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Dairy Calf and
Heifer Association
16020 Swingley Ridge Road, Suite 300
Chesterfield, MO  63017
Ph. (636) 449-5077
Fax (636) 449-5051

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DCHA
All Rights Reserved
http://www.calfandheifer.org

Professionally managed by
Drake & Company

DCHA Desert Classic
New for 2009 will be the DCHA Desert Classic Golf outing at the Arizona National Golf Club. The scramble-style event will begin with an 11 a.m. shotgun start.

Arizona National is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains and adjacent to the Coronado National Forest. With its panoramic mountain vistas and nine beautiful natural springs, it has some of the most spectacular views of any golf course in Southern Arizona.

It is one of America’s Top 100 courses according to Golf Magazine and was voted the Best Place to Play in Tucson in 2008 by the Western Golf Alliance 2008. 

A portion of the proceeds from the tournament will benefit the DCHA scholarship program.

Impact of sexed semen on replacement numbers and long-term economics
Ray Nebel, SelectSires

Program Tracks

• People Management: Attracting and keeping good employees
  Miguel Morales, Elanco
  Why is your topic important in today’s economy?
  Operations such as heifer ranches, calf centers and dairy related businesses are forced to become more efficient, which translates in more attention to details. This is even more critical under present economic times where there is very little room for errors.
  
  Businesses become not only bigger in size, but also more complex (nutrition and health technologies, monitoring, etc), and they rely on people to get it done. Managers need to expand their roles from managing only animals and resources to leading people. The success of the operation depends on the right people doing the right things.

  What can attendees take away from the session?
  To start a thought process around the importance of building a strong business culture -a way to do things- that aligns with the goals and values of the operation.
  
  To recognize that weather we want it or not, every business develops a culture, and often times is not what we wanted or wished for. A reminder of how important it is as leaders or managers, herdspersons, supervisors and employees in general to inspire and be inspired by the job we perform.
  
  An invitation to set a higher standard for themselves and their people. A call to focus on training and developing their employees and to see this as a necessary  process, an investment.

• Strategies for dealing with high feed costs
  Greg Bethard, G&G Dairy Consulting

• Facility expansion during hard economic times
  Joe Harner, Kansas State University

• Cleaning as an effective tool in biosecurity
  William Vetter, Bio3X International
  This presentation will review current cleaning procedures as well as the technical reasons why bio-security in and around calves and their environments is critical to their survival.
  
  The presentation will offer a new approach to the sanitizing of not only the calf’s environment but also the calf itself-immediately after birth and through weaning. Research from a dairy will be presented verifying the effectiveness of the new process as well as documentation of the design based on work done at Penn State University.
  
  Unlike conventional cleaning procedures the next generation of cleaning-BiO3-Kleantm utilizes an oxygen activated vapor phase fogging process to deactivate infectious organisms which impact the survival of calves and heifers.

Program Tracks

• People Management: Attracting and keeping good employees
  Miguel Morales, Elanco
  
• Strategies for dealing with high feed costs
  Greg Bethard, G&G Dairy Consulting
  
• Facility expansion during hard economic times
  Joe Harner, Kansas State University
• Cleaning as an effective tool in biosecurity
  William Vetter, Bio3X International

Program Tracks

• Motivating and training employees
  Miguel Morales, Elanco
  
  Why is your topic important in today’s economy?
  Operations such as heifer ranches, calf centers and dairy related businesses are forced to become more efficient, which translates in more attention to details. This is even more critical under present economic times where there is very little room for errors.
  
  Businesses become not only bigger in size, but also more complex (nutrition and health technologies, monitoring, etc), and they rely on people to get it done. Managers need to expand their roles from managing only animals and resources to leading people. The success of the operation depends on the right people doing the right things.

  What can attendees take away from the session?
  To start a thought process around the importance of building a strong business culture -a way to do things- that aligns with the goals and values of the operation.
  
  To recognize that weather we want it or not, every business develops a culture, and often times is not what we wanted or wished for. A reminder of how important it is as leaders or managers, herdspersons, supervisors and employees in general to inspire and be inspired by the job we perform.
  
  An invitation to set a higher standard for themselves and their people. A call to focus on training and developing their employees and to see this as a necessary  process, an investment.

• Becoming a better manager of people
  Tom Fuhrmann, DairyWorks Management System

• Alternative feeds - how to make them work in your operation
  Greg Bethard, G&G Dairy Consulting

• Calf rearing programs that keep costs in check
  Al Kertz, ANDHIL, LLC.
  Although the calf period is the obvious starting stage for rearing dairy replacement heifers, the critical nature of this start is only recently being more fully understood. This start influences how well calves do, not only as first-calf heifers, but apparently in subsequent lactations too. Consequently, the feeding and management of calves must be a balance between minimizing costs, taking advantage of this most efficient period in converting nutrients to growth, but while not limiting later lactation value.

