D4-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, December 18, 1999
Diversity is Part of the Plan
DAVID BIGELOW
PA DHIA Marketing
Manager
STATE COLLEGE (Centre
Co ) “Our technician, Ella
Bicksler, is a reliable, accu
rate and very dependable
person,” exclaims David
Wolfskill of Mar Ann Farms
in Berks County “Same-day
test reports are very useful to
the daily management of our
herd.” Mar Ann Farms is a
partnership formed by David
and his father, Mark
Wolfskill. The farm is com
prised of 110 cows with a
herd average of 23,000 on a
2X milking program. Total
mixed ration round out the
DAVID BIGELOW
PADHIA
Marketing Manager
State College (Centre Co.)
- PA DHIA is now taking
orders on a first come, first
served basis, for a new gener
ation of diary herd manage
ment software with point and
click operations that brings
the power of Microsoft
Windows to your desktop or
parlor For just one low price
of $299.95 plus tax, a PA
DHIA dairyman can receive
the new state of the art Barn
Owl 2000 program which
Lancaster County dairy
men have received the ser
vices of Jay Risser, a PA
DHIA technician for an
astounding 47 years. Having
won many awards through
out his career, the optimum
was winning Herb Gilmore
Superior Technician Award
and also being inducted into
the PA DHIA Hall of Fame.
Both Jay and his wife, Lois
Anne, make a super team in
providing farm management
services to their customers.
Lois Anne assists where
Valencia, PA - Dairyman to Dairyman is a weekly column featuring George Cudoc, Consulting
Dairyman for PA DHIA. He can be reached by calling the PA DHIA Service Center (800-344-
8378) or directly at his office 724-625-8971, fax 724-625-8972, or you can send email to
GCudoc@fyi.net
Question: We started a prefresh program back in August and we wondered if there is any
improvement with our fresh cow production. How would we be able to tell?
Being a fn m behcvci of the cliche about pictuies being worth a thousand words, I decided to use '°
some graphics that wcie applicable to this question. This giaph represents the time that we first £ ,
see cows calving after the new “transition” progiam. There are 25 cows that have freshened since !l 7
& 6
9-1-99 that average 80# milk at 36 days m milk. We also see that 84% of these cows averaged § 5
over 80# We can now look at the cows that fieshened just before this management change as
well as those that calved at the exact same time last year.
feeding program utilizing the
feed being raised on the 510
acres of owned and 300 acres
of rented ground. With over
fifty years of testing through
PA DHIA, improvements con
tinue to be at the top of the
agenda for Mar Ann Farms.
An expansion program cur
rently under way with a new,
automated parlor just over
the hill will keep this aggres
sive operation on the cutting
edge of technology. Good
udder health practices
including post and pre-dip
ping along with using indi
vidual towels are instrumen
tal in keeping somatic cell
counts at acceptable ranges.
Milk Urea Nitrogen (MUN) is
includes the herd manage
ment, heifer management
and the lab analysis pro
grams. heifer 98 and
lahAnalyst are also sold sepa
rately. Milk components such
as fat, protein, lactose, somat
ic cell count and milk urea
nitrogen can be downloaded
into lahAnalyst directly from
PA DHIA, giving the somatic
cell report, milk urea nitro
gen report and other impor
tant herd management tools
the second they’re available.
Imagine going to work imme
diately balancing the ration
and identifying the hot cows.
Jay Risser’s Service Continues 47 Years
Jay Risser, PA DHIA tech
nician serving Lancaster
County for 47 years.
Dairyman to Dairyman
Written by: George Cudoc, PA DHIA Consulting Dairyman
(Turn to Page D 5)
important to the manage
ment of the farm as they
work with their Agway con
sultant to balance the
rations.
David Wolfskill is quick to
point out that the hired labor
plays an extremely important
role in the success of the
dairy operation. Also, David
recognizes the benefits
reaped through PA DHIA,
including breeding and dry
off information, which pays
out great dividends m the
end.
Call PA DHIA today at
800-DHI-TEST to cash in on
the benefits of being on a
testing program.
Barn Owl Has Arrived
Graphing and generation
of tailor made reports that
you want along with internet
access through the world
wide web for convenience in
today’s high paced world
makes Barn Owl 2000 the
best software available for
dairymen wanting to be on
the cutting edge of technolo
gy. Setting parameters for
breeding, vet checks and
growth information as well as
herd health, pregnancy and
treatment codes allows for
plenty of flexibility. Feed
inventory such as feeds fed,
needed in keeping up with
the demanding schedule.
Lester Newswanger, a
Lancaster dairyman from New
Holland, is quick to point out
that Jay does a good job and
keeps things up-to-date by
providing an excellent service
base. Lester won the High
Milk Award for Lancaster
County in 1996 as well as
placing first in the Herd
Management Award the
same year.
Individual cow records and
Pictured left to right Nathan Hearn, Kyle Keeney (5
years old), Harold Keeney, Nancy Wolfskin, Mark Wolfskin,
David Wolfskin, and Ella Bicksler (15-year veteran of PA
DHIA).
feed history, feed cost and
other pertinent nutritional
information are also included
in Barn Owl 2000. System
requirements include
Windows® 95, 98 NT disk
space of 25 Mb with 16 Mb of
RAM.
A great price break for PA
DHIA dairymen that are
updating from another herd
management program is
$159.95 plus tax for the com
plete Barn Owl 2000 pack
age. For dairymen updating
Dairy Plan purchased from
PA DHIA get a free copy of
Barn Owl 2000.
somatic cell, along with the
breeding records are used
extensively in managing the
Newswanger herd. Milk Urea
Nitrogen (MUN) levels main
tained an 11 mg/dl average
over the past year. The herd
average of 26,657 of milk
with 835 lbs. of protein and
996 lbs. of fat is evidence that
Lester takes record keeping
seriously and all of this is
accomplished on a 2X milking
schedule. Currently, there are
50 acres on the farm that are
MILK PRODUCTION FREQUENCY AFTER PREFRESH
2+ LACTATIONS CALVED AFTER 9-1-99 AND 36 DIM
£ 4
00%Of 25 00% 0t25
Program updates and sup
port include version 1.1 being
the next update, as a compli
mentary update. The manual
on CD with program is free,
however, a hard copy would
be an extra $l5. This pro
gram is an easy self
installing program which is
also Y2K compliant.
Make the dream of imme
diate herd management
results to yourself by calling
Dan Smith at 1-800-344-8378
and order your copy of Barn
Owl 2000 today.
being utilized for corn and
alfalfa along with another 4
rented acres. Total mixed
rations are being fed under
the supervision of Sam
Oberholtzer of Sensenig Feed
Mill.
PA DHIA currently enjoys
the mstinction of being the
best in the DHIA business
with 87 percent of all records
being used by USDA for sire
evaluations along with tech
nicians offering same-day
test reports.