Summer 2020
THE RACE TO SUCCESS Any NASCAR fans out there? If so, great! If not, bear with us for a couple of minutes. Although the spotlight is usually on the driver in a stock car race, countless others support the driver and keep everything running smoothly. The owner oversees the financial aspects of the team, the team manager oversees day-to-day administrative duties, the crew chief makes sure the maintenance and design of the car aim the driver towards success, and a plethora of others including engine specialists, tire specialists, engineers, mechanics, and more focus on all of the details. The driver can’t—and shouldn’t be expected to—do all of these things on his own.
a pandemic, tough markets, political uncertainty, and a rapidly changing industry, it’s more important than ever to have a trusted support team. You are not expected to navigate these times alone. At Premier, we want to be more than a logo on your car. We want to be part of your crew, getting our hands dirty and helping you get back in gear when its crunch time. We want to give you what you need to stay on the track and pull away from the pack. Having a car (or a management plan) that
As a beef or dairy producer, you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re determining the speed and direction you want to take your operation, and you’re doing your best to navigate the MANY hazards and roadblocks out there right now. In the midst of
IN THIS EDITION:
is just like everyone else’s is not going to help you win the race. You need to focus on new opportunities that allow you to capitalize on your strengths as a unique operation. Trying to produce a commodity and do it cheaper than everyone else has proven to be a losing battle that ends up in a race to zero. Your Premier team of specialists wants to work with your farm team to help you explore new opportunities and produce something that gets extra value. As we’ve faced the challenges brought by 2020 with you, your Premier team has been researching and building new programs to add to our portfolio of customer-driven solutions. In the following pages, we hope you’ll see some new opportunities that, in conjunction with our other programs, services, industryleading genetics, and team of passionate employees, will help you achieve success and pull ahead as you Ride With Premier.
Message from the CEO................................................................... 2 Trust the Brand: Premier Beef Brands Excel................................. 3 Raising the Bar on Passive Transfer............................................... 4 Strategic Beef x Dairy Crossbreeding with ProfitSOURCETM.......... 6 New Opportunities with HerdFlexTM Beef Embryos......................... 7 ZoetisTM Genetic Testing.................................................................. 8 Capturing Genetic Trends with NxGEN ........................................... 9 CowManager at Singing Brook Farms........................................... 10 ®
®
1
MESSAGE FROM THE CEO Mark Carpenter
WHEELS UP AT PREMIER The founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, had a famous quote, “Think small and act small, and we’ll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we’ll get smaller.” Southwest has continued to be the most successful airline because they have continually kept a focus on service and what the customer wants most. And despite takeover attempts from other airlines, Southwest has stayed focused on what works best by staying agile and close enough to the customer to be responsive. Their “small” mentality has indeed helped them grow into a big airline! Too often we see legacy household/industry brands slowly begin to leave their patrons behind. These brands signal to their customers that they are done with them and they become focused on preserving themselves even when it is at the expense of the products and services it is supposed to provide. Some examples would be Kodak, Compaq computers, and more recently, Sears. In this case, the “big” thinking made them not only small…but obsolete. One of the best current examples of the bureaucracy of self-preservation at all costs can be seen in the Johnson & Johnson baby powder debacle.
with these, we also work hard to provide marketplace protection through access and a fair price for all our members of the reproductive and herd health products we offer. Our people, philosophy, and dedicated farmer board members are what guide us.
With that I’d like to share an initiative we’ve started called the POV that I am personally invested in and very proud of. It stands for the Premier Owner Voice. We will be developing a more
informal network of Premier Cooperative members from across our 23 states to participate in small group sessions with me and my leadership team. Our goals are to make sure we remain connected to the membership from all categories in our diverse territory and gain valuable local feedback and direction to ensure we continue to meet our members’ expectations. Service in a POV group will be on a volunteer basis and is a great way to become more engaged with your cooperative. If you have any interest or would like to learn more about how to become involved, please reach out to either myself at mcarpenter@ premierselect.com, or Kirk Sattazahn, VP of Marketing and Development at kirk7@premierselect.com. Thank you for your patronage and support of your local cooperative. We are Premier Proud to serve you.
