The PRO-DAIRY mission

Facilitate New York state economic development by increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of New York's dairy farm businesses through industry-applied research and educational programs that enhance farm profitability, while advancing dairy producers and agribusiness professionals' knowledge, skills and enthusiasm.

Featured Programming

Cornell Cow Convos podcast

This monthly podcast series led by PRO-DAIRY and CCE Dairy Specialists features current, new and emerging topics of interest to the dairy industry right now. New episodes are released on the last Thursday of the month.

Webinar recordings

PRO-DAIRY regularly offers webinars in English and Spanish. Topics focus on the latest dairy research and practical on-farm information for dairy producers. Most webinars are recorded and available after the live presentation.

On-demand online courses

PRO-DAIRY offers a suite of dairy production on-demand online courses. Some dairy management background is helpful, but the courses include basic to advanced content taught by leaders in the field.

PRO-DAIRY News

a woman sucks up fluid with a pipette in a lab

Field Note

Sydney Jewell: Discovering how disease changes gene expression in cows
Sydney Jewell ’26 is a doctoral student in the Animal Science Department working in the lab of Heather Huson , associate professor of animal genetics. Sydney’s research focuses on epigenetics – the changes behavior and environment can cause to...
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
  • Animals
A dairy cow inside a barn

Report

Hired labor plays a significant role on dairy farms, with more than 9,000 jobs provided by New York dairy farms in 2019. As farm size grows, hired employees provide a larger percentage of the labor required to operate the farm. In 2021, authors...
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
A dairy cow inside a barn

Report

The 2024 business year was a higher earnings year on average across New York dairy farms that participated in the Dairy Farm Business Summary (DFBS), as noted in the 2024 DFBS Progress of the Dairy Farm Report. Strong milk prices and component...
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
a man crouches in front of a line of dairy cows

Field Note

Haowen Hu ’26 is a doctoral student in the Animal Science Department working under the supervision of Kristan Reed, former Animal Science faculty member and the scientific director of the RuFaS project. His main research focuses on the Ruminant...
  • PRO-DAIRY
  • Animal Science
  • Digital Agriculture
drought stressed corn

Report

This fact sheet authored by PRO-DAIRY forage systems specialist Joe Lawrence was shared in the September 2025 PRO-DAIRY e-Leader newsletter, distributed to an email list of nearly 7,000 dairy producers, agriservice, and legislators. The 2025...
  • Cornell Cooperative Extension
  • Cornell Dairy
  • PRO-DAIRY

The Dairy Advancement Program

Program

Plan for the future of your dairy

The Dairy Advancement Program, in partnership with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, is designed to enhance profitability of New York dairy farms while maintaining a commitment to environmentally responsible dairy farming.

Cow walks through dairy barn