Sundaram Gunasekaran, professor of food and bioprocess engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has received the 2003 International Dairy Foods Association Research Award.

Kent Weigel, a dairy geneticist and extension genetics specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has won the Agway, Inc. Young Scientist Award for 2003 and the 2003 ADSA Foundation Dairy Production Award. Weigel received the awards during the awards ceremony at the ADSA annual meeting in Phoenix.

Larry D. Satter of the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will retire July 3, 2003, following a 39-year career in dairy cattle nutrition.

Six students interested in grass-based dairy farming will receive scholarships and attend on-farm internships through the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems’ Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy Farmers this year.

More than 115 youth from three states attended the fifth annual Badger Dairy Camp held on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus June 12-14. At Dairy Camp, young people between 12 and 18 received a jump-start on their summer dairy project activities, learning about dairy fitting, showmanship, and judging while developing life skills in self-confidence, teamwork and sportsmanship.

Some students take on the same kind of challenges they’ll face in their first jobs by entering intercollegiate competitions that pit them against teams of students from around the nation and beyond.

Bruce Jones, professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension has been appointed director of the UW Center for Dairy Profitability.

The most profitable dairy cow in a herd isn’t always the highest producing cow — health and longevity, fertility and calving ease, milk composition and other factors all influence a cow’s profitability. New tools of molecular genetics allow researchers to pinpoint the genes that influence these traits, and use them in selective breeding programs. The University of Wisconsin-Madison dairy herd, where dairy geneticists are developing a line of Holstein X Jersey crosses, will be the focus of one such program.

Dan Truttmann was a good student at New Glarus High School, but he didn’t really want to go on to college.

A milk pasteurization and process control certification course will be held Aug. 19-20 at the Babcock Dairy Plant on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.