Whereas…

Whereas when using the Lactanet site for identifying animals, the lack of Herd Management numbers can make finding animals tricky.

Whereas using Lactanet’s mobile app should provide better links to the animal’s genetic evaluation summary page on the web site.

Therefore…

Therefore, it is proposed that Lactanet add Herd Management numbers to the animals in their system for display on the web site.

Further be it resolved that the Lactanet Mobile App direct customers to the animal’s genetics profile page on the Lactanet web site with easy access to the other pages.

Whereas…

Whereas a large portion of the Colour Breed breeders have mixed herds and small populations of some breeds.

Whereas having herd averages published is great publicity for the smaller breeds and important data for people to see.

Whereas Breed associations such as Ayrshire Canada recognize herd averages with as few as five completed records while Lactanet requires ten.

Therefore…

Therefore, be it resolved that Lactanet recognize herd averages with as few as five completed records in their annual reports.

Note: For official annual herd averages, Lactanet requires a minimum of ten completed lactations for Holstein, Jersey and Ayrshire breeds and a minimum of five completed lactations is used for Brown Swiss, Canadienne, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn.

Whereas…

Whereas more and more purebred animals show a coat with white spots.

Whereas an “OCS” white spot must be recorded in the herdbook without affecting the purity of an animal.

Whereas many breeders fail to provide such information.

Whereas the mode of transmission is not clearly defined.

Therefore…

Therefore, it is proposed that, at the time of milk recording, the identification of “OCS” is added to the animal’s information and that an annual statistical follow-up is made.

Note: OCS refers to Off Colour Spot and this code is used by some breed associations to identify animals with white or off-colour markings that are not representative of the breed characteristics in terms of coat colour and/or pattern. Often the off colour spot is found on the underside of the belly or the animal has a white core in the tail switch. When observed, OCS must be reported to the breed association at the time of application for herdbook registration or if develops after registered. For some breeds, reporting OCS may affect the animal’s eligible level of purity for herdbook registration.

Whereas…

Whereas more and more cows have another calving within the same year;

Whereas they are penalized because they are dried off before 305 days;

Whereas lactation persistency is a beautiful and great quality in our cows that helps increase the profitability of our herds.

Therefore…

Therefore, it is proposed that the BCA of cows dried off between 280 and 305 days in milk be calculated based on the 305-day projected yields at the time of dry off and that the BCA of cows who reach a lactation of 305 days be adjusted upwards when it is higher than the BCA based on the projected yields.

Whereas…

Whereas some of the data that best reflect a cow’s profitability are her production per day of life;

Whereas the type of herd management applied on the farm can impact BCAs (dry period before 305 DIM, extended lactation).

Therefore…

Therefore it is proposed that the results of the accumulation of Milk, Fat and Protein per day of life be official publishable information on the same level as BCAs.

Whereas …

Whereas technological advances and many milking systems provide daily data on milk weights, components and SCC and;

Whereas more and more producers are no longer using official and unofficial recording systems.

Therefore …

Therefore, it is proposed that milk recording find quick and achievable solutions to deliver a service adapted to clients using daily data collection systems in order to collectively retain producers and to keep important data in the system.

Whereas…

Whereas Lactanet’s vision is to provide the premier source of information and innovative solutions for Canadian dairy farmers while ensuring global leadership in the dairy industry.

Whereas, many dairy farmers have invested heavily in milking technology that provides daily data (milk weights, fat and protein measures, SCC) to use for herd management. There is also a huge amount of data being generated (i.e. milk speed, number of visits) that is not being collected at all from these herds that could be used for breed improvement.

Whereas, due to increasing operating costs and the stagnant price of milk, many producers are looking at ways to cut costs, if milk recording no longer provides them an abundance of novel information for herd management, it will be discontinued

Whereas, with less and less herds contributing their data to the national database the overall quality of the industry’s data will be compromised. Additionally, data from these farms would no longer be available to contribute to bull proofs or be used to support genomic numbers in the future.

Therefore…

Therefore, be it resolved that, Lactanet develop a system of monitoring the quality of information received from farms with daily data collection and work with milking equipment companies to facilitate this transfer of information from all farms interested in contributing their data (“publishable” and “non-publishable” data). Lactanet should be responsible for establishing the standards and procedures for collecting this on-farm, daily data.

