PATRICIA TORETTI
STATE COLLEGE, PA -
Spring has been a busy season
for the programming staff at
Pennsylvania DHIA if the fran
tic activity underway in the PA
DHIA processing center in
recent days are any indication. I
got a chance to speak to Jim
Boyer, Pennsylvania DHIA’s
processing center manager for a
few minutes amid the general
chaos as his staff prepares to
release PA DHIA’s long awaited
Heifer ‘9B farm management
program for the Microsoft
Windows operating system
“We’re extremely excited
about this one,” Boyer says as he
leans back in the clutter of his
small office outside State
College, “not just because of the
program itself - which is one of
the most impressive pieces we’ve
put together in the time that I’ve
been here - but more because of
all the different programs and
new software technology that
are finally coming together And
the kinds of products that will
be following along just this one
rolls out the door In the offing
are a Lab Analyst program tar
geted at agribusiness consul
tants, a Windows ‘95 based over
haul of the DHIA technicians’
barnsheet, and a farm manage
ment program that will be the
jewel in the crown
It’s not that I want to steal
any thunder from the Heifer ‘9B
program,” Boyer says. “But we
really have engineered this one
to mter-operate with a complete
software system. I think in
terhis of the kinds of programs
that are presently available to
farm managers and ag consul
tants we’ve made an effort to
insdre that the new suite of pro
grams we’re offering this year
will be different both philosoph
ically and operationally than
anything that’s been offered in
the DHIA arena in the past ”
“First, our price point will be
different You look at the offer
ings from other DHIA centers
and it’s clear that they’re pri
marily designated to guarantee
a steady revenue stream into
the central processing location,
and guarantee a continual flow
of records there, too That’s not
our outlook, and frankly, it’s not
the outlook of anybody in the
serious software business any
more It’s just old thinking We
will not charge $2O or $3O or $4O
per month - month after month
- forever Our software will be
sold according to the accepted
practice a one time fee to buy
the license. Period We will
charge for upgrades, but if peo
ple don’t want to buy a new ver
sion, they won’t have to That’s
the standard practice in the soft
ware industry And our software
will be affordable - we will
charge $29 (one time) to a PA
DHIA member, and $49 (on
time) ‘to a non-member for
Heifer ‘9B There will not be any
hidden costs, and there will not
be any monthly licensing fees,
per cow fees, or requirements
that they must use our process
ing.
“Second, our intention is that
our system will be open, both to
the consumer and the developer.
Neither our heifer program nor
our new lab program
Pennsylvania DHIA Heifer ‘9B Program Released
(lab Analyst) will have a require
ment that you even need to be
on DHIA test at all in order to
use them Certainly we will offer
steep discounts to members of
PA DHIA, and certainly you will
be able to benefit from informa
tion technology much more if
you are on test with DHIA, But
the software is not geared
toward keeping a captive audi
ence using our processing cen
ter.
“When I say that the soft
ware will be open to the develop
er, I mean that, too. All of our
components will use industry
standard databases instead of
proprietary implementations.
And all of our databases will be
documented so that if a dairy
man or his wife or children have
some experience using the
industry standard database soft
ware such as Microsoft Access or
Corel Paradox, they will also be
able to customize this program .
to whatever level their skill
allows We will document how to
do that, and we will support peo
ple who want to do that kind of
thing I challenge anybody to
produce a software program in
the DHIA system right now that
allows you to actually take the
fields out of a DHIA report and
plunk them down into a spread
sheet or a word processor, as is
They simply aren’t designed to
function-with anyone else’s soft
ware, and they really aren’t
designed to allow you to do any
amount of tailoring - especially
outside of the vendor’s program
itself Getting data out in more
than a couple of pretty standard
ways is like pulling teeth
Compared to the ease of integra
tion or data movement of
Windows ‘95 programs, what
DHIA farm programs have
offered in the past are a joke ”
“Third, our programs for
farm management will be a
suite, and while the package will
be well integrated and there will
be some advantages to buying
the whole thing, you won’t have
to if you’re only raising heifers,
then just buy the heifer pro
gram. If all you want is some
MUN or SCC analysis in addi
tion to the raw numbers that
come back from your lab, then
you can buy the labAnofyst
module, and nothing else ”
Deflecting Boyer from the
Big Picture is difficult, but
eventually I nail him down on
some specifics of what Heifer ‘9B
will offer. It will have features
that replace the existing Heifer
Management Program that
DHIA has run on paper for
about 10 years. These include:
user defined health, repro, and
status codes, events, action
reports, stocks inventory reports
sorted on a variety of criteria,
growth and anticipated freshen
ing data and genetic summaries.
In addition the new program
will offer the ability to produce
reports, charts and graphs on
the fly, and will have a number
of powerful data entry features
that make repetitive keypunch
ing simpler and less error-prone
“Our target user for data entry
was a DHIA technician slaving
over a keyboard with 35-45
herds. If we can make life a little
easier for that group, it should
make data entry much more tol-
erable for those who only have
one herd to deal with.” Does that
mean PA DHIA’s technicians
will carry the new program 9
“Absolutely,” Boyer responds
“Every one If a farmer decides
to have a DHIA technician run
the program for him on his
behalf instead of buying it and
operating it on his own, that’s a
benefit of DHIA membership ”
Employees’ Summer Conference
SCOTT WILLIAMS
Training Coordinator
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co.) - During a recent PA DHIA
field staff meeting plans for the
Annual Employees’ Summer
Conference were finalized. The
agenda is packed with interest
ing information for both field
technicians and office staff as
well as an awards ceremony to
recognize our outstanding
employees for 1998. This year’s
conference will emphasize our
new heifer program and the
upcoming cow module David
Bigelow, our new marketing
Marketing and Customer
Service Takes Priority
DAVID BIGELOW
Marketing Manager
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co ) - An aggressive marketing
program has been launched and
is proving to be highly successful
judging by the amount of new
herds that are being enrolled
throughout the PA DHIA service
With the availability of a
newly priced USDA approved
Owner Sampler program as well
as the customary 2X and
AM/PM programs, new member
Fine Tuning With
MUN Testing
DAVID BIGELOW
Marketing Manager
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co) - Reproductive health and
the balance of the ration are two
of the most affected areas when
the milk urea nitrogen averages
fall out of the recommended cri
teria Are your average days to
first service below 75 days 9
Keep in mind, days open over
100 days costs the dairyman
anywhere from 1 to 3 dollars a
day per animal Does your calv
ing interval fall between the
range of 12.5 to 12 8 months? Is
your first service conception rate
50% or greater? Improvement of
estrous detection from 40 to 50%
at 50% conception means a net
profit of $34.00/cow/year and a
50 to 60%> estrous detection at
50% conception means a net
profit of $22 00/cow/year Are
you culling more than 25% o£.
total animals culled due to
reproduction 9 If so, the milk
urea nitrogen test from PA
DHIA may be able to assist you
with your total dairy herd man
agement
Feel free to contact Dean
Amick at 800-344-8378 if you
have any questions or would like
a representative to stop by your
farm to explain your records or
begin a testing program
An ancillary benefit of that,
according to Boyer, is that tech
nicians and dairymen will be
able to trade data diskettes and
share help and program tips
There will also be some good
ies in the new program for the
more traditional DHIA member
with registered cattle, including
the ability to export calves to the
Holstein Associations E-Z pro-
manager, will present some of
his ideas for improving customer
service and technicians skills
Another speaker will enlighten
everyone on ways to handle
stress not only on the job but
also in everyday life.