What’s this have to do with your local cooperative you may ask? Well, maybe nothing, and maybe everything. I share some of this with you in the spirit of which we work for you every day. It’s not enough for us to start and end each day being completely focused on our members. We also must learn valuable lessons from failures around us to make certain we do our best to not fail you. At Premier, we pride ourselves on being your local provider of industry-leading and uncompromised services. Along
FIND THE SEMEN STRAW for a chance to WIN a special Premier Select Sires prize! 1. Find this semen straw hidden somewhere in the newsletter (hidden straw may be smaller than the one shown here) 2. Go to www.PremierSelectSires.com and click the“Newsletter Contest” button on the home page 3. Tell us where you found the straw to enter the drawing! You may also send your submission in the mail. Write us a note including the following information: your name, account #, address, and where you found the semen straw. Mail it to the following address for a chance to WIN!
Premier Select Sires Newsletter Contest Attn. Laura Williams 1 Stony Mountain Road Tunkhannock, PA 18657
Responses must be submitted by September 25, 2020
CONGRATS! Congratulations to Lowell Family Farm in Maine. They won the Spring 2020 edition semen straw contest! The semen straw was in a photo on page 8, on the counter in front of the ice cream dish.
2
Beef Briefs
SELECT SIRES AND ACCELERATED GENETICS CLAIM 9 OF TOP 25 REGISTRATIONS SIRES AT THE AMERICAN ANGUS ASSOCIATION The American Angus Association released the Top 25 Sires for Registrations for their 2019 Fiscal Year. Both beef lineups distributed by Premier, Select Sires and Accelerated Genetics, were strongly represented in that group! Together, Select Sires and Accelerated Genetics led the A.I. industry in number of bulls (9) and progeny (just over 17,000) represented in the top 25. Thank you for trusting and partnering with us to create outstanding, profitable cattle. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you!
RANK #3 #5 #7 #8 #14 #15 #19 #21 #24
SIRE
# OF REGISTRATIONS
14AN461 Jindra ACCLAIM 3,039 7AN389 G A R SURE FIRE 2,617 7AN463 Tex PLAYBOOK 5437 2,191 7AN395 KCF Bennett FORTRESS 2,174 7AN388 SS NIAGARA Z29 1,572 14AN422 V A R DISCOVERY 2240 1,551 7AN443 Baldridge BRONC 1,455 7AN361 G A R SUNRISE 1,414 14AN426 Coleman CHARLO 0256 1,182
3
Product Talk
RAISING THE BAR ON PASSIVE TRANSFER By Jeff Hostetter, Premier Select Sires Product Manager
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford The dairy industry has made tremendous progress in many areas over the last several decades. Genetics continue to improve, milk production and components grow higher each year, and recently even reproduction has advanced along with these production improvements. Ten years ago, a 20 percent pregnancy rate was considered good. Now many progressive herds are in the 25-30 percent range or even higher. The strides we have made as an industry are simply amazing! One area we have been more focused on in the last several years is health. We can select for sires that produce daughters with the ability to resist different diseases like mastitis and ketosis. We can also select for sires that produce calves with greater livability and resistance to scours and pneumonia. However, our management of newborn calves
and colostrum still has the greatest impact on the success of our calf-raising program. Starting in the early 1980’s, 10 g/L of serum IgG has been used as the cut point for determining if a calf has achieved
successful passive transfer. Successful passive transfer occurs when the antibodies from quality maternal colostrum or colostrum replacer are absorbed into the bloodstream of a calf. The dairy industry has made tremendous improvements in the percent of calves that have reached this level. Using National Animal Health Monitoring System data, failure of passive transfer went from 41 percent in 1991 to only 13.7 percent in 2014. Mortality also decreased over this time, but morbidity (disease) remained relatively unchanged. Because of this improvement in mortality, a group of calf experts led by Jason Lombard, DVM, with USDA saw the opportunity to further decrease mortality, but also decrease disease in calves by raising the bar. They reviewed the USDA NAHMS’s Dairy 2014 Study, other peer-reviewed publications, and used personal experience to develop new guidelines for herd-level passive immunity in dairy calves:
• Excellent - Greater than or equal to 25 g/L • Good - 18 to 25 g/L • Fair - 10 to 18 g/L • Poor - Less than 10 g/L (failure of passive transfer)
Percent of Calves in NAHMS 2014 study by serum IgG category and percent morbidity and mortality reported (Lombard et al. 2020) Serum IgG (g/L)
Calves (%)
Morbidity (%)
Mortality (%)
New Standards (% of calves in herd)
>25
35.5
28.5
2.5
40
18-25
25.7
34.8
1.5
30
10-18
26.8
36.1
3.8
20
<10
12.0
46.1
7.4
10 or less
What’s the easiest way to get more calves into the Excellent (>25 serum IgG) category? Feed one gallon of good quality colostrum (>22% on Brix) and add in 50 g of IgG’s (1 scoop from bucket or 1/3 packet) from First Day Formula® CR! First Day Formula CR has the most concentrated source of IgG’s available and it’s also the most efficiently absorbed because we use the whey portion of dried bovine colostrum from U.S. Grade A dairies. In today’s economic climate, we cannot afford to be complacent or settle for average results. We can lower calf mortality and morbidity to levels we didn’t think were possible a few years ago. We also know from research that calf health has a direct correlation to future milk production. Let’s challenge ourselves to raise the bar on passive transfer. We have the knowledge and tools to make it happen!
