World Dairy Diary

Blue Ribbon Show Comes to Pa.

Dairy producers can learn how to create value-added products on the farm during a unique niche marketing trade show. The ‘Blue Ribbon Cows Making Blue Ribbon Cheese, Ice Cream and More’ event will be held on Sept. 17 from 1- 8 p.m. at the All-American Dairy Show at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg. Find more information and the registration form on the All-American website.

The ‘Blue Ribbon’ trade show invites farmers currently processing products to attend the show to share experiences and to sample their products with those interested in the process.

Monsanto Talks Dairy at Farm Progress Show

AgWired has been covering the Farm Progress Show all week, and intern/blogger Kelcy Shcroder posted an interview this morning that deals with the diary biz. Here are her comments:
Monsanto is not only working with corn and soybeans, but also working with dairy farmers.

Dairy farms keep growing in size and instead of always hearing about farmers trying to get the largest yield out of fields, the same happens for dairy farmers. Sometimes, trying to make cows produce large amounts of milk can be challenging and Monsanto is taking great efforts to accommodate those conditions. They have produced RoundUp Ready Alfalfa, which makes the alfalfa pure and weed free.

There have been substantial increases in milk production due to the types of alfalfa fed to the cows causing a high demand in RoundUp Ready Alfalfa. The outlook for next year is looking good; RoundUp Ready Alfalfa may be hard to get to if it is not purchased early!
Listen to Kelcy’s interview with Chris Peterson here: Interview with Chris Peterson (2 min. MP3)

AgWired’s Coverage of the Farm Progress Show is sponsored by Monsanto:

Big County Fair Dairy Show

Each summer, the Buckeye Ag Radio Network embarks on a huge adventure - county fair season! The 2006 County Fair and Festival Tour Powered by Propane will take Lindsay Hill and I across at least 40 county fairs, as well as the 11 days of the Ohio State Fair, and several other farm field days and events. In all, we’re on the road, Monday through Friday, each day from now until September.

Earlier this week, our Lindsay Hill was in Clark County (Springfield, OH) broadcasting live from their Junior Fair area. She spoke with two Senior Fairboard Members about one of the largest dairy feeder shows in the state, which also happens to be one of the fastest growing project areas at the fair!

Listen to Lindsay Hill discuss Dairy Feeders (6:24, mp3)

Internships Available At Select Sires

Are you a college student looking for a summer internship? Here’s an opportunity. If you’re not a college student, maybe you know one you could pass this opportunity on to!

Select Sires Inc. has announced plans to offer two summer internships at its headquarters facility in Plain City, Ohio, during the summer of 2006. Positions are available within the dairy-sire and communications departments, with applications due by Monday, Nov. 21, 2005. “Both practical work experience within the industry and networking are extremely important in helping college students prepare for full-time employment upon graduation,” says Dave Thorbahn, Select Sires general manager. “That’s why Select Sires and several of its 10 member cooperatives offer hands-on internship opportunities each year. These internships help introduce top students to the industry side of agriculture, while they contribute to the day-to-day operation of the Select Sires federation.”

For more information about these internships or to submit a resume for consideration, visit http://www.selectsires.com/internship.html or send an e-mail message to info-line@selectsires.com.

Virtus & Lallemand Teaming Up On New Dairy Products

This is a two blog post. That means that it will appear on AgWired and on World Dairy Diary. Why? Because these folks did a great media relations event at World Dairy Expo and they have new product news.

They are Virtus Nutrition & Lallemand. Now I don’t know about you but it’s not easy to understand and write about what these folks make. However, they did what it took to get the media there and “explain” it. We were invited to a wine tasting/product discussion. I missed the introduction so I never did fully understand the relationship between Virtus and Lallemand, except that Lallemand manufacturers and Virtus distributes.

However, Lallemand makes yeast and yeast is used in wine making. In fact, we learned that most of the wine made in the world uses Lallemand manufactured yeast! Yeast is also used in animal nutrition and there are different kinds of yeast that produce different kinds of results.

So, what they did was have us taste 3 different kinds of wine that were made with all the same ingredients except that the yeast for each was different. They all tasted different and this demonstrated the whole point of the presentation that followed on animal nutrition! Very creative and very well done. Besides, they brought in a wine expert, Lallemand’s own Bob Charley, who is a forage products manager. He was excellent. In fact, the wine was excellent.

The best part was leaving though and receiving a 2-bottle wine holder with corkscrew and a bottle of red and white inside! I only have the white left. They stocked the holders with New Glarus Primrose Winery products, which was also a good idea since we were in Wisconsin and the winery is located in New Glarus, WI. Let’s do it again Lallemand & Virtus.

Virtus Nutrition, headquartered in Fairlawn, Ohio, today introduced Strata G™ with Omega-3 Fatty Acids, the first in a line of new products to appear under the new Strata G brand name. “Strata G products feature specific fatty acids, such as omega-3’s, that are meant to be strategically fed at a specific time for a specific result,” said Scott Sorrell, Director of Marketing for Virtus Nutrition.

Virtus Nutrition, headquartered in Fairlawn, Ohio, today announced a new, patented manufacturing process — Engineered Fatty Acid Conversion Technology (EFACT™) — that enables the company to produce calcium salts from virtually any fat source. “Science is just beginning to discover and understand the power of certain specific fatty acids,” said Dr. Steve Koenig, President and CEO of NutriScience Technologies, holding company of Virtus Nutrition. “EFACT gives us the ability to build new products with virtually any fatty acid profile from a wide variety of fat sources”.”

