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Foreign visitors to World Dairy Expo also checking out UW

World Dairy Expo attracts visitors from around the world, but many of them also want to see another nearby dairy attraction, The University of Wisconsin Madison Dairy Sciences Department.  UW Center for Dairy Profitability Director Mark Stephenson tells Brownfield he couldn’t make it to the expo grounds until Friday because of the many college facility tours he was involved with.  “You know, we’ll get at least a dozen different groups.  Maybe they’re coming from Brazil, or they’re coming from Chile, or they’re coming from Australia or Canada, Mexico, a number of places, and we’be hosted them.  I had a New Zealand group in the other day.”

Just a year ago, more than 31-hundred international attendees from 102 countries visited World Dairy Expo.

Stephenson tells Brownfield many foreign producers just want to see the latest technology and management practices.  “Well, a lot of people, of course, are very interested in just the technical aspects of milk production.  We have the highest productivity levels in the world here, you know, and a lot of new technologies and new ideas, so They’re coming to see different practices, different farm management techniques, and things, but they’re also very much interested in us as a competitor in the world markets.”

Stephenson says the dairy industry has very few secrets.  “The dairy industry has always been a sharing group, I mean it’s no small part of the way I think our industry has progressed because dairy farmers who are actually in competition with one another you know, would sit down and share practices and talk about what works and what doesn’t.  And, that’s true across the world.  You know, it’s a little different than Apple Computer.  They’re not going to sit down with Samsung and talk about their phones and say what works for us, we’ll share that with you.”

The foreign delegations toured the UW Madison labs and their on-campus research herd facility.