(Summary written by Wanda Emerich at The Miner Institute.)
Saratoga Springs, New York was the home base for the 2023 North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC). The competition was held from March 30 to April 1, with six area dairies participating in the educational event. Dairy students from 31 colleges worked to improve their dairy management and communication skills, networked with other students, and explored industry careers.
Mark McCullouch, a member and past chair of the regional and national Dairy Challenge Board of Directors, explained that there are four regional competitions that take place throughout the year in the country involving schools in the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West. Once teams are selected for the national contest, the participants travel to several dairy farms in a particular region where they tour the facilities to observe their inner workings.
“They look at the dairy records. The dairy opens up their financials, and they do a deep dive into everything, truly the dynamics of the dairy as a whole,” McCullouch said. Dairy Challenge is a unique, real-world experience where dairy students work as a team and apply their college coursework to evaluate and provide solutions for an operating dairy farm. In Saratoga Springs, two programs ran concurrently during the 21st annual Dairy Challenge contest and the 10th annual Dairy Challenge Academy. The events were hosted by the Northeast Regional Planning Committee.
This year’s contest included 31 universities, whose four-person teams competed for awards based on the quality of teams’ farm analysis and appropriate solutions. Their farm presentations were evaluated by a panel of five judges, including dairy producers, veterinarians, finance specialists, and seasoned agribusiness personnel.
University of Vermont (UVM) and Vermont Technical College (VTC) students enrolled in the Advanced Dairy Management program at the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute in Chazy, NY were on a team that evaluated a large dairy. They placed second in a very close placing with Cornell University, which took top honors (just a pinch of difference according to the lead judge for that panel). The four students on this team were:
- Adele Biasini, UVM.
- Allie Bartlett, UVM.
- Renae DeGraaf, VTC.
- Jackson Ransom, VTC.
Other teams in the competition panel included:
- University of Maine.
- University of Minnesota.
- Ohio State University.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison.
- West Virginia University.
- Alfred State College.
- Texas A&M.
Emily Gaereri represented the University of Vermont on an aggregate team in the competition with students from Alfred State College. Seven additional students from the University of Vermont Dairy Challenge Club and advisor, Dr. Stephen Wadsworth, participated in the Dairy Challenge Academy portion of the program. The academy provides interactive training for more than 130 students from four-year universities or two-year dairy programs. Academy participants were divided into smaller groups including students from various schools. Dairy industry volunteers worked as advisors to coach the less-experienced academy participants as they assessed the dairy and developed recommendations.
Hands-on learning and engaging activities like the Dairy Challenge help to ensure that the next generation of farmers and food producers receive the best practical education and critical thinking skills possible, from all corners of the agricultural industry. Over its 21-year history, Dairy Challenge has helped more than 10,000 students prepare for careers in the dairy industry, dairy production, and veterinary medicine.