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Communication from Acting Secretary General (16-July-2014)
A Communication from Acting Secretary General (16-July-2014) about the first undertaken actions is also available here or reported below
Dear Member, Chairperson and Participant in an ICAR Group,
In the three weeks since my appointment as the Acting Secretary General on June 18th there have been a number of activities which you may find of interest. The purpose of this communication is to provide a short summary of these activities.
ICAR Board Meeting – 24th June
The ICAR Board is meeting at monthly intervals by telephone conference with the most recent meeting being on Tuesday 24th June. Decisions taken at that meeting included:
- To ask the staff to develop a proposal for ensuring effective communication between the Board, Secretariat and Groups.
- Approval of all changes in the membership of ICAR Groups as reported by Chairpersons in Berlin.
- Approval of the formation of a Breed Association Working Group with terms of reference along the lines recommended by the Breed Assn & ICAR Task Force.
- To request further work by the Future ICAR Group. Approval of the application for associate membership from Wageningen UR Livestock Research.
- Awarding of the Certificate of Quality to: Vaxa (Sweden), CMBA (Czech Rep.) and PSSR (Slovak Rep.)
The next Board meeting will on Tuesday 29th July.
ID Conference in Moscow – 26th & 27th June
This conference was attended by 115 delegates from eastern European and central Asian countries. ICAR was represent at the conference by the President (Hans Wilmink), Ole Kleis Hansen and Pieter Hogewerf. In summing up at the Conference, Pieter Hogewerf on behalf of ICAR:
- stressed that this large international identification conference was a great success, with many participants from many countries
- that a good identification system is the basis for good animal production and disease control
- that implementation is a long process and we can learn from all who have already undertaken this task, and
- this access to others experience is one of several ways that ICAR can help.
I would like to express my appreciation for the support provided by the Russian organisers and the sponsors of this conference.
We plan to have the presentations available for access from the ICAR website in the next week or two.
Move to New Office – 7th July
On Tuesday 7th July the Rome based ICAR staff commenced working from our new offices in Rome. The office address is:
Via Savoia 78 sc. A, int. 3, Ufficio 87, Rome I-00198, Italy.
The new office phone numbers are:
- Elena Couto +39 06 8523 7231
- Cesare Mosconi +39 06 8523 7237
- Fax +39 06 2331 5553
The office is located in an office sharing facility which provides reception, security, phone and internet services as part of the monthly office rent. This facility has been secured on favourable terms. The Board will be reviewing these interim arrangements next month.
The ICAR Board has expressed its appreciation to Elena and Cesare for facilitating the smooth transition to the new office facilities at short notice.
Service-ICAR General Assembly – 9th July
A General Assembly for Service-ICAR, a Company wholly owned by ICAR and established some time ago for the purpose of providing services, was held on 9th July. The outgoing President of Service-ICAR, Uffe Lauritson, chaired this meeting from Rome with others participating via tele-conference. The Assembly appointed a new Council for Service-ICAR comprising; Hans Wilmink who will also be the president of Service-ICAR, Jay Mattison, Laurent Journaux, Kaivo Ilves, and Marco Winters. These appointments were decided by the ICAR Board at its meeting in Berlin and each is for a one year term. The assembly also approved the change of address for Service-ICAR.
Other
I have received messages of support from a number of you over the last three weeks. Many thanks for these. My task is a short term one and I am working with the rest of the ICAR Team to ensure a smooth transition to a more independent ICAR which is focused on better meeting the needs of members and service users. If you have any concerns about the process we are going through please feel free to email or phone me.
Yours sincerely
Brian
Dr Brian Wickham
ICAR Acting Secretary General. Email: brian@icar.org, Phone: +353 86 826 9911, Skype: “consultwickham”.
Uffe Lauritsen earns National DHIA leadership award
LOUIS (March 14, 2014) – National Dairy Herd Information Association (DHIA) recognized Uffe Lauritsen, Danish Agricultural Advisory Centre, National Committee on Danish Cattle, Moerke, Denmark, with the H. Victor Joachim Distinguished Leadership/Martin A. Wilson Memorial Award on March 11, in St. Louis, in conjunction with the association’s annual meeting. This award goes to an individual who has held a DHIA leadership position and/or has been dedicated to improving DHIA.Currently serving as the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) president, Lauritsen has been described as the “Johnny Appleseed” of ICAR. “Uffe has spread and nurtured the seeds and need for an international organization that sets standards and expectations for milk (and much more) recording,” says Bruce Dokkebakken, Minnesota DHIA general manager.
