Dr. Ole M. Meland, Chair of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB), will be the guest speaker at the 146th Annual Meeting of the American Jersey Cattle Association.The meeting will convene at 8:00 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, June 28 at the Holiday Inn & Suites Historic District in Alexandria, Va.
As CDCB chairman-a voluntary, uncompensated position-Dr. Meland is leading the dairy industry's work to construct a new system for managing genetic and management information and delivering genetic evaluation services to producers.
This effort started in 2009 after the Agricultural Research Service of USDA notified the industry of its intent to discontinue service for genetic evaluations and focus solely on research. That led to the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, comprised of four industry sectors-the Purebred Dairy Cattle Association, Dairy Records Providers, Dairy Records Processing Centers and the National Association of Animal Breeders-developing a business plan and negotiating a non-funded cooperative agreement with ARS-USDA that was signed March 27, 2013.
The transition in providing service began immediately. CDCB delivered the April 2013 official genetic evaluations for production traits, and has been delivering all official, monthly and interim evaluations since last December. By December of 2015, CDCB will be self-sufficient in computer resources and staffing with the capacity to run genetic evaluations, provide dairy management benchmarks, and maintain the industry cooperative database.
"Development of the newly expanded CDCB continues on schedule, it is on sound financial footing, and it is serving the industry very, very well," says Neal Smith, Executive Secretary and CEO of the American Jersey Cattle Association, who also serves as CDCB Treasurer. "The Council is not only meeting its goal for continuous improvement in the genetic merit and productive efficiency of U.S. dairy cattle, it is also enhancing our competitiveness in the world market."
Throughout his 31 years with Tri-State Breeders/Accelerated Genetics and now as a genetics consultant for the National Association of Animal Breeders, Ole Meland has been a key contributor to advancement of the dairy cattle industry as a geneticist, product development and distribution business manager, and breeding adviser. Milk producers in the U.S. and worldwide have benefited from his articles and presentations translating complex genetic concepts into action steps for profitability. Respect for Dr. Meland's analytic skills and business acumen has led to numerous industry appointments, notably as chair of the USDA Stakeholders Review Team in 2005, and election in 2007 to the Board of the National Association of Animal Breeders, serving two terms as its President. He has long been involved in the national judging contests at World Dairy Expo, plus served 12 years on the dairy cattle show committee. Since 2009, he has been a member of the Expo educational committee.
Also at the Jersey association's annual meeting on June 28, officials will report a second consecutive year over 100,000 registrations, records in all primary service categories, and the highest level of Jersey production in history-a per-cow average of 20,392 pounds energy-corrected milk.
Registration for the 2014 AJCA-NAJ Annual Meetings is open on the USJersey web site. Deadline for hotel reservations at the convention rate is June 3.
The American Jersey Cattle Association, organized in 1868, compiles and maintains animal identification and performance data on Jersey cattle and provides services that support genetic improvement and greater profitability through increasing the value of and demand for Registered Jersey cattle and genetics, and Jersey milk and milk products. For more information on the association's complete line of services for dairy business owners, visit the website at USJersey.com or connect on Facebook at USJersey.
5.19.2014