Interview With Publisher Of Dairy Directory

I’ve written before about the Southwest Plains Dairy Directory here on World Dairy Diary. I just got to interview the CEO of McCormick Company, the advertising agency that created the directory which was on display and available at World Diary Expo. I thought it was very interesting that an advertising agency did a project like this. The printed directory is also available in an online, searchable database.

The interview I did with Kathy Cornett was used for a regular weekly program I do on our sister website, AgWired. It’s called the ZimmCast. You can listen to this week’s ZimmCast here: (5MB MP3 File)

DURHAM Is All Bull

That is a lot of bull standing there. And he’s got the awards to prove it.

For the third year in a row, the most prestigious award given to a bull, the Ted Krueger Premier Sire award, was won by 7HO5157 Regancrest Elton DURHAM-ET*CV at the 2005 World Dairy Expo International Holstein Show, Madison, Wis. With four class winners and 23 top-10 finishes, DURHAM daughters represented nearly 25 percent of the milking animals at World Dairy Expo.

This release was sent in from Select Sires. They obviously have a lot of pride in their work!

This is an invitation to any group or organization to send in your news and announcements, especially if it has to do with awards and World Dairy Expo. Just send them to: World Dairy Diary News

Pretty As A Princess

She’s as pretty a princess as you’re going to find and she loves her guernsey cows. She’s Melissa Dinderman from Kent, IL and this year’s American Guernsey Assocation, National Guernsey Princess.

Melissa plans to own at least a hundred guernsey cows after she gets out of school someday.

You can listen to my interview with Melissa here: (2MB MP3 File)

Ice Cream Anyone?

I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to ice cream.

Here’s the WestphaliaSurge Ice Cream Parlor. The crew is getting last minute instructions this morning before the crowds arrive.

Are You Ready For Some Football

You may not get to sit down and watch college football today but you can get a football fix. This little game is put on by Action For Healthy Kids.

There’s several levels of play and if you win you get a little football to take home!

Hot Coffee At The Java Trolley

On a cool morning like this one (it was 37 degrees on the way in) a hot cup of coffee is important. That’s why the Java Trolley Express got lots of business.

I’d say the trailer had a good location but then everywhere is a good location here. People are wandering around all over the place because they just want to see it all.

The Bander King Speaks

The Callicrate Bander was our first World Dairy Diary sponsor. We sure owe them a debt of gratitude.

Tom King, works for the company out in Nebraska. He’s still going strong here on the final day. I got to talk to him about how the show has been from an exhibitor perspective, especially a first time exhibitor. Tom talked with a lot of international visitors who are very interested in the product. He thought the show has been a good thing for his company. Maybe we’ll see him here again next year!

You can listen to my interview with Tom here: (3MB MP3 File)

The Wisconsin Cow Czar

I don’t know if he’s really the Czar of Cows or not but he could be after his cow gets painted.

You may know all about the Cow Parade that’s here in Wisconsin and at World Dairy Expo. There’s cows on display around the show and here in Steve Kozar’s booth, he’s painting one. I got to interview him while he was working. I was wondering why he had a “wet paint” sign taped to his cow and it’s because the cow quite literally has wet paint on it each day as he works.

Steven has received a grant from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, which sponsors the Cow Parade. You can listen to my interview with Steven here: (4MB MP3 File)

International Guest Reception

At the end of day number 4 (Friday) Hoard’s Dairyman sponsored another reception. This one was in honor of the international visitors to World Dairy Expo. You’ve got to love a company that knows how to throw a party!

At this reception there was music and good food.

I Found The Beefmobile Wrangler

Earlier this week I posted a picture of the Beefmobile but couldn’t find the Wrangler.

I caught sight of Tracey Orsburn in the media room this morning.

She’s being interviewed by Rae Nell Halbur, KFIZ, Fon du Lac, WI.

Multi-Country Volunteers

You know we have a lot of international visitors here. Did you know we sometimes put them to work?

The Swiss Valley Farms booth had three exchange students working there this morning. They were from (l-r) Japan, Taiwan and Germany!

Check Your Cheese

I’ve heard of a coat room at a banquet. How about a cheese storage room at a farm show?

I’ve been putting off buying some cheese here in the America’s Dairyland Marketplace because I can’t leave until Sunday. I didn’t know that the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is offering to store your purchases in a refrigerator until you’re ready to leave.

How handy is that? Great idea.

Jeopardairy - It’s Your Daily Double

This is not a quiet game. The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board is running “Jeopardairy” in America’s Dairyland Marketplace.

I was told that yesterday a goup of guys played and when they won a question they all rang their cow bells.

Pressure Putt - Your Buddies Are Watching

Learning about all the new technology and products that companies have to offer isn’t the only thing you’ll find in the exhibit area.

In the AT Plastics booth you can try your hand at putting with some nice rewards if you’re successful.

Educational Seminars Continue Each Day

They’re not as “visible” as the shows, sales and exhibits but there are a lot of different seminars that are offered to people attending Expo.

This particular seminar was being held this morning in the Exhibition Hall and put on by Harvestore.

As you can see from the schedule there’s lots of flexibility in when you can participate in some of these educational sessions.