But let’s go back to the rotten and add a twist, which is where I see the more extreme delays. It can be much slower given that original service memo you failed to provide is coming from the buck’s owner “NOT YOU” and he does not have your sense of urgency. Yes, he told you on the phone he would send it that evening but the reality is he takes two weeks. More than likely you don’t have him send it directly to you so every couple of days you’re calling the ABGA office to see if we have received it. Given members outnumber staff at a rate of a 1,000 to one, these sort of calls alone slow things further. How can you help yourself? Make sure your work has all supporting document in place and is filled out properly. Know your Online line work will be tied up with submitted work if you send in both at same time and allow for it or plan around it if you have pieces of work on short time lines. Fax or email work in to reduce mail time. It is not uncommon for the mail to take four or five days to arrive here. Utilize the electronic notification system to immediately correct simple issues before they are returned to you via the mail. Plan for rush season as it is seasonal and with as much as a 400% variance in work load there are simply times where the office will run five to ten days longer than in the slow season. How do we make things better, faster and more efficient at the ABGA office? The short answer: make adjustments to Online live allowing you to do more things without having to go through the office. Improvement targets could include resolving frozen embryo issues, the grandfathered semen DNA issue, and transfers. Identify and set to policy to deal with incorrect or incomplete work in the most time-efficient and consistent manner to avoid delays with finished work. Utilize what we identified from this past year’s issues to eliminate as many as possible to make us better next year. Bottom line: sometimes we have to take one step backward to go two steps forward. I plan to use what I’ve come to better understand this past year to do just that if possible.
USDA studying goat operations From July 1 through December 2019, the USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), in collaboration with the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), will conduct its second national study of the U.S. goat industry. The NAHMS Goat 2019 study will take an in-depth look at the priority issues facing U.S. goat operations and provide new and valuable information regarding animal health and management practices in this growing industry. The NAHMS Goat 2019 study is designed to provide individual participants and stakeholders with valuable information on the U.S. goat industry. NAHMS collects and reports accurate and useful information on animal health and management in the United States. Since 1990, NAHMS has developed national estimates on disease prevalence and other factors related to the health of U.S. beef cattle, sheep, goats, dairy cattle, swine, equine, poultry, and catfish populations. The science-based results produced by NAHMS have proven to be of considerable value to the
6 - The Boer Goat
U.S. livestock, poultry, and aquaculture industries as well as to other animal health stakeholders. Producers that choose to complete both phase I and phase II of the study will be offered free biologic testing.
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