134th Holstein Canada Annual General Meeting 2018 - Cowsmo

134th Holstein Canada Annual General Meeting 2018

The 134th Annual General meeting of Holstein Canada was held in Quebec City in the province of Quebec today.  

The Holstein Canada Annual General meeting was opened by President Orville Schmidt at 9am with opening comments and welcome.

Anne Louise Carson gave her CEO report and highlighted that 2017 was a very successful year with an increase in classification from 241,469 to 245,940 animals in 2017 showing a 2% increase.  Members remained steady with a slight decrease however registrations had an increase of over 8000 registrations with Ontario and Quebec showing the biggest increase overall to contribute to the final 3% increase from 2016.

Ann Louise noted the importance of moving on and noted that Holstein Canada’s role more thean ever is to offer services and tools which bring added value to Canadian dairy producers.   She mentioned the evolving partnerships with DFO, Canwest CDN and Valacta as well as the AI companies who continue to help improve our breed.

She noted technology is the cornerstone of dairying today and significant changes have been made with more to come.  Data access and classification software remain ongoing priorities.

Ann Louise outlined 2018 priorities:
– Proaction cattle assessments working on transitioning success of current contract as DFC service provider into further collaboration.
-Continued technological enhancements and tweaking of core services to add value to customers
-Continued collaboration with industry partners and other breeds
– Continued enhancements to our programs

Gerald Schipper gave the financial report and noted the revenue from 2017 was up from 2016 by 772,088 with Expenses only up slightly from 2016 at 274,986.   These revenues exceeded budget by 6% and expenses came right in on budget for 2017. The association reported a deficit of 406,045 for 2017.  Development fund was well under budget at 13% under. The reserve fund is strong at a total balance of $5,133,887 with a respectable annual return of 3%.  The outlook for 2018 is calling for a 4% increase in revenues and stable expenses. These initiatives focus on core services and have the potential for cost reduction, increase revenues and value added benefits for our members for years to come.

Century of Holstein Awards were given out to Donovan, ISland Blend and Maple Grove.  The certificate of recognition was handed out to Jean Touchette of Quebec the breeder of Duregal Astre Starbuck and Doug Blair received the Certificate of Accomplishment.  Tonight 20 MasterBreeders will be recognized during the gala.  They include: Alley, Camphols, Cavanalack, Darwell, Doanlea, Florbil, Hyljon, Krul, Lesperee, Loyalyn, Mabel, Mactalla, Oostview, Outaouais, Pennview, Petitclerc, Rickeen, Seric,  Spendcroft and Zimmer.

Scholarship Winners included: Rachel Boonstopell, MB, Alex Dolson, ON, Angela Pfaeffli, ON, Martha MacKinnon, QC, Raphael Chabot, QC and Spencer MacNeill, PE.   Bovine Medicine Awards went to Dr. Christina Hawkins, U of PEI, Dr Samuel De Serre, U of Montreal, Dr Kandice Runyon U of Guelph, Dr Danielle Gutter, UofS and Dr Trina Hancock, UofC.

Four By-law amendments were approved. The most significant was an amendment that now allows Young Leader delegates the right to vote at the Annual Meeting in the year in which they are Young Leader Convention delegates.

There was 12 resolutions put forth by the various branches of which the majority had to do with shows and a number addressing show ages and classes for animals at shows moving forward. Resolution #5 was a tie vote.

Resolution #5 was  In an effort to widen the genetic pool and identify  high genetic families, Holstein Canada was asked to investigate whether it would be possible to identify: a) the families of sires that produce great female lines, but not males; and b) families whose offspring are only average producers early in life, but have exceptional later lactations and lifetime production.

Judges for 2018 Royal ballot were announced and include: Scott Brethet, Joel Lepage and Chad Ryan for the Red Holsteins and Carl Phoenix and Thierry Jaton & Jeff Stephens for the Black Holsteins.  The enforcement rules for spot painting of animals and the use of electricity stimulating machines will now be in effect for 2018.

Norm McNaughton the President of CDN addressed the assembly with high regards and mention of the people involved with the partnerships formed. Norm McNaughton said,  “I think it is a great tribute to our industry that these boards were able to come together and had the foresight to say WE instead of ME.”

Michael Flaman represented the young leaders and gave his speech in both English and French  thanking Holstein Canada for the opportunity.  The Holstein Quebec planning committee was recognized by the membership for their hard work.

Jacobs Goldwyn Britany Ex-96-2E-7* was named the 2017 Holstein Canada Cow of the Year for Ferme Jacobs Inc., QC.

The 2019 National Convention committee gave a very dynamic presentation and it will be held in Charolottetown, Prince Edward Island April 24-28, 2019 with a theme Come from Away!

 

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