Image© Farmgirl Photography. First Day Formula is a registered trademark of Select Sires, Inc. Buyer assumes all responsibility for use, storage and handling of this product. All claims, representations and warranties, expressed or implied, are made only by the company responsible for manufacturing and not by Select Sires Inc., its member cooperatives, its agents or employees. First Day Formula is manufactured for Select Sires Inc, 11740 US 42N, Plain City, OH 43064
4
5
Program Spotlight : STRATEGIC BEEF x DAIRY CROSSBREEDING You may recall that in our previous newsletter, we talked about the ProfitMAX® program. The goal of ProfitMAX is to help producers better achieve long-term profitability from future herd replacements and improve short-term cash flow by increasing the value of extra calves to be sold to the beef market. Here’s a refresher on the ProfitMAX steps that Premier professionals can help you through:
1. Genetic Audit Collect data and analyze cow and heifer inventory. Project the number of replacement heifers needed to meet future herd size goals.
3. Create Elite Replacements
2. Rank Animals Determine the genetic value of each female in the herd.
4. Create Higher-Value Feeder Calves
Determine the best combination of elite sires with conventional and/or sexed semen to use on top females for the purpose of increasing long-term profit potential.
For animals of lower genetic value, you might consider using ProfitSOURCE beef genetics to increase short-term cash flow through the sale of beef on dairy calves.
Let’s zoom in on ProfitSOURCE, the beef on dairy arm of the ProfitMAX program! Selected for crossbreeding on Holsteins and Jerseys, ProfitSOURCE sires excel in calving ease, growth performance, carcass merit, and fertility. These elite terminal beef bulls are designed to meet specific genetic criteria: Angus Sires: • Top 30% of the breed for five of the six EPD traits related to growth and carcass merit: Weaning Weight (WW), Yearling Weight (YW), Carcass Weight (CW), Marbling, Ribeye Area (REA) and $Beef • Top 55% of the breed for Calving Ease • Top 50% of the breed for Residual Average Daily Gain (RADG) • Bottom 70% of the breed for Yearling Height (YH)
Simmental, Charolais, and Limousin Sires: • Top 50% of their respective breed for both Calving Ease and Terminal Index (The Terminal Index combines traits for growth, gain, and end-product merit into one index. Using above-average sires for Terminal Index means the resulting calves will perform well on feed and earn premiums at harvest)
Ask your local Premier professional for a listing of these elite terminal sires to help you create valuable beef on dairy calves!
ProfitSOURCE Partners are calf ranches, feedlots, and packers interested in source-verified, high quality ProfitSOURCE calves. To send beef on dairy calves to a ProfitSOURCE Partner, producers must agree to use ProfitSOURCE sires, use ProfitSOURCE ear tags, maintain an organized record management program, and follow a specified calf care program including: colostrum provision within four hours of birth, navel dipping, proper housing, and proper nutrition. All calves and cattle must be managed in accordance with Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) guidelines. If you pursue a ProfitSOURCE Partner relationship, further details will be discussed upon the presentation of the ProfitSOURCE contract. Premier is working to help producers across our territory identify the best outlets for marketing ProfitSOURCE calves to earn a premium.
Talk to your representative about ProfitSOURCE partners in your area! Regionalized partnerships have been formed, and we continue to grow current options and seek new opportunities to help you earn a premium for your ProfitSOURCE Beef on Dairy calves.
In addition to a variety of beef on dairy opportunities, Premier Select Sires is proud to announce that your cooperative now offers the option of using straight-bred beef embryos through a partnership with The J.R. Simplot Company. Simplot commercially produces SimVitro® HerdFlex™ IVF beef embryos, which can be purchased and utilized in your herd via embryo transfer.
LEARN MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE! ProfitSource, ProfitSOURCE Sires, and ProfitSOURCE Partner are trademarks of Select Sires Inc. ProfitMAX is a registered trademark of Select Sires Inc.
