February 2020 vol. 2
Brought to you by Dairy's Professional Development Organization
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VOTE FOR PDPW DIRECTORS AT BUSINESS CONFERENCE
. If you’ve mailed your ballot to the PDPW office by the February 24 deadline, thank you! If not, you can still cast your ballot when you’re at PDPW Business Conference. For details on the candidates,
click here
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JUST AROUND THE CORNER!
Have you registered for the 2020 PDPW Business Conference? Join us March 18-19 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis., for two days packed with world-class speakers, solution-oriented ideas and networking opportunities to learn from peers and industry professionals.
Click here
to download the flyer and register.
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Business Conference Preview
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MANAGING WITH VISION AND CLARITY
during times of personal and professional transition requires a strong foundation and effective systems. Liz Griffith brings more than 30 years of experience in human resources and developing teams to provide strategies to effectively lead during illness, death, new partners, expansion, and more. On Day Two, she will share these systems during a morning specialty session at 8:30 a.m., and will provide team management tips in a Learning Lounge session at 12:30 p.m.
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A SUCCESSFUL CORN SILAGE SEASON
is critical to meeting your dairy’s financial and production goals. UW-Madison plant pathologist Damon Smith will outline strategies to plan for and manage a silage corn crop, even during increasingly challenging growing seasons. He will present in the Blue Lounge in the Hall of Ideas at 1pm on Day One.
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WHAT DOES ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE REALLY MEAN
to your herd health and bottom line? Dr. Mike Apley, DVM, PhD, professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine will break down what the increasingly common term means and how it applies to your dairy operation. He will share practical steps to protect the health of your animals through antimicrobial stewardship in his Day Two afternoon breakout sessions at 1:15pm and 2:20pm. He will also present in the Blue Learning Lounge at 11:45 a.m. on Day Two.
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WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU KNEW
? A panel of dairy producers will share the top three tips, tricks and techniques that they wish they knew when they were facing challenging situations in their operations. Kurt Petik, Rabo AgriFinance senior relationship manager, will moderate the session featuring Randy and Jennifer Gross of Ash Grove Dairy LLP and Ken Feltz of Feltz Family Farms Inc and Feltz’s Dairy Store. The panel will be held during the Day Two afternoon breakout session at 1:15pm, repeating at 2:20 pm.
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KEYNOTE SPEAKER: FREEDOM ISN’T FREE.
Mark Nutsch is the former commander of the first Green Beret unit that went into Afghanistan after the 9/11 bombing. He will share his harrowing story during the Day Two closing keynote session and offer perspective and inspiration that you can apply on your dairy and with your team. Mark’s story of a Special Operations team that overcame seemingly unconventional odds to achieve a historic victory was portrayed in the movie “12 Strong.”
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SAY “CHEESE”… AND ENJOY GRILLED
CHEESE
in the 2020 Hall of Ideas and Equipment Show throughout the conference. In addition to the industry’s premier suppliers, the Hall will feature Learning Lounge sessions, free professional headshots, a massage station and free grilled cheese sandwiches when other meals aren’t available. More details will be available to attendees upon arriving at the Alliant Energy Center.
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FINANCIAL LITERACY - LEVEL 3
March 24-25, 2020
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TAKE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
at the Level 3 session of PDPW Financial Literacy for Dairy, scheduled for March 24-25 at PDPW Headquarters in Juneau, Wis. Space is limited, so apply today!! With a focus on the use of budgeting tools for planning and performance monitoring, trend analysis, key metrics to monitor, and benchmarking, the program will be led by Dick Wittman of Wittman Consulting and TEPAP Ag Executive Program faculty. Space is limited to 30 attendees per course and an online placement test is required ahead of registration. Click
here
for more details.
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Stride™ Youth Leadership Conference
April 4-5, 2020
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TOURS, HANDS-ON WORKSHOP, MINI-CAREER FAIR AND MORE
are on tap for the first PDPW Stride™ Youth Leaderships Conference, scheduled for Apr. 4-5 at Dodgeland High School in Juneau, Wis. The new program, designed for high school students ages 15-18, will be a transformational experience designed to help young adults build on their inherent talents and leadership strengths. Team exercises and group challenges will equip attendees with techniques to develop their abilities and expand their role as a leader. Click
here
for more details and registration information.
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ACE: LEADING WISCONSIN FORWARD TOGETHER
April 14, 2020
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YOUR VOICE MATTERS!
Save the date for the Agricultural Community Engagement (ACE) Leading Wisconsin Forward Together Meeting, held Apr. 14, 2020 in Sun Prairie, Wis. Join dairy and livestock farmers, community leaders, elected officials, and conservation officials who want to grow strong vibrant communities. Click
here
for more details.
