February 14, 2002

March Dairy Meeting Focuses on Using Records to Become More Profitable

Reproduction challenges and high somatic cell counts are two challenges for dairy producers. Helping producers make advancements in both areas by improving their records and analysis of them is the focus of an educational meeting for dairy producers Tuesday, March 19, in Bismarck..

The meeting is co-sponsored by the Heart of America Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) and the North Dakota State University Extension Service, according to J. W. Schroeder, NDSU Extension Dairy Specialist. The program will feature Ed Kreykes, dairy consultant, who uses PCDART to monitor and identify these problems in dairy herds.

The meeting will run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Register by March 5. The fee is $55 for one person or $75 for two people from the same farm. Please call Schroeder at (701) 231-7663 for a registration form. For more information, contact Schroeder or Jason Richie, North Dakota/South Dakota DHIA office at (800)383-4762.

Kreykes graduated from the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1979. He was in a mixed practice in Hartley, Iowa, until 1990. At that time he started his current dairy production medicine practice, Dairy Health Services, in Sanborn, Iowa. Kreykes provides nutrition, reproduction, record analysis, and other production medical services for dairies in 10 counties in western Iowa where herd sizes range from 40 to 1,000 cows. He will demonstrate how he uses DHIA records to identify problems in reproduction and milk quality.

The meeting is not limited to DHIA users. Any producer interested in learning more about effective records analysis is encouraged to sign up.

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Source: J.W. Schroeder, (701) 231-7663, jschroed@ndsuext.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu