UDDER STUFF: DAIRY PROFIT SEMINARS SET FOR EMPIRE FARM DAYS 2016

Published on Mon, 06/20/2016 - 1:56pm

Dairy Profit Seminars have become a regular stop for dairy producers, dairy farm staff and agribusiness professionals at Empire Farm Days. This year’s show with a full slate of Dairy Profit Seminars is slated for August 9 through 11 at the Rodman Lott & Son Farms near Seneca Falls, New York.
The 2016 Dairy Profit Seminars will include Enhanced Herd Health Through Effective Protocol Management, Spreading the Word – Manure: The Planning and Implementation Process, and The Changing Labor Environment – Responses and Approaches. The seminars are a collaboration between Cornell’s PRO-DAIRY and DairyBusiness and HolsteinWorld magazines. Each session will be held at the Dairy Seminar Center, located on the show grounds. They are free and open to the public.

The seminars are sponsored by ASAP Interiors, Dairy Farmers of America, Farm Credit East, Farm Family Casualty Insurance, Lallemand Animal Nutrition, Multimin USA and PikeSide Enterprises.

Tuesday, August 9
10:30 a.m. Enhanced Herd Health 
Through Effective Protocol Management

Rob Lynch, DVM, Dairy Herd Health and Management Specialist, Cornell PRO-DAIRY, will discuss how the proper development, implementation, and monitoring of treatment protocols can improve herd health and ensure a safe food supply.

Lynch completed his undergraduate work at Rochester Institute of Technology, received his veterinary degree from Tufts University, School of Veterinary Medicine in 1997, and completed a Dairy Production Medicine Certificate course at Penn State University in 2007.  He worked in private practice for eight years, including four years as a partner, in southeast Pennsylvania, where his responsibilities included all large animal species, with an emphasis on dairy cattle.

Lynch then joined Pfizer’s Cattle Veterinary Operations team in 2005, which later became Zoetis, and provided dairy technical support for the northeastern U.S. before joining the PRO-DAIRY team. He currently serves on the American Association of Bovine Practitioners Pharmaceutical & Biologic Issues Committee. Lynch grew up in Elmira, New York.

Wednesday, August 10
10:30 a.m. Spreading the Word – Manure: 
The Planning and Implementation Process

Manure management and working with the community will become much more complex as increased interest in on-farm management by off-farm interests bring both regulatory and community concerns. The panel will focus on manure storage siting, construction, and manure spreading management.

Panelists will include Russ Beck, owner, Beck Farms Inc., Freeville, NY; Jessica Skinner, owner, JESS Engineering, PLLC, Alpine, NY; and Brian Boerman, AEM planner, Ag Consulting Services, Ithaca NY; Peter Wright, Cornell PRO-DAIRY, will moderate this panel discussion.

Peter Wright is a professional engineer who works with manure systems for PRO-DAIRY in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. His career focus has centered around manure. He is retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) where he developed and implemented manure management policy for over ten years.

Prior to that he led the PRO-DAIRY manure management team from 1994 to 2004. He earned a B.S. and M. Eng. degree from the agricultural engineering program at Cornell University in 1977 and 1978.

He then began work as an agricultural engineer for the Soil Conservation Service analyzing, designing, and installing many different types of agricultural waste handling and treatment systems in New York and Virginia over a 16-year period. Wright grew up on a dairy farm in Central New York.

1:30 pm Junior DAIRY LEADER Formal Presentation and Graduation Ceremony

The Junior DAIRY LEADER program is a statewide yearlong program for youth between the ages of 16 to 19 who have an interest in learning more about careers in the dairy field, along with adding to their leadership, personal and professional development.

The graduation ceremony is an opportunity for these dairy leaders to highlight and demonstrate to sponsors and visitors the experiences, knowledge, and dynamic aspects of dairy education they have learned from being in the program. Twenty-nine youth from three states will be recognized as the

2016 class of Junior DAIRY LEADERS
Thursday, August 11
10:30 a.m. The Changing Labor Environment: Responses and Approaches
The labor environment on dairy farms is changing at a rapid pace, impacted by technology, the regulatory environment, competition from other industries as well as the pool of potential job applicants. Managing the cost of labor and other management issues associated with labor is a priority on most farms.

Dale Hemminger, owner, Hemdale Farms, Seneca Castle; and Tom Maloney, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell University will serve as panelists. They will discuss investing capital into the business, such as new technologies, facilities, or equipment, along with options to improve the performance of labor through training, organizational structure and performance management. Jason Karszes, Dairy Farm Business Specialist with Cornell PRO-DAIRY, will moderate the panel.

Jason Karszes is a Senior Extension Associate and specializes in dairy business management. His focus areas are in management education, financial analysis, decision making, budgeting and business planning. The Cornell Dairy Executive Program, Dairy Farm Business Summary, Discussion Groups and Activity Cost Analysis Projects are some of the programs within his focus area. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in farm management and production economics at Cornell University.