Professional Dairy Producers - PDP

Professional Dairy Producers - PDP Dairy's professional development organization dedicated to producers and allied industry members
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PDPW offers education and information valuable to the professional dairy producer: CONNECT with other dairy producers who share your accomplishments or concerns; LEARN from industry leaders, experts, world-class scientists and researchers; SHARE ideas with preferred suppliers and resources beneficial to your dairy operation.

Kerigan spent a day at Heeg Bros Dairy through the PDP Mentor Program.Her mentor, Jay Heeg, runs a large production herd...
06/01/2026

Kerigan spent a day at Heeg Bros Dairy through the PDP Mentor Program.

Her mentor, Jay Heeg, runs a large production herd, but he also keeps a group of show cattle within it. It started years ago when his daughter began showing. Kerigan was struck by how few farms manage to chase production and hold onto that kind of passion at the same time, and do both well.

In the afternoon, she sat in on a herd-progress meeting. What stood out to her was less about the metrics and more about the room itself: a team that reflects regularly and clearly cares about the operation. She left with a broader sense of what a well-run dairy can look like.

That kind of perspective is hard to teach in a classroom, and it is exactly what the Mentor Program is all about.

05/29/2026

Semiautomated milking technology captured the attention of dairy producers awarding this year’s Nexus Innovation Awards. The new technology from GEA improves upon and brings the fully automated teat preparation common in box-style milking robots to parallel parlors.

A generation ago, getting half your cows pregnant on first service was unthinkable. Now it's normal. So where's the next...
05/29/2026

A generation ago, getting half your cows pregnant on first service was unthinkable. Now it's normal. So where's the next gain going to come from?

On The Dairy Signal, Dr. Paul Fricke of UW-Madison traces how fertility programs got us to where we are, and points to where he thinks the next real gain is hiding.

It's not what most producers would guess ➡ episode link in comments.

"We love sending our interns to the PDP Accelerate because we want them to be the best equipped when their internship en...
05/28/2026

"We love sending our interns to the PDP Accelerate because we want them to be the best equipped when their internship ends and they’re entering the work force. Whether they are going back to the family farm or venturing out into the world, we want them to have the tools to succeed on any path they may take, and PDP helps give them some of those tools through this program." - Kiley Pagel, 's Ponderosa Dairy, LLC

If you have an intern this summer, this day matters: pdpw.org/programs/Accelerate-2026/details

This is what 'using the farm as the case study' actually means.The 2026 Hoof Management Workshop isn't a sit-down confer...
05/26/2026

This is what 'using the farm as the case study' actually means.

The 2026 Hoof Management Workshop isn't a sit-down conference. It's walking free stalls, evaluating cow flow, reviewing trim records and debating treatment protocols with the people who actually do the work.

That format is important. Lameness isn't solved in a hotel ballroom, and the value isn't just in the speakers. It's the room. Vets, nutritionists, trimmers and managers in the same conversation, challenging each other's assumptions on real cows in a real barn.

Details and registration are now available: pdpw.org/programs/2026hoofmanagementworkshop/details

Nearly half of the Wisconsin Beef Council's board are dairy farmers. That's not an accident.On The Dairy Signal, in hono...
05/25/2026

Nearly half of the Wisconsin Beef Council's board are dairy farmers. That's not an accident.

On The Dairy Signal, in honor of May Beef Month, Tammy Vaassen of the Beef Council breaks down how connected beef and dairy really are, and where those checkoff dollars actually go. More than you'd think comes back to dairy.

Episode link in comments.

What makes a farm run well? For Addison, it wasn't a single piece of equipment. It was the people.On her PDP Mentor Prog...
05/23/2026

What makes a farm run well? For Addison, it wasn't a single piece of equipment. It was the people.

On her PDP Mentor Program day at Banner Ridge Farms, LLC, she watched a team that truly worked together. Employees shared their weekly plan at the morning meeting, posted their goals in the shop to check off and jumped in to help one another when something extra came up.

"It opened my eyes to what a truly well-run farm looks like, and I am inspired to apply many of the practices I observed as I move forward with managing my family's dairy."

05/22/2026

SenseHub Dairy Youngstock monitoring technology from Merck Animal Health tracks calves from birth and flashes an indicator light when activity, rumination, eating or other behaviors deviate from the baseline. The same eartag can also continue tracking behaviors throughout the animal’s entire life.

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820 N Main Street, Ste D
Juneau, WI
53039

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(800) 947-7379

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