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Helping the Chinese Develop Their Dairy Business – Audio

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Helping the Chinese Develop Their Dairy Business - Audio
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Helping the Chinese Develop Their Dairy Business

David Combs, Professor
Department of Dairy Science
UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
dkcombs@facstaff.wisc.edu
(608)263-4844

2:53 – Total Time

0:11 – Describe the dairy project in China
0:28 – What types of coursework are being developed
0:49 – How is this program funded
1:29 – Why is the Department of Dairy Science involved in this project
1:45 – How are the courses used in Wisconsin
2:10 – What are the other benefits to the state of Wisconsin with this project
2:46 – Lead out

TRANSCRIPT

Sevie Kenyon: Helping the Chinese develop their dairy business, we are visiting today with David Combs Department of Dairy Science University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and I’m Sevie Kenyon. David, the Department of Dairy Science here is working with China can you describe the project for us?

David Combs: It’s a three-year project that we’ve been awarded to develop teaching curriculum for farmers and feed managers and farm managers on China dairies.

Sevie Kenyon: Can you give us an idea of the kinds of things that they need to know?

David Combs: We’ll I’ve developed a course for feeders, so it’s kind of the skills needed to feed cows on modern dairies. We’ve also developed coursework for milkers in terms of how to properly harvest milk. We’ve also developed advanced level courses for managers.

Sevie Kenyon: David can you describe how this program was funded?

David Combs: This program was actually funded through Nestlé. Nestlé has built a large training center in northern China. Their goal, obviously from Nestlé’s standpoint, is to be one of those companies that provide milk to this growing demand in China. They recognize that one of the challenges was going to be providing technology and training for modern dairy operations. They actually put out a bid globally, and we were one of three institutions to get this grant to develop a three-year training program.

Sevie Kenyon: And David, why on earth does the Department of Dairy Science in Wisconsin get involved in China?

David Combs: We saw it as an opportunity actually to develop course-training materials that we own. Nestlé has essentially paid for us to develop to use back in my own courses here at Wisconsin.

Sevie Kenyon: Can you give us an example of that?

David Combs: Well a good example I think would be in the farm and industry short course program. I took, again, this feeder’s course. A lot of these kids coming off of the farm come to Wisconsin to get a hands on practical experience, so I was able in that course in China to develop some labs and I’ve taken some of that material and turned it around now and used those in lab settings here.

Sevie Kenyon: And David, are there other benefits to the state of Wisconsin for this relationship with China?

David Combs: Well I think the other one is an economic benefit to the ag industries in the United States in general. China’s rapidly modernizing their dairy industry, their demand for milk is growing at such a rate, they are actually trying to develop a stream of high quality milk for their own population. But they need our equipment and technology to kind of move that forward so as we talk about some of these modern practices and things it provides incentives and opportunities for some of our ag suppliers to develop markets in China.

Sevie Kenyon: We’ve been visiting with David Combs Department of Dairy Science University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and I’m Sevie Kenyon