WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Along with help from partners and sponsors, the Cornell Cooperative Extension Northern NY Regional Ag Program has organized the 2017 Cow Comfort Conference – “Working with what you have and looking towards the future”. The focus of the conference will be on the importance of maximizing cow comfort through facility design.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Gordie Jones, a partner in Central Sands Dairy, LLC in Wisconsin, and an internationally known consultant on dairy herd performance, nutrition, dairy housing and facilities, expansion, dairy management, SOPs, and cow comfort. Other speakers include Dan McFarland (Agricultural Engineering Educator, Penn State Extension), Dr. Heather Dann (Research Scientist, Miner Institute), Emily Yeiser Stepp (Director, National FARM Animal Care Program, National Milk Producers Federation), Dr. Albert De Vries (Associate Professor, Department of Animal Sciences, University of Florida), and Dr. Rob Lynch (Dairy Herd Health and Management Specialist, PRO-DAIRY). There will also be a panel discussion.
Topics include: understanding the importance of cow comfort, maximizing cow comfort through facility design, understanding when to retrofit and when to rebuild, the economics of cow comfort, using on-farm automation to improve cow comfort, and an update on the National F.A.R.M. Program.
The conference will be held March 20-21, 2017, at the Holiday Inn, 411 Electronics Parkway, Liverpool, NY, 13088. To register, please visit https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/
—Cornell Cooperative Extension
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