January 2018 vol.1
Brought to you by Dairy's Professional Development Organization®
  
Opportunities to learn...

COMMUNICATE, COLLABORATE AND LEAD MORE EFFECTIVELY  with skills you build at the 2018 PDPW Cornerstone Academy.  The academy will be held on March 13 and 14 in conjunction with the 2018 PDPW Business Conference in Madison, Wis. Three training pillars will focus on strengthening skills associated with influential, visionary and servant leadership. This program is application-based and designed for dairy farmers, industry professionals and college-age students pursuing dairy-related careers. This training is accredited through Dairy AdvanCE and the UW-SVM. Learn more here and submit your application by January 28, 2018.

HANDLE TOUGH CONVERSATIONS AND BUILD YOUR TRANSITION PLAN with skills and resources from the PDPW Business Transition Workshop to be held Wed., Jan. 31, in Wisconsin Dells, and Thurs., Feb. 1, in Green Bay.  Nicole Bettinger of the Family Business Consulting Group will walk participants through a process for building your own family's business transition plan as well as tools for creating a family-employment policy.  The workshop will help you identify and resolve bottlenecks in your transition plan and develop strategies that fit your family's needs.  Learn more   here or contact PDPW at 800-947-7379.

HOW DOES CONSUMER DEMAND FOR TRANSPARENCY IMPACT ANIMAL CARE?   Hear from leading animal welfare and livestock management industry experts about the impact of changing consumer and food-company demands on animal welfare and animal care practices at the 2018 PDPW Dairy Wellbeing Workshop. The one-day workshop will be held Feb. 7 and repeated on Feb. 8.  Both programs will be held in Green Bay, Wisc.  You will tour the American Foods Group slaughter and packaging plant and learn about the future of assessments, reviews and audits and humane euthanasia.  Click here for more details or call 800-947-7379 to register.  Continuing education units are available for ARPAS (up to 7), Dairy AdvanCE (up to 5.25) and School of Veterinary Medicine (up to 6.4). 

PREPARE, PRACTICE AND POSITION YOUR DAIRY FOR SUCCESS at the PDPW Effective Leadership Workshop set for Thurs., Feb 1 at Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy in Kewaunee County, and Friday, Feb. 2 at Boon Farms in Clark County. The session will focus on listening skills and how to effectively communicate and mitigate conflict with working with your farm team, family members and consumers. 
Click here for details on Kewaunee County and here for details on Clark County, or call 800-947-7379 to register.

TAKE A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO YOUR DAIRY'S COMMUNICATIONS to help build the public's confidence in your dairy and be recognized for your contributions to the community.  The PDPW Proactive Communications Workshop is part of the Dairy's Visible Voice series and will be held on Thursday, Feb. 15 in Clark County and Friday, Feb. 16 in Kewaunee County. The training will be led by Renea Heinrich of MorganMyers and you will leave with a plan for your dairy which includes the messages, activities, timing and expenses necessary to execute a plan and the metrics to evaluate your audiences and activities. Click here for details on the Clark County event and here for the Kewaunee County event or call 800-947-7379 to register.

FACING CHANGE, CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITIES IN WISCONSIN will be the focus of the Agricultural Community Engagement® (ACE) Education Seminar scheduled for February 20 in Stevens Point, Wis.  Community leaders, elected officials, conservation officials, and dairy and livestock producers will hear from an impressive slate of speakers including President Ray Cross of UW Systems; Dr. Mark Stephenson of UW-Madison; Natalie Cotter, AEA Program Manager, WDATCP;  Valeah Foy, Department of Revenue; and dairy producers Melissa and Travis Marti and Alan and Stephanie Hughes. Learn more about the event co-hosted by PDPW, Wisconsin Counties Association and Wisconsin Towns Association here or register by calling 800-947-7379.

THE 2018 PDPW BUSINESS CONFERENCE BRINGS BEST-IN-CLASS EDUCATION to dairies of all size and management practice, and serves as your premier educational event. Set for Mar. 14-15 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis., we worked closely with your peers through producer committee to build comprehensive sessions that will enhance your personal and professional business, management and production skills. Choose from over 50 sessions that will address key challenges and obstacles for your dairy business, and matched with just over 40 experts in and out of industry that will help you achieve you're A-game. Keep your eye on the future - invest in yourself. It's your time to thrive. Learn more.

