Developments took on a fast and furious pace last month when it became plain that Calgary-based Alta Genetics was not rejoining the Semex Canada family.

Former Semex Canada general manager Jaydee Grad left Feb. 2 to join Alta Genetics. Under the auspices of its American operation, Landmark Genetics, which it bought last year, Alta Genetics will be selling to Europe and elsewhere. When its arrangement with Semex ends Sept. 1 it will become a competitor to Semex, the marketing co-op through which the other Canadian bull studs sell semen overseas.

But the other Canadian units are fighting back. Early February, they formed a new National Alliance, with members being the Ontario studs, WOBI, UBI, and EBI, along with CIAQ, Quebec, and BCAI, of British Columbia.

This changes the way that Canadian dairy genetics are marketed both in and outside Canada. Export sales lower the price of semen sold from these studs to Canadian farmers.

Robert Chicoine, president of Semex Canada, told Farm & Country the primary advantage of the alliance will be that it owns all the bulls rather than having them owned by individual studs. "Once the alliance is a reality, we will be able to say we are co-owners of the bulls in the alliance. It will be their bulls."

The weakness of the Semex Canada arrangement was that a member could pull out and market genetics elsewhere, as Alta Genetics did. "We feel if we want to stay as a group and, as an important player, we have to find ways this will not happen again. We need to find stronger ties."

At this stage, Chicoine says, "it is a concept more than a detailed project.

"We want to be considered one of the leading groups in cattle breeding.

"We want to continue to do the international marketing of our semen. We want to be even more aggressive."

Industry insiders say there is a big difference between this arrangement and simple membership in Semex Canada as a marketing co-operative. The new arrangement has been described as "an empowered board". Semex will be "the office down the hall."

The new alliance will be responsible for international marketing but with a more unified front than was possible under the old Semex, where there was jockeying as to who had the top bull and positioning in the lineup.

The new alliance will also handle national and international marketing, future growth and investment, national and international genetic programs including sire procurement strategies and sire sampling programs, international training through the International Livestock Management School, semen distribution and order processing, research and development, and international marketing of embryos.

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Northern dairies face competition

Northern dairies are staring increased competition in the face, including products processed in southern Ontario, as the province gears up to amend its policies on fluid milk distribution.

Processors have until the end of March to comment on the timing and implementation of new policies including the removal of restrictions on the movement of fluid milk and the simplification of licensing for new distributors in the north. Nothing is expected to change for producers, says Sue Gillespie, Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission. Nor are plants expected to close down. "We aren't anticipating that. It could have an impact on transportation costs as a whole. We opened up distribution in southern Ontario without many problems a few years ago."

It is possible that Ault Foods will distribute its PurFiltre milk into Northern Ontario through its distributor located in Copper Cliff. "We will still need approval from the director [Diane Coates-Milne] under the Milk Act," Gillespie says. Ault applied for a licence to sell its Toronto-processed PurFiltre Lactantia product in the north last fall, but faced strong opposition from competitor Beatrice Foods.

"It was turned down and rightfully so," Gillespie says, because provincial regulations then forbade southern processed products from being sold in the north.

There are eight fluid dairies located in northern Ontario, with four of those owned by large multi-plant processors: Ault at Copper Cliff, and Beatrice at Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Timmins. - DS

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Farmer in the dock over milk raid incident

Three people were scheduled to appear in court this month to face charges stemming from an Aug. 26, 1995 raid on the Skotidakis cheese factory at St. Eugene, Ont.

The factory, located about 120 km east of Ottawa along the Quebec border, is owned by John Skotidakis and his sister. For a number of years it has been the subject of Ontario milk board and government investigations and hearings surrounding illegal milk sales. Last year the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) suspended two farmers' quota after they sold milk directly to the factory. Provincial laws require that all milk be sold through DFO.

Peter Skotidakis, father of owner John Skotidakis, is charged with one count of assault and one count of obstruction against Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs investigator Peter Dnistrianskyj. He is also charged with assaulting milk quality adviser Roger Pommainville. Skotidakis' wife, Maria, is charged with obstructing Dnistrianskyj. She was involved in a scuffle with Pommainville as he attempted to collect milk samples. But because Dnistrianskyj held the warrant for the raid, she is charged with obstructing him.