Program Tracks (presentado en español)

• Motivating and training employees
  Miguel Morales, Elanco
• Becoming a better manager of people
  Tom Fuhrmann, DairyWorks Management System
• Alternative feeds - how to make them work in your operation
  Greg Bethard, G&G Dairy Consulting
• Calf rearing programs that keep costs in check
  Al Kertz, ANDHIL, LLC.

Virtual Tour:
Dairy beef from start to finish

A checkoff-funded virtual tour titled “Dairy beef from start to finish” was recently presented at the Dairy Calf & Heifer (DCHA) annual meeting in Tucson, Ariz. The video features Bart Hanson, DCHA president, on his custom calf and heifer raising operation, Amber Hills Ranch. The tour discusses their operation, the importance of Beef Quality Assurance (BQA), record keeping, transportation quality assurance and proper animal handling techniques. The piece was created in response to, in past years, activists attending farm tours, acquiring video, then inaccurately splicing it to create negative messages about America’s dairy producers. This year, the checkoff and DCHA were able to tell their own story and take DCHA annual meeting attendees to Bart’s farm, virtually.

Program Tracks

• Writing SOPs that work
  Tom Fuhrmann, DairyWorks Management System
  
  

  Why is your topic important in today’s economy?
  During times of economic down turn, it is especially important to ORGANIZE WORK to become both efficient and productive......as profitable as possible.  The tools I will discuss to organize work and train workers are a key to control work and become as profitable as possible.
  
  What can attendees take away from the session?
  A new or different idea about how to work, train and get things done better, faster and with reduced cost.  They will see that they can indeed control "this is how we do it here."

• Managing an international labor pool
  Alvaro Garcia, South Dakota State University
  
  With consolidation of small farms into larger operations training employees has become a high priority in the U.S.
  
  Local workers are sometimes hard to come by, and hiring migrant labor has become critical. Some of these employees have limited experience working with animals which can oftentimes be an asset as they don’t come with preconceived notions on how things should be done. They start with a clean slate and the new farm owner has the opportunity to train them according to his/her own best management practices.
  
  This can oftentimes represent an asset as they don’t come with preconceived notions of how things should be done. Time and money invested in training pays dividends to the employer.
  
  But this labor shortage also means that other farms are looking for highly skilled employees. Employers want to make sure they stick around by offering them a work environment that fulfills their aspirations and lifestyle.
  
  Attendees will learn how to increase retention of an increasingly diverse workforce by providing them with a work environment that fulfills their aspirations.

• Troubleshooting biosecurity problems
  Jim Reynolds, University of California-Davis

• Assessing animal comfort and welfare on the farm
  Jeffery Rushen, Agricultrue and Agri-Food Canada

Program Tracks (presentado en español)

• Writing SOPs that work
  Tom Fuhrmann, DairyWorks Management System
• Managing an international labor pool
  Alvaro Garcia, South Dakota State University
• Troubleshooting biosecurity problems
  Jim Reynolds, University of California-Davis
• Assessing animal comfort and welfare on the farm
  Jeffery Rushen, Agricultrue and Agri-Food Canada

Old Tucson Event
Old Tucson Studios presents an evening of Old West entertainment. Old Tucson features the streets of some of Hollywood’s most famous westerns starring the likes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Dinner will be served.

Little things to do to make 2009 turn out fine
Tom Shay, Profits+Plus Solutions

The media may be telling us of doom and gloom, but we need to remember that each business can control its own destiny. During this keynote session, Tom Shay will deliver a list of what to do, what not to do and what to stop doing. Shay is an author of a series of management tip books and a contributor to more than 60 trade publications.

Shay's experiences as a fourth generation merchant provide him with the knowledge and background to present tried and proven ideas to assist owners, managers and staff with the day-to-day operation of their business. During the 25 years that Tom was a part of his family’s business, the stores were ongoing laboratories for the management and promotional techniques that are the backbone of the seminars that Tom now produces.

He presents proven and time tried ideas on the topics of: promoting, customer loyalty, business management design, employee skills development and financial control.

A native of Fort Smith, Ark., Tom started his first job working in his grandfather's general store. Tom moved to Florida to join his parents in the family operation they had purchased in 1971. During the next 26 years, the Shay family owned and operated three businesses. In 1997, Tom sold the business to devote full time to the development of seminars and writing magazine columns and books.

Dairy Calf and Heifer Association
16020 Swingley Ridge Road, Suite 300
Chesterfield, MO 63017
Phone: (636) 449-5077
Fax: (636) 449-5051
info@calfandheifer.org