Over 50 young adults from across the U.S. and Canada are in Phoenix, Arizona this week participating in the ninth class of the
Holstein Foundation's Young Dairy Leaders Institute (YDLI) program.
On Wednesday morning, many class members took advantage of a pre-conference tour option to enjoy seeing two Arizona dairy farms in the Casa Grande area: T & K Red River Dairy and
Shamrock Farms.
Red River Dairy was the first stop, where Tom Dugan and family milk over 11,000 Holsteins in two barns, on land that was previously owned by John Wayne. The dairy operation, spread over 550 acres, has many interesting features, including a double-77 parallel parlor, an extensive grain operation, farming 13,000 acres, rolling their own corn on site. The farm has 3,400 calf hutches and at any given time has over 2,200 calves on milk.
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| A section of the double-77 milking parlor. |
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| Amber Horn-Leiterman visits with owner Tom Dugan walking through the basement section of their parlor. |
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| YDLIers enjoy some Arizona sunshine, a welcome reprieve from the frigid cold many areas of the country are facing this week! |
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| A portion of the youngstock area at Dugan's Red River Dairy |
Shamrock Farms was founded in 1922, and today is home to over
9,000 milking cows, which they milk twice a day in two double-50 parlors. The milk from these animals is used to produce a variety
of different dairy products, including bottled milk, sour cream, cottage
cheese, heavy cream and more, which can be found across the continental United States, including restaurant chains Subway and Arby's. The dairy is comprised of both a conventional and
organic operation, and actually had Arizona’s first USDA-certified organic
dairy operation, the milk from which is used to provide local stores with
bottled organic milk and sour cream.
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| Milking parlor at Shamrock Farms |
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| YDLI class members learn more about the Shamrock Farms enterprise. |
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| A good time was had by all on the pre-conference tours! |
Wednesday evening the YDLI program officially began with our Welcome Reception. Participants enjoyed a Mexican fiesta-themed dinner and then became further acquainted with each other while learning some tips to help them network more effectively and work any crowd with ease.
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| YDLI Advisory Committee members Josh Hushon and Brett Barlass led the networking exercise during the Welcome Reception |
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| Brian Coyne fills the group in on the networking strategy he used during the mixer exercise. |
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| Mo Phelon shares her tip for "working a crowd," based on the book by Susan RoAnne that was the basis of the mixer activity. |
The Holstein Foundation would like to give a special thanks to Wednesday's event sponsors:
Check back on our blog daily to keep up with YDLI Class 9's Phase 1 experience, or if you are on Facebook or Twitter, follow along with #ydli9!
The blog is absolutely fantastic. Lots of great information and inspiration, both of which we all need. Thanks.
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