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 Dokkebakken.
"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 traveled 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.
3.14.2014