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Progressive Dairyman asked dairy producers and allied industry at Managers Academy Jan. 20-22 in Orlando, Florida, the following question: “What strategies will your business employ or recommend to keep dairies strong through 2009?”

The last time Josie and Jocelyn Riser traveled to World Dairy Expo, Jocelyn was only four years old. The mother-daughter duo had the opportunity to return to Madison, Wisconsin, for the event when they decided to take Jocelyn’s Senior 3-Year-Old to compete.

Through most of the year, Cranberry Creek Dairy appears to be your average dairy farm with a milking parlor, freestall barns, machine shed and feed storage, but come the first hard frost of the year, some of Santa’s many elves descend on the dairy and convert a couple of the farm buildings into Christmas workshops.

Are commodity prices changing your operation?

Traveling one afternoon with Ricardo Ehrenfeld Stolzenbach, a veterinarian and sales manager for Cooprinsem, a farmer cooperative in Puerto Varas, Chile, was most informative. Ricardo is in charge of the A.I. department in his area, supervising three technicians and three insemination routes, along with handling direct herd sales and matings. His company represents CRI, Accelerated and Holland Genetics in the area. The average semen price is 6,500 pesos per unit (U.S. $13.00). They average 1.6 services per conception; however, in some of the better herds it is as low as 1.3 services per conception. The average calving interval for well-managed herds is 13 months.