6
Select Sires is the first and only genetics company to offer SimVitro® HerdFlex™ beef embryos to commercial dairy farms. Using Beef Embryos in Dairy Farming Premier Select Sires and J.R. Simplot Company’s Animal Sciences Division have teamed up to bring a new strategic breeding concept to commercial dairy farms. Dairy producers can capture revenue potential by selling 100 percent beef calves born from pregnancies not needed for replacements, while at the same time advancing elite genetics within their herd and appropriately managing heifer inventories. High demand exists for beef calves with superior genetics, and producers can potentially earn a more desirable return on investment compared to dairy-beef
HERDFLEX EMBRYO CALVES ARE: ™
Feed efficient
Available to market year-round with a consistent supply
crossbred calves or straight dairy calves. Opportunities may be very market specific, so your Premier team members can help you determine if this program is a worthwhile venture for your unique operation. Perhaps one of the most powerful aspects of HerdFlex, this program can offer producers the ability to diversify their revenue creation portfolio. Most excess calf sale prices rely on milk markets. HerdFlex straight beef animals can be sold at birth, weaning, 400#, or as finished cattle—wherever the most value lies for the producer. If feedstuffs and facilities are available, real consideration may be given to raising beef. In addition, the feeding of beef under contracted options has become more commonplace. Exploration of local markets can lead to profitable decisions. Simplot, the largest beef cattle producer in the Western U.S., produces HerdFlex beef embryos from genetic recovery oocytes (GRO). Simplot has
invested decades of research and improvement to make commercial application of IVF embryos feasible for customers. The embryos are all grade 1, high quality, and commercially produced specifically for placement in dairy cows. Each mating is to a proven Select Sires beef sire to maximize the resulting embryo’s genetic potential. Sires are carefully chosen for key traits such as calving ease, $Beef and ribeye area. The $Beef value index includes weaning and yearling weight, dry matter intake, as well as carcass weight, marbling, ribeye area, and fat. One of Premier’s sister cooperatives, Minnesota Select Sires, has been testing the concept of using beef embryos on dairy farms, and they report that the calves born so far look great. ProfitSource beef semen will not be replaced overnight—if ever— but building beef with non-replacement pregnancies is now a commercial realty and your local cooperative is ready to assist you with it through this program. Please let us know if you would like to learn more!
Consistent in their genetic package
Of high carcass merit and marbling
ty bili nsi spo ties, t e r n l al arra nd no es a w nt sum , and uring y eve ll s a a t l s yer ation nufac nlike se sh . u B u t u a n e ce c. ir , In prese for m. In th the se pri p o le a s re om , Co ms, onsib loyee ges fr purch ires clai a sp ir is a mp ex ct S s. All any re or e , dam to the l e F l t s d e e ed p t r c v S i e n u . t m H it by ny ec co age rod and ompa ted ese p y the s, its n def be lim e ibu C ark istr of th only b r coop prov s and em plot ved. d d a g e e ly e e n tr er Sim ere andli mad emb shall b amag red J.R. ts res h m f ld re s ste re m egi ark o ll righ d a e, and lied, a c., its oduct uentia r e t a A r m g In is p q o is trade ts l tora or im Sires the p onse c Vitr duc e, s t d of Sim Pro or us resse Selec any clude t f x e by exp tha
7
Dairy Discussion ZoetisTM Genetic Testing
Premier now partners with Zoetis, the largest global animal health company, to bring member-customers CLARIFIDE® and CLARIFIDE® Plus genetic testing.
Wellness is a profitable choice. We all know that it is a wise management strategy to cull unprofitable animals from the herd. What if you could predict an animal’s wellness—and subsequent profitability—in the early stages of its life? What if you could pinpoint specific traits you’re looking for to advance your herd genetically? These decision-making factors can be at your fingertips with Zoetis CLARIFIDE® and CLARIFIDE® Plus testing. With the introduction of eight cow wellness traits, three calf wellness traits and three fertility traits, Zoetis CLARIFIDE and CLARIFIDE Plus testing can identify those animals with the greatest potential to help reach herd health and profitability goals from an early age.
The CLARIFIDE genomic test delivers reliable predictions from the Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) of genetic merit in Holsteins, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, and Guernseys by utilizing DNA-marker technology. Providing a lifetime of information early in life, it enables producers to make confident selection decisions for a more valuable dairy herd. •
CLARIFIDE genetic test results include data on more than 30 health and type traits, composite indexes, genetic conditions, and haplotypes.
