It has come to our attention that Gmail and some other email services, see a "clipped" version of our e-update. For best results and to view all the articles and pictures on our e-update, please click the online link at the top of the newsletter.

Have you ever wondered what the other side of the world looks like? I have never dwelled on that question much during my life, never actually dreamed about it at all, just took it pretty much for granted. Now that I am part of an organization that believes in market development, I have had some tremendous opportunities come my way in the past year! After returning from the Lt. Governor's 2014 Agriculture Trade Mission to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in June of 2014, I figured my world traveling opportunities were probably finished. Then we received an email invitation to participate in a United States Agribusiness Visiting Delegation to New Zealand. After getting more information about the trip and board approval to participate, we moved ahead even though we weren't certain what value we might bring back for the Indiana dairy industry.

 

I traveled with Dr. Barry Dunn, the Dean of Ag and Biological Sciences at South Dakota State, Cesar Rey, a veterinarian now managing a large organic dairy in Oregon, Dr. Dennis Hancock, an Associate Professor and State Extension Forage Specialist at the University of Georgia, along with our host, James Wilde with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. We traveled to Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Matamata.

 

New Zealand has over 5 million dairy cows with a land base about the size of Colorado, the majority being under intensive grazing, exporting most of their production. While there, we visited dairy farms, manufacturing facilities, and businesses. We saw some of the latest technologies they are developing, spent a half day at the South Island Agricultural Field Days, much like our farm progress show. We visited a farm where they are working on precision Ag, from nutrients to irrigation, producing grass seed to vegetable seed and milking 1800 cows that are being grazed. They seem to be moving into more confinement systems the further south you go because of weather conditions.

New Zealand is a beautiful country with lots of green pastures and scenic mountains. I met lots of interesting people, found some potential areas for IDP to work on moving forward, and I believe it was time and resources well spent for IDP!

The March trip to Madison Wisconsin for the 2015 Farm & Conference Tour was a big success. IDP had 44 participants, including 40 dairy farmers. There were so many opportunities to learn something. The PDPW conference is a 2-day event and some of the topics covered included Dr. David Kohl's talk and market outlook, Garrison Wynn's recipes for success, Dr. Paul Fricke's session on managing new pregnancy testing options. In addition, there was a hands-on anatomy of the udder lab, a session on conflict management, and information on passing the farm from generation to generation. Read more of the PDPW conference highlights here.

To see pictures of the IDP bus trip to Madison, including the farm visits to Crave Brothers and Rosy-Lane Holsteins, click here.

The IDP Farm & Conference Tour included visits to two very well managed dairy farms.

The first stop was the Crave Brothers Farm. Charlie Crave and his 3 brothers have an interesting enterprise. Not only do they have a wonderful dairy farm, but they also process their own cheese. Typically, they produce made-to-order specialty mozzarella cheese products. They use their own farm-produced milk in the cheese plant, but they also sell the majority of their milk through a cooperative. Charlie Crave told a fascinating story of how he was not raised on a dairy farm, but a college ag professor took a chance on him and they partnered together to start a small dairy farm when Charlie was in his early twenties. Charlie's three brothers all became involved in this family enterprise and the rest is history. The Crave family has a passion for caring for the environment. They currently have a digester on farm. We observed high quality feed and animal care, and special attention is spent on water quality. In addition, they had a very impressive shop where it was obvious that routine maintenance is a high priority.

Lloyd and Daphne Holterman shared another beautiful dairy farm with the IDP tour attendees. At Rosy-Lane Holsteins, huge attention is given to animal care, specific systems and protocols and more. Lloyd gave a lot of insight to his management style. He has certain principles that are strong: animal care, living within the regulatory system, etc. But he has a strong economic focus and makes decisions for the farm based on profitability. He doesn't accept the conventional "we've always done it that way" and clearly thinks outside the box. He has no transition TMR for his cows but they have very few DA's. In fact, at the time of our tour, Lloyd said they hadn't withheld milk from a treated cow in over 300 days! The group plied Lloyd and Daphne with questions about their operation and got candid responses.

But like we say with every single bus tour we've organized, some of the very best stuff happens on the bus! We think this tour was no exception. Next time you get the opportunity, come along! We're pretty confident it will be well worth your time away. In fact, why not save the date for Kentuckiana 2015 on July 28-29!

IDP would sincerely like to thank some exceptional people and organizations that supported this event. First, special thanks to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and the PDP Foundation for grant money. This just brought tremendous value to each of the attendees. In addition, Dairyland Seed was a generous supporter, even picking up the one meal that wasn't originally covered. Thanks to Stewart-Peterson, Northstar, Belstra, Farm Credit Mid America, Indiana Corn and Indiana Soybean. And special thanks to Deb Rhinehart from the foundation, Shelly Mayer and her staff at PDPW, Charlie Crave, Laura Daniels (who truly inspired us to tell our stories even better), and Lloyd and Daphne Holterman.

At the April 1, 2015 IDP board of directors meeting, new officer elections took place. Steve Obert, Fort Branch, was elected to his second term as President. Sarah Wagler, Morgantown, was elected as Vice President, and Julie Bommer, Brookville, was elected as Secretary/Treasurer. Dr. Mike Schutz will serve as Executive Treasurer.  Nathan Kuehnert, Fort Wayne, was welcomed as a new board member. Nathan was elected to the board at the IDP annual meeting on March 16. In addition, Nathan Hrnicek, District Sales Manager at Dairyland Seed, was seated as an industry adviser to the board.