Benton County Dairy and Forage Field Day Aug. 12

Pre-registration is not required, but an RSVP is requested

Join University of Minnesota Extension for the Benton County Dairy and Forage Field Day on Monday, August 12th. The field day will be hosted at New Heights Dairy, owned and operated by Brent Czech and located at 3145 155th Street NW, Rice, MN. The field day will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and will include multiple “short course” stations covering nutrition and feed management, forage harvest equipment, risk management, genetic programs, sand lanes, parlor management, ventilation and barn design, and HarvXtra low lignin alfalfa hay production. Each station will be led by industry experts as well as members of the New Heights Dairy Team. This approach will allow attendees to focus on the topics they are most interested in.

New Heights Dairy began in 2006, and has since grown in size and completed a number of projects including building a sand lane in 2007 and the addition of a cross ventilated freestall barn in 2016. New Heights Dairy has multiple sites, cows at the Rice location are milked three times a day in a double thirty parallel parlor. The dairy uses a combination of growing their own forage as well as working with neighboring farms and utilizes technologies such as HarvXtra and shredlage in its forage production. An emphasis on forward momentum, productive cross breeding strategies, and a margin-based approach to risk management helps New Heights Dairy remain productive and competitive.

Speakers for the day include Russ Fisher with Dairy Vision, Mitch Rosenfeld with New Heights Dairy, Nathan Drewitz with UMN Extension, Mark Rothschild and Brendan Dorais with Commodity and Ingredient Hedging, Joleen Hadrich with UMN Extension, Shane Boettcher and Chris Sigurdson with Select Sires, Ryan Stuckmayer with New Heights Dairy, Gary Von Wahlde with Dairy Direct Sales and Service, Marcia Endres with University of Minnesota, Myron Czech with Pike Hills Dairy, Paul Anez with Anez Consulting, and Isaac Popp with Centra Sota Cooperative.

 

 

The Benton County Dairy and Forage Field Day includes lunch and is offered free of charge.

Pre-registration is not required, but an RSVP is requested to help with the meal count. Questions and RSVPs can be directed to Emily Wilmes at krek0033@umn.edu or 320-255-6169, extension 3.