Minutes of the Processing Center Advisory Committee Meeting
September 24, 1999
The second meeting of the Processing Center Advisory Committee was held at the Yarrow Hotel in Park City, UT.
Jim Boyer chaired the meeting. The following persons attended as participants:
| Jim Boyer | Pennsylvania DHIA |
| John Clay | DRMS |
| Bliss Crandall | DHI-Provo |
| Ken Crandall | DHI-Provo |
| Cathy Dei | DHI-Provo |
| Gary Griffin | DRMS |
| Erick Metzger | American Jersey Cattle Club |
| Paul Miller | National DHIA |
| Duane Norman | USDA-AIPL |
| Jody Pinter | AgSource Cooperative |
| Michael Rector | National DHIA / QCS |
| Doug Runyon | Texas DHIA |
| Chuck Sattler | NAAB |
| Mary Margaret Steele | DRMS |
| Jerry Steurnagel | University of Minnesota |
| Lisa Shepard | ADGA |
| Kathy Hagin | AgriTech Analytics |
| Ryan Starkenburg | Holstein USA |
| Terry Zumbrennen | DHI-Provo |
| Lee Walton | AIPL |
| Dwayne Vest | American Jersey Cattle Club |
The minutes from the August 20, 1999 meeting were approved as written.
Duane Norman opened the discussion by questioning the number of significant digits in SSC data for AIPL tracks and edits. The Committee recommended AIPL stop editing on the last digit to reduce variations.
Paul Miller asked if the Committee was interested in updating the Herd and Cow Profiles to make them Y2K compatible. The group agreed that there was little interest in them and decided not to invest any more programming time or money.
The Committee discussed the potential conversion of sample data from crude protein to true protein. After considerable discussion, it was recommended that processing centers take a slow approach and develop procedures to label the data submitted to AIPL as crude or true protein. The Committee also agreed that a permanent decision should be made after the Federal Order has been initiated and that adequate time for the conversion should be determined prior to initiation.
Michael Rector presented a draft copy of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding Auditing Procedures for Processing Centers manual. The Committee reviewed the manual in detail and made the following suggestions in addition to minor wording revisions:
1. That centralized processing centers and dairy management systems be handled in a similar manner and not be separated in to distinct sections within the manual, and
2. That the AIPL test herd be created using real herd data, limited to about 25 cows, updated and scrutinized monthly, and initially tested using basic 2x test codes.
3. That the issue of data entry software certification needs to be addressed by QCS as an issue separate from processing center or field service certification.
Jerry Steurnagel presented a set of revised Standard Format Transfer (STF) protocols for review and discussion. The Committee scrutinized the handouts in detail and offered suggestions for revision. A column was added to identify the core requirements necessary for processing center certification and the STF protocols were adopted as revised.
Jim Boyer agreed to review the current STF protocol and identify comparable fields, providing that one of the Committee members would send him a current version.
The Committee agreed that each processing center must complete the necessary programming for the revised STF protocols by May 1, 2000.
Michael Rector was selected to draft the minutes of the meeting and attach a copy of the revised Standard Transfer Format protocols.
Respectfully Submitted,
Michael Rector
National DHIA / QCS
