UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) The 1995 Pennsylvania
Dairy Herd Improvement Associa
tion (Pa.DHI A) Board of Directors
held a reorganizations! meeting
Wednesday at South Ridge Motor
Inn in State College.
Elected to serve as its president
was Lane Sollenberger, a member
from Franklin County.
Sollenberger was elected to the
state board of directors in April
1992 and has served on the
Finance and Personnel Commit
tee, as well as serving on the
Pa.DHIA-Mideast Study Group.
In 1994, Sollenberger was
elected to serve a secretary of the
stale board.
William Jackson, of Fayette
County was elected vice president
during the reorganizations! meet
ing, while Dale Hoover, of Leba
non County was named treasurer,
and Neal McCulloch, of Cumber
land County, was named secretary.
Also elected to serve on the
board’s Executive Committee
DAVID SLUSSER
General Manager
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) The dairy industry in Pen
nsylvania is facing rapid changes.
We can react to these changes
and live with what happens, or we
can plan for the future.
Let’s first look at the “big pic
ture” of world milk production, the
trends of United Slates milk pro
duction, and trends in Northeast
ern dairy production.
We need to project what we feel
will occur over the next 10 years in
the Northeast, and how we can
positively affect these trends for
the benefit of the dairy farmer in
the region.
World Markets
As the nations of the world
develop their economic systems,
consumption of milk and other
dairy products will increase.
Milk is high in nutrition, espe
cially proteins and calcium, and,
because of new technology and
management skills, is very effi
ciently produced.
The dairy cow is a very efficient
source of complete protein, both
from milk and beef, and is very
adaptable to many different cli
mates and geographic conditions.
Dairy cows can play a major
role in soil erosion control,
because of their ruminative nature
they can digest a wide variety of
forages, which include grasses.
These forages blend well in crop
rotation programs, and grow well
on land not suited for row crop and
food crop production.
Animal waste can be recycled to
the benefit of (he soil.
Presently, the United States
holds the leadership position in
dairy farm management skills, and
in dairy cattle genetics.
New Zealand can produce milk
cheaper than the United States, but
only because of the climate
they can pasture dairy cattle year
round. However, the island is
small and can only produce a lim
ited portion of the dairy products
needed by the world.
The next most abundant source
of economically produced milk is
(he United Stales.
The adoption of GATT (General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade)
hopcfuHy will change the protec
tionist policies of Europe and Asia
n , n • Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Jut* 3,1M5-E7
Board Of Directors Reorganizes
were John Wilcox, from Bradford
County, who is to serve as a
dircctor-at-large.
Past president Frank Omcr, of
Clearfield County, was also asked
to serve for another year on the
committee.
Norm Hcrshey, of Lancaster
County; was elected chairman of
the Pa.DHIA Retirement
Committee.
Other directors of the 1995
board include Bill Itle, of Cambria
County; Steve Mowry, Bedford
County; John Brodzina, of Hun
tingdon County; Ralph Gilkinson,
of Erfe County; Don Duncan, of
Berks County; George Cudoc, of
Butler County; John Castrogia
vanni, of Susquehanna County;
Mark Eby, of Sullivan County;
Brooks Smith, of Perry County;
Luke Rcbuck, of Northumberland
County; Marian Butler, of Tioga
County; and Bill Jackson, of Fay
ette County.
For more information, contact a
local director, or call Pa.DHIA at
(814) 865-1517.
Industry Trends, What Can We Do?
over the next 10 years. The United
States government and the dairy
industry need to work as partners
to develop world markets for dairy
products and dairy cattle genetics.
Our DHIA cooperatives must do
their part to make sure our mem
bers will maintain this world lead
ership position in management
skills and superior genetics.
National Trends
The dairy industry in the United
States has changed over the last 10
years. Wisconsin is no longer the
number one dairy stale. California
Dairy cow numbers are growing
the most in the Western and South
western states, while in the upper
Midwest and in the Northeast they
are declining.
Western dairy farmers can grow
or purchase lop quality forage
from irrigated land, and their man-
Larry W. Specht
Professor of Dairy Science
Penn State University
How often do dairy producers
(and visitors) ask the question,
“Who is the sire and/or dam of
that good-looking heifer?” and
then find that the information is
missing from the herd records?
Not often, if they utilize the cow
and heifer identification reports
available through DHIA.
DHIA organizations must be
certified each year as to the quality
of their lab, field, and processing
center services. At least 95 percent
of the animals in a herd must have
permanent identification in order
to maintain official status with the
national DHIA program. Perma
nent identification is defined as: a
breed association registration
number or identification number,
a metal standard series eartage, or
a Verified Identification Program
(VIP) number. These are in con
trast to plastic tags, chain num
bers, chalk, crayon or other
removable identification.
