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March 25, 2023
“All dairy, all the time”™
Volume 25, No. 3
Diagnosis Keller survives near-fatal accident Lake City woman then recovers from direction incident with cow
Plourd discusses dairy market trends from 2022 leading into new year By Kati Kindschuh kati.k@dairystar.com
MADISON, Wis. – As global economy trends continue to keep farmers on the edge of their seats, industry expert, Phil Plourd, was able to deliver insights and information on the global and U.S. dairy markets heading into 2023. Plourd was a presenter Jan. 18-19 at Dairy Strong in Madison. He is the president of Ever.Ag Phil Plourd Insights. Ever.Ag Insights Plourd began with good news, telling the audience that the “death of dairy” has been wildly exaggerated by the media. “Per capita, consumption of dairy products in 2021 was reported at 650 pounds per person per year,” Plourd said. “Overall, the dairy story is positive. Total cheese, butter consumption and yogurt is up by consumers, while ice cream has seemingly lost ground.” Cheese is a big player in dairy markets, Plourd said. “The pounds of milk that go into cheese versus pounds of milk going to uid milk, cheese has made up the difference in the loss of uid milk consumption,” Plourd said. “From an industry standpoint, we’d rather have people overseas eat pizza with U.S. mozzarella cheese.” Retailers love cheese and butter promotions, Plourd said, so they are using these product promotions as trafc drivers to continue to get more shoppers in their stores. Turn to PLOURD | Page 9
By Amy Kyllo
amy.k@star-pub.com
LAKE CITY, Minn. – Peggy Keller was given a 1% chance of living after a cow crushed her chest. Yet, she is alive today. Peggy and her husband, Fred, milk 125 cows and farm 320 acres with their son, Brian, on their farm near Lake City. Peggy sustained a lifethreatening injury in an accident with a cow in their stanchion barn. Peggy’s injuries included all of her ribs being broken except the top two, a collapsed right lung and a centimeter-sized hole in the right ventricle of her heart. On Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, Peggy was helping with tasks for evening milk-
ing. She had nished scraping and was heading into a side room of the stanchion barn to wait for more cows to come in the barn. A cow was standing with her head in the side room door, blocking her way. The door stood at a 90-degree angle with the cement block wall of the barn. Peggy was standing against this cement wall when she attempted to get the cow to move out of the doorway. The cow pulled her head out of the door, and instead of going to her stall, put her head into Peggy’s chest. With a cement wall behind her and no sorting stick to stave her off, Peggy had nowhere to go. “I’ll never forget that big cow’s head staring me in the face,” Peggy said. “I could have pushed her out of the way or something. … I didn’t think. I was just freaked out and frozen.” Brian discovered Peggy around 7 p.m. after hearing her calls for help.
AMY KYLLO/DAIRY STAR
Peggy Keller stands in the calf barn March 7 on her dairy farm near Lake City, Minnesota. Keller survived an accident with a cow in the stanchion barn that leŌ her needing 35 units of blood. Peggy was taken to the ter. She needed emergency hospital in Lake City and then surgery that night. Medical was airlifted by Mayo One to the Mayo Clinic in RochesTurn to KELLER | Page 6
Farm & Industry Short Course moves Historic ag program nds new home in River Falls By Danielle Nauman danielle.n@dairystar.com
RIVER FALLS, Wis. – A year after drastic changes were made in the University of Wisconsin Farm and Industry Short Course program, more changes are on the horizon for the state’s storied post-secondary agricultural training program. The UW-River Falls announced March 7 it would become the new home for the program, restoring it to a residential, for-credit experience, beginning with the 2023-24 school year. “There was a lot of discussion from the industry about the value of the program, and it was clear that there was a real strong desire to have it be a residential program some-
PHOTO COURTESY OF UWͳRIVER FALLS CAFES
University of Wisconsin-River Falls students parƟcipate in hands-on learning experiences at the university’s Mann Valley Farm Dairy Learning Center. The university announced it will be the new home for the Farm and Industry Short Course program. where, and it seemed that River Falls might be a t,” said Dr. Steve Kelm, a professor with the UW-River Falls College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. Kelm said that beginning
last November, the groundwork began for moving the program. “I got positive feedback from our administration; we are really a strong ag college, and they felt this was a logi-
cal t,” Kelm said. “We started testing the waters, looking at the logistics, and were thrilled when we could put forth the announcement.” The rebooted FISC program will operate as a traditional 16-week program from Oct. 30 through March 15, 2024. The rst year, the program will be limited to 20-24 students, allowing the school to keep class sizes manageable and for lab sections to be pared down to two groups of 12 for increased one-on-one interaction and hands-on learning experiences. Twelve residence hall rooms have been reserved for students in the FISC program, Kelm said. “We’re not sure what dorms yet, but we are planning to not have them be all in one area,” he said. “We want these students to have the experience of getting to know other stuTurn to FISC | Page 7