Dairy AdvanCE Emerges as Go-To Resource for Professional Development in Dairy
More than 2,500 CE Credit-Hours Secured Since Online Management Tool Launched in March 2017
DAIRY NEWS – Dairy AdvanCE™, created by Professional Dairy Producers® (PDPW), has emerged as the nation’s go-to-resource for finding, tracking and reporting continuing education in dairy. Dairy farmers, farm employees, allied industry and college students are using this online continuing education (CE) management tool to demonstrate and prove their dedication to continuous improvement and lifelong learning.
Dairy professionals can readily access a listing of vetted trainings to further advance their personal and professional skill-sets. Topic areas include financial, business, food safety and quality, animal care, agronomy, human resources, leadership, environmental stewardship, communications and beyond.
“The idea of an online resource to find top-quality training and education offerings on one website is spot on,” said Darci Daniels, dairy farmer and owner of Garden Valley Genetics, Hixton, Wis. “I can search for specific trainings or discover programs that I didn’t even know existed – and right from my phone. I can also see how those that market and provide services to dairy farmers could benefit from Dairy AdvanCE. Knowing that the industry person I am dealing with has a qualified base of knowledge, means better use of our time and more productive conversations about our farm.”
Dairy AdvanCE was introduced by Professional Dairy Producers – PDPW in March at the 2017 PDPW Business Conference in Madison, Wis., and has been widely adopted throughout the industry, with more than 300 active users from 24 states and reporting more than 2,500 CE credit-hours through 40+ executed accredited trainings.
At DairyAdvance.org, dairy professionals can find vetted, high-quality trainings from nine leading-edge founding educational providers, including:
- 4 State Dairy Extension Group
- Cornell University Dairy Management and PRO-DAIRY
- Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference
- Indiana Dairy Producers
- National Mastitis Council
- Professional Dairy Producers – PDPW
- The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP)
- University of Wisconsin Discovery Farms
- Vita Plus
“From its inception, the goal of The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers (TEPAP) has been to help farms and agribusinesses become more professional in their management practices,” said Dr. J. Mark Welch, Associate Professor and Extension Economist at Texas A&M. “We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Dairy AdvanCE, an organization whose aim it is to promote continuing education resources for the dairy industry. Dairy AdvanCE makes it easier for producers to find targeted trainings that match their personal and professional needs and TEPAP is proud to be recognized as one of those educational opportunities.”
The online resource provides farmers and their on-farm team members the ability to easily track their CE credits and advancement toward their professional development goals. Users can also report their individual CE transcripts to officially demonstrate their commitment to continuous improvement to their employers, lenders, community boards, agents, and beyond, as needed, and at any time right from their mobile device or desktop computer.
“As a dairy owner, we make training a priority on our farm. Dairy AdvanCE helps us easily find the training we need, whether it is an online training video on standard operating procedure (SOP) we watch as a whole team or at an in-person event we attend off the farm,” said Steve Maddox, dairy farmer and owner of Maddox Dairy in Riverdale, Cali. “The idea that our managers and employees can track their education in a transcript is useful to them and us. It also helps in our hiring process to better assess a potential employee’s skill set and how to build on it.”
While PDPW developed Dairy AdvanCE for farmers, anyone in the dairy industry can subscribe. This includes allied industry professionals such as veterinarians, nutritionists, technicians, field and sales representatives, as well as food system, legal and public service professionals.
“In order to serve our dairy farm customers, our team needs to stay on top of the latest research and management practices,” said Floyd Sutton, Key Account Manager, Zinpro Performance Minerals from of Freeport, Illinois. “Dairy AdvanCE is a simple way to ensure our employees are continuing to access trainings and build their knowledge-base with high-quality, leading-edge production, communication and leadership focused educational programming.”
Dairy AdvanCE is free for dairy farmer owners, farm managers and on-farm team members. For all others, there is a $50 annual subscription fee. To learn more or subscribe to Dairy AdvanCE visit www.dairyadvance.org, email mail@dairyadvance.org, or call 800-947-7379.
Professional Dairy Producers (PDPW) is dairy’s professional organization. As the nation’s largest dairy producer-led, grassroots organization of its kind, it focuses on education, networking and professional development to share ideas, solutions, resources and experiences that help dairy producers succeed.
