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Wyoming
County Dairy Institute The Developent
and Implementation of the Wyoming County can boast of the fact that it ranks first in the Empire State in dairy production. The average herd size of our dairy operations is ever increasing. This larger herd size brings with it the demand for a skilled and dedicated work force. ‘To keep the existing work force abreast of the ever changing technologies while simultaneously attracting an emerging local work force’ was identified as a barrier to the future success of our dairy operations in the county. This issue was initially addressed in 2001 when the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce and the Wyoming County Board of Supervisors empowered an ad hoc committee to explore future trends for economic development within the county. One of the suggestions from this “Target Tomorrow” committee was for the development and implementation of an education/research center that would focus on work force development and other training initiatives for the large dairy and agriculture industries that flourished within the boundaries of this county. It was the work of this committee that fostered the concept of an institute/center that could provide work force development and emerging work force training programs. With the multiplicity of skillsneeded and the scope of the agriculture industry in Wyoming County, it would take a collaborative effort to get this project going and maintained. This initiative would have to be linked to a major land grant university and its outreach sector such as Cornell Cooperative Extension. Other local organizations with similar mission statements would hopefully see the value in this concept and join forces in a way that would benefit all involved. At present, the institutions which are collaborating in this educational initiative are Alfred State College, Quality Milk Production Services, Genesee Community College, and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wyoming County. A significant advantage of forming this collaborative effort was that not one individual organization by itself could handle the work load or technical expertise it would require to organize, market and maintain the needed man hours. The sheer diversity of skills needed to teach across the curriculum would necessitate a multitude of teaching faculty to get this concept fully implemented. After numerous meetings and grant requests, it was decided that a phased-in approach and taking a “walk before you run” attitude prevailed. These initial meetings led to the concept of forming the “Wyoming County Dairy Institute”. The target audience for this program would be farm workers, youth and any individuals interested in entering the dairy industry or enhancing current skill level. Additionally, with the county being so rich
in intellectual capital in all aspects of the dairy industry,
it seemed a logical place to house such an initiative. This range
of intellectual capital includes veterinarians, dairy consultants,
crop consultants, dairy equipment experts, dairy business managers
and a wealth of farm managers who possess years of experience
and success stories. History tells us learning from the best greatly
diminishes the slope of the learning curve. Individuals recruited
from these institutions, local veterinary clinics and agri-service
companies to teach these dairy modules are of the highest quality
in the nation. Some of the brightest and best in the dairy industry
reside in and around Wyoming County. It only makes sense to capitalize
on this know-ledge and pass it on to current and future employees
and stakeholders in the dairy industry. Click
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