FIELD TECH NEWS

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March/April 2008 DRMS Technician Newsletter (PDF)

HOADHIA is changing the way we handle your checks…

Johne's & Luekosis resources available online...

There are several resources available to help with Johne's and Leukosis on this HOA website. The ARTICLES page has three pages in PDF format that you can easily view or print. On the LINKS page, the Johne's Disease Information page and the Antelbio sites could both be helpful.

August birthdays:

1 - Mickey Mitchell (CO)

1 - Rick Scheele - (NE)

5 - Kenneth Burgess (KS)

Instructions for charging the Fuel Surcharge

We will charge this as an HOA Fee (SA-Additional). Either download the herd OR use the G-Get latest billing and then there will be a new line called FUEL SURCHARGE on the SA Additional Fees screen in PCDART. The Technician will input the actual round trip mileage driven. PCDART will have the current rate per mile (in whole numbers only). Since this rate could change periodically, it will be important for the Technician to use the G-Get latest billing immediately before testing each herd. We will treat this charge as technician compensation in our office and combine it with existing travel fees. Thus, by law, it will only be taxed if/when the employee exceeds the IRS mileage rate in that pay period. Since no employer’s share of FICA is to be charged to the dairymen, HOA will pay for that.

GUIDELINES FOR REPORTING MILES DRIVEN ON PCDART BILLING

If you drive to an area and test more than one herd while you are in the area…

Note your mileage from your home to a central place in the area of the herds being tested. Divide that figure by the number of herds being tested on this trip. Add the result to the number of miles from the central point to the herd.

Example: Dennis tests three herds near Manhattan. From Lincoln to Manhattan is 140 miles. 140 divided by 3 is about 47 miles. The first herd is the KSU dairy on the edge of town, so he charges them for 47 miles. The second dairy is 35 miles from Manhattan so he adds the 35 miles to 47 and charges them 82 miles. The third dairy is charged 60 miles since it is 13 miles from Manhattan (47 plus 13 = 60).

If you test two or more herdcodes on one farm…

Report the total mileage for one herdcode and none for the other. However, if the farmer wants part of the mileage charge for each herdcode, you can enter 1 mile for one herdcode and the remaining miles for the other.

If you are not sure how to enter mileage for a specific situation…

Please contact us if you are not sure how to handle a specific situation. There are a variety of situations out there and we may need to handle a few individually to insure accuracy.

The bottom line is that we all need to make the honest attempt to accurately report the actual miles driven for PCDART billing purposes.

You may remember hearing about the Check 21 changes in the banking industry during the last several years, and you have probably experienced some of the changes that the law allowed. Heart of America is now using some of the technology that the law allows to improve our processing of member payments.

Using special equipment, Heart of America now scans your check and from there on the payment is handled as an electronic payment instead of a piece of paper. There are a couple of changes that you may want to note.

The first is that you will not receive the actual paper check back in your bank statement. In some situations, this is the case already since many banks provide an image or copy of cancelled checks instead of the actual paper checks being returned in your monthly statements.

The second issue is that your check may clear your bank a little faster than in the past. Previously, checks that were sent to the lab in Manhattan were mailed to the accounting office in Lincoln. Obviously, there was an inherent risk of these checks getting lost in the mail. Our new system eliminates this risk. However, since there is no longer mail time from Manhattan to Lincoln, your check may clear faster than in the past.

We do need to ask for your assistance in this new system. First, please be sure that your herd code is written on the check and that it is accurate. In some cases, your Field Technician may do this for you. HOA expects payment on sample day, but a few members occasionally need to mail the check later. If you do mail a check, please use the Manhattan address instead of the Lincoln one.

Aside from these changes, you will probably not even notice any difference. We also offer Electronic Funds Transfer to automatically and electronically pay your testing bill. Call Dennis at 800-793-2511 for more details on EFT.

We have experienced an increase in herds wanting to have a Johne’s test performed on their herds. We are able to send the milk samples that you send into the lab to Northstar Cooperative in Michigan and have them do the Elisa Test.

The price of the test is $6.50 per sample plus shipping to Northstar Cooperative. You do not have to add the price of the Johne’s test in PCDART. We will invoice the dairy after the test is completed.

If you have herds that are interested please notify me at the Lab prior to sending in the samples so that we can insure that the samples do not get dumped after we run them for BFP and SCC. We will recap them and send them off for the Johne’s Test.

Please use any of the methods below to report breedings to Montbeliarde, European Red or Swedish Red bulls. For example, the European Red bull Valedo can be reported in the service sire field as “DEU*592940” with a breed= “A” or as “204X4007” with a breed= “X”.

Please notice that the European Red and Swedish Red bulls were first distributed in the U.S. as Ayrshires so their registration numbers are stored at DRMS as breed= “A”. Montbeliarde bulls are stored as breed = “C”.

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