CIO-UncMter Farming, Saturday, December 21, 1996 Pa. DHIA Heifer Net Sets Stage JOY HAYES Senior Project Leader STATE COLLEGE (Centre Co.) Pa. DHIA is designing a new cutting edge program that will take a dairyman’s herd into cybers pace and the information super highway. This new program will be called Heifer Net and it will electronical ly match the requirements of dairy animal buyers and suppliers. The dairyman will set the asking price and the buyer will set the minimum standards. The Heifer Net will search the Heifer Net data base and prepare a list of qualifying animals for the buyer. The Heifer Net program will actually be made up of five diffe rent Pa. DHIA Nets: Heifer Net will contain heifers for sale; Cow Net will contain cows for sale; Bull Net will contain bulls for sale; Unborn Net will contain calves that are yet to be bom that will be for sale; and Embryo Net will con tain embryos for sale. Each new animal enrolled in one of the Heifer Net programs will be electronically added to the Heifer Net data base. This process will be automatic and will require little or no input from the dairyman or Pa. DHIA technician. (Continued from Page C 7) features to bring it up to date. The Internet is hot, and we are there.” Exactly how “hot” is reflected in the exploding growth of the Inter net in general and the World Wide Web in particular. Information available from Neilsen Media Research indicates that as much as 17 percent of the total population of the United States and Canada has access to the Internet, and of those, nearly 20 million people are currently using the World Wide Web. Commerce on the Web still in its infancy is mushrooming as quickly as the proliferation of new sites. To date, more than 2.S million people have made purch ases online. Forty-three percent of all North American businesses now have some form of advertis ing on the World Wide Web. Pa. DHIA’s foray into cybers pace has been nearly as aggressive, but Boyer said that services cur rently offered represent just the tip of the iceberg. “We want to make more resour ce material available to people who support the dairy industry,” he said. “One of our best kept secrets is the so-called ‘Gray Manual’ that explains all our reports. But it's difficult and expensive to get updates out “By putting this kind of infor mation on the Web page as a series of articles, people interested in DHIA support will be able to select and print only the information that interests them. And we’ll be able to maintain the documentation more easily, and more importantly, we’ll be able to do it in real time. “Just recently, we made avail able online many of the most com monly requested formats of our Each Heifer Net data base record will contain the animal’s identification and genetic merit, identification and genetic merit of the animal’s sire, dam, maternal grand dam, maternal grand sire, reproductive data (if bred), pro duction data (if milking), body weight and condition, and mini mum asking price of the animal. Individuals wishing to purchase animals through the Heifer Net will complete a “Search Option Request Form.” This form will allow the Heifer Net programs to determine the breed, sex, age, and weight of animals being requested. Minimum genetic merit stan dards for animals and their ances tors may also be set by the buyer. Minimum production levels may be set for the animal (if milking), dam, and maternal grand dam. If bred animals are being requested, requirements may be placed on due dates and genetic merit of service sires. An individual using this service will also report the number of ani mals required, number of heifers per herd, and offering price for qualifying heifers. Using the Heifer Net data base, Pa. DHIA will be able to produce pedigrees for any animal in the system. These pedigrees will be available on paper or via the Internet. Pa. DHIA DHIA year-end Almanac,” Boyer said. “Interested in the high herd for protein for 1996? See us on the web. How about the top producers in breed for our annual manage ment awards? That’s there too.” Despite rapid, even rabid growth, in-place technology does dampen the pace of some change, Boyer said. Despite rapid, even rabid growth, in-place technology does dampen the pace of some change, Boyer said. ‘To most effectively make use of new programs, we really have to move our technicians and end users to a graphical environment such as Microsoft Windows,” he said. “DOS is dead, dead, dead. We dont’ recommend that people doing new setups even buy DOS based programs anymore. It’s completely yesterday,” Boyer said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of legacy applications in the coun tryside, including programs we’ve written for our own technicians. But we’ll change that, and as peo ple see the new applications avail able on the Web and in Windows programs, they aren’t going to want to use their old DOS stuff anymore anyway.” The new World Wide Web page contains links to supporting indus tries like breed associations, AI studs, farm publications, even dairy humor, and offers new, elec tronic mail, advertising and other services to industry cooperators, and of course, DHIA members. “The teal power of the Internet is in commerce,” Boyer said, “and a great deal of that capability remains untapped. The Heifer Net and all these additional features will be avail able through our Web Page on the World Wide Web at http:llwww.dhia.psu.eclu. Forward On All Fronts (Continued from Page C 7) cows, groups and the whole herd. It also includes cost analysis and projected cost for your heifer program. Pa. DHIA is the first and only DHIA to offer this service and has been doing it since Nov. 1, 1995. Long Range Strategic Planning Over the last year and a half, the board of directors has been involved in strategic, long-range planning. They have studied the needs of our members that will enhance their competitiveness into the 21st century, and set the course for Pa. DHIA to meet those needs. The plan has four major areas of con cern: new products and services; market development and govern ing efficiences; internal manage ment strategies; and strategic alliances. New products and services have already spun off from Long Range Planning Committee ideas. Pennsylvania includes a broad array of dairy farms from small to large. To improve their bottom line and profit, our services must enable our members to improve production cost through more research cm MUN and perfor mance enconomics. Also, because our members have the highest percentage of identified animals and useable On The World Wide Web “But the World Wide Wed is now coining into its own. It is very much a gold-rush mentality. By some estimates almost 60 percent of new Web sites on earth were added in the first few months of 1996. In order to capitalize on that kind of environment you’ve got to get there flrstest with the mostest,” Boyer said. “We intend to make this kind of marketing power available to DHIA members for selling heifers, cows, embryos, maybe even equipment We’ll provide the lat est in new analytical tools like MUN and true protein. And we’ll offer access to resources like vets, nutritionists and other agribusi ness consultants who support DMA.”