About three years ago, a visitor to the Michigan State University Extension office in Saint Johns happened to mention a beginner English class taught at his church. Many of the students were Hispanic dairy workers who wanted to learn English as a second language. MSU Extension dairy specialist Faith Cullens thought she had the perfect tool for the class: A bilingual magazine called El Lechero, then published as an insert in Progressive Dairyman.

After milking with their parents in two separate stanchion barn dairy operations, Tim and Lisa Evert and Rick and Ronda Lehman joined together to form one dairy – United Dreams Dairy LLC – in North Freedom, Wisconsin. “We were each farming with our parents at the time and both looking to do something,” Rick Lehman says. Tim Evert adds, “We were both looking for a lifestyle change and it made a lot of sense for us to pool our equity and work together.”

Click here to view the virtual farm tour video, featured at the 2012 World Ag Expo. An immigrant to the U.S. who thought in 1956 he’d settle down in Minnesota and bake for the rest of his career is now a successful dairyman in California’s Central Valley. Four years after immigrating to the U.S. from the Netherlands, Tony DeGroot, Sr., developed an allergy to flour. “Baker’s disease,” as Tony’s doctor’s called it, closed up Tony’s lungs when he worked around airborne flour particles. The disease was fatal, not to Tony’s life, but his career as a full-time baker.

Designed for people who want to improve their knowledge and decision-making abilities in dairy production and management, the 30th Western Canadian Dairy Seminar welcomes dairy producers, extension specialists, researchers, and dairy service and supply representatives. Each year a wide variety of topics are presented ranging from nutrition and reproduction to dairy policy and challenges facing the dairy industry. This year’s event will be held March 6-9 at the Sheraton Red Deer in Red Deer, Alberta. With the theme, “30 Years of Advancing Dairy Knowledge,” the seminar will take a special anniversary look back at the last 30 years and how far the industry has advanced.