Attention Pennsylvania 4-H dairy members! Are you between the ages of 15-19? Do you want to attend the National 4-H Dairy Conference Sept. 27-30 in Madison, Wis.? Then you need to apply for a special grant from the Center for Dairy Excellence and the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association. Penn State’s Department of Dairy and Animal Science is coordinating Pennsylvania’s delegation to the National 4-H Dairy Conference. Each county 4-H program can nominate two 4-H members. All nominations must be submitted to Penn State through local county extension offices by July 21.
The conference draws about 200 youth from across the country and Canada. Last year’s Pennsylvania delegates were Lauren Kinkade from Crawford County and Mitchell Bauer from Erie County. “The event was an amazing experience for me,” Kinkade said, and Bauer added, “this experience confirmed that the dairy industry is for me.”
“The National 4-H Dairy Conference gives young people the opportunity to develop leadership skills and dairy knowledge while seeing first-hand the scope of our nation’s dairy industry,” says John Frey, executive director of the Center for Dairy Excellence. “By working closely with the Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association and Penn State, we can help more Pennsylvania young people benefit from this outstanding event.”
Finalists will be interviewed by a selection committee at Penn State’s 4-H Achievement Days on July 29. Any finalist not attending Achievement Days will be interviewed by phone during that week. Delegates interested in attending this year’s conference should plan to miss an entire week of school to attend the conference.
The event will include tours of local dairy farms and other facilities, including the Hoard’s Dairyman farm, the Dairy Shrine and Nasco. Workshop topics from last year included dairy product marketing, biotechnology, herd mating strategies and artificial insemination.