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Dairy Tour
The Illinois Dairy Tour is an educational, productive and informational buyer’s tour. The Illinois Dairy Tour provides buyers with an excellent opportunity to visit outstanding Illinois companies who are leading the way in the dairy industry worldwide. The tour includes opportunities to see:
• Research driven dairy cow nutrition and reproduction programs
• Innovative dairy production practices
• Genetic selection management programs
• State-of-the-art equipment options
• Trade opportunities with proven farm and agribusiness leaders.
Past Illinois Dairy Tour Stops
Trouw Nutrition is the global leader in innovative feed specialties, premixes and nutritional services for the animal nutrition industry. Trouw Nutrition provides species-specific nutritional solutions consisting of feed concepts, products and nutritional know-how. The unique combination of products, models and services Trouw Nutrition offers, boosts productivity and supports animal health through all life stages, contributing to our customers’ peace of mind. Trouw Nutrition’s nutrition solutions have met the need of farmers and home-mixers, feed producers, integrators and distributors.
Trouw Nutrition belongs to the parent company Nutreco. There is a strong interconnection between Trouw Nutrition and Nutreco. Innovation is at the heart of what Nutreco and Trouw Nutrition stand for. In Nutreco Application & Solution and R&D centers around the world, some 250 experts are continuously working on developing new ways to enable our customers to increase efficiency, maximize profits and make the most of their resources. This is the foundation of Trouw Nutrition’s leadership in innovative feed specialties, premixes and nutritional models and services.
Nestled among the quiet rolling hills of southwestern Illinois, a century-long family tradition is humbly re-defining the way we see dairy. Not through fancy labels or technological frills, but milk as pure as the lineage of the iconic Holstein cows that produce it. Where care and passion for the animal are passed on through the product, just as our standards for delivering the highest quality milk have been proudly shared through generations. An unmistakable freshness from the farm, bottled for the discerning chef and everyday food lover who demand nothing short of the highest quality ingredients. It’s not milk the way it used to be, it’s milk the way we’ve done it at Rolling Lawns Farm for more than 100 years.
University of Illinois Dairy Research Lab
The Dairy Focus Lab was created in 2012 when Dr. Cardoso accepted a position in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois. Currently, the Laboratory consists of Dr. Cardoso, a communications specialist, graduate students, and a number of undergraduate students.
The Lab is aware of and committed to meeting the challenges of the Illinois dairy industry and dairy farmers at large. These principles give the basis for the research program and future collaborations within and outside the UI’s Department of Animal Sciences.
Research at Dairy Focus is grounded in two major areas: 1) mechanisms of metabolic adaptation from gestation to lactation in dairy cows (transition period), and 2) impact of nutrition on metabolism, reproduction and health in dairy cows. Students and Dr. Cardoso have the opportunity to collaborate and work on projects relating to these areas as well as the conjunction between them. Our focus is on dairy cow nutrition, reproduction, and the results of its combination.
Stone Ridge Dairy
George Kasbergen & family moved from California to Illinois to build Stone Ridge Dairy in Bellflower, Illinois in 2008. It is situated on 640 acres and is the largest dairy farm in the state of Illinois. It has 3,200 Holstein milking age females which are milked 3 times/day in a double 50 parallel parlor (100 milking stalls). Stone Ridge Dairy boasts over 45 liters of milk/cow/day, which is the 3rd most milk production/cow in the entire state of Illinois (out of 620 dairy farms total). They have outstanding nutritional, genetic and management programs. This visit will include viewing of the milking operation, younger stock and housing and feeding systems.
With GEA’s total solutions approach, they offer everything from milk collection and storage, (automatic) feeding systems, manure management, barn equipment, young-stock solutions including integrated farm (dairy) management tools, as well as sophisticated service concepts. From single products to complete integrated dairy systems, GEA’s our state-of-the-art technology is developed and manufactured according to the latest guidelines and certified quality standards. GEA is an expert and reliable partner to dairy farmers around the globe, helping them to manage their future successfully and sustainably. This visit will include a presentation and tour of installations.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is an international marketplace enabling institutions and businesses to manage their financial risks and allocate their assets. The CME is a not-for-profit corporation owned by its 2,725 members. The CME consists of futures and options on futures within four general categories: agricultural commodities, foreign currencies, interest rates and stock indexes.