2024 was busy for the Dairy Innovation Hub! The Hub would like to thank everyone who helped make it a great year! Highlighted below are just a few samples of activities, updates, and more from the past year.
Four faculty hired
In August, the Hub has helped fund four faculty positions at UW–Madison and UW–River Falls. Yun Jiang started at UW as an assistant professor in animal and dairy sciences. Gregg Sanford started at UW as an assistant professor in soil and environmental sciences. Rebecca Smith started at UW as an assistant professor in plant and agroecosystem sciences. Md Azhar Uddin started at UW–River Falls as an assistant professor in agricultural economics.
These scientists specialize in cattle nutrition, soil carbon science, plant science for dairy sustainability, and agricultural economics and will help support the Hub’s four priority areas: stewarding land and water resources, enriching human health and nutrition, ensuring animal health and welfare, and growing farm business and communities.
New leadership
In October, Dr. Matt Ruark, a professor and extension specialist in the UW–Madison Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, was named faculty director of the Dairy Innovation Hub.
The three deans worked collaboratively on the internal process, and agreed that Matt’s extensive research and extension experience will be an asset to the Hub, especially for translating outcomes to the dairy community.
Related to the Hub’s advisory council, Sec. Randy Romanski and Scott Rankin renewed their terms on the council representing the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and UW–Madison, respectively. Dairy farmer Tom Crave joined the council representing Dairy Business Association.
Hub research hits the road
Throughout the year, the Hub jumped on multiple opportunities to share project outcomes.
In January, the Hub hosted an informational research poster session at the Wisconsin State Capitol co-located with Ag Day at the Capitol, which is coordinated by Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation. State leaders and other attendees had the opportunity to browse a dozen research posters and engage with students and faculty affiliated with Hub-funded projects.
The Hub also attended the PDP Business Conference in March, where multiple Hub-funded faculty gave research presentations on the PDP Preview Stage. More than 30 research posters were on display for the duration of the conference. On Apr. 18, Jori Skalitzky presented a poster about the Hub’s improved annual report website at the annual UW Showcase event. This event was an opportunity for colleagues across the UW–Madison campus to come together and share best practices, learn from each other’s successes, and connect.
Over the summer, the Hub hosted industry tours featuring multiple research facilities. In July, Foremost Farms hosted their summer leadership retreat in Madison and brought their executive leadership team to campus for a tour of the Center for Dairy Research and the Dairy Cattle Center. The day finished with what else – Babcock ice cream!
In August, members of the Hub’sadvisory council held their summer in-person meeting at the UW–Madison Marshfield Agricultural Research Station (MARS) in Marshfield, Wis. In addition to advisory council members, area farmers, local legislators, and board members from key agriculture organizations were invited to attend the tours. Tour stops included demonstrations on heat stress, methane emissions, computer vision and machine learning, comparing heifers in pasture and traditional systems, perennial forages, and an ongoing paired watershed experiment. Read the full recap article
Funded research at UW–Madison, UW–River Falls, and UW–Platteville
2024 was a busy year for research projects! For all three campuses, the Hub provided funding for research across the Hub’s four priority areas.
- UW–Madison: In early 2024, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at UW–Madison announced a second cohort of six, two-year graduate student assistantships to help increase dairy-related research capacity through the Dairy Innovation Hub initiative. Two of these students are collaboratively mentored with faculty at UW–Platteville and UW–River Falls. Learn more about the funded projects here.
- UW–River Falls: Four faculty were awarded faculty research fellowships to help increase dairy-related research capacity. A faculty research fellowship is a temporary position for permanent faculty members. The goal is to provide support for a specific research project and any ancillary costs — including ensuring that the faculty member will have time to conduct the research and support for existing teaching. Learn more about the faculty fellows here.
- UW–Platteville: Five Dairy Industry Impact Innovation faculty fellowships, or DI3 faculty fellowships, were awarded to faculty to help increase dairy-related research capacity. DI3 faculty fellowships are intended to leverage existing UW–Platteville expertise to provide timely results supporting the goals of the Hub. Learn more about the funded projects here.
Hub attends World Dairy Expo
During World Dairy Expo in October, the Hub joined UW–Madison, UW–River Falls, and UW–Platteville alumni and friends at their respective receptions. The events were co-located, and guests were able to go from room to room visiting with multiple campuses. The Hub hosted a small collection of research posters in front of each meeting room. It was a great time for faculty, staff and friends to connect at the foremost global dairy event!
Fifth annual report released
In November the Hub released its fifth annual report reflecting progress and activities at UW–Madison, UW–Platteville, and UW–River Falls from July 2023 through June 2024. Included in the report are the Hub’s major accomplishments, funded projects, faculty profiles and more. Read the report here.
Successful Dairy Symposium and Dairy Summit
The Hub held its annual Dairy Symposium on May 15, at the Memorial Union on the UW–Madison campus. Over 200 researchers, students, academic colleagues, and campus affiliates attended the day-long event. Symposium is the academic-focused companion to the public-focused Dairy Summit held each November.
The fifth annual Dairy Summit was held on November 20, at Union South on the UW–Madison campus. More than 200 researchers, campus affiliates, students, dairy professionals, and community members attended the event in-person. Another 100 people attended the event virtually, and videos of summit sessions are available online. Gov. Evers joined the event to offer a welcome message and insights into the economic impact of dairy to Wisconsin.
Both events were well-attended and facilitated discussions about how this work can help meet the challenges facing today’s dairy community.