Center for Dairy Excellence Awards $100,000 to Help Producers Enhance Efficiency and Cow Comfort

The Dairy Excellence Grants Were Awarded to 20 Dairy Producers From 12 PA Counties

The Center for Dairy Excellence recently awarded a collective total of $100,000 to 20 Pennsylvania dairy producers through the fourth round of the Dairy Excellence Grant program. Leveraging funds provided through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, this investment from Ag Excellence supported a collective reinvestment of more than $580,000 into Pennsylvania dairy farms across all of the funded projects. The grants were designed to support dairy farm improvement projects that enhance efficiency and cow comfort.

“This grant program has really helped Pennsylvania dairy producers advance their operations, drive efficiency, and commit to cow comfort over the past few years,” said Melissa Anderson, Dairy Programs and Operations Manager. “To date, we have been able to help more than 160 dairy farm families through this program, and we hope more producers are able to benefit from it in the future.”

Grant recipients are planning to use the funds to install new ventilation fans, make improvements and renovate over-populated heifer areas, replace mattresses, and convert free stall barns to compost bedded packs. Several producers also plan to install crowd gates, invest in cow manager systems to improve reproduction efficiency, make enhancements to TMR mixers and more.

During this fourth round of funding, a total of more than 3,500 Pennsylvania dairy cows will be impacted by the improvement projects. Grant recipients’ herd sizes range from approximately 60 cows to 750 cows.

The dairy producers who received the grants represent a total of 12 counties, including:

• Berks
• Bradford
• Centre
• Cumberland
• Franklin
• Fulton
• Lebanon
• Northampton
• Somerset
• Union
• Wayne
• Westmoreland

Grant recipients were selected by a committee of industry professionals and will receive a 50 percent match, up to a maximum matching level of $5,000. The Dairy Excellence Grant is a competitive program, with another round of grants expected to open for Pennsylvania dairy producers on February 1, 2023.

For more information, visit www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/dairy-excellence-grants or contact Melissa Anderson at 717-346-0849. To see how previous grant recipients have used the funds, visit www.centerfordairyexcellence.org/testimonials.