Discuss with students the weaknesses and strengths in herd management. Discuss the validity of information contained in DHI reports and how accuracy of information may be improved. Feeding information frequently is inaccurate because of poor knowledge of amounts and nutrient content of forages fed. Emphasize forage testing and discuss methods to estimate forage intake. Discuss methods to improve recordings of heat, breeding, calving and other dates.
Identification continues to be a problem on many farms.
Emphasize the loss this represents in obtaining proofs on bulls and development of breeding programs on the farm. Microcomputers on the farm. The miniaturization of computer hardware has resulted in development of microcomputers capable of performing many of the computing tasks handled formerly only at DRPC's. Some dairy industry observers view this equipment as a threat to DHI while others see it as a tool to aid farm recordkeeping. DHI has responded with interactive DHI computing, or the use of micro's linked with DHI mainframes by telephone lines.