History of Vermont DHIA
Vermont DHIA was formed as a collaborative effort between the University of Vermont (UVM) Extension service and local dairy producers around 1909. Originally, local DHIA organizations served the needs of the farms immediately surrounding them, often with the DHIA technician - or "supervisor" as they were once called - providing both field services and the lab work either in their own house or in a local lab. Field services, often referred to as "testing", included weighing the amount of milk produced and collecting samples for each animal in the herd.Over time, as technology improved and quality standards became stricter, it became practical and financially necessary to ship samples to a central lab for testing. In the late 1970's our lab moved to its present location in White River Junction and benefited from it's proximity to the main US Post Office in Vermont. About the same time, Vermont DHIA hired an independent manager to run the organization, a role previously held by UVM Extension. In the 1980's, many of the local DHIA's associations in Vermont merged to form a centrally managed organization, which was more able to provide relief testing, offer better pay and benefits to technicians, and provide more uniform service to members. While most of the organization is now centrally managed, there are still two local associations under the Vermont DHIA who oversee and pay the technicians serving those areas.
In the late 1980's, Vermont DHIA switched processing centers from Cornell in Ithaca, NY to DRMS in Raleigh, NC. Following this move, as technology has improved, the use of computers for managing records has become a necessity. All of our technicians today, and about one-third of our members' farms, use PCDART Herd Management software to track and record their herd records.
 | The Original Vermont DHIA Logo |
| The Current Vermont DHIA Logo |  |
