Agriculture
Manuel Peña
Regional Dairy Educator
920-449-0725 I manuel.pena@wisc.edu
Extension Dairy Educator Manuel Peña Contributes to the structure and processes of dairy producers, conservation and financial groups and other dairy professionals, enhancing their ability to function effectively. Supports informed decision making by providing research-based information to achieve their objectives.
Continuous Needs Assessment in Sheboygan County
- An assessment of needs is an ongoing conversation with farmers, workers, nutritionists, veterinarians, and other agricultural professionals to better understand the industry’s challenges which can change and evolve over time. Through my programming, participation in research and involvement in agricultural events, I have created new connections and strengthened existing relationships to keep understanding the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the county. The main challenges are:
- Training and bilingual training
- Handling management.
- Nutrition Management
- Calving Management
- Biosecurity
Completed Projects
- Basics of Nutrition. Bilingual Article Series.
- Dry Matter Explained
- Fiber Explained
- Fat Explained
- Protein Explained
- Article Collaborations
- Mooving Cows Learn by playing
- Webinars
- Badger Dairy Insight – Milk Components for Cheese Success
- El break Info Lechero -Feeding the Dairy Cow. Tips and Management
- Magazine Articles
- The use of Short Corn as a Tool to Replace BMR.
- Others
- Milking Demonstration at the State Fair
- Designing an Agroecological Transformation in East-Central Wisconsin using Collaborative Landscape Design.
- Representative Dairy Meeting
- Rumen Development- Calving Management Workshop Bilingual Workshop.
- National 4H Week Participation in representation of Agriculture.
- From Barn to Tank. Bilingual Workshop on cow handling and milking practices.
Current Projects
- Forward Safety Toolbox. To prepare and protect your workforce.
- Based on solid research, it is designed to help dairy operations create a stronger safety culture and train workers at any time with unbiased and free material. It is in the works and is being fed with new modules on relevant topics to the dairy farm.
- “Pro-Hand” Bilingual Dairy Project
- Research project with the USDA about proper animal handling. We developed, prepared, and tested the training materials and are now conducting training sessions and collecting data to evaluate their effectiveness. Farms will get an incentive for participating.
- Bovi-News. Bilingual statewide newsletter, focused on educating the dairy farm workers
- Seasonal delivery of the newsletter talks about topics and challenges related to the time of the year. All the articles bring information that can be explored in depth at our website.
- Develop and publish monthly newsletters for municipal officials to communicate news regarding new learning materials, upcoming programming, and news that will affect local governments.
| Testimonies from completed projects: |
| “I have more than 20 years in the industry, we need more programs like this one” |
| “It was good and very well organized” |
| “Thanks for teaching us” |
| “I would be interested in coming to another event” |