This message was sent to us from Paul Meyer, Alta Genetics Inc. Marketing Manager, Products & Programs. It is in response to Karen Knutsen”””””””’’s blog posting on June 22nd about her trip to the recent Alta Advantage Showcase. Thanks, Paul, for your kind words and for the further information regarding the Advantage® program and its pursuit to eliminate as much as possible the errors in a bull”””””””’’s proof due to mis-ID!

Thanks for the great story Karen - and it was great to have you “on the bus”, as it were, for a day. The Alta Advantage® Showcase, New York tour concluded Friday with tremendous feedback from those who traveled from afar to take part. Many of the comments do harken to the marketing line we use to promote the tour: “Seeing is Believing”. Many who have taken part both now and in the inaugural tour last October at World Dairy Expo time tell us that they have heard about Alta”””””””’’s Advantage® program, but until they see it first hand, it”””””””’’s hard to understand why it is different. After all, these bulls get a proof much like any other bull.

Paul

Outgoing Holstein Association President Randy Gross addressed the State Leadership Luncheon yesterday.  He talked about analyzing state organizations according to the S.W.O.T system-which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  Strengths and Weaknesses are mostly internal to an organization such as staffing and membership, while Opportunities and Threats can nearly always be categorized as coming from sources external to an organization, such as new ways to promote in terms of Opportunity, or Competition, in terms of Threats, for example.  State organizations are historically the lifeblood of the National organization, and the leaders of these entities can make a big difference in terms of the success of both.

Brenda and Stanley Headge, Kow Kastle Holsteins in Hico, TX, and Elwin Ligget and Nancy Butler, also of Texas, were on the tour. When we were at lunch at Rippavilla, conversations progressed about various subjects, and I asked of the table we were all sitting at with Mr. and Mrs. Bill Ehrke from Wisconsin, about how people in their areas felt about alternative energies, and particularly wind turbine power. Turns out Elwin’s farm has been the site of a feasibility study for the big wind mills in that area and he just signed a fifty year lease for at least one unit. He had some first hand experience in readying for this rising trend and it was interesting to hear his “take” on the subject.

Today we left Opryland for the Major Dairy, near Lebanon, operated by Roy and Diane Majors and sons Seth, Jared, and Josh.  Again, much hard work and preparation was undertaken in getting ready for the tour.  We saw some beautiful Durhams, and the Majors are milking 15 daughters.  We also saw several animals featured in their ads including the VG-85 Chairman Tina, a daughter of BW Marsh Tomara, that was one of the high sellers in the High Profile sale at Madison a few years ago and went to Regancrest.  We saw the EX-91 Emory that is from KED Mark Justine.  She has been a real brood cow for the Major family and standing beside her was her VG-87 Stormatic daughter that was one of three VG full sisters.  Again, real southern hospitality was shown as we were given a tour of the 1860”’’s era dwelling that the Majors renovated and raised their family in, and which they love.  It was another example of historical pride and preservation in Tennessee, but it wasn””t over yet.  The Wilson County fairgrounds was the site for a great catered lunch.  This facility includes a famous pioneer village restoration called Fiddler”’’s Grove.  Log cabins, the law office of Sam Houston and many other historical buildings that have been or are being restored dot the landscape.

After another wonderful day on the pre-convention tour, it was time to head to Knoxville where the “real deal” begins tomorrow.  Join us at www.holsteinworld.com for continuous updates and information as events happen!

A special treat in the tour of the Antebellum home at Rippavilla, near Columbia, was our stop after the farm tours yesterday. Built before the civil war, this great mansion is now owned by the Saturn Company that has a manufacturing plant nearby. It is a farm history and historic site, and played quite a role during the civil war, passing in occupancy between both armies. The absolute beauty and integrity of the restoration is reinforced by the collection of a lot of original furnishings. At this home built originally by a Frenchman, we had a wonderful light lunch and enjoyed a narrated tour of the home and the giftshop.

Following this we headed to Nashville for our visit to the Opryland Hotel. Words are inadequate to describe, so just imagine a hotel larger than any airport terminal you have ever seen, and then fill that with shops, Atriums, Waterfalls, precious blooming plants, and Conservatories, and you’ll have some idea of the scope of this operation. Maps are mandatory and if you don’t carry yours, you will get lost. Imagine that, lost in a hotel! I believe they said they hire 4000 employees there……
After we explored the wonderful facility at Opryland and did a little shopping, we went to the Grand Ole Opry. Here’s where I must admit that I am a lifetime fan of Marty Stuart, and he performed last night. I plan to share some photos and believe that I got some pretty good shots! He still has that fabulous voice, and was a child prodigy on the banjo at age seven when he first performed with Bill Monroe. He’s a multi-decade talent who’s pretty close to my age group, and can write, play and sing with any of ‘em! Jeanne Sealy, Connie Smith, Porter Waggoner, Jim Ed Brown, Dusty Drake, Jeff Bates, Pam Tillis, The McReynolds Bluegrass Group and others rounded out the evening.

