SUMMARY MOBILE APPLICATIONS… 2 FORAGE RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER … 5A STEP AHEAD TRAINING SESSION… 6

March 2016 • Vol. 11, No 1

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DraftingandEditing: Annik Perron, Communications DirectorCollaborators: Sylvia Lafontaine, Agr., Business Analyst, Valacta,Marie-Élaine Smith, Agr., Organic Advisor and Marketing Assistant, Valacta,Hélène Brassard, Agr., M.Sc., CQPF (Quebec Forage Council).Telephone:1 800 BON-LAIT, 514 459-3030 • Fax: 514 459-3020www.valacta.comEmail: Dairy Knowledge: info@valacta.comCustomer Service: service.clientele@valacta.comLegal Deposit: ISSN 1496-2748 National Library and Archives of Quebec and National Library and Archives of Canada

VOLUME 11 – NO 1 - MARCH 2016

Valacta Newsletter, Dairy Production Centre of Expertise

1966-2016For 50 years.

To promote progress in the forage sector, the Forage Council and its partners are saying: “Look after our forages just as we do our grains, and together, promote the economic and environmental value of forage and pasture.”

The forage sector in Quebec has set up a Strategic Planning process which will continue into 2017. This plan concerns all of the industry partners and shareholders that are directly or indirectly involved with the production, use, and commercialisation of forages.

One of the goals is to reinforce the means of research and knowledge transfer in order to promote the adoption of best practices.

The CQPF got the ball rolling by initiating a process to identify forage research and knowledge transfer priorities and establish an implementation strategy.

DIRECTING RESEARCH EFFORTS AND PROMOTING IMPROVED KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER! The CQPF has chosen an ambitious approach, pro-moting networking between researchers, producers, advisors and the industry as a whole:

• to allow for the co-operative development of forage production in Quebec;

• to respond to future and priority market needs;

• to adopt a common direction in which to mobilize those involved in the sector.

Priorities up to 2020:

• 10 research topics, to acquire new knowledge http://www.cqpf.ca/images/CQPF/

grands-projets/priorites-2015-2020/PrioritesRecherchefinal.pdf

• 16 topics for knowledge transfer, to promote research results, update practices, apply new production techniques or use new technology

http://www.cqpf.ca/images/CQPF/grandsprojets/priorites-2015-2020/PrioritesTransfertfinal.pdf

The implementation plan for these priorities will be available in March 2016 on the CQPF web site http://www.cqpf.ca/ and follow us on https://www.face-book.com/cqpf1

Forage Research and Knowledge Transfer

Become a CQPF Member Support the development of the sector and maintain our achievements in terms of the presence

of forages in Quebec agriculture.

www.cqpf.ca

CQPF Saint-Wenceslas holds a strategic planning meeting at Lac-à-L’Épaule on January 28, 2016.

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Thank you A Step Ahead Participants

Ham-Nord Training Session

TECHNO

Three hours of reflection and sharing cutting-edge knowledge in

A FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE over a hot coffee.

LET’S TALK ROBOTS!

Techno-Expresso is a new way of learning with Valacta. The format is three hours and the content, albeit technical, is presented in a way that favors discussion and exchange. The number of attendees is limited and a variety of subjects could be covered. The very first Techno-Expresso will address the 22% of producers who told us that they were thinking about changing over to robot milking in the short or medium term*. A decision of this magnitude requires much thought, and we are offering you a chance to study it with concrete technical information to help you make your decisions.

* Client Survey, Fall 2015.

More than 90 sessions were held between January and the end of March, with variable participation of between 8 and 25 participants depending on the region. In Rivière-du-Loup, Strategic Advisor, Valérie Martin, and Veterinarian, Justin Rousselle gave a dynamic presentation to a full house! The participants gave them a score of 3.8 out of 4!

Dairy Knowledge at your fingertips

Dairy Knowledge at your fingertips

years

THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY LOGO UNITES THE GREEN THAT

ADORNED PATLQ, THE BLUE THAT REPRESENTS VALACTA AND THE

GOLD FROM DHAS, THE VERY FIRST ANGLOPHONE VERSION OF THE

PROGRAM (DAIRY HERD ANALYSIS SERVICES). A TOUCH OF GOLD WAS ALSO A PERFECT WAY TO INCLUDE THE TRADITIONAL FESTIVE COLOR FOR OUR FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY!

Our slogan, For You and With You, was an obvious choice since right from the very beginning, there was no commer-

cial intent. Dr. Moxley, a McGill Uni-versity professor who was passionate about Agriculture and Dairy Produc-tion, wanted to give dairy producers the means to improve herd perfor-

mance. He proposed to do this by col-lecting their milk samples and in turn

providing them with concrete data that would help them make management decisions. The first clients that were approached really had no idea what

Dr. Moxley’s “analysis program” could do for them but the most progressive among them took part because times

were hard for dairy farmers in that era. In fact, in 1966, there were 62,000

farms in Quebec and barely 15 years later there were 3 times less! If these

herds had not been so infatuated with their “milk recording” results,

would they have been able to keep up with the competition? It is important

to note that although the number of farms decreased, the number of

hectolitres produced stayed the same. Clear evidence that dairy production

had experienced a period of extremely rapid progress.

