DHIA/Records

In May, Glen Easter, President of United DHI, announced to the DHI membership the December 2008 retirement of Sam Chafin as General Manager of United DHI. That’s a few months from now, but changes are already underway. Sam has served DHI for 27 years, which is about five generations of dairy cows. Not that they care, but cows in many Virginia herds today could check on records on their great great grand dams and Sam would have likely had a hand in the record keeping process. Sam gave leadership to the merger of Virginia DHIA with North and South Carolina organizations, which was a critical step in the evolution of the DHI business. One of the greatest challenges of that era was a transfer responsibility for wages and benefits for DHI technicians from local associations to the United DHI organization. Some locals welcomed the process, but others did not, and three states were involved. Sam worked through those challenges with patience, but also with a clear understanding of how important it was that United DHI employees work for one business-oriented organization. His leadership was critical to the survival of United as a member-controlled DHI service affiliate. The next few months will be a time of transition and will include the establishment of a new management team. The United Board has chosen to work closely with Lancaster DHIA in this process. There is no merger in the works here, but there are several areas of operation of the two independent organizations where partnering is a good idea. The goal of the United Board is to embrace this time of change as an opportunity to better serve dairy farmers. Dairy records systems across the country are undergoing tremendous change through new technology in communications, computing power, and technology in modern milking parlors. DHI cannot operate in the future as it has in the past. The partnership with Lancaster DHIA is a good opportunity to offer better service to dairy farmer members of both organizations. I’m looking forward to the next chapter in the DHI story in this part of the country.

DHI Notes...