Dairy Records Processing

DHI-Provo - The Power of New Perspectives

Traditions

Each of us is a creature of habit. While some habits are beneficial and provide effective procedures, those same habits may limit our progress. Time-tested procedures will likely continue to produce the same time-proven results, all else being equal. If these results are what you want, there is no problem. The challenge arises when you want something better and you cannot seem to achieve it.

To rise above this plateau, you must be willing to explore new things. You must be willing to see things from a new perspective. If traditional perspectives reveal traditional information, and traditional procedures produce traditional results, you must break with tradition to improve.

New Perspectives

DHI-Provo provides you with management tools and services to view your dairy operation with a number of new perspectives. Exploratory research and development toward gaining new power with information is a hallmark of DHI-Provo. Integrating these new perspectives into your management style can help you make better decisions quicker.

With DHI-Plus® Temperature and Motion software program and the TenXsys SmartBolus™, management alerts for cows with high or low temperature and high or low activity can be seen within an hour of the event. Realizing, at the earliest moment, a cow is sick or in heat can save time and money.

DHI-Provo's Pocket DHI-Plus™ software allows you to do all of your tasks in just one pass. "You get more done in less time. The ability to do work with multiple tasks makes you more efficient" Dr. Alyn McClure, a veterinarian in Gilbert, Arizona

The DHI-Plus® Calving Cohort Analysis Report enables dairy producers and consultants to monitor the effects of management practices and changes during the transition period, as well as at other points in the lactation.

DHI-Provo's EZfeed™ Management System helps you get control of your feed, track inventories of feed and cattle, monitor feed efficiency, better manage personnel and improve the health and production of your cows through accurate and consistent feeding. "The program is a great tool to help us improve our management to meet the demands of today's milk and feed market." - John Haarsma, Rickreall Dairy, Oregon

Pocket EZfeed™ Load Screen

When a producer presents us with an idea that is effective for his management style, we do our best to add it as an option. Although there may not be time to implement every idea, DHI-Provo's commitment to this philosophy will continue.

The Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon and his colleagues found that we can hold six or seven pieces of data in short-term memory without forgetting something. With an increasing amount of information available, DHI-Provo's services provide you with the power and flexibility to focus on what you need to expand your management style to new perspectives.

DHI-Provo Reports from a Wide Perspective

DHI-Provo offers such a wide range of reports; it is like a scientist studying the earth. The scientist may look at satellite photos of the earth to get the big picture. He or she may also look at soil samples through a microscope to get a detailed view of the earth's makeup. Each view of the earth gives the scientist valuable information, but both are in widely different degrees of detail.

Along with the already intuitive reports delivered with DHI-Provo's herd management software packages, users have the ability to create user-defined reports to review and evaluate their management decisions with up-to-the-minute information.

DHI-Provo also offers mailed reports ranging from the herd summary, being the least in cow detail but with a whole herd perspective, to the individual cow page which provides you with the highest detail of the cow's history.

Reports with Varying Degrees of Detail

Cow List reports are less detailed than the Individual Cow Page, but they provide an interesting and very effective advantage. Cow List reports reduce the amount of detail to help increase your chance of noticing something out of the ordinary, whether beneficial or detrimental. This information management technique is extremely effective. On the other hand, something may be missed as you eliminate detail. The solution to this dilemma is simple. Don't restrict yourself to only one perspective or level of detail.

With an increasing amount of information available, you need a flexible way of focusing on or expanding your view of the cow list. Three of the most basic ways of exploring new perspectives are by sorting, selection, and averages.

The many sorting options DHI-Provo offers lets you choose the order of a Cow List. Ranking the cows by different statistics quickly identifies the best and worst extremes. This is a simple, but powerful tool.

Cow List Selection

Cow list selection keeps you from overloading your short-term memory by reducing the information to animals who meet specific conditions. For example, you may want a special action list such as a Somatic Cell Hot List. You may also have other checks you want to make to help evaluate the effectiveness of the herdsman's established procedures.

Herd Summary Reports

Herd Summary reports provide insightful perspectives, especially when collected over time. Identifying trends and changes in trends is very helpful. Other basic statistical properties such as standard deviations measures variation, something an average totally conceals.

Get Involved with the Information and Get More Out of Your Herd

Lastly, there is no substitute for participating in the record keeping process. In the 1950's, producers were mailed pressure sensitive strips with new information printed for each cow.

Although we are glad we don't have to update your records this way, there were some benefits to this method, according to Bliss H. Crandall, founder of DHI-Provo. The dairy producer had to peel the strips from the report and paste them on the individual cow cards. This forced the dairy producer to look at information on every cow with each update. The dairy producers who did this knew more about their cows, simply because they were involved with the information.

Reduce "Fire Engine Management"

Although the above information may not be new to you, we point it out to emphasize the need for multiple perspectives in your management cycle. Don't limit yourself to just one perspective. The added perspectives will help you improve your herd management. New perspectives and actively analyzing your herd can help you be more proactive in your management techniques and avoid the reactive "Fire Engine Management" routine.