North
American Normande Association
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Normande Happenings 2008 Year code is U Is the official newsletter of the North American Normande Association published by the Association office in the months of February-May-August-November each year (or there about). Associate and Active NANA members receive the newsletter as part of their dues. Non-members may subscribe for a cost of $10.00 per year
  
Mike’S
MUSINGS Your NANA Board of Directors recently met and is now in the process of creating what is usually termed as a Whole Herd Reporting program for the North American Normande Association. Your Board of Directors believes such a program is necessary for the betterment of our breed and for the well being of our breed association. Whole Herd Reporting programs have been implemented by various breed associations which have committed themselves to the progress and future development of their breed. Whole Herd Reporting programs of one form or another have been around for more than a decade and the results have shown that the breeds with such programs are the breeds that are making progress in their future genetic development and have the performance data to back up their bragging rights. Along with a Whole Herd Reporting program your Directors are considering some form of breed promotional fee to better enable NANA to promote the breed to dairy and beef producers. Many other breeds not only have an annual association membership fee but also ask members to pay some type of fee for the promotion of the breed based on the number of breeding age females in the herd. What is a Whole Herd Reporting program? It is an Association program in which participation is VOLUNTARY. NANA members will not be required to participate in the program if they do not want to. It is an Association program that will assist NANA in gathering performance data on Normande cattle (dairy and beef). It is an Association program that will enable NANA to measure the genetic progress of the breed and to eventually develop EPD figures for beef breeders and sire proofs for dairy breeders. It
is an Association program that will provide NANA with a more accurate number of
living/producing registered Normandes in the It is an Association program that will give NANA the ability to better promote our Breed. Performance data is critical to the genetic improvement of any particular herd or breed. A dairy producer not production testing his/her milk cows does not have a very accurate picture of which cows are making money and which cows are costing money. It takes the same amount of basic feed and the same amount of labor for a cow to produce 10,000 pounds of milk as it does for a cow to produce 20,000 pounds of milk within the same management program. But unless the dairy farmer is measuring the performance of his/her cows he/she will not know which animals in the herd that are making money and which ones are costing more money than they are making. Progressive dairy farmers test the performance of the animals in their herd by being enrolled in a milk production testing program and as a consequence they are able to improve the overall performance of their herd by evaluating each animal’s performance and genetic contribution. Likewise, the beef producer not gathering birth weights, weaning weights, yearling weights and carcass data does not have a very accurate picture of which cows and bulls are producing the best doing calves with the more desirable carcass. An extra source of income for those individuals raising registered animals is the sale of breeding stock to other farmers, especially producers who are crossbreeding. Most commercial dairy and beef producers today are pretty savvy when it comes to performance information and its use in a crossbreeding program. They desire a herd bull that will improve the profitability of their farming operation. The measured performance of an animal or its parents provides them with the information needed to make an informed and sound decision. Most commercial producers will purchase a bull that has a measured rate of gain of 3 pounds per day rather than purchase the bull that looks like he could gain 3 pounds per day. So how does a Whole Herd Reporting program work? The details of NANA’s program are being worked on by the Board of Directors at this moment. But the programs of the other breed associations with a Whole Herd Reporting program include the following: 1-Each breeder is provided a list of all the registered breeding age females and males recorded with the Association as being owned by him/her prior to the beginning of the new year. 2-The breeder returns the list to the Association after he/she has designated which animals on the list are no longer members of his/her herd due to death, sold as breeding stock or culled. 3-The breeder is charged a fee for each breeding age female enrolled for the year. 4- The breeder is not charged a registration fee for any calf born from a herd member enrolled in the program for that year. Nor does the breeder pay a transfer fee if he/she should sell the animal or her calf of that year. 5-The breeder is not charged the breed promotion fee 6-The breeder submits performance data (birth weight, weaning weight, milk production records) to the Association as part of the registration process 7-Those breeders not enrolled in the Whole Herd Reporting program would continue to pay the current registration and transfer fees. And they may be billed for a breed promotion fee. You can investigate the programs of other breed Associations by going to their websites on the internet. As your Board of Directors works on the details of NANA’s program I would hope you would express to the board members your thoughts, concerns and suggestions. Each director is listed within the newsletter and would like to hear from you.
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