More than 1,000 junior high school students attended Ag Career Days at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy in Casco, Wisconsin, to learn about the breadth of agricultural job opportunities in Kewaunee County. Situated between Green Bay and Lake Michigan, this rural area boasts more cows than people, earning its status as one of the nation’s top 50 dairy-producing counties. In fact, one out of every four jobs is directly related to agriculture in Kewaunee County.

No amount of torrential rain could keep 21 students, who participate in the Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation Dairy Leaders of Tomorrow program, from attending this year’s farm tour.

The North American Manure Expo will be hosted July 8-9 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds, 3001 North Grant Ave., Springfield. The theme for the 2014 event is “Valuing Manure and the Environment.”

Jam-packed with seven northern Indiana farm visits ranging from 200 to 3,000 cows, the March 2014 Spring Dairy Tour by the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania (PDMP) gave Northeast producers a look at Midwest dairy farming through the eyes of the owners and managers who touch 40,000 of the Hoosier state’s 178,000 cows.

As the first shovels of dirt were turned at the groundbreaking ceremony for the New Holland Pavilions at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin, the countdown also began. From that moment on April 11, there are 158 days for construction crews to complete the new 290,000-square-foot pavilions by mid-September, just in time for World Dairy Expo, Sept. 30 through Oct. 4.

As part of a new format for the annual Dairy Calf & Heifer Association Conference, which had a theme this year of “Be A Driver of Change,” conference organizers had a renewed focus on hands-on learning. The conference offered two afternoons of bus tours, with additional presentations at each of the four stops. Read on for some key takeaways from the tours.