efficiently.

Farmers in the United States have been using the computer systems to improve their dairy management for years.

Now the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks is financing the setting up of the hi-tech Dairy Comp. 305 system.

The system was explained to local farmers and other people involved in the dairy industry by representatives of Northeast Dairy Herd Improvement Association, Ms Dani Thon and Mr. John Gloss.

Ms Thon explained how the system had proved successful in New York state where the association is based.

A non-profit making body, the association serves 452,000 cows and has 5,000 members. It has 180 technicians visiting farms to monitor how cattle are progressing.

Through the computer details and the history of each cow can be checked in seconds. Therefore, milk yields and pregnancies can be anticipated and decisions made on when a cow is able to produce milk and when it can be culled.

Histories of illness are also used as part of the data to see whether a herd can keep giving milk at the optimum level.

The association tests 20,000 samples a day to keep its records up-to-date in the computer.

Ms Thon said: "The prime objective is to get them tested as quickly as possible. If someone comes to test at your farm today, you want the information tomorrow.'' She said there were dairy herd improvement associations all across the United States.

Organiser of the meeting, Government Veterinary Officer trainee Ms Susann Smith said: "Dairying is not like it used to be in Bermuda. At one time there were 30 dairies, now there are approximately five.

"We have seriously considered this programme to aid all our dairymen in record keeping.

"Ideally our intention would be to supply the whole Island with milk sometime in the future. With this system we will get more milk from fewer cows.'' Ms Smith said many people in Bermuda did not realise that much of the milk on the Island came from abroad or was synthetic.

She added that Government was paying for the system to be set up, including the computer software, to help local farmers. "Hopefully milk production will increase because of an increase in efficiency,'' she said.

Mr. Gloss said he doubted if the computer system would mean the Island became self-sufficient in milk production as locally produced milk accounted for less than 50 percent of the Island's total at present.

"I do not think, with the amount of land available, it will be possible for Bermuda to become self-sufficient. It may get better if more land is freed up but I do no think it is possible.'' Turning to Dairy Comp 305, he said it would provide a record system for individual farmers but would treat all the cows on the Island as one herd.

"It will improve management because dairy farming has been a way of life, which has gone along traditionally while being faced with economic pressures.'' Mr. Gloss said the system also helped with decisions concerning culling, feeding, how much food a farmer should buy and whether they needed a particular amount of milk in any given year.

Some farmers and health experts at the meeting pointed out that milk was getting bad publicity because of its cholesterol levels.

But Mr. Gloss said milk producers in the United States were now paying for major advertising to promote dairy products.

"In history nobody has been found ill from drinking milk,'' he said.

"Milk is highly monitored and dairymen care about their products.

"A lot of positive articles are being written about milk but only the producers seem to read them. They are not getting out to the people who drink milk.'' It was pointed out that many people did not realise that milk in Bermuda's blue cartons was "natural milk'' while the red boxes contained synthetic milk.