The eighth annual Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium will be held on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, N.Y., Nov. 7-9. Five of the previous seven symposia have been held in Wisconsin, which leads the nation in dairy sheep production.

“This symposium is the primary source of new technical information for the growing dairy sheep industry in North America,” says David Thomas, a dairy sheep researcher and professor of animal sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It is important for the symposium to rotate among different states and Canadian provinces to provide better accessibility to all dairy sheep producers.” Thomas, along with Bill Wendorff, a professor of food science, and Yves Berger, superintendent of the College”s Spooner Agricultural Research Station, will speak at the symposium.

The event is sponsored in part by the UW-Madison”s Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research and Development, which provides funds to bring expert speakers from other countries to the symposium. This year the institute sponsored Antonello Canna, an Italian researcher, who will discuss nutritional strategies to improve lactation performance in dairy ewes.

The registration fee is $100, reduced to $75 for those joining the Dairy Sheep Association of North America ($50 annual dues for charter membership). Additional farm or family members will pay a reduced registration fee of $60. This fee includes lunches on Thursday and Saturday, a lamb barbecue on Thursday evening, the cost of transportation for a tour of two local dairy farms on Saturday, and refreshments during the breaks.

Complete information about the symposium, including a brochure and registration form, is available at the Cornell Dairy Sheep web site, or by contacting Mike Thonney, 114 Morrison Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4801, (607) 255-2851, mlt2@cornell.edu Or contact Michelle Cole, 130 Morrison Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4801, (607) 255-7712, mlc44@cornell.edu