The 2010 Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge was held in Batavia, New York, October 28-30. More than 110 students from 14 colleges and universities participated in the three-day event.

Students arrived Thursday evening and were broken up into comingled-university teams of four or five. These teams, named after the sponsors of Dairy Challenge, were each assigned one of three anonymous farms.

Be sure to scroll down to view photos from the event.

Students assess all aspects of the farm, including feeding programs, facilities and equipment, financials and milking protocols. They then prepared a 20-minute presentation to give to a panel of judges and the host farm families on Saturday. Students also had the opportunity to travel to Lamb Farms in Oakfield, New York, where they participated in a series of workshops on industry topics, including genomics and NIR technology.

The event concluded with an awards banquet. Teams were given plantinum, gold or silver status, depending on how their findings compared to those of the judges.

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Click here to download a release from Northeast NAIDC, which contains the full results from the competition.

Look for an interview with the host farms of the 2010 Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge in Issue 17 of Progressive Dairyman magazine, due in mailboxes November 20. PD

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