We left Columbia yesterday morning and toured two wonderful herds, Rummage Holsteins and Maple Leaf Farms. The Rummage herd is characterized by massive framed beautiful uddered cows scored up to EX-94-Ronbeth Linjet Shannon. Many Canadian bloodlines can be found in the herd and Linjet seemed to this reporter to have the heaviest influence. Both herds had gone the extra mile in seeing that the tour had a great experience and plenty of refreshments as well. Rummages also had an unexpected treat for the group with the tour of the early 1800′’s farm house built from log construction. Lovingly restored, the history of the area and the dwelling was given by Mr. Randall Rummage. Maple Leaf Farm and Rummage Holsteins are both noted as breeders of many All-American nominations and good, solid breeding cow families, and both herds can also be credited with that extra “science and art” of breeding registered Holsteins in that they were unafraid to use bulls of their own careful breeding from their herd and had seen Excellent results. Both farms are nestled in wooded, beautiful central Tennessee and, if you”re looking for a stop during your week here or on the way home, they”re well worth the effort!

In a unique twist of bringing “advertising” directly to the customer, the Alta Genetics management team has decided to forego the traditional route of having booths at major trade shows, and instead, has opted to bring the customers to the “products.” That’’s right - the Alta Advantage Showcase tour series is bringing Alta customers from around the world directly to Advantage farms, so they can see results first-hand, and also interact with other Alta customers and industry personnel. The first Showcase tour of 2007 is being held right now in central New York and will conclude tomorrow. Over 250 people are on this tour and hail from the U.K., Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Canada and France…and there’’s even some U.S. producers along, including Terry Dye of Colorado and Dan DeRuyter of Washington! I rode along yesterday, getting a prime spot on the U.K. bus with a very, merry band of people! My seat mate was Sarah Liddle, who writes and sells advertising for the Journal, the official publication of Holstein U.K. Paul Meyer, Marketing Manager, Products & Programs, also sat with us and covered a wide variety of topics ranging from Advantage program facts and figures to U.S. geography! There are currently 175 herds on Advantage, a program that tests all bull daughters in competitive, commercial environments. The principle advantage of doing this is accuracy in bull proofs. Eight years ago, there was a staggering 25% mis-id on bull daughters. Because these bulls are now proven in controlled-data environments, Alta’’s mis-id figures are down to 8%.

Our first stop was at Hardie Farms, Lansing, NY. Skip Hardie, general manager, joined the farm in 1977, and has helped grow the herd to its current 850-cow status. They plan to construct another barn this year, and will then be at an 1,110-cow capacity. The herd average is 88-90 lbs./cow/day and they credit that to their attention to making high quality forage. They are part of the Cayuga Marketing Group - which consists of 24 farms in the area that market milk for Dairylea. Another partner, Steve Palladino, is the dairy manager. He talked to the group about the facts — no bulls are used on the farm, their high quality forages have yielded a herd average that hovers between 27 and 29,000M, and they spend more on labor than most dairies, but feel that that investment benefits cow health, and that means profitability. They are running a 36-37% conception rate and have used sexed semen early on, with a 98% heifer rate.

Ridgecrest Dairy LLC, Genoa, NY, is the home of Dave & Sally Galton and Dan Osborn. The Ridgecrest operation is unique in many ways, one being that the barns were built with the natural lay of the land in mind. Because the dairy sits on top of a gorgeous rolling hill area in Cayuga County, the barns were built with a 3% grade. Tunnel ventilation and buffer curtains keep the air moving at a swift pace and at cow level. Dave explained that they also plan to expand, either by building another barn or purchasing a pre-existing facility. If all goes as planned, they will be at optimum production soon, making 2.5 million lbs. of milk/worker/year. Eventually they hope to have cow numbers at 1,500, but are currently at 1,275 with an 82 lb. average. From July through December this year, they have 900 cows scheduled to calve, and aim to have 10% of the herd calve each month. Nearly all young sires are used in the herd, with an average cost per pregancy of $8.00.

Patterson Dairy Farms, LLC, Auburn, NY, was our next stop of the day. The 7th generation of Pattersons is now living on the farm, which milks 860 cows. The Pattersons have a fairly new, and extensive manure digester system, which they use to produce bedding for the cows. Financially, it’’s been a very sound decision for them and has reduced odor emissions drastically. They still purchase some sawdust to bed calves with, but have saved tremendously by using the digester. They do admit that their SCC is higher than they”d like to see, but are working on ways to cut that down. The herd average is at 76 lbs. right now, with a 13.5 month calving interval. All first lactation cows and heifers are bred to proven bulls.

