Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

SERA 15 Annual Meeting Minutes:

Much of the meeting was spent determining the future direction of the SERA15 group to both be more active and determine if Southern Dairy Conference is in need of an overhaul to attract a greater audience. The group is working to collaboratively establish other projects, which includes putting forth a NIFA group that would be an additional deliverable for the SERA 15 group outside of Southern Dairy Conference. We then worked on discussing the budget and expenses for the current conference understanding that it is necessary for the budget to balance annually in order to continue to host the conference. The pre-conference registrations of over 80 people had the budget capable of balancing.

The group then moved into discussing how to revamp the current conference understanding the changing needs of attendees as well as the changing demographics of professionals in the dairy industry. The date change to March from previous years of January appears to have removed some potential overlap with GA Milk Producers annual conference. The group wants to strive to maintain a separate identity and change the mentality of what the conference is about. The tradition of Southern Dairy Conference is that it is a conference on policy. With the professionals in and outside of academia including but not limited to the SERA15 group, the number of people involved in dairy policy is limited. Thus the general consensus is that continual movement towards a pricing/policy and production meeting is warranted.  

The 2017 conference will continue with the March date and the group has decided to pursue alternative venues for increased participation and potential for sponsor support. The host site for the 2017 conference is tentatively set for Nashville, TN. Given the location change, the pre-conference tour will be added back. With Dr. Jillian Bohlen finishing her term as Chair, Dr. David Anderson was elected to serve as chair for the 2017 conference with Dr. Peter Krawczel to serve as secretary.

Southern Dairy Conference:

Held 3.8.16 and 3.9.16 at the Embassy Suites, Atlanta Airport

A total of 103 registered attendees

Fourteen speakers from across the country attended and presented on topics ranging from production to pricing and policy. The finalized list of speakers is provided below.

Accomplishments:

This year’s conference boasted an impressive list of speakers with a wide variety of topics. This was reflected in conference attendance with an increase in the number of registrants by 25% from 2015. The theme of the conference was to address how to remain profitable during times of impending low milk prices. To foster this concept pricing and policy talks focused on pricing options and the reality of dairy markets both domestically and globally, as well as how to promote dairy products to the younger generations. Production talks followed in this same vein with discussion on feeding strategies to deal with low milk prices, how to create a product that will fetch a higher price, and meeting consumer demands in our husbandry practices. The conference proceedings are available on the conference’s website:

http://www.southerndairyconference.com/Pages/Proceedings.aspx

New this year, the group implemented a night mixer that included poster presentations from various southern academic institutions highlighting teaching research, and extension programs across the south. With eight poster presentations, this new concept proved as an additional way to interact with attendees as well as disseminate important information from the committee’s respective institutions.