DUBUQUE — The Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference will be held at the Grand River Center in Dubuque June 7-8, with a focus on the latest information about dairy nutrition and management.

The event will be offered both in-person and online and will offer participants the opportunity to engage in lively panel discussions, timely sessions, graduate student posters and presentations, networking and socializing. In-person attendees will have access to all recorded plenary presentations after the conference.

“The Four-State Conference in Dubuque is the largest and most useful dairy nutrition conference for over a decade,” said Fred Hall, dairy specialist with ISU Extension and Outreach. “Following the pandemic of 2020, we added a virtual component, which makes the content available worldwide.”

The online option provides flexibility, especially for the international audience. The online option will include all plenary sessions from the conference shared as video recordings shortly after the conference.

Phibro’s pre-conference symposium focuses on strategies to improve profits. Norm St. Pierre, Perdue Agribusiness, will provide an overview of the dairy economic outlook. Adrian Barragan, Penn State University, will cover peri-partum inflammation. Cornell University professor Sabine Mann will discuss factors that affect colostrum production and quality. Jessica McArt, also from Cornell, will discuss how to manage fresh cows to reduce disease incidence.

Plenary speakers include Mike Steele, University of Guelph, discussing new concepts in prenatal and neonatel calf care; Eduardo Ribeiro, University of Guelph, showing the economics of transition cow health; and Norm St. Pierre, explaining the “goofy things we do in dairy nutrition” that are penny wise and dollar foolish.

June 8 plenary speakers include Marcia Endres and Jim Salfer, discussing feeding in robotic milking systems, and presentations by two dairy producers, Sam Fessenden and Jake Peissig, discussing their robot feeding strategies.

Both plenary sessions will include a lively half-hour question and answer between speakers and participants.

For more information and to register, visit the event website or contact Jim Salfer at salfe001@umn.edu or 612-360-4506. The registration fee is $150 until May 26, and $175 thereafter.