding house.
He said he had worked on farms
for a number of years growing up,
and had been working for the Car
nation Milk Company as an assis
tant manager in receiving for the
plant in western Maryland when
his cousin started talking to him
about being a Pa.DHIA technician,
or a milk tester, as they were more
commonly referred.
Miller said that while the two
were going to try to get jobs at the
same time, his cousin backed out.
Alone, Miller hit the road for State
College.
After completing his initial cou
ple of weeks training, staying in a
boarding house, Miller said there
were two jobs from which to
Schedule of Events
(Turn to Pag* E 9)