DAIRY NEWS – Two one-day workshops will boost the knowledge and confidence of your entire calf care team. The 2024 Calf Care Connection® workshop presented by Professional Dairy Producers® (PDP) will feature hands-on breakout sessions on key health topics along with a deep dive into biosecurity for all operation sizes. Simultaneous Spanish translation will be provided for the entire workshop, providing the opportunity for all team members to participate.
Repeating sessions of the Calf Care Connection workshop will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 15, at Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland, Wis., and again on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College in Fennimore, Wis. Each day, registration begins at 9:00 a.m. with the program concluding at 3:45 p.m.
Designed to reach as many calf care team members as possible, simultaneous translation into Spanish has been offered for this annual program since 2021.
“Providing simultaneous Spanish translation opens up the window of opportunity to all team members,” said Rosario Ibarra, bilingual general manager at Grotegut Dairy Farm, Inc., near Manitowoc, Wis. “When learning in your native language, you can more clearly understand why the farm follows certain practices – and the research and technology behind them. That leads to more engaged employees.”
Dr. Don Sockett, DVM, PhD, diagnostic case and outreach specialist with the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, will present the general session, “Biosecurity: define the rules of sharing.” He will delve into the ways that infectious pathogens are shared and how dairy farms may unwittingly be encouraging their spread. He’ll highlight dairy zones, cross contamination and zoonotic disease, as well as how to prevent spread from human to calf and calf to human.
Following the general session, all participants will rotate through three breakout sessions:
- “Identify the signs of pneumonia,” presented by Dr. Theresa Ollivett, DVM, associate professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UW-Madison. She will demonstrate ways to identify and diagnose clinical and subclinical calf pneumonia by examining postmortem calf lungs. She’ll also review technology options to find lesions and review best practices for treatment.
- “Dissect the digestives,” presented by Dr. Melissa Cantor, PhD, assistant professor in Precision Dairy Science at Penn State University. Dr. Cantor will lead participants in a dissection of the calf digestive system to see what normal and abnormal calf intestines look like, explore the common causes of scours, and share practical strategies for prevention and treatment.
- “Time to act: manage and treat scours,” presented by Dr. Derek Foster, DVM, associate professor of Ruminant Medicine at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He will share the latest information on electrolyte therapy to treat scours, including how to best choose an oral electrolyte and when, how and why to use electrolyte therapies to correct calf hydration.
Calf Care Connection workshop is accredited for up to 4.5 Dairy AdvanCE continuing education credits and up to 5.0 ARPAS continuing education credits.
Learn more about the 2024 PDP Calf Care Connection, including speaker information and available continuing-education units, and register your team today by visiting www.pdpw.org or calling 800-947-7379. Follow along digitally in advance of and during the event by following @dairyPDPW and using #mypdpw on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Professional Dairy Producers (PDP) is the nation’s largest dairy producer-led organization of its kind, focusing on producer professionalism, stakeholder engagement and unified outreach to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.
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