, June 25-27 in Rochester, Minnesota. This was the second North American conference on the topic, the first of which was held three years ago in Toronto, Ontario.
The international presence was noticeable with participants hailing from 24 countries, including Australia, Israel and Denmark.
There were also 25 U.S. states represented and four Canadian provinces.
Scroll down or to view even more photos from the event.
An optional tour of four local dairy operations was held on Tuesday, June 25.
Kiefland Holsteins LLC uses five automatic milking systems to milk its 285-cow herd.
Rowekamp Farms has a parlor information system to monitor parlor performance and track milk weights per cow.
It also uses pedometers for reproduction and health tracking on its 345 cows.
Parlor milk weights, a feed management system and activity and rumination collars are the technologies in place at D&D Dairy.
In the custom steer-raising business, Fallen Oaks Farm uses an automatic calf feeder and temperature tags to care for 160 calves from birth to 600 pounds.
The following two-day conference featured national and international speakers on using technologies for feeding, milking and monitoring.
A trade show allowed participants to shop around and view a large portion of the precision dairy technologies on the market today.
In addition, guests attending an evening banquet were challenged to conquer their dreams by Lance Fox, who shared his personal story of climbing Mt. Everest. PD
PHOTOS
TOP: A representative from John Deere gave a presentation on the precision technologies available for harvesting forage, such as yield monitors, auto steer, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and mapping.
MIDDLE: Bill Rowekamp shared how he built a new double-12 parallel parlor with rapid exit last year. He admits he has yet to utilize the full potential of the system that monitors parlor performance, conductivity, animal activity and automatic sorting, but he is learning more about its capabilities all the time.
BOTTOM: Tour participants observe as robots milk the cows at Kiefland Holsteins. Photos by Karen Lee.
Karen Lee
Editor
Progressive Dairyman
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