Dairy records processing cen
ters reduce missing permanent
identification situations to an
absolute minimum. This can be
attributed to herds and DHIA
technicians that report informa
tion accurately the first time. They
also cooperate with the breed
The members of the 1995 Pa. DHIA board of directors are, from left, front row, Lane
Sollenberger, Bill Jackson, Neal McCullouch, Dale Hoover, John Wilcox, and Frank
Orner. Second row, are John Castrogiavanni, Mark Eby, Brooks Smith, Luke Rebuck,
and Marian Butler. Back row, are Bill Itle, Steve Mowry, John Brodzina, Ralph Gilkin
son, Don Duncan, Norm Hershey, and George Cudoc.
agement skills are outstanding.
Cow numbers continue to
decline nationwide, while milk
production continues to increase.
Improving management skills,
imptovirfg genetics and new tech
nology (such as BST) will con
tinue this change at an ever
increasing rate.
Because of our geographical
location to the populations. Class I
sales (fluid milk) will remain
strong, however milk sales for pro
cessed products will depend on the
competitive management skills of
our producers.
Since most international sales
will be processed dairy products,
and since these products will con
tinue to play a major part in dairy
products sales in the Northeast, we
in DHIA and other related indus-
Who Is That Heifer?
associations when verifying birth
dates and parentage on registered
animals.
There are many benefits to per
manently identifying animals.
These reasons begin with the need
for an animal inventory and
expand as dairy producers find
reasons to track production, ani
mal health, reproductive status,
genetic evaluations, veterinary
treatment, growth and animal
location. Many herds participate
in breed programs including
registration, type evaluations and
merchandising. Accurate identifi
cation becomes critical. On a
broader scale, the AI industry, the
Animal Improvement Programs
Lab (AIPL) of the USDA as well
as extension and research person
nel need accurate records to pro
vide a data base for the research
and genetic evaluation needs of
the U.S. dairy cattle population.
Participants at the recent
National DHIA annual meeting
held in Burlington, Vermont
spend considerable time discuss
ing a new approach to record eva
luation. This revolutionary idea is
still in die developmental stage
but has evolved far enough to war
rant discussion.
The key change is to stop eva
luating cow and herd records on
the basis of the name of the testing
tries must do whatever is necessary
to help our dairy farmers with
management tools and dairy cattle
genetics.
DHIAs, artificial insemination
organizations, dairy cattle breed
associations, farm consultants, and
financial institutions need to work
together in non-traditional ways to
provide Northeastern dairy far
mers with the best tools possible at
the least cost possible.
They have to work togther to
combine their financial and human
resources to make this region of
the United States highly competi
tive, and a strong part of the world
dairy picture.
By working together, we can
lead into the future, and not react to
it.
The move from government
support programs to the free mark
et economy will add speed and fuel
to these changes.
program, i.e., not to assume that
DHIA 2X records are more accu
rate then A-P records or that A-P
records are more reliable than
records made in the Owner-
Sampler program. Each type of
record keeping program has
always been accompanied by a
host of rules and regulations
designed to keep people from
biasing on individual cows and
herds. Rules and regulations work
up to a point but are costly to
enforce and almost ruinous to a
DHIA affiliate if a lawsuit rears its
ugly head.
The cow and herd profile
approach is to describe the set of
conditions under which the herd is
tested and to let the end-user (AI,
cattle buyer, breed association,
etc.) decide for themselves if they
are comfortable with the condi
tions under which a record or
group of records was made. For
example, records from many dif
ferent herds on daughters of a
progeny test sire would not be
subject to the same standards as
would be required for records on
cows that are competing for pro
duction awards or records on a
potential bull dam.
Some statistics that need to be
kept on all herds would be: num
ber of tests per year or per lacta
tion; number of tests with compo-
Northeastern Trends
The Northeastern United Stales
dairy industry appears to be faring
better that the upper Midwest,
however it is still losing ground to
the West and Southwest
The top five dairy stales are
California, Wisconsin, New York,
Pennsylvania and Minnesota. As
you see, two of those states arc in
the Northeast.
Cow numbers will continue to
drop, however total milk produc
tion will probably continue to
grow.
The milk-production advan
tages for this region are: one third
of the U.S. population is located
here; climate is favorable for milk
production; terrain is mote adapt
able to forage production and gras
ses. and less to row crops and food
crops; dairy farm management
skills are outstanding; and the
infrastructure of dairy farm sup
port industries is strong.
nent sampling; number of tests
done by the DHIA technician and/
or number oflests with data sup
plied by the dairyman. Other
information would include the
shape of the lactation curve on
individual cows compared to the
lactation curves on their contem
poraries and the percentage of ani
mals in the herd with permanent
identification.
Unc interesting aspect of the
herd profile is the plot of the
deviations of individual cow
records. Do the deviations follow
a normal distribution or arc there
one or more cows with extremely
large deviations? If there is a
60,000 pound milk record in a
herd that averages 15,000 pounds
per cow we might suspect that the
cow received special treatment
that was not available to the rest of
the herd. One final note —herds
must be willing to make an open
disclosure of all information
related to cow and herd profiles.
Those who do not wish to do so
should not expect to sell breeding
stock to well informed buyers.
Herd and cow profiles will not
be available on a routine basis for
12 to 18 months at the earliest but
they will become a fact of life for
DHIA and the dairy breeding
industry.