Holstein Association reports successes

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The board of directors of Holstein Association USA held its spring meeting in Brattleboro, Vt. March 27-28.

During the meeting, the board approved the 2007 financial report presented by Chief Financial Officer Barbara Casna, which showed the association realized net income of $331,000, which was $47,000 higher than 2006 results.

Highlights

Financial highlights included an increase in revenues from Holstein COMPLETE of 16 percent; an increase in TriStar revenues of 5 percent; an increase of 27 percent in ear tag sales; an increase in revenues received from registrations of 4 percent; and an increase in revenues from classification of 10 percent.

A total of 215,632 animals were classified, an 11 percent increase, while number of herds classified increased to 5,174, or 4 percent. At year end, there were 197,680 animals enrolled in Holstein COMPLETE in 1,705 herds, which is a 15 percent increase in the number of animals enrolled in the program and a 13 percent increase in herds compared to 2006.

Within the governance committee report, the board approved a motion to recommend that the president state at the beginning of each annual meeting that, unless the delegates object, the rules of the annual meeting will allow all members present to speak to issues being discussed.

In the past, any member could have the floor during the first day’s business session, while only delegates were allowed to address the convention on the second day.

Article change

Also from the governance committee, the board approved a motion to amend Article III, Section 7 of the bylaws to read: “A person serving or elected as a delegate at three consecutive annual meetings is not eligible to be nominated to be a delegate again until at least two annual meetings are held.”

President Doug Maddox appointed a special advisory committee, which will be chaired by director Bill Peck. The charge of the committee is to evaluate the current dairy cattle scorecard to discuss its relevancy in today’s dairy industry.

The committee plans to meet in May and will report to the board at its June meeting in Wisconsin.

Web site

One of the major initiatives of the association’s communications department for 2008, is a complete redesign of the association’s Web site. The board previewed the progress that has been made on the redesign, which is scheduled to go “live” during the fourth quarter of the year.

The next meeting of the board of directors will be held prior to the annual meeting in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., June 22-23. The fall meeting will be held in St. Louis Nov. 13-14.