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Impact of the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference
Maurice L Eastridge 1 Department of Animal Sciences The Ohio State University
~ CELEBRATING 33 YEARS ~
The Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference, Fort Wayne, IN is a yearly conference for feed industry personnel, nutrition consultants, university personnel, veterinarians, and interested dairy producers. The conference began in 1992 as a spin-off from the 1991 Ohio Dairy Nutrition Conference. In September 1991, a meeting to discuss planning a tri-state conference was held with faculty and Extension staff from Purdue, Michigan State, and The Ohio State Universities. The first Conference was held May 20- 21, 1992 on the Purdue campus in Fort Wayne, IN. A Planning Committee was formed after the 1992 Conference. Due to a continuous expansion of attendance, the conference moved in 1996 from the Purdue campus to the Grand Wayne Convention Center. Because of renovation of the Grand Wayne Center, the Conference was held for one year( 2005) at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne. An abstract about the success of the Conference was presented at ADSA in 1999( J. Dairy Sci. 82( Suppl. 1): 56) and was listed among successful dairy nutrition conferences in the special centennial issue of the Journal of Dairy Science published in 2006( J. Dairy Sci. 89:1121-1368). The success of the Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference continues to be demonstrated by attendance( Figure 1) and citation or reprinting of proceedings manuscripts in the scientific, international, and popular press literature. The Proceedings are ordered by many people within and outside the U. S., placed on reserve in the USDA National Agricultural Library, and indexed by the Institute for Scientific Information.
Presentations and proceedings papers are oriented to timely, in-depth, and practical dairy nutrition topics to meet on-farm nutritionists’ needs and provide the results of recent research findings. A tradeshow and rotating industry-sponsored pre-conference have been a part of the annual Conference for many years. In 2016, a hot topics breakfast was initiated, and a post-conference program was offered in 2016, 2017, and 2018. A workshop program was begun in 2013 on Monday afternoon with the focus the first year on nutrition formulation computer programs and was continued during the following years: 2014 – dairy records management software; 2015 – TMR management software; 2016 – animal monitoring technology; 2017 – feed analysis; 2018 – nutrition formulation software; and 2019 – feed sampling. A conference web page was initially launched in 1997, and a new web site was launched in 2018( http:// tristatedairy. org). The attendance by students at the Conference has continued to grow, and we presently provide an undergraduate presentation program and separate MS and PhD research presentation categories. We offer free registration and lodging to all students attending the Conference. In 2017, a specialized undergraduate program was launched for Monday evening and Tuesday morning of the Conference. The Conference has been contributing annually $ 1,000 to the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge because of its value to students and the dairy industry. Continuing education credit is offered to veterinarians and members of the American Registry of Professional
1 Contact at: 2029 Fyffe Court, 221B Animal Science Building, Columbus, OH 43210-1095,( 614) 688-3059, FAX:( 614) 292-1515, Email: eastridge. 1 @ osu. edu.
April 15-17, 2024 Tri-State Dairy Nutrition Conference