I-29 Dairy Conference sees record attendance

By Kim Clark, Ag Program Manager, Nebraska Corn Board

A focus on animal well-being – That was this year’s theme for the sixth annual I-29 Dairy Conference. The two-day event, held on Feb. 9-10 in Sioux Falls, S.D., brought together about 225 dairy producers, agriculture industry personnel and sponsors from the I-29 corridor. The planning committee for the I-29 Dairy Conference included dairy faculty, extension educators, and ag industry personnel from Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota and Iowa.

You may be asking yourself, why is the Nebraska Corn Board blogging about dairy cattle on a corn blog? Well, the answer is simple. Dairy cattle consume 65-70 percent of their diet in ground corn, corn silage and corn milling co-products.

Although this was only my second year of serving on the conference planning committee, I was nominated to serve as chairperson for this year’s conference. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I accepted the offer, but I gained valuable experience. My job as chairperson was to contact speakers for their summaries, presentations and travel arrangements; coordinate conference calls with the committee members throughout the planning process; create the brochure and proceedings manual for the conference; send everything to the printers; field questions from attendees…you get the picture. I couldn’t have done this on my own. Each committee member also played a role in the planning and organizing of the conference.

The planning for the conference began shortly after the movie, Temple Grandin, premiered on HBO, and we decided to have Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University and an autistic woman who designs livestock handling facilities for feedlots and meat plants, be our keynote speaker. Doors for this were opened to the general public – and we couldn’t have asked for a better turn-out or presentation. To my surprise, after her presentation, Temple autographed her books that were sold at the conference. Everyone, including me, was excited to meet a celebrity – especially a celebrity that is local, well known and respected in the agriculture industry.

Day two of the conference began with Scott Higgins, CEO of Ohio Dairy Producers Association talking about the agreement that reached between the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Ohio’s agriculture organizations to halt HSUS’s ballot initiative in 2010. After that, Grandin spoke about how reducing fears in dairy cattle helps improve milk production.

The conference wrapped up with an afternoon of presentations from several dairy industry experts. Jim Paulson, Minnesota Dairy Extension Educator, enlightened everyone about sustainability and how it relates to agriculture. Other topics for the afternoon included Dairy Carbon Footprints: A Tool for Your Farm presented by Crystal Powers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lameness: Effects on Performance, Profit, and Welfare by Dr. Jan Shearer from Iowa State University, and Mold and Mycotoxins in Your Dairy Feeds by Dr. Lon Whitlow from North Carolina State University.

All the hard work, late nights, phone calls and crazy dairy dreams have paid off. With another I-29 Dairy Conference finished, record attendance and positive comments from attendees and sponsors, I couldn’t be more proud to have served as chairperson for the dairy conference and represent the corn and dairy industries.