More than 1,200 people battled yet another winter storm to attend the Midwest Dairy Expo in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Nov. 30-Dec. 1. Plenty of educational opportunities, networking, a trade show, scholarship auction and an entertaining evening dinner kept everyone occupied as the snow fell outside. With the theme, “Small Decisions Changing Lives” the educational sessions included topics on cow comfort, herd health, estate planning, calf raising, profitability, breeding, activism and the 2012 Farm Bill.

Members of the Dairy Business Association (DBA) gathered in Madison, Wisconsin, Nov. 30- Dec. 1, for their 11th Annual Business Conference for educational and networking opportunities. They also honored two farm families, elected directors and heard from their newly elected governor.

AtlantaFresh is unlike any other creamery in the Southeast, offering hand-crafted quality yogurt, crème fraiche and fresh mozzarella. These artisan creamery products are made slowly from the contented cows of the nearby Johnston Family Farm in Newborn, Georgia. “Everything we make is in small batches by hand,” says AtlantaFresh Founder Ron Marks. “Starting with great milk and getting fresh dairy products to market as soon as they’re made is the key to quality,” he says. “AtlantaFresh products are a treat. You can taste the quality difference.”

We asked some of our Proud to Dairy bloggers to provide their favorite dairy-related Christmas memories. We featured a few of these in Issue 18 of Progressive Dairyman, including responses from Katie Dotterer-Pyle, Barbara Martin and Ashley Sears.

The annual California Alfalfa and Forage Symposium was held December 1-3, 2010 in Visalia, California. This annual conference is organized by the University of California Alfalfa Workgroup, and this year saw its return to the San Joaquin Valley after four years in other locations.

The Penn State Dairy Science Club’s annual Holiday Cheesebox sale is a tradition that is looked forward to every year. The 31st annual cheesebox sale was held this year and the fundraiser continues to grow.

The following is an excerpt from a blog posted by blogger and Proud to Dairy member Nancy Grossi. The North Bay Dairy Women was established in 1965 and is a local organization, with the purpose behind it being to educate consumers about dairy and dairy farms and to promote the dairy industry.

An estimated 140,000 visitors, including 24,000 international visitors, attended EuroTier 2010, an international trade show held in Hannover, Germany, November 16-19. EuroTier is recognized as the world’s “top event for animal production”. This event is sponsored and organized by the Frankfurt-based German Agricultural Society (DLG).

The Southern Regional Dairy Challenge was held November 18-20 at Mississippi State University in Tupelo, Mississippi. The host farms were Graham Dairy in Thaxton and Heritage Dairy Farm in Holly Springs. Jeremy Graham (pictured at right) of Graham Dairy and Grandy Ladner of Heritage Dairy Farm shared their thoughts on the event. Q. What suggestion from the students are you most likely to implement on your operation? GRAHAM: The students recommended altering the transition diet for our dry cows. We are primarily a grass-based dairy, and we have used corn silage as a supplement for only the milking herd. So it's an abrupt change, especially for the first calf heifers, to go from a diet with no corn silage to one with it. We're also looking at ways to improve our somatic cell count.