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The Rural Voice, 1980-03, Page 10egg or meat. This is also valuable for cash cropping in determining the profit or loss on an acre of crop. This service costs 5320 per year with the basic $50 sign up. TAX PAC...this system is designed for farmers with a job on the side. Your readouts will inform you of your tax position at the end of the third quarter which will enable you to make manage- ment decisions regarding the position you are in. This service is 5200 per year. COR PAC...this system is designed for corporate farms. Due to the initial setting up of this program. which includes detailed entries, this service has a sign-up fee of $100 plus $300 each year after. CANFARM also offers programs in Swine, Dairy or Beef Management. These can be bought along with your other programs or separately. You don't have to take any one thing to get the other. All programs are tailor made to suit the needs of individual farmers. The Swine Manage- ment programyfor example records births, weight of piglets and farrowing cycles. You can also record boar performance. The Canfarm representative in this area is Dick Young who can be reached at the Owen Sound Co-operators Insurance of- fice. The number is 794-2367. Dick can be reached at home at 821-8000. A time suitable to both parties will be arranged. In the near future there are plans under way to open an area office but for the time being the address of Canfarm is... Canfarm Cooperative Services Ltd., P.O. Box 1024 Guelph, Ontario N1H 6N1 Canfarm also has on staff financial advisors, tax advisors and business management advisors with a good selec- tion of farm specialists. They invite you to use them. Dairy computer provides mating service BY RHEA HAMILTON The concept of using computers in the dairy business has been talked about for a year now and recently the talk turned to action when United Breeders, Guelph, launched its program Uni-Mating. At a recent dairy seminar in Blyth, Bill Cunningham from United Breeders spoke to over 50 dairymen. To illustrate how the new system works Mr. Cunningham had a small 2001 computer which glowed as he talked. The computer, he explained "does the mechanical sorting of the information given it. Better sire selection leads to improvements in herds and better produc- tion." First a list of bulls and their stronger characteristics and progress reports is put into the computer. Bulls offered have to have a plus five (+5) rating before being entered into the computer system. Next, a farmer can have someone from United Breeders rate the cow or cows to be bred, or he can do it himself. Production statistics and type characteristics are listed on a card,the weaknesses are marked,and the information is fed into the computer at the head office in Guelph. There the computer sorts the information and chooses between two to four bulls out of 20 or 40 which will comFlement the cow's weaker characteristics. "This is not always the best choice" said Mr. Cunningham. "It is merely a sorting of information." The computer does have a built-in protective stop so that a sire is not bred with a daughter. But that is only effective if the pedigrees have been kept up to date. The printout is in the form of a small booklet. One copy is sent to the breeder and one is kept on file at United Breeders. Norm McKee, branch manager at United Breeders, Wingham office, commented on the good response to the program in the Grey Bruce area. "There are 10 or 12 in the Wingham area alone who have used the computer" Mr. McKee said. The newness of the project is apparent when you consider that no calves have been born yet as a result of computer mating. Mr. McKee commented that an average of 10 bulls have been appearing on the lists regularly. At the seminar slides of local cows were shown and farmers rated the animals and listed the four points that they would like to see improved. On a computer screen nine type charac- teristics were listed which include size, stature, mammary, udder, leg set, and production figures. The mini terminal sorted out three bulls for the cow in question. The breeder could then make a selection. The cost for having a UB rep come out and grade the herd is 550. It costs an additional $2 to have the information fed into the computer for a selection. Artificial insemination prices depend on the bull in question. Young bulls are 57 and some of the more popular ones are priced in the $10 to $15 range. Mating by computer can save dollars At the Grey -Bruce Farmer's Week Bill Cunningham, resident computer expert with United Breeders of Ontario, explained how a dairy producer can make money by the use of a computer. Actually, a computer doesn't use any information than a breeder uses by himself. It only becomes near impossible or at (east it will take days, to do what the computer does in seconds. These home computers are so cheap that they can be purchased at department stores. What the farmer does is as follows! He goes down the list of the points where his cow needs improvement. This can be size, breadth or depth. It can be legs, feet, PG. 8 THE RURAL VOICE/MARCH 1980 udder; or it can be milk production and fat content. He types these needed traits into his computer. The computer is programmed previously with the traits of thousands of bulls, either Ontario wide or Canada wide. The cost of such programming will be charged accordingly. He reads off the screen the three or four bulls who will do most to improve his herd. From these animals he selects which one he likes best. That's it! A dairy producer doesn't have to buy such computers, for he can buy the services of one from United Breeders. For a fee an analyst will come out to the farm to help with the selection of traits that need improvement and in matching bulls. M.G. (Moe) Freeman. general manager of Semex Canada showed the farmers that planned matings bring money in the pocket. Proper selection of a bull can make a difference of $66 over feed costs in income of the daughter over her dam, while a poor selection can easily result in a daughter that returns $7 'ess than her dam. Mr. Freeman showed in definite figures that it is most economical not to go for a dual purpose animal, as the return of a awry cow like the Holstein is consider- ably higher than for the dual purpose breed. He said it is best to go for the minimal butterfat that the board will accept, for that pays handsomely.