Lancaster DHIA Reports Record Growth, Sound Financial Position
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
SMOKETOWN (Lancaster
Co.) Leaders and officials of
the Lancaster Dairy Herd
Improvement Association (LDHI-
A) on Tuesday repented a record
growth in membership and a sound
financial position.
The organization has 1,193
member herds representing
monthly testing of more than
64,000 cows. It held its annual
banquet and meeting at the Good
and Plenty Restaurant in
Smoketown.
In addition to reviewing the past
year’s performance, honoring out
standing achievements by mem
bers, and receiving board director
election results, those attending
approved a revised set of bylaws.
The bylaw changes mainly woe
comprised of word changes to
reflect current industry terms, but
there were substantive alterations,
such as the addition of a “past pres
ident” office, extending the terms
of office slightly to three consecu
tive three-year terms, and creating
a 15-member board of directors
represented by three directors from
each of five districts based on
equal membership representation.
Another change to the bylaws
was made in an attempt to limit the
amount of legal costs associated
with those accused of breaking
rules of conduct in testing. For
some DHIAs, hundreds of thou
sands of dollars have be spent in
litigation, increasing service costs.
In order to prevent that, the
LDHIA has declared in Article IV,
Section 3 of its revised bylaws,
“Violations of bylaws, rules, reg
ulations or policies leading to
expulsion and/or censure or
cancellation of records shall be
determined in accordance with the
Due Process Policy adopted by the
Board of Directors.”
According to Joe Graybeal,
board president, copies of the
LDHIA Due Process Policy are
available for members at the
LDHIA office.
The overall report for LDHIA
was good for members given the
uncertainty that has accompanied
restructuring within the entire
dairy cattle testing and record
keeping industry.
During this change within the
DHIA industry, the Lancaster
organization diverged itself of the
Pennsylvania Dairy Herd
Improvement Association in 1993,
instead of joining forces as have
most other county cooperative
associations in Pennsylvania.
(Garden Spot Red Rose DHIA
in Lancaster County continues as a
Pa.DHIA affiliate.)
In going on its own, the Lancas
ter DHIA used out-of-state lab and
testing services to reduce costs and
increase services and speed of
From the left, From the left, Ronald Bauman preaente an
award to Jay Mylin in appreciation of 25 years outstanding
service )o'Lancaster DHIA.
service.
The split from using services of
the State College-headquartered
Pa.DHIA required approval by
National DHIA, which has helped
to guide the different mergers and
divergences occuring within the
industry.
The mergers and divergences
appear to have been caused by the
onset of computerized technolo
gies, the abilities of large dairies to
invest in the latest technologies,
and market pressure.
Market pressure has forced
dairy cattle breeders and dairy pro
duct producers to continuously
seek decreases in operating costs
and increases in product quality.
While the value of testing ser
vices varies according to the indi
vidual dairy business, generally its
importance has increased overall
as dairy managers seek better
information about cow
performance.
At the same time there has been
increasing pressure to discover
more efficient, less costly means to
obtain needed services.
While the Pa.DHIA cooperative
initially suffered from the
divergence of LDHIA, it recently
reported a positive turnaround in
its financial situation and that its
outlook is strong.
On Tuesday, Lancaster DHIA
reported that it is in sound financial
position and that members enjoy
low costs.
In giving his treasurer’s report,
Dave Garber said that 199 S has
been a transition year for the
cooperative because it accom
plished getting its own indepen
dent laboratory into full operation.
He said that as far as balancing
the association’s budget, substan
tial one-time, and non-annual
laboratory startup costs presented
a challenge.
However, the association ended
the year with a net margin of
almost $30,000. The income from
the lab in operation only a por
tion of the year contributed
most to that margin, Garber said.
Part of the startup costs for the
year included a one-time $25,800
fee paid to the National DHIA as
part of its requirements to become
a national affiliate. National affili
ates have direct representation on
the National board of directors.
Most of that $20,000 is
to return with interest to the Lan
caster DHIA affiliate, over a four
year pay-back starting 1997. Gar
ber said.
