Select Sires

SELECTIONS - Fall 2004
Training the Trainer

True to our mission of striving to serve you, our customer, better, in June 2004 Select Sires, in conjunction with NorthStar Cooperative, hosted a "Train the Trainer" symposium. This syposium focused on records analysis and reproductive trouble shooting. It involved a day and a half of classroom training in the use of Dairy Comp 305 and PCDart by leading industry experts, followed by a herd visit for hands-on records analysis and on-farm troubling shooting.

The primary purpose of this session was to give Select Sires Reproductive Solution Specialists advanced training in records analysis using DairyComp 305 and PCDart. More specifically, the conference focused on identification of the major factors that influence reproductive efficiency and profitability of the typical dairy. Using this knowledge, participants were then educated on how to generate the reports, graphs, and commands that are necessary to "check the pulse" of a dairy using the various record keeping systems. These reproduction specialists were in turn challenged to transfer their expertise to others within their member cooperatives to proliferate our efforts. The ultimate goal being to better serve the diverse needs of Select Sires customers through educated and caring employees that can help to identify bottlenecks to profitability in their customer’s herds.

Keeping our reproductive specialists up-to-date on the most
current programs, trends and issues in the industry is just
one way Select Sires strives to serve you better.

In addition to the staff of NorthStar Cooperative and Swisslane Dairy, several industry personnel were present to assist in the training. These included Dr. Jerry Olson, Pfizer Animal Health; Jack van Almelo, Dairy One; Doug Brooks, NorthStar Cooperative DHI Services; Greg Palas, DRMS Ames, Iowa; Dr. Joe Domecq, Michigan State University and Dr. Bruce Clark, Monsanto Animal Health.

Reproductive specialist attendees included Mel DeJarnette and Joel Mergler, Select Sires Inc.; Steve Kacuba and Al Deming, East Central/ Select Sires; Adam Hahlen and Dave Watt, COBA/ Select Sires; Lyle Kruse and Bob Otremba, Minnesota Select Sires; Dave Whitlock, Matt Hershey and Ivor Jones, Select Sire Power; Joe Fowler, Southeast Select Sires; Devin Albright, Prairie State/Select Sires; Jim Wells, All West/Select Sires and Julie Ainsworth, Ed Nichols and Jim Sipiorski, NorthStar Cooperative.

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Select Sires Inc., 11740 U.S. 42 North, Plain City, Ohio 43064 / Phone: (614) 873-4683 Fax: (614) 873-5751