By Carie Telgen, NEAFA Communications Committee
Over 80 students from 10 different universities around the Northeast convened in Harrisburg, PA recently as part of the Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge competition. The mission of the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge is to “develop tomorrow’s dairy leaders and enhance progress of the dairy industry by providing education, communication and networking among students, producers and agribusiness and university personnel.” Along with the help of multiple industry and university volunteers, students from each university were co-mingled into 18 different teams that then toured and evaluated 2 different dairy farms in the surrounding area. Each team is given the farm financials, herd records and farm goals and are then expected to critically evaluate the operation for areas of opportunity. After the visit, students can ask the farmer questions about what they saw and are then required to put together a 20-minute presentation back to the farm on their observations and recommendations. A panel of 5 judges evaluate each team to decide which team was able to best articulate and evaluate the dairy with financially impactful, reasonable, and attainable action items.
“Dairy Challenge requires us to work through problems with a wholistic approach, as a team with students from other schools, on a farm we are not familiar with” says Lainey Koval a Cornell Senior and Dairy Challenge attendee. Koval is a previous NEAFA Scholarship winner that hopes to find a job in agricultural finance after graduation, before eventually returning to her home farm. Using observational and critical thinking skills, students perform a S.W.O.T. analysis, are encouraged to put partial budgets together for their recommendations and truly understand the financial implications of the recommendations they make. “The hardest part is to prioritize the importance of our recommendations in relation to the impact for the dairy, in a short amount of time” says Koval.
Team building is an important part of Dairy Challenge as each team is made up of students from multiple universities. This year’s team building event required teams to build a tricycle that was then donated to a local charity. The networking that students get during the Dairy Challenge event goes beyond working as teammates. Following their presentations, students are encouraged to attend the job fair where multiple agribusinesses are present to discuss future externship and employment opportunities. There is also the opportunity to tour another agribusiness in the area on the days the students are not presenting. The Dairy Challenge program started in 2002 and continues to expose students to real life situations, preparing them for careers where critical thinking, problem solving, and teamwork are paramount to success.