Annual Dairy Herd Improvement Association awards presented

By Gloria Hafemeister for the Daily Times
Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:28 PM CDT

JUNEAU - Members of the Dodge County Dairy Testing Association gathered in Juneau Wednesday night to hear updates on the cooperative business and approve revised association bylaws.

Brenda Conley, Neosho, was elected to fill the unexpired term of Dale Redlin, Ashippun, who resigned from the board.

The members also met the association's new in-house manager, Holly Schowalter, who is sharing the managerial role with Glen Schmahl, Eastern Wisconsin DHIA, who has been assisting the board as the organization reorganizes and updated its lab. A part of her duties in managing the office in Juneau will be to operate the Bentley milk testing equipment and she must have a Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's milk/cream license. She has been involved with the dairy industry all of her life.

Two staff members were recognized for milestone years with the cooperative. Mary Feucht has been a field technician for five years. Russell Ridge has served for 20 years.

Awards were presented to the dairies with the top milk production and cheese yield equivalent as well as the top quality herd.

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Receiving the award in the three-times-a-day milking category for cheese yield and high milk production was Koepke Farms Inc., Oconomowoc. The farm includes 319 cows with an average annual production per cow of 31,071 pounds, 3.7 percent or 1,135 pounds fat; 2.9 percent or 908 pounds protein and a cheese yield of 3,050 pounds.

Wiepking Farm, Brownsville, earned the award for high cheese yield, two-times-a-day milking. The Wiepkings milk 256 cows with a production average of 27,656 pounds of milk, 3.7 percent, 1,021 pounds fat; 3.1 percent, 863 pounds protein and a cheese yield of 2,811 pounds.

Mike and Cathy Pamperin, town of Herman, earned the high production award for two-times-a-day milking. They milk 149 cows and average 27,922 pounds of milk, 3.6 percent, 1,011 pounds fat; 3.0 percent, 854 pounds protein and a cheese yield of 2,782.

David Hafemeister, Hustisford, earned the quality award for both the best somatic cell count and linear score. Herds with an average linear score of 2.3 or less make the udder health honor roll. Hafemeister's 84 cows had a 63 average somatic cell count and 1.3 linear score. Along with the plaque he also received a $50 cash award from the Dodge County Veterinary Medical Association.

Bob Kaiser was selected as the DHIA honoree of the year. Kaiser has been a University of Wisconsin-Extension dairy agent for the last 20 years and in that capacity served as an adviser to the DHIA board.

Kaiser also showed pictures from his recent trip to India where he worked with farmers, particularly with women who milk cows there, helping them improve their production.

He described the Indian customs and culture and noted 60 percent of the people in India are involved in agriculture compared with 0.6 percent of people in the U.S. While 99 percent of all people in the U.S. can read and write, in India just 73 percent of the men and 48 percent of the women are literate.

Since it is the women who care for the cows, he worked extensively with women who work through self-help groups. More than 60,000 women in the country are involved with self-help groups, with about 15 in a group.

He also described the low production and primitive methods of doing things, especially in the rural areas.