At a glance
A quartet of 魅影直播 State students competed at the 23rd Annual National Dairy Challenge Contest hosted by the University of Florida on April 6-8, 2025.
A quartet of 魅影直播 State students competed at the 23rd Annual National Dairy Challenge Contest hosted by the University of Florida on April 6-8, 2025.
The team of Lindsay Constable, Jeffrey Hawkes, Laura Mills, and Mulligan Palmerton practiced all semester on local dairy farms before traveling to Gainesville, FL for the before competing against students from 35 colleges and universities. The event combines real world farm evaluation with networking and professional development. The challenge is designed to help students bridge the gap between classroom learning and practical application in the dairy industry.
On the first day, students received herd data from their assigned farms. Contest and academy participants then worked in teams to analyze the information, preparing for their on-site farm visits the following day.
The following day, 127 contest participants visited either Southern Cross Dairy or North Florida Dairies. In just two hours, teams conducted a comprehensive farm analysis, followed by a Q&A session with the farm owners and advisors. Teams then prepared detailed recommendations in key areas such as nutrition, reproduction, milking procedures, animal health, cow comfort, and labor and financial management.
The final day of the contest saw judge panels evaluating each team鈥檚 presentation, which highlighted the strengths and areas of improvement for their respective farms. Each panel of five judges included dairy producers, veterinarians, finance specialists and seasoned agribusiness personnel.
Awards were presented to top performing teams based on the quality of their analyses and practical recommendations.
Students also had the chance to visit the Career and Innovation Fair and attended top-level corporate technology seminars from NAIDC sponsors.
The quartet of students were led by Agriculture Lecturer Morgan McLean.