CHECK OUT DAIRY ADVANCE. This award-winning program created to help you find, track and report your Continuing Education (CEs) is garnering the attention and support of more education providers every week.  Find, track and report your continuing education credits with Dairy AdvanCE. Get more details at DairyAdvance.org .

For your dairy...

THE IMPACT OF CLINICAL MASTITIS IN FIRST 100 DAYS OF FIRST LACTATION was the focus of research published in the Journal of Dairy Science.  Researchers collected information on 55,144 lactations in 24,831 cows in 5 New York Holstein herds from January 2004 until February 2014. They reviewed clinical mastitis cases and other data, and found that cows with 1 clinical mastitis case in the first 100 days of their first lactation had a 1.5 times higher rate of total number of clinical mastitis cases over their lifetime. Cows with 2 (or 3 or more) clinical mastitis cases in that same time period had a 1.7 times (or 2.6 times) higher rate of total number of clinical mastitis cases over their lifetime. For each additional case occurring in the first 100 days of the first lactation, the hazard rate of culling increased by 34%. Read more here .

MAINTAIN UDDER CLEANLINESS DURING WINTER WEATHER to manage mastitis and somatic cell count.  Winter weather adds stress to both people and cows, so prevention and maintaining best practices is key to preventing issues before they start.  Keeping cows out of the wind, providing bedding that is clean and dry, ensuring udders are dry, and maintaining a balanced ration are all important. The foundation of mastitis control is clean, dry teats. One step that producers are often tempted to skip during winter is post dipping because of the possibility of frost bite.  An alternative is to put post dip on for a 30-second contact time, then dry teats before sending cows out of the parlor. Click here for more winter suggestions and reminders from Penn State Extension. 

REDUCING DIARRHEA AND RESPIRATORY DISEASE IN CALVES in farms using automated milk feeders is dependent on a number of management factors, including isolation from older animals and frequent cleaning of the feeder and pen.  Research published in the Journal of Dairy Science followed 1,488 calves on 17 dairy farms in Canada with 4 visits over a year. They found that calves sharing air with cattle older than 9 months old was associated with increased within-pen prevalence of diarrhea. In addition, total bacteria counts higher than 100,000 cfu/mL in milk samples taken from the automated milk feeder mixing jar were associated with increased within-pen prevalence of diarrhea during the summer visit. Factors associated with greater within-pen prevalence of bovine respiratory disease include sharing air with weaned cattle up to 8 months old and increased depth of the wet-bedding pack. The use of maternity pens for reasons other than calving was associated with increased prevalence of both diarrhea and bovine respiratory disease. Read more here.
Dairy currents...

BRRRR! STAY SAFE WHEN WORKING IN COLD WEATHER .  Make sure you're prepared to keep yourself and your employees safe during cold winter temperatures. Providing frequent breaks in warm areas and assigning tasks in pairs so employees can monitor each other for signs of cold stress are a couple ways to build safety practices into work routines.  Click here for OSHA recommendations on workplace safety and signs of frostbite, hypothermia and other health conditions.

RESEARCHERS ARE FINDING NEW WAYS TO USE WHEY from Greek yogurt production, according to a paper published recently.  The straining process to produce Greek yogurt includes removing the liquid whey which leaves behind tons of waste.  Researchers combined the waste with anaerobic bacteria which eventually produced two compounds: caproic acid and caprylic acid.  These compounds could be added to animal feed as "green" antimicrobial replacements for antibiotics, or - with a few more chemical reactions - they could be turned into biofuels.  Learn more about this and what additional research and testing is needed here

ACCESS TO LAND, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE AND STUDENT LOAN DEBT are some of the most significant barriers to the success of young farmers, according to a survey conducted by the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC). The survey, conducted with 94 partner organizations, collected data from 3,517 current, former and aspiring U.S. farmers under 40 years of age. NYFC reports that young farmers surveyed are capitalizing on the demand for local food by selling directly to consumers and growing a diversity of crops and livestock. The survey also indicates a generation of producers strongly committed to environmental stewardship, with 75% of current young farmers describing their practices as "sustainable."  Learn more in the news release and report
For your business mind...

