AHA - Inventory surcharge

[WichitaLineMan]

Any of you Hereford guys have to pay a "surcharge" for your spring herd update? They hit me for $16.00. This was off course on top of the $5.00 fee per female and $2.50 fee per heifer and of course my annual $100 is coming up. Then they charge us for the actual registration of calves.

Wow bureaucracy run amok at AHA.

 

[CPL]

I don't doubt that they have a lot of bills to pay at the headquarters, but I'd rather they just be honest about it, total up all their bills and divide it among members with a fair dues fee. Granted it'd be slightly higher than what it is presently, but I really get tired of the surcharges, member service fees, etc etc. It makes you feel like you're getting ripped.

 

[Hereford76]

It makes you feel like you're getting ripped.

doesn't feel like it to me - they are ripping plain and simple. what is the role of a breed association supposed to be. what do we need all the staff for or the field reps - aren't there enough professionals out there for hire to help create the hype. director of breed improvement.... isn't that our own job. i've met all those guys and they are nice people and i like them for the most part but we don't need all of them. see if anyone is interested in our labels and we can just supply it. have the junior program completely separate and let them generate their own funding. either that or get someone in there in a position to make a difference.

here is a question... how much does it cost a straight pedigree breeder every year say on a cow herd of 100 head that would register only 25 or 30 heifers per year and not submit a lick of data? i haven't done any of my 2010 calf crop yet and i think i am going to look into just pedigree. i really don't see the point of being associated with the AHA other than to keep papers on the cows anymore.

raining for two days straight - finally fixed my computer!

 

[I luv herfrds]

Was wondering where you were Ace.

I haven't registered a calf in years. when they switched to the whole herd system made no sense to me to register 1 or 2 calves for the price they wanted.

 

[Australian]

The inventory system is why I belong to two breed societies that don't have it. I would belong to Herefords Australia and register cattle but they have the stupid inventory system so that cancels another breeder out. Have belonged to the Australian Brahman breeders association for the past 35 years and the Australian South Devon Cattle breeders association for the past 7 years ( a separate SD association from the backward society who has the inventory system) A fee to register an animal once is the only fair way to go. It doesn't encourage the coming and going of animals in the herd book, by not being active or being active. To maintain a herdbook within the societies/associations that have the inventory must be a very haphazard affair. Very open to cheating. What has happened has been say 10 females inventory paid, yet one of the good cows that hasn't had the fee paid produces a good calf, easy slip it over to say it's by one of the paid up cows.

 

[MO_cows]

I am amazed there is still so much resentment towards the inventory-based fee system. How it is SUPPOSED to work, all the cows are on inventory and all the calves are recorded even if not registered. That way, the complete contemporary groups are processed and the performance of each calf is more accurately measured and the resulting performance predictions, EBV or EPD, are no longer skewed by just the "cream of the crop" calves getting reported. If the inventory fees were tabulated and applied correctly, the breeder wasn't supposed to see any increase in their overall cost. When ATA made the switch, analysis was done that showed breeders who had been conscientiously paying to record their non-registered calves before the inventory-based fees were actually saving money. But breeders still dropped out, they could not be convinced they weren't paying a "cow tax".

Does anybody disagree that whole herd reporting creates a better data set, or is it just resentment and dissatisfaction about how the breed association actually applies the fees and runs their system??

 

[Alan]

Does anybody disagree that whole herd reporting creates a better data set, or is it just resentment and dissatisfaction about how the breed association actually applies the fees and runs their system??

Yes to both, as a small hobby guy I don't report a bunch or register many, most of my calves are sold at weaning. As far as Data goes the only ones that I feel are really accurate are BW's and WW's. I never have ultra sound done, I very rarely have many to get YW on calves, when doing udder scores what I may consider to be a 7 score udder someone else may see it as a 9 or a 4. Plus the whole system relies on folks being honest... how many folks throw a extra 50lbs onto weaning weights? (not really a question as much as a thought).

I have a 2 month old calf that I'm considering retaining, as some know I had a major computer crash last year lost my hard drive and backup drive (all previous cattle info). This calf is either a M326 or a Rib Eye calf, I have to pay $35 to have the dam DNA'd and another $35 for the calf, it's only my morals that keep me from flipping a coin to find out who the sire is.... this is the kind of stuff that makes me wonder how accurate the data is.

As far as fees goes $100 here, $5 per head there, add another $16 for fun and while we are at it lets not forget the cert fees... yes it starts to feel like a tax after a bit.

Alan

 

[dun]

Does anybody disagree that whole herd reporting creates a better data set, or is it just resentment and dissatisfaction about how the breed association actually applies the fees and runs their system??

We even report our crossbreds if out of a registered cow or sired by the bull. It's the only way to have much accuracy. With the RA associaiton it doesn;t cost anything until they claf is of breeding age. For calves sired by the bull there is a small fee to include the data in his EPD calcualtions.

 

[Australian]

Over here in Australia the SD society was adding a Breedplan fee to the inventory even if you weren't interested ( which I'm not and never will be). They have since stopped that I believe. Any way a once only fee is simple the animal is registered for life end of story. It gives breeders choice. Many breed societies over here have lost many potential members because of this fee.

 

[rocket2222]

I just looked at my last statement, didn't get a surcharge added on, but agree that they are ripping us a new one, kind of like the health insurance company's who just raised my premium 20%, good to see the government has really got a handle on keeping healthcare cost down. What can you do.

 

[rocket2222]

Ok, ripped again, had the AHA fax me a "Non Certificate AI Sire Program Agreement," there's a $250 fee per sire to enter the program, for what :roll: