Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series on developing middle managers. The first article in this series looked at determining the right ingredients and personality types for middle management roles. Once selected, those middle managers need to be groomed to be able to fill the owner’s or previous manager’s shoes. “You need to teach people to do what you would do if you could be there all the time,” said Mary Kraft, noting it was a favorite quote from Tom Fuhrmann’s Dairy Works seminar.

There is something new coming to World Dairy Expo this year that you won’t want to miss. Actually, at 26,000 square feet, the New Holland Trade Center will be just plain hard to miss. “I’m really excited about this,” exclaims John Rozum, World Dairy Expo sales manager. “It is the biggest new thing on the grounds since the Exhibition Hall was put up in 1995.” Over the past 17 years, demand for exhibit space at World Dairy Expo has risen steadily. “We’ve been working with a sell-out trade show and extensive wait list for a number of years,” Rozum says. “Plus, there are always existing exhibitors at the show looking to expand their space.”

Lagoons and ponds are required storage facilities for large cattle operations. Their purpose is to collect watershed from the livestock areas and hold it until it can be properly dispersed according to nutrient management plans.

In an effort to reduce nutrient losses from manure applied to cropland, a number of best management practices have been created. They were crafted using the best available information at the time and, ever since, researchers continue to analyze if they are the best or if they could be better. Three soil scientists were at the North American Manure Expo in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, recently to share what they’ve learned about nitrification inhibitors, timing of manure application and type of application to better explain their roles in preventing the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus.

The act of storing solid and liquid manure does alter the composition of manure from its raw state and could be consider a form of treatment on the manure. However, as dairy farms have altered the way they handle manure from simply storing it, soil scientists are looking into how those newer methods are affecting nitrogen and phosphorus in the end product. Speaking at the North American Manure Expo in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, last month, Chris Baxter, associate professor of soil & crop science, University of Wisconsin – Platteville, explained the three types of manure treatment systems that were considered include liquid/solid separation, anaerobic digestion and composting.