Hitting the ground running: 40 years of Dairy Fellows

Up until the early 1980s, many Cornell alumni in the New York dairy industry had graduated with a major in agricultural economics not animal science, explained Michael Van Amburgh, professor of animal science and director of the Dairy Fellows program. While the graduates were well-trained in business decision-making, they hadn’t been exposed to courses in dairy cattle management, nutrition and reproduction. 

“Faculty and dairy producers recognized there was a need to integrate undergraduate training among those disciplines to ensure that more modern aspects of dairy cattle biology and management were also incorporated in the program,” said Van Amburgh, who joined the Animal Science Department as a faculty member in 1995. “They created Dairy Fellows to teach students modern-day management principles in dairy, which includes the biology of the cow but also the practical, economic decision-making that’s needed to run a successful business.”

Since those early days, the program has grown into a robust partnership between dairy producers, agribusinesses and Cornell. While students in the early cohorts had mostly grown up on dairy farms, today’s Fellows are an eclectic mix from many backgrounds, including those born and raised in the city who never touched a cow until they came to Cornell.

The Fellows experience is centered on the concept of experiential learning. It begins when students are freshmen and sophomores. They can attend dairy-related classes, as well as introductory courses such as ANSC 2500: Dairy Cattle Principles and ANSC 3540: Dairy Cattle Herd Health. They can also take part in the bi-yearly trip to Italy to learn about the Italian dairy industry, specifically cheese production. In opposite years, they visit California to tour the breadth of food production in the Central Valley and gain an understanding of the scale and scope of vegetable, fruit and nut production. 

As juniors, students declare their choice to be a Fellow. They take ANSC 3510: Dairy Herd Management and enroll in Junior Fellows. For their last two academic years, they attend more advanced dairy classes and business courses in the Johnson School of Business and the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. They will also have the chance to participate in another international dairy tour somewhere in the world. 

But the crowning Fellows experience that students, professors and industry professionals consistently single out revolves around the farm case studies that take place across New York. During a case study, Fellows carry out a risk assessment of an individual farm. They tour the farm, interview the owners and farm managers about current issues related to the business, and analyze the financial, herd and production records. Then they present their recommendations to the owners, addressing opportunities for increasing profitability and offering suggestions for improvement.

“The case studies are what makes the Fellows experience as valuable as it is,” said Meghan Matt ’15, a former Dairy Fellow and owner of Vaill Brothers Farm in Vernon, New York. “As a student, you’re able to look at the whole business and really analyze it on an owner level. It teaches you extreme professionalism because you’re being trusted with the knowledge of everything about the farm’s business. It teaches you public speaking and communication skills, and really high-level, critical thinking and problem solving. That’s exactly what I use now every day as a farmer.”

There are other strengths of the program, Van Amburgh pointed out. It’s the most comprehensive program of its type in academia, taught by faculty who are at the forefront of dairy management and biology as well as extension staff who bring a wealth of technical experience. It focuses on solid science that translates to the field, and it exposes students to global industries. 

Eventually Van Amburgh comes around to the case studies and the opportunity they give students to dig into real-life situations and hit the ground running. “Those of us involved in Dairy Fellows want to help students learn to think on their feet,” he said. “When they come out of the program, we want them to be competent to stand in front of someone and say, ‘This is where I think there’s an opportunity, and this is what it’s worth.’ There are very few students at the age of 21 or 22 who can do that, but Fellows can.”

Jackie Swift is the communications specialist for the Cornell CALS Department of Animal Science.