Tours-optional

“Set-up for success: Maternity, calves and employees”

The tour “Set-up for success: Maternity, calves and employees” has been changed to only visiting Minglewood Dairy. There will be the same content offered about the Minglewood Dairy Farm, but the information being shared about Scheps Dairy will be presented by some of their most trusted reps who work side-by-side with them for their success.

Each farm on this track will leave attendees with ideas to implement on their own operation. Scheps Dairy provides a look at a spacious maternity set up for cows, calves, and employees. Minimal stress for calves sets them up for paired housing life – 2 calves per hutch. Minglewood Dairy showcases two autofeeders, with years of side-by-side feeding both whole milk and milk replacer, with a recent switch to milk replacer. A high-volume feeding system, attendees will be able to see how this strategy has performed well for the expansion of the herd into adding a 480-cow robot barn alongside the 760-cow parlor setup.

Sponsored by Adisseo, Agri-Plastics, AgPartners and Vita Plus

“Looking forward: Reproduction, facilities, social media”

This track will touch on where the industry is heading. We will discuss IVF and embryo flushing as well as what makes Bomaz Farms repro successful. We will then head to Jon-De Farm to view their new calf facilities and talk about what prompted that change. We will wrap up the tour with ModFarmChick talking about the impact of social media on our industry and how we can share our stories.

Sponsored by Calf-Tel

“Beef x Dairy: From hutch to rail”

Mark and Theresa Larson of Farmington, MN, show that simplicity should never be underrated when custom raising heifers and raising beef cross steers. This facility boasts an extremely low treatment and death loss across all ages of animals, as well as topping the market frequently with their finished steers. Larsons raise heifers from 0-6 months for a 400-cow dairy, as well as raise all the bull calves to finish in their own operation. Following the tour of their farm, head to the University of Minnesota Meat Science Lab to discuss and see carcasses from various finished beef, beef/dairy crosses, and dairy steers.

Sponsored by ABS, American Foods Group and Axiota

General Sessions

“Navigating the road to the future”
Kevin Ochsner

This presentation is focused on identifying and framing some of the key issues/trends facing the agricultural industry at large, or a specific segment within the agriculture industry. Kevin utilizes agriculture and non-ag industry examples to encourage people to anticipate and navigate the “turns in the road” that create both challenge and opportunity for industry stakeholders. In this presentation, Kevin provides his insight into responding to change, developing competitive strategies and making sound, timely decisions that position individual businesses and/or industries for long-term growth and success.

“It’s your bid”
Kevin Ochsner

This presentation utilizes an auction theme to motivate the audience to invest in themselves, their business and their industry at large. Using the auction analogy, Kevin challenges people to begin with clear goals, recognize “investment” opportunities and take decisive action to achieve a competitive advantage. This speech is customized to reflect the key issues and opportunities in a given industry and frames some critical strategic decisions for participants to consider in order to improve their own business/industry. Kevin concludes the presentation by challenging his audience to get actively involved and engaged in the industry/organization because when you put “u” into “Action” it becomes AUCTION and when you’re in action, every day is an exciting auction!

“Practical ideas on employee management and engagement: Let’s go back to the basics”
Jorge Delgado, Alltech and Izabella Toledo, University of Florida

This presentation will touch on the basics of employee training, motivation, and engagement by starting to talk about the background of most employees, the general facts of dairy related jobs (hard job/long hours, no room to grow) and showing that most new employees don’t have the experience working with cattle and how important and beneficial motivation and training can be in dairy farm jobs. Once this background is set and the challenges are exposed, we will build up the foundation of this presentation, opening up the floor for a discussion using the audience as the main panel. This presentation will cover “foundation topics”, general facts, employee experiences, and training and motivation practices that are working and the ones that are not working. The audience will be able to use and understand the structure 3-4-5 to help with employee management. This approach is represented by the 3 pillars of engagement, the 4 drivers of motivation and the 5 principles to restructure a culture of employee retention.

