Education Seminars
Industry experts suggest ways to make your operation more profitable as part of World Dairy Expo's 2007 Education Seminars.
TUESDAY,
OCTOBER 2
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3
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11:00 a.m.
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“CNMP, NPDES, CERCLA, EPCRA, ISO – Alphabet Soup for Complying with Environmental Regulations”
Wendy Powers, Professor, Michigan State University
Sponsored by:
West Central |
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1:00 p.m.
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“Communicating to Protect and Promote Dairy’s Image” David Pelzer, Senior Vice President of Industry Image & Relations, Dairy Management Inc. Les Hardesty, Chairman, National Dairy Promotion and Research Board
Sponsored by: Dairy Management Inc.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6
SEMINAR SYNOPSES & SPEAKERS
All seminars are held in the Exhibition Hall, Mendota 2 meeting room. Each half-hour session is followed by a question/answer period.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, Sponsored by Cargill Animal Nutrition
11:00 a.m.
“Corn Prices Affecting the Starch Content in the Diet”
Jay Giesy, Dairy Specialist, Cargill Animal Nutrition
It’s no secret that the price of corn has been reaching record highs in the last year and continues to stay well above historical prices. How does this affect dairy producers’ bottom line? Alternative sources of nutrients in the diet can help to alleviate high feed costs. Jay Giesy will explore alternative nutrient sources that can serve as an option to corn as the main starch component of the diet. Giesy earned his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Idaho, and upon graduation, returned to his native New York. He currently works as a dairy specialist for Cargill Animal Nutrition assisting dairy producers with customized nutrition and management plans for better performance.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, Sponsored by Canarm
1:00 p.m.
“Cross Ventilation: A New Concept in
Freestall Facilities”
John Smith, Extension Dairy Specialist, Kansas State University
As dairy producers continue to grow and expanded their businesses, so do the barns that hold their livestock. With more cows, comes a greater need to circulate air to remove odor, excess moisture and most importantly, excess heat. As summers continue to be hot around the country, cooling cows has become a number one priority for dairy producers. In the last 10 years, cross ventilation has been adopted from other areas of animal agriculture and incorporated into freestall barns. John Smith, Kansas State University Extension Dairy Specialist, is a leading researcher in cross ventilation and has helped numerous producers build better ventilated barns. For his accomplishments in extension, Smith has been honored with the DeLaval Dairy Extension Award and the Midwest Outstanding Young Extension Specialist Award.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, Sponsored by West Central
11:00 a.m.
“CNMP, NPDES, CERCLA, EPCRA, ISO – Alphabet Soup for Complying with Environmental Regulations”
Wendy Powers, Professor, Michigan State University
Environmental regulations affect everyone. It can be difficult to understand which regulations apply to 1,000 cow dairies, 200 cow dairies or all dairies. Wendy Powers will explain these regulations and help sort out what producers need to be doing to meet the current standards. She will also discuss what can be done to promote stewardship of the land and anticipate future regulations and issues. Powers is a professor and director of Environmental Stewardship for Animal Agriculture at Michigan State University. Her research includes diet modification to alter odor, gas emissions and manure nutrient excretion. Prior to accepting this position in November 2006, Powers was on staff at Iowa State University.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, Sponsored by Dairy Management Inc.
1:00 p.m.
“Communicating to Protect and Promote
Dairy’s Image”
David Pelzer, Senior Vice President of Industry Image & Relations, Dairy Management Inc.
Les Hardesty, Chairman, National Dairy Promotion and Research Board
The public is asking more and more questions about how their food is produced and wanting better explanations. Learn words to choose and words to lose when addressing the public about animal care, food safety and environmental practices.
David Pelzer
David Pelzer leads DMI’s industry-wide issues management and crisis preparedness efforts, along with dairy producer communications and industry partner programs. David also heads up DMI’s dairy farmer image program, which aims to maintain and build confidence in the public image of dairy farmers and the dairy industry.
Les Hardesty
As a teacher and an ambassador for agriculture, Les draws crowds at his dairy education seminars including milking and information demonstrations. He and his wife, Sherrill, and their three children, Marci, Amber and Chris, milk 540 cows on their 310-acre farm. In 2004, he and his wife built a working dairy educational tour facility showing how milk is produced and processed to show school-aged children how a dairy farm operates..
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, Sponsored by ABS Global
11:00 a.m.
“Opportunities and Challenges with Sexed Semen”
Joe Dalton, Associate Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist, University of Idaho
Sexed semen offers dairy producers the ability to breed heifers to have heifer calves. Perhaps more important for some dairy producers, however, will be the ability to use sexed semen to facilitate closed herd expansion. The opportunities that sexed semen offers are not without challenges, which include increased cost per straw of semen, availability from a limited number of bulls, and compromised fertility. Joe Dalton will discuss how sexed semen is produced and provide practical management recommendations for current and future use of sexed semen. Dalton’s extension educational programs emphasize the enhancement of reproductive efficiency and milk quality. His research includes male and female reproductive physiology, and focuses on factors important to increasing the success of artificial insemination.
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, Sponsored by AgCareers.com
1:00 p.m.
