Calendar Report and New Lactation Reports now Available

 

The yellow Calendar Report is one of 4 optional reports now available in your DHIA information packet.  Herds under 350 cows have been receiving this report at no charge for the past few months, so you could try it on and see if it fits your management style.  Starting at the conclusion of Field Rep conferences (November 14), this report will no longer come unless you sign up for the option with your Field Rep on sample day.  All reports are always optional and you can start or stop them on any sample day.  The Calendar Report will cost $1 per herd per test.

Three other new reports are also available with this update of the software Field Reps use.  One is the DHIA 210 Lactation Report.  It features sample day milk and SCC for the last 10 sample days on each cow.  Print is a little smaller than the MN DHIA Lactation Report, and there are less cows per page (more paper), but there is more information per cow.  Cost is once cent per cow.  Your DHIA Field Rep has a sample of this report if you would like to see it before deciding.

 

The other new Lactation Report available is the DHIA 220 which includes the last 6 sample days and a column for action needed on each cow.  Cost is also one cent per cow.

 

You can order any, some, all, or none of these lactation reports.

 

Aborts

 

One of the great “frosting on the cake” benefits to dairy producers and the entire dairy industry is the use of DHIA data in the USDA Genetic Evaluation Program.  For data to flow into this system and for it to be used for everyone’s benefit to evaluate the AI Sires available, standards must be applied to the data.  One of those standards relates to cows that Abort. 

 

If a cow starts a lactation with an abort, it will certainly result in an abnormal production record.  In order for that record not to be used against the Sire data, there are data standards on how to deal with Aborts to not impact sire summaries.  When you report an abort, the only impact that has off your farm is to flag the data at USDA so it is not used in sire evaluations.

 

According to the National Dairy Herd Improvement Program Uniform Operation Procedures “13. Cows Aborting or Calving Prematurely: Cows freshening 30 or more days prior to the expected calving date, whether in milk or dry, will be coded as abnormal. When a breeding date is available, a cow calving less than 30 days prior to the expected calving date will be considered a normal calving.  If a cow aborted while in milk and had carried a calf less than 152 days, her current records will continue without interruption. If a breeding date is not available, and the cow aborted while in milk for less than 200 days, her current record will continue without interruption. Except for the specific situations above, the current records will end and a new lactation will begin.”

 

Rather than worry about all that detail, please simply report the abort to the Field Rep and let their software deal with it.  There will be no affect on Rolling Herd Average or other DHIA management data.

 

“Hooked” on DHIA

Our congratulations and best wishes go out to Daryl Hook of Tyler, MN as we celebrates 25 years of dedicated service to producers in SW Minnesota.  Daryl currently services herds in Cottonwood, Jackson, Lyon, Lincoln, Murray and Nobles Counties as well as a few large dairies in South Dakota and Iowa.  Please extend your congratulations to Daryl as he visits your farms this month. 

US Animal Health Association pushes acceptance of DHIA’s Milk ELISA Johne’s Test  Reno Nevada – October 21, 2007

 

USAHA at its Annual Meeting approved a pair of resolutions calling on USDA to incorporate the DHIA Milk ELISA Johne’s test in its Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program.  The group of scientists noted that the milk test is “comparable in accuracy to the currently available serum ELISA kits” and that approval “would allow dairy producers to access additional testing options.” 

 

The resolution goes on to the Board of Directors and then to USDA for implementation. 

 

Minnesota DHIA offers the Milk ELISA Johne’s test to all customers (and to non-customers).  The cost of the test is $5 per cow, and information is generally returned to the farm in under a week.  You select the cows or criteria for the test.   Results are available in paper or electronic format and can be sent to your Vet.  We encourage all herds considering Johne’s testing to consult with your Vet.  We test for Johne’s using the same DHIA sample collected for butterfat analysis.  The test is conducted on that sample after components and SCC are run. 

 

Over 14,000 cows have been tested at the Sauk Centre and Zumbrota labs, with just over 4% showing up positive.  Your December test might be a good time consider the Johne’s test on your herd, as we approach the new year and 2007 tax season!

 

The United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), the nation's animal health forum for over a century, is a science-based, non-profit, voluntary organization. Its 1,400 members are state and federal animal health officials, national allied organizations, regional representatives, and individual members. USAHA works with state and federal governments, universities, veterinarians, livestock producers, national livestock and poultry organizations, research scientists, the extension service and seven foreign countries to control livestock diseases in the United States. USAHA represents all 50 states, 7 foreign countries and 18 allied groups serving health, technical and consumer markets.

 

 

Fast Holiday access to DHIA information

If you have internet access, you can access your reports within seconds of processing being completed.  This will be a nice feature (and its free right now) for weekends and holidays.  You will get a message at logon that says there will be a $2 charge.  That will be covered by MN DHIA, so there will be no charge to you.  This access will save you time and if you choose to access data here instead of by mail, it will save costs to MN DHIA. 

