{"id":2825,"date":"2023-04-14T13:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/cals-news\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2023-04-17T10:26:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:26:53","slug":"uvm-students-21st-annual-dairy-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.uvm.edu\/cals-news\/uvm-students-21st-annual-dairy-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"UVM Students Compete in 21st Annual Dairy Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Four<\/p>\n

(Summary written by Wanda Emerich at The Miner Institute.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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UVM students and leaders, left to right: Faerin Dick, Riley Ochs, Megan Kraus, Emily Gareri, Michael Grega, Hannah Penkacik, Victoria Blaney, Stephen Wadsworth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Students on a host farm attend a social cheese tasting event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“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<\/a> contest and the 10th annual Dairy Challenge Academy. The events were hosted by the Northeast Regional Planning Committee.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Front row, L to R: Adele Biasini, Alexandria Bartlett. Back row: Jackson Ransom, Renae DeGraaf.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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:<\/p>\n