Congratulations to Donald Shaw and Edward Fiez, both recognized by the National Dairy Herd Information Association’s (NDHIA) for the work they’ve done.
Donald Shaw, Southeast DHIA meter and training coordinator, received the Martin A. Wilson Memorial Award, which honors a person who has been dedicated to improving DHIA and employed in a DHIA management position for at least five years.
For nearly three decades, Shaw has served dairy producers and the DHI system, with roles as supervisor, state fieldman, field manager and relief supervisor and assistant. Early in his DHI career, Shaw was identified as an innovator. He was asked to help with the original field test of DART (direct access to records by telephone) and gained extensive experience with on-farm data entry. In 1981, he was the first DHI field technician to electronically transmit milk weights from a farm (Hilltop Dairy in Trenton, Florida, with more than 1,800 milk cows) to a dairy records processing center. As field manager, he led the effort where Florida became the first DHI affiliate to achieve 100% electronic input where all technicians used on-farm data entry for all DHI information.
John Clay of Dairy Records Management Systems (DRMS) supported Shaw for this award due to his tireless efforts to ensure the delivery of top-notch DHI services. “Don probably does some of his best work at Southeast technician conferences and at DRMS regional meetings. In these settings, Don calmly teaches his peers how to take advantage of technology to ensure collection of accurate information and how to deliver valuable test day reports.”
Edward Fiez, Caldwell, Idaho, received the DHIA Outstanding Service Award. A University of Idaho Extension dairy specialist from 1970-1999, Fiez continues to work closely with the Idaho DHIA program even though he’s retired.
He presented at the 2000 Idaho DHIA Supervisor Conference and assisted with the 2000 Idaho DHIA Sample Takers Conference. The National DHIA Outstanding Service Award honors a person who has dedicated service to improving DHIA and provided notable leadership to advancing DHIA.
From 1999-2006, Fiez continued to evaluate exams submitted by prospective supervisors following completion of the self-teaching packet that he developed. These workbooks, used by dairy cow and dairy goat supervisors, provide general information on record keeping systems, data reporting and DHI rules and regulations.
Fiez was instrumental in organizing Idaho DHIA and provided guidance through the critical transition to hired management. He offered key support to Idaho DHIA in meeting initial National DHIA Quality Certification standards by working effectively with the board of directors, supervisors, milk testing laboratories and dairy records processing centers.