FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 24, 2011

Annual PA Dairy Summit Program Has Farm Oriented Sessions

Editors Advisory: Please use the attached PDF for more details and to register for complimentary press credentials.

Annual PA Dairy Summit Program Has Farm Oriented Sessions Bellefonte, PA – The dairy industry affects the lives of every person in Pennsylvania one way or another, but the 11,000+ people who are directly involved know that the future can only be earned by investing today in education. Broad perspective issues, as well as on-farm practices for both business and herd management are included in a multi-faceted program that is drawing another large audience to the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit in 2011.

The Summit, billed as Pennsylvania’s the premier education event for dairy producers, is being held February 2 and 3 at the Lancaster Host Resort in Lancaster, Pa. With only a week until the event, the planning committee is expecting to once again have 500 people at the Summit representing farms with 60 – 1600 cows, agri-businesses, and organizations that support the dairy industry.

Program Chair Dale Hoffman, a dairy farmer himself, has called this year’s Summit “the right program at the right time.” He said, “The Committee put special effort into selecting topics that address issues that impact both large and small farms and that will ultimately affect the future viability of the dairy industry in Pennsylvania.”

The Summit will, in fact, open with a presentation about “Dairy and Sustainability” by Dr. Dale Bauman from Cornell University. With much of his research dedicated to evaluating the environmental impacts of dairy production, Dr. Bauman will show how management and productivity work hand in hand to have a positive impact on dairy sustainability and the carbon footprint of dairy from the farm to the consumer.

The follow-up on “The Farm Bill, Dairy Policy and You” will give the industry an idea of what decisions by government officials can be anticipated in the future. The speaker, Michael Oscar, will apply his experience as a former key aide to Senator Arlen Specter and his long-term involvement in agriculture to give a crystal ball viewpoint of what’s being talked about that can ultimately affect day-to-day dairy operations.

Also promising to have a massive impact on agricultural practices are the efforts of animal activists. The Summit will hold an evening open discussion session that looks at that issue from a variety of perspectives with panelists Kay Johnson Smith from the Animal Ag Alliance; Chris Herr of Penn Ag; and Paul Shaprio, representing the Human Society of the U.S.

The program also gets down to basics with practical issues and how-to sessions. Breakouts will allow the audience to choose from: “Reaping the Most from Your Reproduction Strategy,” “Managing Animal Patterns for Improved Cow Comfort,” “A Producer’s Perspective on Managing Your Risks,” and “Direct Marketing.” A producer panel will also be specific with ideas on improving profitability in a general session on “Five Money Makers and Revenue Drivers for Producers”.

Each year the sessions that are among those most popular are the showcases. The 2011 Summit includes a look at Wisconsin’s Crave Brothers Farm and two farms where Cornell professor Dr. David Galton puts theory into practice to help producers understand the applicability of new techniques and solutions for their own farm problems. In addition, in a farm to fork angle, there will be a retail showcase featuring by Schreiber Foods, whose Shippensburg, Pa. plant delivers dairy to the consumer as one of the world’s top producers of private-label cream cheese.

Aiming to inspire and motivate as well as educate, the Summit will end on a high note with Thursday’s luncheon speaker on “Changing Your View of Success.” Jenné Fromm is a nationally recognized writer, speaker and motivator whose personal story and insight triggers sensible ideas for meaningful change.

Because the Summit is designed to give dairy farmers practical information with long-term implications for the industry, the committee has arranged for dairy producers and any of their employees to attend at a 50% discount through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry through the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board (WIB). A large group of producers with farms of all sizes have already taken advantage of this greatly reduced fee to register. Information on the producer discount and all the details of the Summit program are available at www.padairysummit.org. A special hotline for Dairy Summit questions has been set up at info@padairysummit.org.

In addition to the formal education program, dairy producers will have the opportunity to learn from almost 70 industry suppliers in the exhibit area. The list of Summit exhibitors is updated almost daily at www.padairysummit.org. The list of industry suppliers that support the Summit financially by becoming Summit sponsors is also shown on the special PA Dairy Summit website.

The PA Dairy Summit is hosted by the Center for Dairy Excellence (www.centerfordairyexcellence.org) and the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania (www.pdmp.org). Supporting partners are the PA Department of Agriculture and the Penn State Dairy Alliance, an initiative of Cooperative Extension.

For additional details or specific questions, the PA Dairy Summit business office can be reached at info@padairysummit.org or 877-326-5993.