Cornell CALS PRO-Dairy along with the Central New York Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops team will be offering cow comfort workshops. The cow comfort workshops are an educational program for farmers, employees and agriservice professionals who work directly with dairy cows. The workshops will cover economics of improving cow comfort, stall design and management, stocking density, heat abatement and effects on production.
Two separate sessions will be held: one to focus on free-stall cow comfort and one to focus on tie-stall cow comfort. Each session will include an on-farm portion where attendees walk through facility assessment. Each cow comfort workshop is a day-long program held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; the program will be held on-farm with a combination of presentations, demonstrations, farm walk-throughs and discussion.
Rick Grant, Ph.D., president of Miner Institute, will be the featured speaker for the free-stall sessions. Grant is well-known for his research surrounding stocking density and time budgets for dairy cattle.
Dan McFarland, Penn State, will be the speaker for the tie-stall session. McFarland is known for his research surrounding heat stress abatement techniques and stall, barn and ventilation design.
The programs run from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Although the meetings are free to attend, registration is required by Dec. 2 for the free-stall locations and Dec. 9 for the tie-stall location.
Dates and registration information is as follows:
- Dec. 3 (free-stall)– Preble Hill Dairy, 6993 W. Bennett Hollow Road, Preble. Register at scnydfc.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=983 or call Betsy Hicks at 607.391.2673.
- Dec. 4 (free-stall) – Amsterdam-begin at Old Town of Florida Town Hall, 167 Fort Hunter Road, Amsterdam. Register at cnydfc.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=996 or call 315.866.7920.
- Dec. 12 (tie-stall)– Ju-Vindale Holsteins, 2074 Ballina Road, Cazenovia. Register at cnydfc.cce.cornell.edu/event.php?id=999 or call 315.866.7920.
The CNYDLFC is a regional team is a Cornell Cooperative Extension partnership between Cornell University and the CCE Associations in Chenango, Fulton, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Otsego, Saratoga and Schoharie Counties. For more information, call 315.866.7920.