DHIA Employees Reach Milestones

Southeast District - Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted, and Winona Counties
     Friday March 12 at Del’s Café in St. Charles on Main 507.932.4514

Wisconsin section of Northeast District – All herds in Wisconsin, north of interstate 94
     Thursday March 18 at the courthouse in Barron Wisconsin at 10:30 a.m.

The Minnesota DHIA Annual Meeting will be held on Thursday March 25, 2004 at the VFW in Zumbrota MN.

Minnesota DHIA customers continue to make progress in improving milk quality. The average SCC has averaged over 40,000 lower per month for each of the last 8 months. There were 579 herds with sample day averages under 200,000, and 176 herds were still over 700,000. 98% of DHIA herds tested for individual cow SCC in February. The median average SCC for February was 318,000.

DHIA Service Reminders All reports are optional on each sample day. All herds should be offered monthly tests (12 per year) as a service standard – 56% of MnDHIA herds have 12 tests in the last 365 days, and we are now supplying twice a month service to one dairy Herds may ask for a special test at any time, for example you can have a test any time to help evaluate SCC. Individual cow mastitis culturing services are available to all farms. If your regular field rep is not trained in this area, we will supply one who is for this special sampling. Computers should accompany Field Reps to farms, with printed reports available on the farm on sample day (this does happen on nearly all farms – if it isn’t happening on yours – it is an exception). The Stearns DHIA Lab provides mastitis culturing, water testing, manure testing, feed, and forage testing services. Call 800-369-2697 for details or sample containters, or visit www.stearnsdhialab.com

Measure of Accuracy and Service

We take this sample day comparison and combine it with all the other sample days for the last year to give us an annual comparison to milk sold. We find that over time, the numbers tend to balance out. 67% of Minnesota DHIA herds are at or under national average of 103% milk sold. The average is not 100% because of milk fed to calves, cats, kids, and milk that is produced but not put in the tank (high SCC cows for example).

93% of our herds are at or below 106%, and only 43 herds are above 110%. Take the average herd with 100 cows and a 20,000 pound herd average. If that herd is at 110% milk sold, it is producing an average of 10% more milk on each sample day than it is selling on the days ahead of sample day. If our numbers are reported correctly, 10% of 20,000 pounds equals 2,000 pounds per cow per year, times 100 cows equals 200,000 pounds of milk being produced on that farm that is not being sold. That amounts to $26,000 at $13 per cwt.

All Field Reps have a troubleshooting form that can prove helpful in looking at causes of abnormal milk sold. Abnormal herds may have an on-farm visit to help solve the problem, after completing the troubleshooting form.

The weakness of the system is that it is based on the accuracy of the bulk tank. The most common cause of abnormal milk sold percents is the milking system used in combination with meters. We note that on a huge portion of the herds we service, this is not a problem.

Milk shipment records should be available to the DHIA Field Rep on the form left by the milk hauler.

Year End Data Publication