There's No Ditching These Resolutions!

So it’s January 17, no big deal, right? WRONG. While the rest of you are celebrating “Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution” day, I am celebrating the fact that I will be able to stick with my resolutions. You see, my farmer made awesome choices which have allowed me to make not only one, but four attainable resolutions.

• With everyone talking about losing weight, I am going for maintaining a desirable Body Condition Score (BCS). Since changes in BCS can be caused by many things, it is important for my farmer to pay special attention to nutrition, facilities and handling. He also selects bulls who have a BCS score of over 100 to keep the genetics factor covered.

• Was one of the resolutions you are dumping, spend less, or save more? Efficiency is my word. I know, you are asking how a cow can be more efficient. Well, let me tell you, our genetics company has it figured out. They created a new index my farmer uses in matings called the Ideal Commercial Cow (ICC) index. It allows my farmer to breed for farm profitability and efficiency using real-time economic indicators and science-based genetic principles to address the needs of progressive dairy producers. 

• How is that new exercise plan working out for you? I am staying fit and healthy, again thanks to the mating choices made using the ICC. It factors in health traits such as Productive Life, Locomotion, Somatic Cell Score and Body Condition Score.

• Did the label maker and totes you bought help with your plan to get organized, or are they just a heap in a corner somewhere? Well, my farmer has all the tools and options he needs to keep all of us running like clockwork.  AgSource Cooperative Services offers DHI reports and diagnostic services to ensure we are healthy and performing at our very best, and Genex offers programs like Calf Math™ which helps producers decide how to use the various semen product options to achieve herd goals or Sort-Gate which allows producers to sort dairy females and ultimately define which females are appropriate for different breeding strategies (GenChoice™ sexed semen, Breeding to Feeding™, conventional semen).

So maybe, without thinking, what I really did is create one big, really easy New Year’s Resolution for all of you, trust Genex and Cooperative Resources International to deliver excellence, innovation and value for your herd in 2016 and beyond!