Sponsored by Alltech

Breakout Sessions – Wet calf/Weaning Track

“Colostrum and immunity of the preweaned calf. It is more than IgG!”
Bob James, Down Home Heifer Solutions, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech Department of Dairy Science

How do we optimize the transfer of immunity from the dam and provide conditions which optimize the health of the preweaned calf? Our management recommendations have stressed early consumption of colostrum with high levels of Ig. However, more recent work has demonstrated that heat stress on the prepartum calf impacts immune transfer. We also have learned the value of non-Ig factors and the biome on development of the calf prior to weaning. The challenge becomes in developing the facilities and personnel which will enable the calf to realize the full benefits in both the first and later feedings of colostrum.

“New concepts in calf nutrition: preweaning and weaning”
Michael Steele, University of Guelph

Despite significant calf research, calf morbidity and mortality rates still reach 34% and 5%, respectively, with digestive disorders accounting for more than half of illnesses and one-third of deaths. This presentation will focus on the future of preweaning and weaning nutrition concepts in calves and highlight opportunities to improve calf health and development via nutrition. Traditional feeding methods will be challenged and the presenter will discuss how researchers are now exploring diet composition in different stages of the preweaning period when feeding more colostrum and milk. The dairy industry has been too focused on the passive transfer of IgG in the first meals of life and often neglecting the transition from colostrum to milk for neonatal calves.

Sponsored by Diamond V

“Health and Biosecurity: Management practice to improve calf health”
Terri Ollivett, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Richard Pereira, University of California-Davis

 Sponsored by Acepsis

Breakout Sessions – Post-weaning Track

“Heifer fertility programs and record analysis​”
Joe Dalton, University of Idaho

When developing heifers, the reproductive focus should be on age at conception, not age at first calving. A delay in age at conception will lead to a delay in age at first calving, along with increased rearing costs (primarily from extra days on feed) and lost income opportunity. Heifer fertility programs are available to ensure age at conception goals are attained. Record analysis, with data from a large heifer ranch, will also be discussed, including voluntary waiting period, 21-day pregnancy rate, conception at each service, and conception by AI technician.

“Optimizing heifer reproductive efficiency through data insights.”
Luís Mendonça, Merck Animal Health

Mendonça will discuss the possibility of utilizing data from calves and heifers to optimize heifer reproductive efficiency. In addition, he will discuss how technology can be incorporated into programs to reveal hidden opportunities. Mendonça will also highlight important considerations about management practices to maximize reproductive performance of dairy heifers.

Sponsored by Merck Animal Health

“Real heifer grower reproductive performance data and what does it tell us?”
Jon Holewinski, Alta Genetics

What does good heifer reproductive performance data look like? A lot of focus gets put on the cows but how much focus gets out on the future of the herd? When looking at multiple heifer growers throughout the United States you will certainly notice some similarities as well as some differences. This discussion will look at real world data and draw out distinctions among the best heifer growers. The discussion will also look at several different metrics to determine success. While old metrics like services per conception and conception rate still have their place in the conversations, those metrics are only a very small portion of what that determines success and profit for heifer growers and their clients.

Breakout Sessions – Dairy X Beef Track

As the beef x dairy sector continues to evolve, hear from individuals representing a dairy operation, a calf ranch, a feedlot and an academic meat quality expert as they share what they have seen, what they are seeing and what may need to be changed for future growth or improvement of this supply chain.

“Beef X Dairy: New paradigms for a new enterprise”
Brent Czech and Randall Grimmius, moderated by Bob Weaber, Kansas State University

Sponsored by TransOva

“Beef X Dairy: New paradigms for a new enterprise”
Bob Sato and Dale Woerner, moderated by Jeremy Howard, Simplot.

“Beef X Dairy: New paradigms for a new enterprise”
Following the presentations, all four speakers come together for an entire breakout session of question and answer, moderated by Peggy Coffeen, Progressive Dairy.