The summer conference is a
fun and educational time for
technicians and employees We
try to encourage all employees to
qttend so they can partake in
the fun and fellowship with
technicians from all parts of the
state This year the conference
will be held in Grantville, Penn
sylvania at the end of June
enlistment has increased at a
near record pace
Recently at the spring techni
cian's conferences, emphasis
was placed on excellent cus
tomer service PA DHIA techni
cians remain committed to pro
viding top notch service to their
dairymen These services
include same-day test reports,
tagged calves, updating calf
books, and reporting any other
pertinent information PA DHIA
technicians will be servicing and
providing herd management
information in a more aggres
sive manner in the future
Do you really feel that your
herd management needs are
being met satisfactorily through
another DHIA organization 9 PA
DHIA has an industry best of
83% usable records being used
for genetic evaluations by the
USDA This greatly affects the
young sire programs and the
ability to merchandise cattle
both domestically and world
wide PA DHIA members own a
full service DHIA that includes
field, processing, and laboratory
services which is extremely
helpful in making quick adjust
ments within each program By
utilizing the PA DHIA somatic
cell report a dairyman can drop
one SCC Code (4 to 3) and
increase profits by $2,400.00 per
year based on 50 cows and
$l2 00 cwt. milk price. Reducing
the ca'ving interval from 14 to
13 months increases profits by
$4,500 00 Reducing breeding
services per cow from 2 2 to 1 7
will save $250 00 per year in
semen cost alone using $lO 00
per unit semen
PA DHIA provides the most
up-to-date and accurate dairy
management programs in the
country Please feel free to con
tact the PA DHIA office at 800-
344-8378 if we can assist you
with the interpretation of your
records of if you would like to
enroll in our testing programs
gram, or to register calves elec
tronically using “sketchless” ID
options from both the Jersey and
Holstein registry associations
In addition, the new program
has the ability to record and cat
alog calves by digital picture
identification
“Pictures 9 ” I ask, a little sur
prised. “You mean 1 ike with a
digital camera 9 ”
‘Yes, pictures ” He replies,
“this seems to be the thing that
grabs everybody, when we take
the program out to shows, and
so on. The timing between this
and the advent of digital cam
eras has led a lot of other folks to
ask your very question But real
ly there are at least three differ
ent ways you would be able to
use this program with photo
graphic images Digital cam
eras, of course Or just a good
old 35 mm camera with a color
scanner that you can buy for
$l5O or less A third option take
the pictures from a 35 mm roll of
film and have your developer
put the images on diskette
instead of paper or slides In fact
the last option is the one I would
recommend as being cost effec
tive for most people With he lat
est Kodak 800 speed ‘Max’ film
you can take pictures of young
animals in lower light conditions
than is possible with a digital
camera Digital photography is
coming, and it is convenient, but
I’d say the mainstream cost and
quality are still a good two years
away ”
Boyer also notes that the pro
gram will be fully Internet capa
ble, making it possible for a
dairyman to upload backups of
his calves and even m-house
generated reports, graphs, and
(of course) pictures, if he so
desires He will also be able to
specify that he wants ‘prettier’
versions of the printed reports
available for sale, display, or
other marketing purposes
ply by making an online requpst
that the report or barncard ,be
printed in State College
“Actually, although PA DPjIA
was the first to see the impor
tance of the Internet in our busi
ness, and though we’re still
miles ahead of other processing
centers in the exploitation of
this technology, the terminology
has become a pet peeve of mine
A lot of people keep referring to
the Heifer ‘9B program as
Heifer Net Heifer Net is N-O-T
Heifer ‘9B Heifer Net is an add
on product that would allow peo
ple to connect to buyers via the
Internet In the Heifer Net ser
vice, a prospective buyer would
request, say, 500 Heifers In
addition, he might specify that
they should be bred and con
firmed pregnant, or have a min
imum parent average PTA for
protein, or whatever _Makmg
that information available from
farmers already using our
Heifer ‘9B program would be
automatic - for any who chooses
to participate. But this service
would be a natural addition for
people already using Heifer ‘9B
And again, let’s emphasize flexi
bility. Nobody would be required
to buy into Heifer Net just
because he owned Heifer ‘9B
What else is on tap for the
DRPC in the next couple of
months? Stay tuned.