1.       Logon to www.DRMS.org

2.       Click on LOGIN

3.       Enter Herd code and RAC (4 digit Release Code).   Please call 800.827.3442 if you need your RAC.

4.       First time only: Sign up for Web Reports

5.       Click here to display WebReport (Green bar)

6.       View this month’s reports as well as past months (only for months you have processed here)

7.       You can download the reports to your computer if you wish to look at them any time during the month.  They will be saved under sample date so next month you will still be able to look at this month’s reports.

 

If your Field Rep has entered your email address into their computer, you will receive an email telling you when your herd has processed, and providing a link to the logon page on the DRMS website. 

 

Our goal is to optionally attach reports to an email again after some other projects are completed.  Until the new options screens are programmed, you will continue to receive the paper reports.  To prevent this, have your Field Rep send us a memo with your herd on sample day.

 

If you would like help getting this set up on your computer, please ask your Field Rep on sample day or call Robyn at 800.827.3442, extension 19.

 

Vet Checks

 

Regular herd health visits and Pregnancy checking by a Veterinarian are an important part of dairy management for most dairies. If you do not have on-farm Dairy Management software such as Scout or Dairy Comp, your Field Representative can give you a customized Vet List that will give you more information than action lists, and only include the cows that you want checked.

Cows can be “Flagged” for Vet checks for these options and more:

• Fresh Check—check all Fresh cows after (__) Days in Milk
• Preg Check—check for Pregnancy after (__) Days Since Bred
• Re-Preg—confirm the Pregnancy for cows that were previously found Pregnant (__) Days Since Conceived
• Missed Heat—check cows that were previously Bred and Found open, but haven’t been Re-bred.
• No Heat—check cows that are over (__) Days in Milk and have not yet been bred.

 

It is important that you discuss the options with your Field Representative to create the report that you need. The default report has 10 options checked, but these options can easily be turned on or off as desired. If you want just the cows to be Pregnancy checked, that is what you can get.

Some of the benefits of using the Vet report include:

• Having the ability to add or remove options like those listed above.
• Setting the date ahead from the DHIA test date to the date you will have the Vet there. The DSLH (Days Since Last Heat/Breeding) tells the Vet how far along the Pregnancy should be for cows that are Preg Checked.
• The report can be sorted by PEN and then by BNAME if you use Pens.
• The report will include Items like LACT, DIM, MILK, and Times Bred, and other items like SCC can be added.
• The report can also show previous Events that have been recorded for the cow.

 

Here is an example of a vet report for a herd that has cows divided into PENS, and uses the vet report for Pregnancy checking and Re-confirming the Pregnancies.

 

BNAME   PEN L DIM MILK TBRD DSLH VETC    BRDHT BNAME      

======= === = === ==== ==== ==== ==== ======== =======    

9         1 3 107   48    1   42 PREG ________ 9       ________________________________________________________________

     7/25/07 FRESH                       9/27/07 BRED    377         0 

 

84        4 2 412   77    4  165 REPG ________ 84      ________________________________________________________________

     3/27/07 BRED    200H3402  O 0       5/27/07 BRED    200H2007  P 0 

     4/30/07 BRED    200H3407  O 0       7/11/07 PREG    45 DAYS   

 

• Cow # 9 is in Pen 1, she is 42 Days Since Breeding (DSLH), and is on the report under Vet Check (VETC) to be PREG checked.
• Cow 84 is in Pen 4 and is on the list to be re-checked (REPG) because she is 165 Days Since Bred.
• This report is set up to show the last 4 Events that have been recorded during this lactation.
• The report includes a line for recording the results of the Vet Check.

 

Here is an example of a vet report from Scout. This report has more items included in the report heading, and has the option turned off to show additional Events that have been recorded. So there is only 1 line per cow.

 

 

BNAME   STRG L RPRO      DIM TBRD BRDHT  MILK     EDAY EVT     REM       DSLH VETC BNAME      

======= ==== = ======= ===== ==== ===== ===== ======== ======= ======== ===== ==== =======    

 

31         1 2 BRED      155    1  7/28    62  7/28/07 BRED    -           45 PREG 31      ____________________________

 

72         1 2 PREG      319    4  4/19    60  6/ 5/07 PREG    47DAYS     145 REPG 72      ____________________________

 

Quality Certification Audits

 

In order for data to flow to USDA for Genetic Evaluations, and as a measure of the quality of service and accuracy of data being provided to dairy farm managers, the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (AI, PDCA, DHIA, USDA) has audits conducted on DHIA service providers.  The audit of Minnesota DHIA field services was conducted in October and we were certified again, as was our meter repair and recalibration center.  The milk labs at Barron, Sauk Centre, and Zumbrota have also been certified.  Not all field service providers and labs are certified.  When performance does not meet the standards set by the CDCB, an entity is made provisional and given the opportunity to correct it’s shortfalls and come into compliance with the standards.  Currently the Dairy Records Processing Center (DRPC) that about 20 of our Minnesota herds use – AgriTech Analytics is listed as provisional by Quality Certification Services.  The DRPC that most herds have transferred to, Dairy Records Management Systems, is fully certified.  For more information you can logon to the QCS website - www.quality-certification.com.

