Dairy Camp

This program was developed to provide workforce development opportunities for the dairy industry in the New York Finger Lakes region. This initiative, funded by Finger Lakes Wired, provides learning modules that increase entrepreneurship, innovation and enhance the talent of the region’s workforce in the following counties Wyoming, Genesee, Orleans, Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties.

• Definition of Quality Milk
• Hormonal Control of Milk Production
• Identify Udder Inflammation and Mastitis
• How Milking Machines Work
• Learn Basic Cow Psychology
• Basic Cow Restraints
• Locomotion Scoring
• Learn basics of cow’s reproductive tract
• Overview of the Cow’s Estrus Cycle
• Identifying when a cow is in heat
• Artificially inseminating a cow
• Basic metabolic disorders of the fresh cow
• Identifying when a cow will be calving
• Identifying when a cow needs assistance during calving
• Use of stethoscope
• Manure Scoring
• Calf management practices
• Getting a calf to drink from a bottle
• Passing an esophageal feeding tube
• How to properly vaccinate calves
• Physical exam of a calf
• Learn how to use a weight tape to establish growth rate of calf
• Nutritional needs of the dairy cow
• Use of a particle separator
• Determining roughage Dry Matter content
• Identifying good quality vs. poor quality roughage
• Basic record keeping