The visiting Missouri team included, from left, Gary Wheeler, Portageville; Joe Horner, Columbia; Gene Wiseman, Jefferson City; Jim Stuever, Dexter; Amy Schmidt, Columbia; and Gary Branum, New Madrid. Ryan Milhollin, Columbia, the seventh member of the Missouri team, took the picture.

The Southeast Missouri-SEMO-Dairy and Beef Steering Committee sponsored a trip to the World Ag Expo that was held in Tulare, CA Feb.12-16. Tulare County is the pulse of agricultural production in California and is one of the top agricultural producing counties in the United States.

The show is the world's largest agricultural exposition, with 2.5 million square feet of exhibit space, more than 1,500 exhibitors, and more than 100,000 attendees.

"Purpose of the trip was to learn more about the dairy industry by observing the World Ag Expo exhibits and seminars and touring local dairy farms," according to Joe Horner, a member of the University of Missouri Commercial Agriculture dairy focus team.

Participants included Jim Stuever and Gary Branum, SEMO Dairy and Beef Steering Committee and southeast Missouri farmers at Dexter and New Madrid respectively; Gary Wheeler, SEMO Dairy Development project manager, Portageville; Gene Wiseman, program manager of business development, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Jefferson City; and Joe Horner, Amy Schmidt, and Ryan Milhollin, all of the University of Missouri Extension Commercial Agriculture team, Columbia.

The group spent two days at the World Ag Expo exhibits and seminars. The third day was spent touring two existing dairy farms with representatives from WestfaliaSurge.

"The first dairy toured was South Lakes Dairy in Concoran, CA. This dairy went into operation in March 2005 and is currently at a herd size of 5,600 cows," Horner said. "They operate two double 45 parallel milking parlors and have a freestall cow housing system with 425 cows per group."

The second dairy toured was Lakeside Dairy in Hanford, CA. This dairy was built in September 2006 and is currently at a herd size of 1,750 cows. "It operates an 80-stall rotary milking parlor with three milkings per day and has a free stall cow housing system with 300 cows per group," Horner said.

The SEMO Dairy and Beef Steering Committee is currently working on a project to examine the feasibility of developing new animal production systems for crop producers in southeast Missouri.

The southeast area has a wide variety of crop byproducts -ethanol, corn silage, rice bran, rice hulls, cotton seed, alfalfa baleage, soy hulls, and others-that could add value to existing local crop productions and crop processing industries.

The feasibility of using dairy farms to capture more value from local crops and co-products from cotton gins, rice mills, and ethanol plants is being conducted by the Commercial Agriculture Program's Dairy Focus Team with Horner as team leader.