Penn State Dairy Alliance – the industry’s source for educational programming based on unbiased Penn State dairy research – is getting a new name, announced Dr. Terry Etherton, head of Penn State’s Department of Dairy and Animal Science. Penn State Dairy Alliance will now be known as the Penn State Extension Dairy Team, a name that reflects the growth of the unit to include Penn State Extension educators. “The Dairy Alliance name is changing, but the program’s reputation for excellence in educational programming will remain unchanged,” Etherton explained.

Also remaining unchanged are the faculty and staff from the Department of Dairy and Animal Science who played a key role in building Dairy Alliance. This core group will continue its programming activities under the new Penn State Extension Dairy Team banner.

Penn State Dairy Alliance was founded in 2000 as a collaborative effort between Penn State’s Department of Dairy and Animal Science and Cooperative Extension. Its team members included faculty and staff from the Department of Dairy and Animal Science who worked with industry partners to create and deliver educational programming in the areas of business management, human resource management, information management, and nutrient management to Pennsylvania‘s progressive dairy producers, their employees, and advisors.

As the industry’s needs changed over the past decade, so did the Dairy Alliance. In fall 2009, the team expanded to include county Extension educators, as well as faculty and staff from other Penn State Departments, such as Agricultural and Biological Engineering and Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. This expansion in expertise allowed Dairy Alliance to shift to holistic programming that encouraged a whole-farm view of dairy management.

Today, this new focus has led to programming that teaches producers and agribusiness professionals how to manage risk, animal well-being, people, nutrients, and technology in order to increase profitability on the farm through educational programs and online tools such as the Penn State Profitability Assessment (PA) Dairy Tool, the Penn State Income over Feed Cost Tool, and the Penn State Cash Flow Planning Tool.

Program planning is already under way for this fall and winter. On the agenda are two conferences:
• Middle Manager’s Conference, designed to help dairy middle managers and supervisors manage people and cows better, scheduled Nov. 8 at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• Penn State Nutrition Conference, a continuing education program for feed industry professionals and nutritional consultants, scheduled Nov. 9-10 at Grantville, Pennsylvania

Also, customized training on planning a dairy cash flow and/or calculating a farm’s income over feed cost is currently available to individual producers or agribusiness groups. In addition, Dairy Discussion Groups for producers and consultants, Technology Tuesdays webinar series, Calf Health Management Workshops, Feed Management Plan Writing Workshops for Certified Feed Management Planners, and the online Friday Facilitator Forums for Dairy Team Facilitators are coming this fall and winter. Dates and details will be announced in July. PD

—From Penn State Extension Dairy Team news release