A group of 15 U.S. senators led by Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), the most senior member of the committee, called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reverse its decision to “unfairly exclude dairy farmers from receiving COVID-19 relief to cover losses related to meat production,” according to a statement from the senators.

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Candy is not just for people with a sweet tooth but is also a great way to train dairy cows how to use a robotic milking system, much to the delight and educational benefit of students working at Oklahoma State University’s Ferguson Family Dairy Center.

The robotic milking system highlights how the Oklahoma State University department of animal and food sciences provides students with firsthand experience of technological advances that are changing how the dairy industry does business, according to Nicole Sanders, Oklahoma State graduate student and interim dairy herd manager.

For the first time in its 25-year history, the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) opened an overseas facility, the U.S. Center for Dairy Excellence (U.S. CDE), in Singapore. The facility has enhanced resources and innovative programming to accelerate market development for U.S. dairy in Southeast Asia.

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MWC, a $470 million, state-of-the-art cheese and whey plant in St. Johns, Mich., began receiving milk from local farmers this week, marking the first day of operations for the facility and beginning the commissioning phase. An official grand opening will occur at a future date once MWC is fully operational.

Commissioning operations at MWC will take place over the next eight months and will entail increasing the initial 1 million lb. of milk per day to the plant's designed capacity of 8 million lb. per day.

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The 39^th Discover Conference: The Transition Period – From Physiology to Management launches on Tuesday and runs through Thursday with attendees from around the globe participating in the live, virtual event. Participants were provided advanced access to the scientific presentations, so that the time spent this week in the “live event” could be focused on moderated discussions and breakout groups for robust engagement and discussion amongst attendees. Many thanks to the program committee for their diligent efforts to pivot this program to a virtual environment. The DC39 program committee includes co-chairs Phil Cardoso (University of Illinois) and Stephen LeBlanc (University of Guelph); and members of the program committee Buzz Burhans (Dairy-Tech Group), Joe McFadden (Cornell University), Katy Proudfoot (University of Prince Edward Island), and Heather M. White (University of Wisconsin). Learn more.

Speaker: Dr. David Renaud, Assistant Professor, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph

Date & Time: October 28 at 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. CDT

Do you have the S-PAC and Large Dairy Herd Management Bundle??

The American Dairy Science Association (ADSA®) is pleased to offer the most comprehensive information resource package for dairy professionals’ available. The Searchable Proceedings of Animal Conferences (S-PAC®) and the Large Dairy Herd Management (3rd ed., e-book) are now provided as a package. Students and professionals with purchasing an annual subscriptions to S-PAC now receive a personal copy of Large Dairy Herd Management with their paid S-PAC subscription. Learn more by clicking here. If you have additional questions please contact Ken Olson, PhD, PAS

e-mail: keolson@prodigy.netL Phone: 630/842-5334  

Start making plans to attend the 41^ST ADSA DISCOVER CONFERENCE^SM ON FOOD ANIMAL AGRICULTURE - Health Management of Calves: From Intrauterine Life to Successful Weaning. This conference will explore the many changes in dairy calf management practices, and research conducted over the last decade. Potential Conference Topics include:

•      Opportunities and Key Knowledge Gaps in Calf Management

•      Bull Calves & Dairy-Beef

•      Calf Housing and Behavior

•      Calf Immunology and Vaccines

•      Calf Nutrition Pre-weaning

•      Calf Welfare

•      Colostrum Management

•      Fetal Programming, Influence of Cow Stressors on Calf Development

•      Neonatal Disease Management

•      Transition to the Ruminant Calf: Weaning Strategies to Optimize Future Health and Productivity 

A poster session will be included to allow participants to share and discuss research findings. Details will be posted on the meeting site as they are finalized. 

Our ADSANews channel serves as a portal for anyone looking for dairy science related videos. The “GSD Three minute Thesis” presentations from the 2020 ADSA Annual meeting have recently been added to the channel. We currently include 99 videos in 14 different playlists on our channel. The most recent addition is a presentation from CAST "Effectively Communicating Science in Times of Crisis", Suggestions of additional material for the channel are always welcome and appreciated. Contact Ken Olson keolson@prodigy.net