Other non-annual costs include
the purchase of laboratory equip
ment, which eventually needs
replaced as wear and tear and
technological/economic advan
tages become apparent
Garber said lie anticipates that
the LDHIA should experience an
even better economic year in 1996
From the loft in the front, LDHIA members receiving awards are Axel Linde for high
est averaging Guernsey herd for production, Deimar Wenger for the top Jersey herd,
and Warren Schmuck for the top Ayrshire herd, in the back row, from the left, Susan
and Eugene Hess receive awards for having the highest producing Holstein herd for
milk and protein, while Gary and Jenny Bowman receive awards for having the herd
with the lowest average somatic cell count.
LDHIA technicians receiving quality service awards are, from the left, William Heis
tand, Dwight Rohrer, Joan Probst, Becky Hershey, Harold Probst, Nancy Book, Joe
Undecamp, and George Book.
because of lower overhead costs.
Though specifics of the LDHI
A’s record membership growth
were detailed later in the program,
in his address. Joe Graybeal said,
'The goal (of the cooperative) is
not to become larger, but to deliver
quality service at a reasonable
cost”
He said that if membership from
outside the immediate service area
of the cooperative continues to
grow, it must be because those
people agree with the cooperative.
He said that it is not the intention of
the board of directors to subsidize
the service costs of out-of-area
members merely to increase the
size of the membership of Lancas
ter DHIA.
Out-of-area members of LDHI-
A pay extra for the additional cost
of providing services over longer
distances.
Graybeal said this as a reminder
to members that growing in size is
not necessarily growth in strength
or health.
On other matters, Graybeal said
that in the past few years he has
traveled around the country attend
ing DHIA discussions. He said that
four topics are to be addressed in
more detail at the January 1996
National DHIA Leaders
Conference.
One of the topics deals with the
incorporation of testing and
recording technology by individu
al dairy operations and what that
may mean to the cattle industry as
far.as availability of production
data and the accuracy of
information.
Another topic includes issues
such as how to address the record
standards of cow profile reports,
the effects of different needs and
uses of records on the availability
of data, and accuracy of data.
In order to get away from the
litigation associated with the role
of policing record keepers, and in
order to allow more inovation in
testing methods, the entire indus
try has begun adopting a policy of
making the end-user of data
responsible for determining the
accuracy of specific records
received.
Graybeal said many of the
issues are highly technical and
would consume too much time to
detail during the meeting.
However, he said that as Nation
al DHIA finalizes the program,
more information will be
published.
Graybeal said that the purebred
cattle associations and National
DHIA have been developing close
working relationships to deal with
the issues and to see what can be
done to satisfy the needs of the all
involved with testing and record
ing data.
In his address to membership.
Jay Mylin, LDHIA general mana
ger, reviewed the achievements of
the cooperative during the past
year.
He said that the past year's
73-herd net membership gain, rep
resenting 5,000 additional cows
tested by LDHIA, was realized
growth beyond expectations.
According to Mylin, about half
of that growth came from adjoin
ing counties Chester, Lebanon
and Dauphin.
He said that a total of 142 herds
were added during the year, and
four technicians were responsible
for starting 96 of those herds. Rec
ognizcd for starting herds were
Keith Martin with 31 herds, Ken
Martin with 24, Harold Probst with
21, and George Book with 20.
In other recognitions, techni
cians who received quality service
awards woe Harold and Joan
Probst, Joe Lindecamp, Dwight
Rohrer, Becky Hershey, William
Heistand, and George and Nancy
Book.
In member production and qual
ity records:
• Warren Schmuck, Peach Bot
tom, had the highest-averaging
Ayrshire herd for milk production
with an average 17,104 pounds
milk and 590 pounds protein.
• Don B. Trimble of Peach Bot
tom had the highest averaging
Brown Swiss herd forLDHIA with
20,365 pounds of milk, 885 pound
s of fat, and 726 pounds of protein.
• Axel Linde and Millie Wid
man, Oxford, had the highest
averaging Guernsey herd with an
average of 17,266 pounds milk.
• Delmar Wenger, Lancaster,
had the highest Jersey herd with an
average of 16,958 pounds of milk
and 653 pounds protein.
• Eugene and Susan Hess, of
Marietta, had the highest averag
ing Holstein herd for milk and pro
tein production with 26‘,955
pounds of milk and 837 pounds of
protein.
• Gary and Jenny Bowman of
Nottingham received the award for
having the lowest somatic cell
count herd average with a count of
97,000.
In other activity. Jay Mylin was
honored with a special plaque
commemorating his 25 years of
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