DCRC Annual Meeting highlights emerging reproductive technologies

America’s Dairyland hosted more than 175 Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council (DCRC) members, representing 24 U.S. states, three Canadian provinces and nine countries, in Middleton, Wis. (and virtually), Nov. 11-13, for its 2025 annual meeting. Attendees included reproductive physiologists, animal health researchers, dairy producers, bovine veterinarians, animal health suppliers and dairy industry partners. Presenters shared ideas to help attendees create effective approaches to fostering sustainable reproductive programs for dairy cattle.

“The 2025 DCRC Annual Meeting highlighted topics that are crucial to operating sustainable dairy businesses long term,” said Program Chair JP Martins, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine assistant professor in large animal reproduction. “This year’s speakers included some of the world’s most prominent dairy cattle reproduction experts who discussed incorporating new evaluation tools into reproductive strategies to achieve improved reproduction performance and dairy farm profitability.” Featured topics included Beef on dairy: Lessons learned and future trends, a beef industry supply chain consultant point of view; Is in vitro fertilization the end of the road? Exploring the next generation of reproductive technologies; and Pricing formulas, trade wars, and dairy beef: The evolving landscape for U.S. dairy in late 2025.

DCRC’s Annual Meeting was delivered in a hybrid format – for in-person and online attendees. This feature helped deliver reproduction-focused presentations to DCRC members around the world and broaden the group’s reach. All sessions were recorded, so DCRC Annual Meeting attendees may access the recordings after Dec. 8.

For the first time, DCRC offered a research poster competition for graduate students. Ana Laplacette, Cornell University, won the contest with her poster “Predicting first-service pregnancy outcome in lactating dairy cows with machine-learning algorithms trained on behavioral, performance, and cow-features data.” The second-place winner was Iago Leão, University of Wisconsin-Madison, with his poster “Association between follicular characteristics and ovulatory response to the last GnRH of the Double-Ovsynch and pregnancy per AI in first-service Holstein multiparous cows.” Third place went to Gabriela Macay, University of Florida, for her poster titled “Seminal plasma supplementation at insemination programs offspring performance in first lactation cattle.” All three winners received a one-year DCRC membership. Laplacette also won free registration for next year’s DCRC Annual Meeting.

Outgoing DCRC President Ralph Bruno, Zoetis, handed over the DCRC gavel to Jennifer Spencer, Texas A&M University. Other DCRC board members include Vice President Kim Egan, Genex, Secretary-Treasurer Alex Scanavez, Progressive Dairy Solutions, Past President Bruno and director members Caio Figueiredo, Washington State University, Augusto Madureira, Michigan State University, and Mark Doornink, Parnell. Committee chairs include Awards, Kylene Anderson, Hoard’s Dairyman; Program, Paula Molinari, Genex; Education, Eduardo Oliveira, Zoetis; and Membership, Ralph Bruno. DCRC thanks outgoing board member Tracy Burnett, University of Guelph, for her outstanding service to DCRC.

DCRC thanks its annual meeting sponsors who contributed to the professional development program’s success. The Gold sponsors were Merck Animal Health and Select Sires. Silver sponsors included CowManager, Parnell and Zoetis. Bronze sponsors were AHV, Datamars Livestock, Genex, Progressive Dairy Solutions and SCCL. AHV, CowManager, DCRC, Hoard’s Dairyman, Parnell, Select Sires and Zoetis sponsored the Excellence in Dairy Reproduction Awards.

Next year’s DCRC Annual Meeting is set for Nov. 10-12, in Columbus, Ohio. Watch the DCRC website – www.dcrcouncil.org – for program updates.

The Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council is focused on bringing together all sectors of the dairy industry – producers, consultants, academia and allied industry professionals – for improved reproductive performance. DCRC provides an unprecedented opportunity for all groups to work together to take dairy cattle reproduction to the next level.