MSU seeks nominations for 2025 Dairy Farmer of the Year Award

Jun 25, 2024

By Justin Whitmore

The Michigan State University Department of Animal Science is seeking nominations for the 2025 Dairy Farm of the Year Award.

Since 1958, the Dairy Farm of the Year Award has been presented to a farmer, farm partners or family that has distinguished themselves through excellence in dairy farming and outstanding involvement in the industry or their community. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the MSU Animal Science Department to Michigan dairy farmers.

Information about the award, list of past recipients and the nomination form can be accessed online or by searching MSU Dairy Farm of the Year. Even if not all information requested on the form is available, nominations are still welcome.

Nominations are due to Miriam Weber Nielsen, msw@msu.edu, chair of the selection committee, by Sept. 15, 2024. Download a nomination form.

The selected farm will be announced prior to the 2025 Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference and honored at the Michigan Dairy Industry Banquet as a part of the conference.

A portrait of the honoree will be added to the display wall at the MSU Livestock Pavilion, and notice of the award will be provided to the local newspaper of the recipient and to their legislators.

Source : msu.edu

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.