Advisory services provided by Valacta are supported by two major pillars: a milk analysis laboratory and a connection to a powerful central computer. Valacta's dairy production advisors and technicians visit the farm with a portable computer in order to enter, upload and download herd data. After a milk recording test, results and reports are available via internet to the producer and his authorized partners within 48 hours. See examples of the Vision2000 reports.
A Canadian partnership profitable for all
The two Canadian dairy herd improvement agencies (CanWest and Valacta) have joined forces in an informal group called CDHI (Canadian Dairy
Herd Improvement) in order to optimize and standardize their computer operations. Valacta is the central site for stocking and processing dairy data for all Canada. All Canadian dairy producers and industry partners enjoy the following benefits:
• A unified data bank (about 700,000 cows and 11,000 herds):
- Centralized, faster processing of all Canadian dairy production data
- Wider pool of information, in standardized formats
- Useful benchmarks / comparative statistics (local, provincial, or national)
- Improved management of computer costs
• A common, streamlined and powerful analysis software: VISION2000.
• A wide array of value-added reports (list and examples).
• Fast access to reports by internet / Information also available to partners in user-friendly electronic format.
• Registration of cattle and permanent via internet – fast and reliable.
It is easier than ever to record the entire life data of each animal, and to extract meaningful and profitable statistics: production, milk quality, pedigrees, growth, breeding and calving ease, milking temperament, disease data, etc. All this information, centralized at Valacta, is forwarded to authorized dairy industry partners. The Canadian Dairy Network certifies each cow's production, Breed Associations record pedigrees, and artificial insemination centres such as CIAQ can then select better sires, so that each new generation of cows is more productive and healthier than the previous one.
Circulation of information between the genetic improvement partners in Quebec
Agri-Lacta, "The Power of Your Data Now in Your Hands "
In Quebec , Valacta and Agri-Gestion inc. (now owned by Siga Informatique) designed the AGRI-LACTA Suite, which includes the following, fully integrated applications:
- CONTACT, for dairy data entry at the farm
- ANALYSES, for a quick on-farm analysis and management report printing
- RATION'L, for easy herd grouping, and formulating a well-balanced ration for each group (milking cows, dry cows, heifers, etc.)
- ANALYSES+, for the production of highly visual graphs on lactations, milk recording results and heifer growth (PROM-S)
- PLANI-LACTA, for milk output planification, according to the lactation/pregnancy cycle of each animal in the herd.
The AGRI-LACTA Suite is the main computer tool of Valacta dairy production advisors and technicians. See also Data circulation with Agri-Lacta and Vision2000.
A network of technicians for on-farm data entry
With a few exceptions, on-farm data entry is done by dairy production technicians . The Valacta technician network was set up thanks to the support and financial contribution of the following partners: Holstein Canada, Holstein-Québec, MAPAQ, CQRL, CIAQ and Agri-Traçabilité Québec. Technicians now perform milking supervision, sample taking, data entry and transfer to the central computer. Upon request, they transmit electronic registration requests to Breed Associations and activate permanent ID tags with ATQ. They also perform a basic analysis of the herd's situation in order to detect potential problems and direct the producer to the appropriate resource.
Constantly improving farm management
Milk analysis results from the lab are quickly available to dairy production advisors. When they go to the farm, in the days following the technician's visit, they can perform any adjustment of the ration based on the data of the current test. Their expertise support dairy producers in their decision-making process.
A step toward healthier dairy cattle
Industry partners have also integrated a module for recording disease incidents intoVision2000 as well as Agri-Lacta. In Quebec, according to the producer's decision, data on the eight costlier dairy cattle diseases can be recorded either by Valacta personnel, using Agri-Lacta, or by veterinarians, with the DS@HR program. Participating producers can thus improve their herd management and help genetic industry partners in the selection of animals with a natural resistance to these diseases.
2006-2007 Project for data recording on eight major dairy cattle diseases
The Valacta team combined personnel from Information Technology and Research and Development