KSU Dairy Educational Extension Program

Welcome to the KSU Dairy Educational Extension Program (DEEP)! The goal of this extension program is to provide dairy producers with data-driven information so that they can make informed decisions. Moreover, we aim to train and improve the dairy workforce on aspects such as management, reproduction, health, and milk quality. Altogether, this should lead to the overarching goal of improving the profitability and sustainability of dairy production systems. The DEEP is organized into 5 different programs, as described below.

Program 1: On-farm DEEP IN REPRODUCTION, MILK, MANAGEMENT AND HEALTH:

The goal of the DEEP is to train technicians working in large dairies and smaller producers on

reproductive techniques to enhance reproduction (REPRO); (2) milking procedures and parlor management to enhance milking quality (MILK); and (3) general management and health to enhance production and profitability of the herd (MGMNT & HEALTH). Most of the trainings were conducted in Spanish.

Number of people trained on the K-State Dairy Educational Training Program and estimated number of animals reached on the trainings

	REPRO	MILK	MGMNT & HEALTH	TOTAL
Number of attendees	375	248	33	656
Spanish speaker	80%	100%	95%	90%
Attendees working in a single dairy	60%	100%	100%	80%
Number of animals per attendee	10,371	5,552	1,600	8,108
Number of animals reached*	3,889,185	1,376,800	52,800	5,318,785
*If two people working on the same dairy received the same training, the number of cows reached were counted twice. Numbers updated up to January 1, 2025

Please contact Dr. Victor Gomez-Leon if you are interested in participating or learning more about DEEP trainings – vgomezleon@ksu.edu

Program 2: KSU Repro Days

The purpose of the KSU REPRO Days is to have one to three seminars focusing on reproduction. The event highlights a hands-on portion of training along with the seminars. The main audience is dairy farmers and allied industry, but we are happy to receive some folks that may benefit from the topic to be discussed.

The 2024 KSU REPRO Days were conducted on April 10 and 11 at Seneca and Whiteside. We had 30+ participants representing more than 100K cows in Kansas. The specific topic for the 2024 KSU REPRO Days was Raising and Breeding your Best Heifers. The program is presented below:

Event Schedule:

10:00 AM Jennifer Bentley – “Colostrum Management and Hygiene Audit”

11:00 AM Dr. Gail Carpenter – “Heifer Benchmarking: How to Raise your Best Heifer?”

12:00 PM Lunch

1:00 PM Dr. Victor Gomez-Leon – Discussion on Basis of AI Programs: How do they work, and what strategy should I use to breed my heifers and cows?

1:30 PM Training session on semen handling and breeding technique:

Activities in this lab include using microscopes to observe differences between:
- 5 mL vs 0.25 mL straws
- Conventional vs sexed semen
- Adequate vs inadequate water temperature in the thawing process
- Adequate vs inadequate drying of the semen straw
- Adequate vs inadequate warming of the straw after thawing
- Different times between thawing and breeding
Breeding technique using repro tracts

3:30 PM Adjourn

The KSU REPRO Days were free to the audience, and lunch was kindly sponsored by the Kansas Dairy Commission. Please stay tuned for information about the upcoming 2025 KSU REPRO Days!

Program 3: KSU-ALTA Bilingual Dairy Manager School

KSU and ALTA Genetics partnered in 2024 to offer the first Bilingual Dairy Manager School in KS. The event featured five bilingual Dairy Specialists from different Land Grant Universities across the US. During 2 full days and one morning for farm visits, the 35+ attendees were able to learn from the speakers and discuss real-life scenarios on relevant Dairy topics. Attendees had the opportunity to go to a conference room in English or a conference room in Spanish that ran simultaneously with speakers presenting and discussing topics such as maternity and transition cow management, professional development, reproduction, and milking metrics.

Learn more about the event in the flyer (Please attach flyer called Dairy Manager School 2024.Invitation.”

Having reached almost 1/5 million cows from 5 different states across the US, the first Bilingual Dairy Manager School in KS was a success and will continue to be offered on November 19-21, 2025!

Program 4: The Repro Spot.

Program 5: Applied research.

The goal of our group is to integrate research into a collaborative Extension program that can meet the dairy industry's needs with a focus on reproduction. Thus, our research is driven by relevant topics of the dairy industry and animal reproduction. Specifically, our studies can be divided into two big areas: (1) Applied mechanisms to enhance health, production, and reproduction, and (2) Fundamental mechanisms controlling ovarian dynamics.

Learn more about our research projects.