Getting younger people and skilled workers into dairy is a struggle not only in the U.S., but even more so in Europe, according to Dr. Nicola Blackie, keynote speaker during the Kentuckiana Dairy Exchange evening program near Campbellsville, Kentucky. She spent a month at the University of Kentucky, seeing how dairy is done in the U.S. and furthering her research on locomotion (mobility) scoring. She said the dairy industry in England is losing cow numbers and people.

Around the world and back again, the eighth annual Kentuckiana Dairy Exchange on July 29-30 covered a lot of ground. Not only did 100 attendees from both states visit five central Kentucky farms selected for top-notch management, high production, low somatic cell counts and great on-farm innovation, they also heard about dairying in Europe and early lameness detection with keynote speaker Dr. Nicola Blackie, Writtle College, England, and about a recent Indiana Department of Agriculture trade mission to Asia from Indiana Dairy Producers executive director Doug Leman.

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.

A new mode of transportation is poised to be a “game changer,” providing the ability to move fresh, chilled and frozen bulk and value-added food products from the Midwest to the Southeast and beyond. For Indiana Dairy Producers, the Green Express is emerging in their home state at the site of the former Kingsbury munitions plant and CSX rail line, an hour south of Chicago.

“What’s corn going to do?” and “Where’s milk headed?” These are top-of-mind questions for dairymen. While there have always been ups and downs, the past five years have felt more like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. From petroleum to feed to milk – it’s a big world out there and market volatility isn’t going away.