Oakwood Dairy, LLC, also in Auburn, was the big cow-number stop of the day, milking 1,600 cows with a herd average of 85 lbs. Brent Crosscut, the herd manager, took us through some raw numbers for Oakwood. They have a 12.5 month calving interval and aim for a first calving at 22 months. Cows are milked in a double-22 parallel parlor and each is wearing a pedometer to track steps (used in heat detection). Pregnancy rates range from 26-29%, and cows are checked every Monday.

During each stop, the Alta team, led by David Hill, assembled a group of daughters in a “Performance Pen” to showcase specific sires. Among the favorites of our bus, in fact, were the AltaBlastoffs, AltaBaxters, AltaAdams and AltaAllys. The team also had demonstrations at different farms, including a pregnancy chart/repro protocol system at Oakwood, a demonstration of 1/2cc versus 1/4cc semen straws at Ridgecrest and a fantastic, complimentary lunch at Ridgecrest as well.

Tour goers were given an extremely detailed book of farm facts for each stop, pictures of daughters they”d be seeing in the Performance Pens, printouts for each pen and an Alta jacket. It was a great day to see the entire program at work with results right in front of you. The tour was not designed for people looking for elite show cows or tie-stall barns. It was a tour of extremely well-managed, commercial operations with functional, medium-sized cattle and very enthusiastic owners. One of the beauties of this industry is the fact that no matter what style of management you choose, what genetic avenue you travel down, there’’s plenty of room for everyone and plenty to learn from everyone as well!

I”ll post photos from the trip on the daily news later today! If you get a chance to ever go on a Showcase Tour, I”m sure you”ll be impressed. The next tour is scheduled for this fall during Expo time.

The best part of the Holstein industry is the people.  Just some of the people that I ”hung out” with yesterday was “Willie” (Mrs. Pete) Burgeson that Holstein enthusiasts know as a principal of  the Tabur Holsteins establishment that was very well known in Arizona. For years they had page 9 ads in Holstein World.  I need to include the many great tales she told me in a book……also from Colorado, John and Jean Woodis, were along on the tour, as was Charles and Judy Iager of Maryland.  Jean was the first woman ever to analyze cows on the “Triple A” system of Bill Weeks.  At dinner last night I visited with Gary and Amy Blase in an interesting and in-depth discussion of cow families, dairy industry issues and their Gee-Aye  herd, which I admire and work with in advertising.  There are 38 people on this tour from Wisconsin to Alabama, and Maryland to Arizona.  If you listen, you will get informed and educated about our industry from one end of this nation to the other, and the best part is, you’ll form new friendships and reinforce existing ones…….

Central Tennessee, wooded and rural, historically rich, and very warm, was where we spent the day yesterday.   Lynchburg is one of the best known place names in Tennessee, and the home to Jack Daniel distillery.  Clear iron-free water from Cave Spring and a charcoal mellowing process distinguish the whiskey brand which is bottled by taste and not age.  The company is the largest producer of whiskey in the world, and was taken global in production by the Brown-Forman company which owns many other famous brands of liquor as well. The beautiful original site is preserved for 200,000 visitors a year to tour free of charge-the barrel house, fermenting process, charcoal mellowing vats, distilling operation, are just a few of the things that can be seen on the tour.  The only original building on the site to this day is “Mr Jack’s” office. He was making whiskey at 7 years of age and registered his distillery as the nation’s first registered distillery when the government began taxing liquor, in 1866 at the age of 16…….

Before touring the whiskey distillery we went to Miss Mary Bobo’s boarding house, which she established in 1908.  A traditional southern meal was served that included “Apples with Jack” and I often fry apples at home but now, they could (and at times, will) have a special added twist as Charles Iager of Maryland got several of us ladies the recipe postcard! 

Since our tour, regretably became unrepairably off schedule, we had to forego the Walking Horse tour which we were incredibly disappointed about, but in lieu of this, we got to tour the downtown area of Lynchburg for a while and this included some antique shops, and great old original architecture to be viewed of some of the 100 historic places that are in Lynchburg.  Also, there is a fact filled Museum dedicated to the Walking Horse and that industry on the square that is extremely interesting. Some tour participants picked up some souvenirs from the official Jack Daniel gift emporium as well.

It was a great day wrapped up by dinner at the Ole Lamplighter on the River near Columbia..where today we pick up our tour again!

I had the privilege to travel out a few days early. Although Tennessee borders my home state of Missouri, I had not been any further than Memphis (four hours drive from home) until February.  I arrived here yesterday and I have a tip for everyone coming this  week!  Walk a short four blocks from the hotel to Volunteer Landing- it’s on the Tennessee River, where you’ll find interpretive audio kiosks and a lot of historical information. Knoxville has a storied history and was, not suprisingly, the site of shelling by both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.  There is plenty of room for walkers and visitors up and down the landing and a cool place to eat is Calhoun’s on the River! Today, the pre-convention tour is taking off to the Nashville area to visit several locations.  Look for coverage of the pre-convention tour here!