“LEADERSHIP…Maximizing the
Return from Your People”
Eric Spell, President, AgCareers.com
People are our biggest asset. Learn the basic principles of leadership and focus on effective direction through on-boarding, motivation and management styles. You’ll take away useful tactics and unique incentive ideas, to help you become an effective manager and maximize the efforts of your team. Eric Spell is president of AgCareers.com, an online career site and human resource service provider for agriculture, food, natural resources and biotechnology. He has more than 17 years experience in agribusiness leadership and strategic recruitment. In addition to being president of AgCareers.com, Spell is a member of the Farms.com management team. Spell is an active member within his community; coaching little league baseball and, serving as a deacon and the chairman of the personnel committee for the Grove Baptist Church in his hometown of Clinton, North Carolina.
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, Sponsored by Vita Plus Corporation
11:00 a.m.
“Management & Bio-Security Strategies
for Your Herd of Tomorrow”
Cathy Speirs, Shiloh Dairy LLC
Karen Marsh, Sunshine Genetics
Karen Hall, Hall’s Calf Ranch
Whether you’re raising your own replacements or using a grower, consistent management protocols are a must when it comes to bio-security, making housing decisions and preventing disease. These successful calf raisers are involved in setting management strategies and carrying out daily protocols that lead to raising a better herd for tomorrow.
Cathy Speirs, Shiloh Dairy LLC
An enthusiastic attitude and appreciation for calves has been key to Speirs’ success. With wise council, strict protocols have been developed over the years and followed closely, with NO shortcuts. Shiloh Dairy is currently milking 1,250 cows with 170 calves on milk. Speirs has two employees working full-time with calves and another dedicated to the maternity area. Calves temperatures are monitored daily prior to weaning to ensure a healthy calf and minimize stress during moving and grouping.
Karen Marsh, Sunshine Genetics
With a death loss of less than one percent, this embryo transplant facility outlines its commitment to success by ‘too clean is not clean enough.’ With limited space for housing area rotations, strict management protocols include new gravel whenever hutches are moved and washing and sanitizing hutches and wire panels between calves. They also clean feeding supplies extensively and limit personnel access to the housing area. Calves are weaned at 120 days and then moved in small groups into a solar shed and remain there from 4-16 months.
Karen Hall, Hall’s Calf Ranch
Sixteen producers rely on Hall’s Calf Ranch to raise their replacements from 24 hours or less to varying ages. Before arriving at the ranch, nearly 2,100 calves must be fed colostrum (or a replacer), tagged, have their navels dipped and moved to clean dry pen. Calves are picked up from the operations and strict disease prevention and handling protocols are followed resulting in a death loss of less than two percent. As a custom grower, Hall’s has been in business since 1997, Hall believes paying attention to the details is what leads to success.
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, Sponsored by West Central
1:00 p.m.
“Managing the freestall: From the Cow’s Perspective”
Marina (Nina) von Keyserlingk, Associate Professor, Animal Welfare Program, University of British Columbia
Traditionally, cows are managed based on stage of lactation or gestation. However, the latest research by Nina von Keyserlingk and her colleagues indicates that considering animal behavior may help us improve how we manage cows. For example, regrouping cows can negatively impact milk production because it affects lying behavior and how cows within the group interact with each other. Her research group has also worked extensively on understanding how changes in free stall and feed barrier design and day to day management impact lying and feeding behavior. Nina is an Associate Professor in the Animal Welfare Program located at the University of British Columbia. She joined the UBC Animal Welfare program after obtaining several years of experience as a research scientist working for the animal feed industry. She works with students and colleagues using behavioral and other measures to objectively assess various aspects of dairy cattle welfare.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, Sponsored by Promat
11:00 a.m.
“Extreme Makeover: Freestall Edition”
Nigel Cook, Clinical Associate Professor, UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine
Freestall housing has become increasingly popular over the last two decades. In an effort to breed for higher producing animals; cows themselves have become larger. With larger mature cows in the herd, a problem arises accommodating them in aging and inadequate facilities. Nigel Cook, Clinical Associate Professor, UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, has worked with producers to update facilities. Cook became a veterinarian in 1992 and worked in a large food animal clinic in Southern England for four years. Since 1999 he has been in Wisconsin, providing a milk quality, lameness and facility troubleshooting service to farmers, teaching veterinary students, and conducting research related to the influence of the environment on hoof and udder health.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, Sponsored by Conestoga-Rovers & Associates
1:00 p.m.
“What’s the Big Stink: Managing Odor in Agriculture"
John Ferguson, Mechanical Engineer and Associate, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates
Odor regulations continue to change and become stricter. John Ferguson, mechanical engineer, will explain how odor is measured, what are the current policies and the impact of these policies. He will also introduce what producers can do to reduce overall odor and expect from future regulations. Finally, there will be a discussion about EPA studies and the anticipated outcomes of these studies and future implications. Ferguson has worked in CRA’s Air Quality Group for 13 years and has experience in air compliance assessment including: permitting, risk management plans, dispersion modeling, stack testing and odor abatement. He has also completed air compliance work at more than 300 manufacturing, waste management and agricultural facilities in the US, Canada, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.
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