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Center celebrates 10 year anniversary with annual Partners meeting


The Center for Dairy Excellence and Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania held a Joint Annual Partners Meeting last week, inviting the stakeholders, donors and Allies for Advancement that help support the center and center foundation throughout the year to review the year’s accomplishments and learn more about the center’s plan for the future. This year’s annual meeting included a celebration of the Center for Dairy Excellence’s 10-year anniversary, with the meeting drawing more than 120 people.

Dr. Robert Yonkers with the International Dairy Foods Association spoke to “Pennsylvania’s Role in a Global Dairy Marketplace”, challenging the industry to stay close to the population centers and to remember it’s an entire supply chain– from farm inputs to farmers to processors to end users to ultimate consumers domestic or abroad. “Every part is important to staying competitive,” he said.

Yonkers referenced Pennsylvania’s unique dairy infrastructure and challenged those in the audience to maintain and develop that infrastructure to attract the best and brightest– vets, consultants, haulers, etc. “We need to give them a reason to stay in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Also, everyone should get involved with the organizations that they are associated with to help have a voice and make sense of any issues that arise.”

A panel of producers talked to the value of using the Center for Dairy Excellence’s on-farm resources. Andrea Sensenig and her husband, Cliff, have a dairy farm in Kirkwood, Pa., where they started dairying in 2009. “It was a difficult time, and we knew we needed to do something different to save the farm,” she said. “That first phone to the center was the one that changed our business and made all the difference in our future.”

The Sensenig’s leveraged the center’s “Transformation Team Program” to build the first community anaerobic digester in the nation, using cows’ manure, chicken litter and pig manure. Since then, they have created a couple viable career options for their children in the future including a custom harvesting business and a second herd of Jerseys. An expansion plan is in the future.

Renee and Gerald Gruber returned to the dairy business in 2011, after Gerald was finished serving in the Marines. The day the 120 cows arrived was exciting but also stressful. This couple works well together as team but were struggling to make it work. Finally a profit team was formed from the seed money that the center offered.

“Moving those stressful conversations from the dinner table to the barn– where it was supposed to happen– really lighted the stress of the family business and adding a third unbiased opinion helped make decision making easier,” Renee told the audience.

A panel highlighting the center foundation’s youth development initiatives included two college students who participated in the on-farm internship program made possible by the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania and the center foundation. Jaylene Lesher, a student at Penn State University, and Tommy Diffendal, a student at Delaware Valley College, talked about the hands-on training, networking and experience that was provided to them and were thankful for this opportunity.

The Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation is dedicated to educating the next generation for tomorrow’s dairy future. Along with the On-farm Internship Program, the Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow high school curriculum, scholarships and other resources are all supported by the center foundation.

Visit www.centerfordairyexcellence.org and click under “Programs and Events”, then “Recent Events,” for speaker presentations. Additional information about the On-Farm resources and the Foundation can also be found at the website.


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