. Dave Slusser, Pa. DHIA’s gen eral manager, elaborated. “We see nothing but possibili ties. At a time when people especially those with their own personal computers arc ques tioning the value of DHIA, the new services we’re implementing showcase the great benefit of belonging to a cooperative associ ation,” Slusser said. “For example, one service we envision would allow people to offer advertising to purchasers who want heifers. A dairyman on our heifer program will be able to hook up with buyers literally any where in the world. And by provid ing a one-stop shopping center with database capability, those buyers will be able to fill orders for the exact kinds and numbers of calves they want, easily and quickly. “That gives real value to both the purchaser and the seller, and that’s something you can’t do with a computer all by yourself,” Sluss er said. Now with the use of Heifer Net and the Internet, buyers and sup pliers of dairy animals can be elec tronically matched with the stroke of a few computer keys. Dave Slusser records for genetic evaluations, the long-range plan includes using this advantage to bring more dollars into our family farm operations. The result is the development of “Heifer Net” On our farmer-owned and con trolled DRPC data base, we have around 500,000 dairy animals of all breeds, registered and grade, and all forms of testing programs. This includes heifers, cows, bulls, and even unborn calves. “Heifer Net” includes an effi cient network in which we can find cattle in our members’ herds that arc sought by buyers throughout the world. It will also include heif er raising costs and pedigrees and certificates of identification. “I see us being able to connect dairymen to the right vets, feed mills, equipment dealers, and financial consultants to solve the problems of their individual farms. That kind of networking operation just won't be available to people who’re isolated from DHIA.” “We also see the so-called ‘intranet applications’ of this tech nology as being vital to the con tinued efficiency of our opera tion,” Boyer added. “In intranet applications you apply the power of the Web to more effectively reach people within your own organization. We will make these and other products available to our field staff, espe- Sensenigs (Continued from Page C 7) The couple first farmed for three years at Philhaven Farms in Lebanon County, where Nelson has credited Aaron Shirk, the farm manager, with teaching him about milking cows. One of the first things they did at their own 177-acre farm was to expand stalls and construct silos for silage and haylage. Since then, they opened up the bam and installed tunnel ventilation with six, 48-inch fans. In mid-1994, the end of the bam opposite the fans was opened and an air-cooling system installed that works on drawing air into the bam through water to achieve evaporative cooling. Sensenig said the system lowers the air temperature inside the bam from 7 to 20 degrees below the ambient temperature, depending on humidity. He’s been using the cooler for the past two years. A team approach'— with veterinarian, nutritionist and Nelson work ing together was incorporated early on and continues. In early 1994, just after Monsanto Corp. received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its form of recombinant bovine somatotropin, the Sensenig herd was on it. The cows still receive BST, arc milked three times per day and are fed TMR at least five times per day Cow comfort is emphasized. Nelson said he feeds four pounds of cotton seed, com silage rolled when bagged, haylage, and a custom supplement consisting of soymeal, steamed soybeans, com, distiller’s grain, and some fortification. That has been consistent for some time. For the past year he said he has top dressed a complete feed top dress of 17-percent protein. He dropped that back for the past two months and said it has been working. Keep your eyes on the printed news, talk to your Pa. DHIA tech nician, and sign on to Pa. DHIA’s Web Page to keep posted on the progress of the Heifer Net. The program is presently under development and will be intro duced in stages over the next two years. Governance changes under the long range plan include board downsizing. As a result, the board restructuring includes going from 18 directors to 11 and is being introduced to the delegates at the district and annual meetings of the association this winter. The internal management phases of the plan include good management principles needed to operate the cooperative in an effi cient manner and employee track ing to improve the opportunity for good people to advance within the system. Pa. DHIA’s board is exploring opportunities to more efficiently serve the members in a mature market through strategic alliances, joint ventures or possible mergers. In the highly competitive marketp lace that our members now find themselves, their institutions that serve them must look for better, more efficient ways to serve them and enhance their farm’s profits. The last year has been very busy for the board and employees of Pa. DHIA. Our board is determined to move DHIA from a reactive to a proactive force for dairy farmers. The mission of Pa. DHIA and its long range plan is proactive, and next year will be more action packed. Stay tuned! dally DHIA technicians. “We want them to be able to dial in 24 hours per day to get the most up-to-the-minute information on herd status, lab components, news, e-mail, employee bulletins, even weather,” Boyer said. “Now, while all of these were possible to some extent through our lab BBS and the ARIS system, we really are talking about taking a quantum leap in the availability and ease of accessing information. Anybody who’s ever used a typical BBS system and then hooked into the Web will tell you, it’s like the difference between rehydrogi nated palm fat and real butter.”
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