Increasing the Effectiveness of Dairy Advisory Teams

(Morrisville, NY – March 2013) On Wednesday, March 27, a hands-on workshop for dairy farm advisors will be held at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County, 100 Eaton St., Morrisville. The workshop will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Ag Center.

The program is designed for dairy advisory team members throughout New York state, and will provide insight into using whole farm and management tools in order to ensure optimum use of farm resources.

Presented by Penn State’s Extension Dairy team, in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County and PRO-DAIRY, the program will highlight the use of New York’s Dairy Farm Business Summary, Pro-Dairy’s Dairy Profit Monitor program, along with the PA Dairy Tool, Income Over Feed Cost Tool, Cash Flow Planning Tool, Dairy Analysis Tools and others.

Participants can try out tools on their own following the workshop, then access follow-up webinars and conference calls with instructors to ask questions and get more detailed information for their use.

Topics to be covered include:

* What a successful team looks like

* How to use whole-farm and team management tools

* Monitoring and using information to make decisions

* A case study based on an actual farm and team

Workshops are being offered at one more location in Pennsylvania as well as one in Vermont including one in Franklin County, Pa., March 20, Ag Heritage Center, 185 Franklin Farm Lane, Chambersburg, Pa.; and in Vermont April 18, at the Randolph Small Business Center, 1540 Vermont Route 66, Randolph, Vt.

Instructors will be Dr. Lisa Holden, Associate Professor, Penn State Department of Animal Science; Rob Goodling, Penn State Extension Associate; Virginia Ishler, Penn State Extension Specialist; Rebecca White, Penn State Research Associate; Tony Kitsos, Farm Management Educator at the University of Vermont; Betsey Howland, Extension Support Specialist, and Karen Baase, Extension Issue Leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County.

Scholarships are available for those willing to share data with instructors. Participants may bring a second person from their business at no additional charge. Pre-registration is necessary to ensure adequate workshop materials are available.

For more information, call Holden at 888.373.7232 or email lholden@psu.edu.

“Tools for Teams” is made possible through a grant from Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. This program is eligible for one SmartStart credit from AgChoice Farm Credit.

By martha

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