Ontario Provincial Police investigator Vern Gilkes says the charges were slow in coming because case load at the Hawkesbury detachment is heavy and the matter was complicated by counter allegations of assault Maria filed against Pommainville. Police decided not to lay any charges in connection with her complaint.

In connection with the same raid, St. Eugene resident Francois Seguin is accused of breaching the Milk Act and marketing board regulations. He was scheduled to appear Feb. 14, in Provincial Offenses Court at L'Orignal. It is alleged that Seguin, who has no quota or licence, sold cows' milk to the Skotidakis cheese factory.

Evidence at a licensing hearing last fall showed Dnistrianskyj, aided by Pommainville and milk board field man Alex Hamilton, seized an invoice book from Seguin's farm after following him from his farm to the factory. The invoices detail shipments to the Skotidakis factory from Aug. 4, 1994 to Aug. 26, 1995, totalling about 48,000 litres.

At press-time, a Farm Products Appeal Tribunal hearing was under way to determine whether the cheese factory can continue to buy Quebec milk to make its popular feta cheese and yogurt. At a hearing last fall, the OMAFRA Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Industries Inspection Branch denied Skotidakis's application for a plant licence to use Quebec milk. - RI

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Three-times milking increases profit

By DON STONEMAN

John Heney works in a partnership with his father Gerald, in Glenroe Farm at Ingersoll and is enthusiastic about the benefits of 3X a day milking.

They have 150 registered Holsteins with 68 cows milking at a time at 6 a.m., 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. The herd is closing in on 11,000 litres of milk per cow with dry matter intake averaging 26 kg per day, and 38.5 kg at 155 days in milk.

"Three times milking works if you have consistent, reliable, well-managed labour, period," John Heney says. Their one full-time staff member "has been a wonderful asset for seven or eight years." Two part-time milkers share those chores. With 3X milking there was a 13.5 per cent increase in production. Daily milkings on 2X was running 29 to 32 litres of milk, and now production has been as high as 38 litres. All summer it ran at 34 to 38 litres. After extra expenses for hydro, labour and milking supplies, Heney figures they pocket an extra $68 a day on $137 extra income, about $24,000 a year. "That doesn't include quota. That is a whole new ball game." He says that with 3X his cows' life expectancy has increased. On 2X the herd was 40 to 45 per cent first calvers and he was pushing to average three lactations per cow.

On 3X, the first calvers are down to 30 per cent and the average is 3.75 lactations per cow.

The ration is 50-50 haylage and corn silage with high-moisture corn as a grain supplement. Heney is staying with soy as a protein source and feeds soymeal, roasted beans and a product called Soyplus to cows.

As well as the farm partnership, Heney is a nutritionist with Grand Valley Fortifiers in Cambridge. Heney says Soyplus is from Buffalo, and as far as he knows, Grand Valley is the only Ontario feedmaker to use it. It is touted as a rumen-protected feed. Heney prefers to steer clear of animal-based protein products, at least for now.

With the colder weather he stopped feeding brewers grains because it is difficult to work with, and intakes went up. While brewers is a great feed, he says making it part of the ration is labour-intensive.

Cows are fed a single group TMR, at 47-per-cent moisture. He believes it must be drier in winter and wetter, over 50 per cent, in summer, to maintain intakes.

Feed costs run 14.3 cents per litre on total feeds based on corn at $4.83 per bushel. Soy protein makes up six to 6.3 cents of purchased feed costs per litre. He believes he can get protein costs down to 5.28 cents.

Heney is not a proponent of cheapest feed ingredients. He thinks that farmers have to look at total margins, after cash flow expenses are taken out. He thinks this is even more important with current soybean and other proteins priced high. Heney figures there is just over $16.20 in what he calls "take-home-dollars per day per cow" on Glenroe Farm. He notes that fat and protein fluctuate seasonally in most herds, and feels that theories about how to manipulate this may or may not work. He is a keen proponent of cow comfort and cow health to get production and is concerned methods used to drive down fat tests may be unhealthy for cows.