•
Where parent average provides 20 to 30 percent reliability (when parentage is correct), CLARIFIDE provides 60 to 70 percent reliability.
•
Recognizing high-genetic females helps producers to make informed decisions on the use of sexed, conventional, or beef semen, and it helps them select the best sires for creating valuable replacements.
Talk to your Premier representative about the information CLARIFIDE and CLARIFIDE Plus could provide to your farm, and how that information could aid your decision making and increase your profitability! CLARIFIDE, CLARIFIDE Plus, Dairy Wellness Profit Index, DWP$, Wellness Trait Index, and WT$ are registered trademarks of Zoetis Services LLC or a related company or licensor. ™ Zoetis, Calf Wellness Index, and CW$ are trademarks of Zoetis Services LLC or a related company or licensor.
®
8
Why feed, breed and manage an animal that is below the average for these important traits? In addition, CLARIFIDE Plus has the ability to rank animals with the Dairy Wellness Profit Index® (DWP$®), the first commercially available dairy genetic evaluation of its kind. It allows producers to account for traits that affect health, fertility, performance, and lifetime profit of calves and cows.
What’s the bottom line? Investing in CLARIFIDE is a great way to genomically differentiate your herd. Rather than relying on parent average and phenotype, it allows you to peer into your animals’ genotype to make informed, profitable choices.
The CLARIFIDE Plus genomic test takes genetic testing to the next level by adding Zoetis Wellness and Fertility traits. It helps identify Holstein and Jersey females with the greatest potential to reach herd health and profitability goals. •
The first commercially available dairy genetic evaluation of its kind, CLARIFIDE Plus uses the Dairy Wellness Profit Index (DWP$). DWP$ differs from other economic indexes because it includes predictions for economically important diseases in cows and calves, as well as fertility performance.
•
DWP$ incorporates insights on common dairy health challenges including mastitis, lameness, metritis, retained placenta, displaced abomasum, ketosis, cow respiratory disease, and milk fever.
•
By accounting for fertility traits (cow abortion, cystic ovaries, and twinning), it allows for more informed rankings to increase potential lifetime profitability.
•
The Calf Wellness Index™ (CW$™) is also a key contributor to DWP$, and by including calf livability, calf respiratory disease, and calf scours, it estimates the difference in expected lifetime profit associated with risk of calfhood disease.
•
Ultimately, DWP$ predictions help producers select genetics that can lead to healthier animals that produce more milk that can be successfully marketed.
9
Member’s Voice
Photos (left to right): Greta Snider Halahan of Singing Brook Farms oversees the farm’s CowManager system; Singing Brook Farms in Imler, PA was established in 1951; Mitzi, the herd’s highest producing cow, showing off her CowManager tag just after herd check
COWMANAGER® AT SINGING BROOK FARMS In August of 2019, the staff of Singing Brook Farms in Imler, PA decided to install CowManager, the four-in-one heat, health, rumination, and location herd monitoring system sold and serviced by Premier. After about one year of utilizing the system, they have discovered new efficiencies and opportunities for the operation. Owned in partnership by father and son Bruce and Ross Snider, Singing Brook milks 290 cows. Approximately 300 cows and heifers on the farm have CowManager ear tags. Greta Snider Halahan, daughter of Bruce, oversees the CowManager system as part of her duties to manage the animals from a reproductive protocol and procedures standpoint.
How It’s Used
Currently, Singing Brook utilizes CowManager’s Fertility and Health modules. The Fertility module provides data on heat intensity and heat stage for timely insemination, and the Health module provides early disease detection based on individual cow behavior. “The fertility module is my favorite,” said Halahan. “Not only has CowManager helped our numbers from a repro standpoint, but I also have more confidence in making decisions about individual cows. Managing timed A.I. as a whole herd isn’t practical for us—this helps us put our resources and manpower towards the right cows. Our repro numbers are the best they’ve been in 8-9 years!”
10
Halahan said that their milk production also has improved every month, and they hope for continued growth.
Flexibility in Management
The CowManager system provides Halahan and Singing Brook with flexibility in how they manage the cows. Halahan lives in Lebanon, PA, about two and a half hours from Singing Brook, with her husband and two- and three-year-old sons. Outside of her involvement with the farm, she serves as a speaker for agricultural organizations such as Farm Credit, Dairy Girl Network, and others, presenting on communications and personality as they relate to agricultural work. Thanks to the CowManager app and desktop program, she is able to keep an eye on everything from home and notify on-farm staff as necessary. Halahan travels to the farm routinely for herd checks, when the CowManager tags are also checked and receive maintenance as needed. “It’s really cool how in our situation CowManager has allowed me to get involved with the farm remotely, and it has helped us to transition plan,” said Halahan.