“ICAR provides a forum for knowledge sharing and intelligent discussion of issues that many of us are surprised to learn are international in nature.”Connected to dairy farming all his life, Lauritsen says the dairy industry is his passion. “I’m always looking for solutions to help farmers and their employees in the ongoing search for tools to make life easier and more profitable.”Lauritsen’s long career in the dairy business started as a child, working on neighbors’ farms, followed by years of milking cows and studying cattle breeding and herd management. During his professional career, he has developed service tools for practical milk recording, used electronic identification of milk and veterinary samples, and developed software used by field personnel.“I have been lucky to possess positions that enabled me to learn from the most outstanding people in our dairy cattle recording and herd testing world,” states Lauritsen. This also includes long time experience in animal identification.A frequent traveler, Lauritsen has visited more than 30 countries over the past 40 years and has good insight and knowledge of how dairy farm families around the globe thrive on a beautiful life with cows. Open mindedly searching for best management practices, his genuine concern is how to make things work better and how to make his customers more successful. “It is our good fortune that Uffe became involved in ICAR and has been vital in shepherding the organization on the path to better information and better sharing,” says Dokkebakken. “He started with the very basics in milk recording – accurate meters and devices. Accuracy is not just for weights but also for samples; and accuracy is not just for butterfat but also for an ever-widening array of component and health tests,” adds Bruce Dokkebakken, in the picture to the right, while giving the DHIA leadership award to Mr Uffe Lauritsen.“Uffe’s work has made it more profitable to milk cows and more fun to work for those who do that for a living – in many corners of our world,” says Dokkebakken. “He has travelled extensively proselytizing ICAR and the use of science in agriculture.”National DHIA, a trade association for the dairy records industry, serves the best interests of its members and the dairy industry by maintaining the integrity of dairy records and advancing dairy information systems.
(March 2014)
Legendary dairy industry leaders
Legendary dairy industry leaders were recognized for their contribution at the 2009 edition of the World Dairy Expo. This year’s recipients are:
- 2009 Dairy Woman of the Year- Daphne Holterman, Watertown, Wisconsin
- 2009 Industry Person of the Year – Maurice Core, Columbus, Ohio
- 2009 World Dairy Expo Dairyman of the Year – David Hileman, Tyrone, Pennsylvania
- 2009 International Person of the Year – Dr. Jan Philipsson, Uppsala, Sweeden (in the picture ).
“These four legendary leaders have been hitting home runs for the world-wide dairy cattle industry,” says World Dairy Expo General Manager Mark Clarke. “They have created dairy records that will be hard for future producers to beat. We are proud to honour them for being the vision and support that keep this industry strong.”
Acknowledgments by Hans-Gerhard Wagner (Secretary of APHCA) for Workshop animal identification and traceability
Dear Colleagues, I hope you all had a safe trip back.
With some delay (I left from Colombo directly on holidays) this vote of thanks to all resources persons, Dr Barcos, Dr. Carmans, Dr Hansen and Dr. Paskin.
You have contributed decisively to bring the issue of animal identification and traceability closer to the responsible officers from eighteen countries in the Asia and stimulated their interest in starting up such programmes.
I sincerely thank the co-sponsors, the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) and OIE for their contribution and support to make the workshop a success.
The animated discussions during the workshop and the social events showed the interest of the countries to learn more about the details of such programmes.
We now expect that some countries will start activities on pilot basis. As indicated if there are official requests we can explore the possibility of national or regional TCP projects to finance pilot or start-up activities.
The workshop revealed that so many countries have no legislation or policy for animal identification and traceability in place. While there is no question that the competent and certifying authority for animal traceability are the veterinary authorities in the respective countries I wish to remind the parties that farm and animal identification can serve so many other purposes. Veterinary services in developing and in countries in transition are often understaffed and with disease control activities overstretched.
Ways and means have to be found to engage the livestock production sector to act jointly with the animal health sector thus sharing the costs of the scheme and making the whole scheme more meaningful and affordable. Your support is very much appreciated in initiating and supporting this dialogue is very much appreciated.
I look forward to a continued collaboration between the resource persons and ICAR, OIE and FAO-APHCA.
Again my best thanks to all of you.
Hans-Gerhard Wagner Secretary of APHCA
Page last up-dated: 06/07/2015