 

 

On sample day, ask your Field Rep about:

 

1. Customizing the Vet list so it contains all the information (and only the information) your vet needs to zip through herd health and speed data entry afterwards for your Field Rep.  Maybe you still want the action lists or the Calendar report for day to day management, but the Vet list is designed by Vets for Vets.  Many of the leading dairy Vets in MN already bring this along after they have accessed your herd by computer.  If yours doesn’t – ask your Field Rep to leave the list (the list will be current as of Vet Check Day if you give the Field Rep the date when you ask for the report).

 

2. New lower prices on Fearing tags.  Get large management tags, pre numbered or blank, high retention and low priced button tags with American ID, or the USDA approved RFID tags at lower prices effective November 1.  Ask your Field Rep to show you the tagprice.pdf.

 

 

October Quality Leaders (Records Processed in October)

	SCC	Cows			SCC	Cows
DAN AND JOLENE SCHLANGEN	41	67		LYNN WAEGE	100	48
MARK TITERA	43	26		BRUCE RUNDHAUG	100	60
BOB AND BARB PETIT	43	62		DAVID SMITH	101	30
JASON + NANCY BACHMANN	51	35		JOHN AND STACI SCHERBER	101	56
JKG HAVEN DAIRY	58	12		KIMM'S DAIRY	101	86
DAVID SCHUUR	61	56		ROLLING SPUR CATTLE CO.	101	1284
SCHEFERS BROS	61	78		URBAN BROS	103	61
TRAVIS-RICHARD SCHLOSSER	65	35		JOPPS CENTURY FARMS	103	98
TIM HINRICHS	66	65		D & J  DAIRY	103	104
HAPPKE HOLSTEIN FARM	66	69		BECHTOLD BROS	103	123
CURT + JACKIE BEKIUS	66	79		HY-RIDGE HOLSTEINS LLC.	104	308
DAVID FLOM	69	27		WALLY W WIESE	105	28
JOHN+MARY RADEMACHER	69	119		JEREMY E BEYER	105	41
MIKE + ROSIE ZEIG	70	32		FRANK PATRICK	105	59
ROBERT MILLER	70	66		AARON WIENER	105	80
OAT HILL DAIRY	70	86		CULLBARR FARMS	105	93
JERON NATHE	70	234		MARSHALL KORN	106	77
LUX-URY HOLSTEINS INC.	72	122		MARK KLEHR	107	53
ZUMBRO VIEW FARMS LLC	74	49		WICHMAN FARMS INC	107	155
HABERER HILL DAIRY	75	23		SELKE FARMS	107	172
BLUE LAKE DAIRY	76	83		L & D DAIRY	107	328
DANIEL HALLBERG	79	64		CRONK DAIRY	109	36
PETERM&LYNN HENDRICKSON	79	67		JEFF MILLER	109	57
DONALD + DARLENE MATROS	81	73		DEAN GABBERT	110	54
STACY & JULIE MILLER	81	82		GERALD SEITZER	110	60
LARRY AND DIANNA BRAEM	84	40		DEAN + ELIZABETH JOHNSON	110	79
JEFF & JULIE KETCHUM	86	22		ALICIA THURK	111	30
WINTER VIEW HOLSTEIN'S	87	38		DARAN AND CHRISTY BORTH	111	70
DALE ERICKSON	87	43		DEVOINE KRUSE	111	141
ART AND JANE STUMPF	88	53		BRUCE AND JILL BOETTCHER	111	143
JAMES AND PAUL GREGORY	88	93		GREG BERNSTETTER	112	39
CIRCLE DRIVE HOLSTEINS	89	18		ROGER ALDINGER	112	62
JOHN WASNER DAIRY	89	30		SCHREIBER BROS	112	84
STEVE TRISCO	89	55		KEVIN & CARAL SCHAFER	113	37
PATRICK BRODEEN	90	46		MIKE + BETH DEPPA	113	62
DEAN FRISLE	90	70		CHRISTY EN CHRISTOPHERSON	113	97
BENGTSON FAMILY FARM	93	41		DANIEL JOHNSON	114	54
RONALD AND SUSAN JOHNSON	93	63		CHAIN O LAKES DAIRY	114	178
WAYNE KOEPP	93	135		KENNETH ANDERSON	115	30
PAUL & MARY ZIMMERMAN	94	61		PAGE DAIRY	115	49
KIDMAN DAIRY	95	106		MIKE MOTL+KIM HARFF	115	87
CLARK DAIRY	96	36		FORTSCH FAMILY FARM	115	90
LARRY + BECKY RABE	97	42		MEADOW LARK DAIRY	115	293
JEFF PETERMEIER	98	18		KEVIN & CHERYL KRUIZENGA	116	58
ROBERT SLATER	98	29		BRIAN & MARY KOLLMAN	116	154
RKB DAIRY	98	88		ZEPPER DAIRY	117	67
REMIGER DAIRY LLC	98	114		ALAN OVERLAND	118	24
TERRY KOLSTAD	99	25		SUNKREST DAIRY	118	30
HOWARD STUEBER	100	35		STEVE MARTIN	119	50
REWITZER+SONS	100	38		GARY HOFFMAN	119	157