The Dairy Innovation Hub held its fourth annual Dairy Symposium on Wednesday, May 14, at the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. During the day-long event, which drew over 250 attendees, scientists shared and discussed their Hub-funded work with researchers, students, campus colleagues, and others.
The Symposium highlights examples of the Hub’s most advanced research, while encouraging discussions about how Hub-funded work can help meet the challenges facing today’s dairy community. The event, which is the academic-focused companion to the public-focused Dairy Summit held each fall, features keynote presentations and breakout sessions, as well as student flash talks and posters.
The Dairy Innovation Hub is a $7.8M-per-year state-funded effort to support the success of Wisconsin’s dairy community by advancing science, developing talent, and leveraging collaboration at UW–Madison, UW–Platteville, and UW–River Falls. Since its launch in 2019, the Hub has funded more than 250 projects and 18 faculty positions across the three campuses.
“The Dairy innovation Hub is a partnership and that’s what makes it work,” said Cynthia Czajkowski, associate vice chancellor for research at UW-Madison, during the Symposium’s opening remarks. “It’s a partnership between dairy industry leaders and members of the state government and the Universities of Wisconsin. [It’s] a shining example of how [this kind of partnership can] bring direct value to farmers, processors and citizens of the state.”
The symposium kicked off with a keynote talk by Mike Brown, vice president for dairy market intelligence at T. C. Jacoby & Company, who focuses on milk pricing policy and supply chain. He described how throughout his industry career he has utilized a wide range of dairy research and extension work from UW–Madison and other universities – from dairy genetics to whey protein functionality to supply/demand modeling – to help make data-based decisions.
“Understanding how our research applies to the supply chain is important,” said Matt Ruark, faculty director of the Hub and a professor and extension specialist in the UW–Madison Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences. “Mike Brown’s presentation offered insights into the dairy supply chain that are essential for both our long-term and short-term research goals. The Dairy Innovation Hub’s Dairy Symposium allows faculty and staff to see how their work is used in the marketplace, and to help generate new research collaborations to benefit all aspects of the dairy industry.”
Two morning breakout sessions were offered, one featuring presentations related to the Hub priority area enriching human health and nutrition, and the other focused on stewarding land and water resources. During these sessions, researchers and graduate students presented on topics ranging from the health benefits of whey protein phospholipid concentrate to denitrifying bioreactors to phosphorus loss mitigation approaches.
“The symposium is a great chance to learn about the scientific projects being done by Hub-backed researchers at the university,” said Dave Daniels, chair of the Dairy Innovation Hub advisory council and owner of Mighty Grand Dairy in Union Grove, Wis. “I learned about updates to SnapPlus and that’s great information to get out to farmers because in order for farmers to participate in farmland preservation or other state grant programs they have to have a nutrient management plan – and SnapPlus helps you work with a nutrient management plan.”
The afternoon breakout sessions focused on Hub priority areas ensuring animal health and welfare, and growing farm business and communities. Presentation topics included boosting immunity in dairy calves, genetic analysis of key dairy cattle traits, farm labor, and rural livability.
“Several people offered their experience and anecdotes about how the rural non-farm economy relates to the farm-based segment. So that’s helpful for me as a social scientist,” said Tessa Conroy, professor and extension specialist in the UW–Madison Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, who presented her work on rural livability. “And I had a number of people say, ‘I think I know where you can get the data you need [to answer your research questions]’, so I really appreciated the openness to collaboration. That was a great part of being here today.”
The afternoon plenary featured a panel of researchers from multiple institutions, including UW–Madison and UW–Platteville, who are involved in the Dairy Soil & Water Regeneration project (DSWR). DSWR is a $23M multi-state project to build soil health and is funded largely by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, along with funds from Dairy Management Inc. (DMI), Newtrient, Nestle, Starbucks and others. DMI and the Soil Health Institute launched the project in partnership with eight research institutions, consultants, and farmers. With research sites located across the U.S.—including two in Wisconsin—the initiative aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance water quality, and create new economic opportunities.
A key objective of the symposium is to foster the growth and development of the next generation of dairy researchers. To that end, it concluded with a student flash talk competition, plus more poster viewing and networking. This year, 10 students gave flash talks, and more than 50 posters detailing student research projects were available throughout the day.
“It’s a good opportunity for me to present my work and also have connections with other people,” said Yuxing Chen, a fourth-year PhD student in the UW–Madison Department of Food Science, who participated in the flash talk competition and poster session. “It’s very exciting to see other people’s work too, people from different areas like soil and animal sciences. We are trying to build better communities, to do better research. I think it’s very interesting because in dairy you can always find some innovative things to support the whole system.”
The winner of the flash talk competition was graduate student Fiorella Viquez Umaña. Viquez Umaña, who is mentored by Hub-funded faculty member Hilario Mantovani from the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at UW–Madison, presented her research on the prevalence of bacterial primary colonizers in the gut of Holstein calves.
Video recordings of all Dairy Symposium presentations are posted on the Dairy Innovation Hub’s YouTube channel.
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