Training Farm Employees
Halahan said that she would love to add the Nutrition module to their system eventually, as it can help cows achieve maximum health and milk production by tracking whether or not an animal maintains stable eating and rumination. However, she wants to focus on using and implementing the tools they have now before expanding.
Every employee on the farm has access to the CowManager app and data. Even if they don’t use it for technical applications, milkers, calf feeders, and others are able to look up basic cow information. In the coming weeks and months, Halahan plans to have a Spanish-speaking trainer from Select Sires work with Singing Brook’s Hispanic milkers to provide them with the knowledge they need to maximize the benefits of the Health module. “CowManager shows us when a cow is sick before we can see something wrong, and we want to train our milkers to discover what is wrong when that alert comes up that the cow is flagged as sick,” said Halahan. “This will allow us to intervene earlier.”
Reducing Uncertainty
Halahan feels that CowManager takes away uncertainty from the farm, whether that’s the uncertainty of human error or the uncertainty of a pandemic. “It’s a labor unit that is consistent,” she said. “We split up the herdsman duties, and it takes a whole skillset off the table that we don’t have to hire for anymore. It has to be right every day, and we can trust CowManager.” In regards to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Halahan said, “Without the CowManager system, there are probably things we would have worried about that we don’t have to with the system. If anyone would have gotten sick I could have managed from the system. We are not as subject to personnel.”
CowManager also helps Singing Brook notice changes or issues on the farm and react accordingly. One time the system showed that all of the heifers came into heat at the same time. Knowing something was wrong, they went out to check and discovered that the water was broken. They were able to fix it quickly thanks to the alert.
from the graphs CowManager provides. “After initially installing the system, we still went out and checked the cows at first, but we trust the system now. We are also better at recognizing trends,” said Halahan.
When asked what he likes best about the CowManager system, Halahan’s father, Bruce Snider, said, “Getting the cows bred—there’s no other explanation. It sees cows that you’d think aren’t coming into heat, cows that we’d never know.”
From time to time, CowManager users experience instances of poor Internet connection or routers going down. Halahan reports that their routers have gone down twice since they’ve had the system, but “any time we’ve had trouble and couldn’t fix it ourselves, we’ve called Liz and she quickly got it back up and running.”
Easy to Learn
Higher Level Use
After installing the system and initially inserting the sensor tags, Halahan said that the CowManager learning curve has been fairly easy. She said that Elizabeth Ziegler, Premier Reproductive and Monitoring Systems Specialist, was a great help in learning to read, understand, and act on data
“We have the basics done, and now we can do something with the data. We can build on the profitability of the heifers we’re putting on the ground and maintain the heritage of some of the cow families we have on our farm.”
No Regrets
Halahan said that Singing Brook invested in CowManager during a tough economic time, but the investment has been well worth the perceived risk at the time. “CowManager is probably the best investment we’ve made in a long time. How much would you have to pay a herdsperson to do what this does? How much would you have to pay an individual who has that skill set? It’s one of the most skilled and expensive pieces.”
To support producers facing challenges caused by COVID-19, Select Sires and CowManager have partnered in offering unprecedented discounts on CowManager systems. Your Premier representative can provide details about these discounts, which will be available until September 2020!
Offering four modules, the CowManager system brings valuable data from a computer microchip in an ear tag to your fingertips.
SALE
Halahan said that she feels comfortable and confident in CowManager and the manner in which they currently use the data it provides. Now, she wants to start some projects to dive deeper into the data and impact the farm in new ways. She plans to work with Michelle Cornman, Premier Dairy Coordinator, and
Steve Hoover, Premier Reproductive Service Specialist, to more strategically breed the animals. She wants to increase profitability and keep the heritage of cow families that her family has taken pride in for generations.
®CowManager is a registered trademark of Agis Automatisering
Fertility Maximized profits with timely insemination. Providing reliable data about heat intensity and heat stage.
Health Early disease detection based on individual cow behavior.
Nutrition Maximum health and milk production with stable eating and rumination.
Find My Cow Find cows easily and save time with the user-friendly cow locator.
11
PREMIER SELECT SIRES, INC. 1 Stony Mountain Road Tunkhannock, PA 18657
12