Short Courses Added to Dairy Calf & Heifer Association Annual Conference
Head to the Centennial State – Colorado – for the 2025 Dairy Calf & Heifer Association (DCHA) Annual Conference and Trade Show in Westminster, April 8-10. The 2025 conference offers new educational opportunities with two concurrent Short Courses being held on April 7 – one focusing on young calves and the other on post-weaned calves up to parturition. Dave Renaud, University of Guelph, will address “Optimizing Colostrum Management: From Production to Long-Term Benefits” and Mike Overton, Zoetis, and Kevin Dhuyvetter, Elanco, will discuss “From Calf to Cow: Management and Economic Considerations for Dairy Replacement Heifers.”
Building on last year’s success of offering programming for Spanish-speaking individuals, DCHA will again offer two pre-conference sessions presented in Spanish and simultaneous interpretation (English to Spanish) for all general session and breakout session presentations. Additionally, interested individuals may attend in person or virtually.
To learn more about the conference, registration and hotel links, go to: https://bit.ly/DCHAweb25. Be sure to register early to get the best registration rate. Reserve your hotel room by March 20 to take advantage of DCHA’s discounted room block rate.
Peggy Coffeen, Uplevel Dairy, will deliver the keynote address – Discovering and Knowing Your Why. Based on Simon Simek’s “Start with Why,” Coffeen will explain what a “why” is and what a “why” is not. She describes a person’s “why” as what gets that person out of bed in the morning, excited and motivated. “Your ‘why’ is the deep-seeded purpose, cause or belief that is your passion and inspiration,” Coffeen stated.
Over the past 15 years, Coffeen has been dedicated to sitting across the table with dairy farmers around the country, asking questions, telling their stories and connecting them to resources. She is the founder and host of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, along with the Uplevel Dairy Young Leaders Podcast. A dairy girl at heart, Coffeen grew up milking cows on her family farm in southern Wisconsin before pursuing a degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in agriculture journalism and a career in writing and communications.
In addition to the General Session presentations, DCHA will offer Breakout Sessions via three tracks – wet calf/weaning, post-weaned/reproduction and beef cross. Thursday morning’s session features the popular panel discussions – one from each of the tracks.
Conference presentations include:
- “Pain Perception in Calves and How to Prevent it” by Paola Bacigalupo Sanguesa, Michigan State University (presented in Spanish)
- “The ABCs of Beef on Dairy” by Pedro Carvalho, Colorado State University (presented in Spanish)
- “Paving the Road to Success: What to Consider When Transporting Young Calves” by Catie Cramer, Colorado State University
- “5 Pitfalls of Heifer Inventory Management” by Pauly Paul, Complete Management Consulting LLC
- “Tools to Manage Your Rick in the Beef on Dairy Space” by Jake Charleston, Specialty Risk Insurance
- “Beef on Dairy Prices: Where are We and Where are We Headed?” Tyler Cozzens, Livestock Marketing Information Center
- “Dairy and Calf Ranch Communication Strategies” panel, moderated by Ben Bjork, Ralco, Inc.
- “Managing the Risk Associated with Beef on Dairy Calves” panel, moderated by Peggy Coffeen, Uplevel Dairy
Following the “formal conference,” Calf Care & Quality Assurance (CCQA) will offer a free Train the Trainer program. CCQA is a quality assurance certification program that was built to unite calf raisers around key management practices that ensure consumers all cattle raised at a calf-raising facility are healthy and well cared for and the products they generate are wholesome and safe. Components of the program include calf health, animal handling and stockmanship, management and care, employee training, continuing education and emergency preparedness.
“The goal of a Train the Trainer session is to prepare and certify industry leaders in the techniques and instruction of the CCQA program,” stated Julia Herman, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association beef cattle specialist veterinarian. “Once certified, you will gain access to the CCQA Instructor Hub that houses all materials needed to host a CCQA Training. Following access to the hub, you can then host on-farm training events to assist in employee training and certification.” For more information, contact Julia Herman at: jherman@beef.org.
The Dairy Calf and Heifer Association (www.calfandheifer.org) was founded in 1996 based on the mission to help dairy producers, calf managers and those professionally focused on the growth and management of dairy calves and heifers. With an international membership of producers, allied industries and research leaders, DCHA seeks to provide the industry’ s standards for profitability, performance and leadership, serving as a catalyst to help members improve the vitality and viability of their individual efforts and that of their business.
