Holstein USA Member Meetings
Thursday, March 25th, 2010The Region VI Member Meeting of the Holstein Association USA, Inc. was held on Saturday, March 6 at the Holiday Inn Willmar Conference Center in Willmar, MN. The meeting was held following the MN All-Breeds Dairy Convention and was the eighth in a series of nine Regional Member Meetings across the country hosted by HAUSA.
Beginning the meeting was Region VI National Director, Leroy Eggink of Great-Heritage Holsteins in Sibley, IA. Leroy welcomed those in attendance and thanked them for their participation in the meeting. The current state of the association revealed Registrations are down 6% compared to ’08 and up 3% compared to ’07, and Transfers are down 12%. Participation in the Holstein COMPLETE program continues to grow and HolsteinUSA Field Representative Steve Peterson shared that the average herd size in the COMPLETE program is 138 cows. In regards to the Classification, there has been a 10% decrease in the number of cows scored and 15% decrease in the number of herds scored. Participation in the TriStar program is up 2%.
President Larry Tande of Tande Holsteins in Medford, MN, was on hand to share the current finances of the association. Revenues from Registrations are down 10%, Transfers down 19%, Classification down 10% and SETs down 2%. With this decline in revenues, HAUSA has made a concerted effort to decrease expenses and has keyed in on cutting travel costs which are now down 8%. Staff members are less five and current employees are experiencing a wage freeze. Total revenues are down $444,000 and expenses have been cut by $13,000. The Reserve Fund has recorded a balance of $21,336,000 for 2009, compared to $18,132,000 in 2008. Net assets of HAUSA total $3,732,000.
HAUSA is currently in the middle of a membership drive with the goal to sign-up 1,000 new members by May 1st. The state with the highest increase in membership will be recognized at the National Holstein Convention.
One of the most prestigious honors the association can give is to its energetic and ambitious young breeders with the Distinguished Young Holstein Breeder award. Members are encouraged to nominate others or themselves if they fall in the age range of 21 – 40. The deadline is February 28 and the winner receives a $2000 cash award.
After April 1st, just over 31,000 prefixes that were once unavailable to be used will be released for use to the membership. These are prefixes that have not had a registered animal in 20 years and were approved to be released by the HAUSA Board of Directors. The board will annually review the list and choose to retire well-known prefixes. Individuals can retire their prefixes at any time for $100.
Lucas Sjostrom, Government Relations Specialist & Communications Assistant, then reviewed and gave an update on HAUSA’s Dairy Price Stablization Program (DPSP). This “long-term solution to a volatile problem” has become the only major suggested program still alive in the conversation regarding the instability of the nation’s milk price. A couple of graphs shared make the point quite clearly that stability is needed if producers are to operate a successful business year in and year out.
*This graph shows the point at which deregulation of our nation’s milk supply occurred. Notice the high peaks and low valleys of the Class III milk price.
*Editor’s note – This is perhaps the most disturbing graph I have seen lately. Why is it that the farm milk price has to suffer noticeable ups and downs but the processor and retail price is stable and climbing?
A couple of the key points regarding the DPSP:
- National and mandatory program – every dairy in the U.S. operates under the same rules. There is nothing in the DPSP that prevents growth by a producer.
- Operates on producer-by-producer basis and milk production is measured against the same quarter in the prior year. Producers pay a market access fee on any “new milk” produced.
- Those market access fees that are accumulated would be redistributed back to producers who held their production at or below the allowable annual growth.
It is estimated that implementation and administration of the program will cost dairy producers less than $.02 per hundredweight. It will not cost a penny for the typical U.S. taxpayer. For more information regarding the DPSP, visit: www.holsteinusa.com/association/dpsp.html
Lucas closed by encouraging those in attendance to talk to their processors and legislators and let them know what you are thinking. Leroy added that “no change is no good.”
Newly released in 2010 by HAUSA is an approved National Show Judges List. Those on the list are approved to serve as a judge at any of the major National Holstein Shows. There is also a second list called the Qualified Judges List that all nationally-sanctioned Junior Holstein Shows must select their judge from – in addition to the National Judges List. For a look at the lists, visit www.holsteinusa.com/shows/judges.html. You may be nominated or can nominate yourself to be approved by the National Show Committee and be added to either or both lists. The committee and board will review applicants and approve them on an annual basis. Those approved must attend at least one National Judges Conference within 3 years to remain on the list. The date and location for the first conference have yet to be determined.
During the New Business portion of the meeting, members asked brought forward questions and thoughts regarding Agri-Tech Analytics data processing center, the need to blood type test on animals that have been genomically-tested, and the desire to have more time for regional discussion at the national meeting.
The next meeting for members of Holstein Association USA to be updated on the efforts and activities of the association will be at the National Holstein Convention which will be held in Bloomington, MN, June 25 – 29. The annual meeting will take place on Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th. The 125th Anniversary of the association will be celebrated this year!