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MAKE SURE YOUR DAIRY ADVAN
CE
ACCOUNT IS READY TO GO
before the 2020 PDPW Business Conference so you can start tracking trainings during the event. The award-winning Dairy Advan
CE
program gives you the opportunity to find, track and report the training programs that will advance your personal knowledge and your career. Program subscriptions are free to dairy farmers and students. Learn more and watch a video at
DairyAdvance.org
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TAILORING MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO GROUP HOUSING FOR CALVES
with automatic feeding systems will optimize calf health and labor efficiencies. Research in the upper Midwest and Canada has shown that the average age for calves to enter a group-housing system is five days old, and farm staff should observe the healthy calf actively sucking prior to entering a group pen. There are several options for managing entrance and cleaning of group pens. A key point when planning group housing with automatic feeding systems is that management is still key, and should focus on pen cleaning, routine adding of bedding, reviewing calf data, keeping feeders clean, and more.
Click here
to read the full article from Penn State Extension.
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SOURCE OF CORN SILAGE AND TRACE MINERALS
can impact the performance of high-producing dairy cows, according to research published in the
Journal of Dairy Science.
Researchers evaluated the lactational performance and total tract digestibility of nutrients fed to cows in diets of 55% conventional or brown midrib-3 corn silage, 2% chopped wheat straw, and 43% grain mix with either sulfate or hydroxy sources of copper, manganese and zinc trace minerals. Cows fed the brown midrib-3 diets had greater dry matter intake and milk yield, but there was no significant interaction between corn silage and trace minerals for dry matter intake and milk yield. Cows fed the control diets ruminated longer during the day. Learn more
here
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COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
to active college students in dairy science and other food animal production programs. The Targeting Excellence scholarship
application deadline is Mar. 2, 2020
. Scholarship awards are $1,000-$3,000. With support of Professional Dairy Producers® - PDPW, Targeting Excellence is working to unite agribusiness, production systems, and institutions of higher education in a common cause to ensure the world's food supply by providing scholarships to students committed to food animal agriculture. To learn more about application requirements and
to apply
visit
www.TargetingExcellence.org
.
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CAPITALIZE ON HIGH MILK-PROTEIN COMPONENT PRICES
by adjusting diets to increase protein production. An article from Ohio State University Extension discusses ration ingredients and the effects of increasing dietary starch to replace fiber. Based on a ration with adequate forage and fiber, increasing starch by approximately 5 percent and reducing neutral detergent fiber (NDF) by the same amount can increase the daily yield of milk protein of an average Holstein cow by about 0.075 pounds. Given the average of October and November 2019 component prices, this dietary change could increase daily milk income by about $0.15 per cow with little effect on feed costs.
Click here
to learn more.
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CAN YOU BE TOO ORGANIZED?
The answer is “yes” if you spend more time trying to make a complicated organization system fit your work style than completing tasks. A time-management coach offers these five tips:
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Focus on getting things done
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There is no one
right
way to be organized
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Saying “no” is your most powerful organizational tool
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Organization is a lifestyle
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Even if you’re organized, you’re not perfect
Instead of aiming for perfection or striving to copy someone else, commit to a lifestyle of discovering and using the strategies that help you to be your best, most organized self.
Click here
to read the full article and more tips to discover and commit to the organization strategies that will fit your lifestyle and work environment.
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IN-STORE FARMS BRING LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION
to a whole new level, with several grocery store chains installing equipment and lights to grow mushrooms and other produce on a miniature scale inside the store. The in-store farms are possible thanks to improving technology for growing plants indoors and can be placed in center-of-the-store space that had been occupied by nonperishable products that many consumers are increasingly ordering and purchasing online.
Click here
to learn more.
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DISCUSSIONS CONTINUE ON FEDERAL ANIMAL BIOTECH REGULATION,
with US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue suggesting recently that a Memo of Understanding with the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture could be a solution to finding a framework to regulate new technologies. To date, FDA has been regulating intentional genomic changes as animal drugs, but the biotech and agricultural industries have stated this will slow innovation and encourage new technologies to be introduced overseas.
Click here
to read more.
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BOOK REVIEW: THE POWER OF FOCUS: WHAT THE WORLD’S GREATEST ACHIEVERS KNOW ABOUT THE SECRET TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM AND SUCCESS. As our lives are more hectic and fast-paced than ever before, it is even more critical to identify goals and build habits that will allow you to reach those targets in every aspect of personal and business lives. Coauthors Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Les Hewitt walk readers through ten focusing principles to find balance, build better relationships, build confidence and more. They also provide anecdotes and examples along with checklists to reinforce each principle and make it work for you. Read more
here.
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“Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently.
Choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful.”
--- Ralph Marston
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PDPW Educational Calendar
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March 17-18, 2020
Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis.
March 18-19, 2020
Alliant Energy Center, Madison, Wis.
March 24-25, 2020: Level 3
Juneau, Wis.
April 4-5, 2020
Dodgeland School - Juneau, Wis.
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April 14, 2020
Sun Prairie Wis.
April 15, 2020
Online - Log in on your computer
January 12-14, 2021
Managers Academy
Location TBD
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Thank you to the agribusiness leaders that stand alongside our nation's dairy farmers supporting your professional development organization. Their support allows PDPW to execute best-in-class producer training and has enabled us to become the go-to resource for outreach initiatives. See the full list of generous sponsors
here.
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