Dairy women across Pennsylvania gathered for the third Women in Dairy Conference, held at the end of November in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

The conference, which was first held in 2004, convenes every other year and is put on by Dairy Alliance, a Penn State Cooperative Extension initiative. The conference began with a presentation by keynote speaker and the 2007 World Dairy Expo Dairy Woman of the Year, Deborah Reinhart.

Throughout the day, conference participants had the opportunity to attend several breakout sessions, led by Pennsylvania dairy producers and industry leaders. Morning presenters included wealth management adviser Tim Sutherland of AgChoice Farm Credit, Tricia Adams and Carol Hoffman of Kar-Dale-Acres and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Deputy Press Secretary Jean Kummer.

Lunch included a milk toast and speeches given by the Pennsylvania Dairy Royalty: State Dairy Princess LeeAnn Kapanick of Crawford County, Alternate Dairy Princess Nicole Wasson of Centre County and Alternate Dairy Princess Abigail Trotter of Lawrence County. Kara McDonald of Dairy Management Inc., Mary Lou Couch of Lakevue Farms and Couch’s Subs and Grocery and Doyle Waybright of Mason-Dixon Farm Inc. led afternoon presentations.

The “hot topic” breakout session was led by Mary Schmidt of Lost Acres Farm and Frannie Stone, director of Morning Joy support group. The women spoke about dealing with both farm and personal struggles, and they gave advice on how to overcome stress. PD