Reference information provided by Lactanet:

Lactanet is a founding member of a global partnership (International Dairy Data Exchange Network – iDDEN) and is developing an updated global data exchange network with the objective of implementing new international standards and facilitating more efficient data exchange with on-farm systems. This initiative involves farmer owned organizations from Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Nordic countries, Austria and USA. Lactanet is also working with major dairy equipment manufacturers on the development and implementation of this new data exchange system.

Whereas…

Whereas Lactanet’s vision is to provide the premier source of information and innovative solutions for Canadian dairy farmers while ensuring global leadership in the dairy industry and;

Whereas many dairy farmers have invested heavily in milking technology that provides daily data (milk weights, fat and protein measures, SCC) to use for herd management.  There is also a huge amount of data being generated (ie: milk speed, number of visits) that is not being collected at all from herds that could be used for breed improvement and;

Whereas due to increasing operating costs and the stagnant price of milk, many producers are looking at ways to cut costs, if milk recording no longer provides them an abundance of novel information for herd management, it will be discontinued and;

Whereas with less and less herds contributing their data to the national database, the overall quality of the industry’s data will be compromised.  Additionally, data from these farms would no longer be available to contribute to bull proofs or be used to support genomic numbers in the future.

Therefore…

Therefore, be it resolved, that Lactanet create and adapt to a more cost-effective, electronic method of data collection for farms with milking technology that provides daily data, with the goal of retaining these herds as Lactanet customers and obtaining their extensive data for breed improvement and benchmarking.

Reference information provided by Lactanet:

In addition to the current eDHI service, Lactanet has a number of initiatives in progress including the automated daily collection of information from automated milking systems as well as the establishment of a more efficient data exchange process that is being developed in conjunction with international partners and major equipment manufacturers (eg. DeLaval, GEA, Lely).

Whereas …

Whereas the number of herds using Lactanet is decreasing and;

Whereas more than 11% of herds in Canada use robotic milking and continues to increase and;

Whereas robotic systems gather accurate daily data from 2-3 milkings recording approximately 900 pieces of data per cow per year.

Therefore …

Therefore, it is proposed that Lactanet work with various relevant organizations to update and modernize data collection from robotic systems with the goal of promptly providing an official milk recording option that is publishable.

Reference information provided by Lactanet:

Dairy farms with robotic milking systems represent 14% of Lactanet herds and 18% of Lactanet cows. eDHI herds represent 1% of herds and 2% of cows using Lactanet milk recording services.

Whereas…

Whereas Lactanet’s vision is to provide the premier source of information and innovative solutions for Canadian dairy farmers while ensuring global leadership in the dairy industry and;

Whereas, many dairy farmers have invested heavily in milking technology that provides daily data (milk weights, fat and protein measures, SCC) to use for herd management. There is also a huge amount of data being generated (i.e. milk speed, number of visits) that is not being collected at all from these herds that could be used for breed improvement and;

Whereas, due to increasing operating costs and the stagnant price of milk, many producers are looking at ways to cut costs; if milk recording no longer provides them an abundance of novel information for herd management, it will be discontinued and;

Whereas, with less and less herds contributing their data to the national database the overall quality of the industry’s data will be compromised. Additionally, data from these farms would no longer be available to contribute to bull proofs or be used to support genomic numbers in the future.

Therefore…

Therefore, be it resolved, that Lactanet provide a service that allows the electronic collection of production data for recording of complete, publishable records from herds with the ability to collect data from on-farm systems, with the additional goal of developing more suitable reports for these farms to add value to milk recording and to add value to existing services that no longer provide novel information to this type of producer.

Reference information provided by Lactanet:

There are currently 115,000 cows in robotic milking systems using regular DHI services where samples are collected routinely. There are an additional 13,500 cows currently enrolled in the eDHI service where milk production and sensor data (optional) is collected remotely. Most of the 950+ herds with robot milking systems also receive the specialized Robot Report – which provides performance and benchmarks on metrics unique to robot systems (eg. kg fat/box, cow refusals, robot failures, robot free time, robot milkings per day).