Since 50 years in business is an important milestone, we will take the time to reminisce about Valacta’s past from April through November. You can be sure that Dairy Knowledge and our other communication tools will continue to cover the future, both immediate and distant, because we do strive to be FOR YOU AND WITH YOU for another 50 years!

1966* 62,000 dairy farms

Close to one million cows

16 cows per farm

5,930 pounds per cow

* Royal Commission of Enquiry on Agriculture

in Quebec, 1967.

The mobile application: I couldn’t do without it!- Julie Gagnon, Ferme Ciboulette Inc.

“The Valacta mobile application is a must for me. Last fall I was away for three days at my son’s tournament and thanks to my mobile application, I was still able to monitor my milk recording results and have access to my information.

I have two herds, and the mobile application lets me access the data from both of my herds by easily moving from one window to another.

I use the mobile application to manage my herd. A glance at the Ketolab section lets me know if I have cows with ketosis. I also use the somatic cell table to sort my cows from the highest to lowest Somatic Cell Count. They are easy to find on my IPhone when I am in the barn. When it comes time for breeding my cows I can find the open cows quickly and easily.

MOBILE APPLICATIONS

Which one does what? And what can you do with them?

NO NEED FOR A CRYSTAL BALL TO SEE THAT THE NUMBER OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS ON THE HORIZON FOR DAIRY PRODUCERS IS GROWING. IN FACT, THE MOBILE TREND IS ALREADY WELL UNDERWAY AND IS SURE TO CONTINUE TO EXPAND. IN 2016, YOU WILL START TO HEAR ABOUT LAC-T MOBILE, VALACTA MOBILE WILL BRING YOU MORE FUNCTIONS, AND DSA WILL ALSO BRING YOU A MOBILE APPLICATION. EACH APPLICATION WILL HAVE ITS ADVANTAGES, AND WE WOULD LIKE TO HELP YOU TO LEARN ABOUT EACH APPLICATION AND WHAT IT CAN DO FOR YOU.

Happy Birthday Valacta Mobile!Our Valacta Mobile application, launched one year ago, is now popular with close to 1,000 users. This easy to use application provides access to your milk recording data, cows and herd, anywhere, anytime. Over the course of its first year, our mobile application has evolved to provide you with even more data, including that of your heifers. The last version included the Pro$ Index from the Canadian Dairy Network for every cow in your herd. Not only can it give you easy access to your cow data, but the many different options for sorting your data are very useful when there are decisions to be made.

MUCH APPRECIATED COMMENTS FROM OUR USERSOur mobile application will continue to evolve: an udder health module is one of the additions that is in the works for the coming year. We take your user comments seriously and consider all of your suggestions in order to meet your most urgent requirements as quickly as possible. We would like to thank the users who take the time to share their comments with us. It is much appreciated.

Lac-T MobileDo you dream of the day when you can enter your cow data while you are in the barn? Well, now you can! No more notepads! Lac-T Mobile will let you enter your data on heat detection, insemination, calving, and more. Stop by your computer when you get the chance and use the Wi-Fi connection to synchronise your data with Lac-T. All of the data will be transmitted and processed in Lac-T and then returned to your application. And presto! You are ready to start again! The application is easy to use and to help make it more user friendly, we used the same design as Lac-T. Novelty combined with the comfort of what you already know… we like it!

And to make your life even easier, the management grid is displayed in the application exactly as it appears in Lac-T (screen 1). A click on the animal name on the list will bring you to the event window that you need. For example, your cow SATINE, that needs to be inseminated, appears on the management grid. Clicking SATINE, will bring you to the insemination data entry screen. That’s all it takes! Even better? If there are other cows that need to be inseminated, just click next cow, again and again until you have finished entering all that you need to. It is simple, direct and intuitive. You’re going to love it.

MORE IS BETTER?

The Lac-T Mobile animal list gives you access to your individual cow data. Look up a cow name as shown in the example. When we search for STILLETO, as soon as the letters S, T, and R, are entered, all of the cows whose names begin with ST are displayed. You simply have to click on the one that you are looking for. You can also search the list for other criteria that you may choose; lactation number, projected calving date, most recent insemination date, among others.

The Lac-T mobile application will be a welcome tool for Lac-T users because it will highly simplify data entry. Those evenings spent with your notebook entering data into the computer will no longer be necessary! It will also help you to avoid forgotten data and the problems that come along with it.

DSA Mobile by LactoLogicDSA has created an application to simplify data entry for clients who have not yet begun using the Lac-T software. We believe that, within the next year and a half, all of our clients will have transferred to Lac-T and will be using the Lac-T mobile application, but in the meantime, they will not be penalized.

When I am in the barn, instead of carrying around binders and digging through piles of paper, I can look at the results of my most recent tests on my mobile application and even look back at the previous results, if need be.

I am a visual person and the graphs help me to monitor my herd’s progress. I find it easy, efficient and practical!”