LOOKING TO CUT DOWN ON PAPER CLUTTER? There are a number of apps for smartphones, tablets and laptops that can help with notetaking and lists.  While these apps may never replace a paper notebook completely, options that allow team sharing, recording audio notes and other tools may be a good fit for your farm or business. Click  here to check out reviews of Microsoft OneNote, Google Keep, Evernote, AudioNote2 and AccessNote. Perhaps some of the features could benefit your team. 

MAKE AN ANTI-RESOLUTION LIST THIS YEAR  Having trouble keeping your New Year's resolutions?  Instead of a traditional list of resolutions this month, some experts suggest an "anti-resolution" list to identify things that you will stop doing in the new year.  Anti-resolutions can help identify ways you've been making your life harder and stop doing at least one of those things. For example, instead of a general "eat healthy," resolution, an anti-resolution would be "I will not eat fast food."  Ideas for putting anti-resolutions to work could be:        
  • Stop using disclaimers
  • Stop making excuses
  • Stop putting off work that needs to be done
  • Stop overcommitting
  • Stop spending time on social media
Read more in the full article here .

A SHARED VISION IS IMPORTANT FOR COMPANIES and organizations of all sizes.  If every individual understands how their work helps meet the company's broader goals for quality, production or revenue, it is more likely they'll work together to accomplish those goals.  Communicating the shared vision starts at the top, but effective communication requires formal updates such as company meetings and newsletters, and informal updates such as one-on-one conversations.  Learn more in the full article here
Words to live by...
 
  "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one." --- Mark Twain 
Meet a fellow PDPW Member...
Lee Kinnard

KINNARD FARMS ---  In 1948 Alvin and Milly Kinnard started their family dairy farm with 14 cows and 80 acres with money borrowed from their parents. Today Kinnard Farms is an 8,000-cow dairy using a rotary parlor and a double-36 parallel parlor to milk the herd three times a day. With a focus on environmental stewardship and taking good care of family, employees and neighbors, the farm is respected and well-known far beyond the limits of its Casco, Wis. address.

Today the farm employs about 80 people, with Lee Kinnard as CEO and owner of Kinnard Farms. Lee and his brother Rod, Rod's wife Maureen, and the Kinnard's sister Jackie and her husband David Stewart carry on the progressive approach and commitment to hard work Alvin and Milly shared.

Lee says, "This land is special, because our farm is built on land that has been farmed by five generations of our family.  Dad and Mom taught us that caring for the land is the foundation of everything we do."  The Kinnards are a part of Peninsula Pride Farms, an environmental stewardship coalition formed by dairy farmers in northeastern Wisconsin. They're also proud members of the Door-Kewaunee County Demonstration Farms Network, a network of farms committed to best-conservation practices to protect the Great Lakes.

The team at Kinnard Farms knows one of the keys to success is lifelong learning. In addition to relying heavily on advice from the farm veterinarian, nutritionist, crop consultants and others, the Kinnards value conversations with other successful dairy producers and the learning opportunities available through PDPW.
"We can learn so much from each other," Lee says, "and networking is so important."   Inspired by his parents' insistence that their children continue their education beyond high school graduation, he understands that the ongoing need to learn new things also applies to his management team and employees. They enjoy attending hands-on training sessions offered by PDPW as well as out-of-state programs.

"I took two of our top managers on PDPW's Texas farm tour and they really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with dairymen outside Wisconsin about their vision for the dairy industry.  It's pretty hard not to walk away excited about dairy after a tour like that," Lee remarks.   "When I can, I enjoy taking part in the tours and conferences," Lee added, "and as we continue to develop our management team I plan to send our managers to more events." 
A BIG Thank You...    
 
IT'S A NEW YEAR, WITH A NEW LINE-UP OF AGRIBUSINESS LEADERS supporting your professional development organization! As we walk into our 26th year as a producer-led group, we extend a heart-felt "Thank You!" to those that stand alongside our nation's dairy farmers.  T heir support allows PDPW to execute best-in-class producer training and has enabled  us to become the go-to resource for unified outreach initiatives. 
 
See the full list of generous sponsors here.



Our Vision, Mission, Corporate and Event Sponsors  invest in and build a strong industry. If you interact with any of these companies, please thank them for supporting PDPW!   If you or a company you know is interested in participating as a sponsor, please contact ous at abonomie@pdpw.org or call 800-947-7379.