2023-24 Activity Report: CEO Column

As published in the 2023-24 CDCB Activity Report

The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) was established to empower dairy producers for a sustainable future through data-driven innovation and collaboration.

We began our journey with a significant advantage in 2013, thanks to the remarkable legacy and ongoing partnership provided by USDA Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory (AGIL), along with the visionary commitment of our founding collaborators: the Dairy Records Providers (DRP), Dairy Records Processing Centers (DRPC), Purebred Dairy Cattle Association (PDCA) and the National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB). Consistent services and transparent communication with stakeholders have fostered steady growth, enabling CDCB to invest strategically in areas that benefit dairy producers.

As we completed the first decade of work and achieved our initial goals, the CDCB board and staff engaged in strategic planning that included valuable input from all collaborators during the August 2023 National Cooperator Dairy Database Workshop. Numerous initiatives have been conceived, planned, and are in various stages of implementation, driven by the strategy adopted by CDCB.

The illustration below represents our integrated vision of how we are preparing to fulfill our mission.

Our primary goal is to continue aggregating data into the National Cooperator Database while ensuring data quality and proper integration. This data will enable research and development to ensure that CDCB services remain relevant and are delivered efficiently to dairy herds.

All these steps depend on solid governance, effective communications and advanced software development. For each of these steps, important initiatives have been undertaken by CDCB, and I would like to highlight a few.

We are launching an integrated producer value communication campaign to increase awareness of the importance of producer participation in the industry programs that feed data into the National Cooperator Database. Additionally, we are working on an expanded program of incentives for producers who contribute data to the database. We continue to promote and sponsor projects focused on generating innovative data to expand the portfolio of genetic traits.

To allow non-traditional data sources to be integrated into the National Cooperator Database, CDCB and Quality Certification Services (QCS) have begun collaborating to enhance our data certification programs. We have heavily invested in modernizing our data ingestion system to facilitate the transfer of data from providers into the database. CDCB has also significantly bolstered its internal R&D capacity under the leadership of Dr. John Cole. Our infrastructure is constantly being improved to meet our needs and maintain service efficiency, and the operations team continues to review and enhance our processes. A prime example is our recent investment in cybersecurity, aimed at achieving ISO 27001 certification by 2025.

All these initiatives are part of our effort to empower dairy producers – through genetic improvement – in their mission to sustainably feed the world. Exciting developments are on the horizon, and we are thrilled to have you as a partner, dairy producer!