Annual dairy conference returns to Dubuque with a full line of industry speakers
The Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference will be held at the Grand River Center in Dubuque June 7-8, with a focus on the latest information about dairy nutrition and management.
The event will be offered both in-person and online and will offer participants the opportunity to engage in lively panel discussions, timely sessions, graduate student posters and presentations, networking and socializing. In-person attendees will have access to all recorded plenary presentations after the conference.
“The Four-State Conference in Dubuque is the largest and most useful dairy nutrition conference for over a decade,” said Fred Hall, dairy specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “Following the pandemic of 2020, we added a virtual component which makes the content available worldwide.”
The online option provides flexibility, especially for the international audience. The online option will include all plenary sessions from the conference shared as video recordings shortly after the conference.
Phibro’s pre-conference symposium focuses on strategies to improve profits. Norm St. Pierre, Perdue Agribusiness, will provide an overview the dairy economic outlook. Adrian Barragan, Penn State University, will cover peri-partum inflammation. Cornell University professor Sabine Mann will discuss factors that affect colostrum production and quality, and Jessica McArt, also from Cornell, will discuss how to manage fresh cows to reduce disease incidence.
Plenary speakers include Mike Steele, University of Guelph, discussing new concepts in prenatal and neonatel calf care; Eduardo Ribeiro, University of Guelph, showing the economics of transition cow health; and Norm St. Pierre, explaining the “goofy things we do in dairy nutrition” that are penny wise and dollar foolish.
June 8 plenary speakers include Marcia Endres and Jim Salfer, discussing feeding in robotic milking systems and presentations by two dairy producers, Sam Fessenden and Jake Peissig, discussing their robot feeding strategies.
Both plenary sessions will include a lively half-hour question and answer between speakers and participants.
Select breakout topics include:
- New concepts in weaning and post weaning strategies.
- Postpartum ketones: friend or foe.
- Improving pregnancy outcomes after IFV embryo transfer in dairy herds.
- Evaluating corn silage nutritive value for dairy cattle – MILK model updates.
- Calcium response technologies: new innovations milk fever prevention.
- Breeding and management opportunities for creating the ideal dairy heifer.
- Modulating inflammation during the transition period: before or after calving?
- Amino acid balancing in transition cow diets – a California perspective.
- What should we do with beef on dairy calves.
There will also be an inaugural graduate student three-minute thesis contest. This competition allows students to showcase their research in a way understandable to those outside the dairy industry. The contest was open to students from the University of Illinois, Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The presentations will be held during the breakout sessions on Wednesday, June 7.
The trade show, evening receptions and time to network is included with registration. Continuing education credits are available. The conference is a collaborative effort of the extension services of Iowa State University, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin.
For more information and to register, visit http://fourstatedairy.org/ or contact Jim Salfer at salfe001@umn.edu or 612-360-4506. The registration fee is $150 until May 26, and $175 thereafter.