Program

12:00 PM

Registration desks open at the Park Hyatt

6:00 PM

Reception Dinner and social held mountain side under the stars

6:00 AM

Breakfast

Heritage Hall

7:00 AM

Welcome & Introduction: Molly Sloan, URUS

7:15 AM

Tim Taylor, VAS

3 Transformative Technology Connections

Many dairy operations have successfully implementing technology to gain efficiency. However, the successful deployment of interconnected technologies can take you to the next level. Tim will share his vision about transforming the dairy industry with inter-connectivity, mobility and business intelligence.

7:45 AM

Keynote: Robert Erhard, Nestle

Dairy from Grass to Glass

Learn about the global milk economy from Robert Erhard as he shares his experiences and the challenges of sourcing milk for a global company like Nestle. From China to Switzerland, Robert has worked in many markets and knows what it takes to bring milk and milk products to feed a growing world.

8:30 AM

Panel: Emerging Technology and the Future of Dairy Operations

Facilitator: Brandt Kreuscher

Members:

• Bethany Deshpande

• Tyler Bramble

• Damir Wallener

• Alan Bentley

Necessity drives innovation. Innovation emerges as new technology to fuel on farm efficiency. What drives adoption of these new technologies? A group of start-up companies will share their insights as they look to bring new efficiencies to the dairy industry.

9:10 AM

Break

• Technology Kiosk Area – Heritage Hall Foyer

9:45 AM

Olivia Levsky: Connecting with the Consumer and the Success of the Dairy Industry

Feeding the world in the next 20 years will require growth, innovation in many areas, and vision to lead the dairy industry. Hear what these two industry visionaries have in mind to meet that challenge.

10:05 AM

Panel: Connecting with the Consumer and the Success of the Dairy Industry

Facilitator: Olivia Levsky

Members:

• Jordan Hooker

• Hillary Burken

• Sarah Dynneson

• Alex Wilson

For a dairy producer, the competition is not the other dairy farmer across the road, it is the choices that the consumer makes every day. Connecting the consumer to the wholesomeness milk and passion of the dairy industry can take many forms. See how this group of individuals are making a difference in consumer opinions.

10:35 AM

Stacy Springs: Dairy Intelligence and Decision Making

10:55 AM

Dr. Marleen de Rond-Schouten: Turning farm data into value – Bringing the connected farm into practice today

Practical example of how an international feed company creates a ‘living lab’ in which new services are developed for farmer customers. Focus is around usage of data-driven technologies to support customers towards healthier animals, higher output and higher efficiency. Best practices and challenges during development are shared, as well as latest results.

11:40 AM

Networking in the Technology Kiosk Area

• Technology Kiosk Area – Heritage Hall Foyer

12:00 PM

Lunch

• Sawatch Hall

• Technology Kiosk Area Open

12:25 PM

Panel: Dairy Intelligence and Turning Data Into Information

Facilitator: Miel Hostens

Members:

• Mark Thomas

• Lynn Murray

• Ernesto Santillanez

• Matt Daley

Many industries have used data and deep learning to make big advancements, but the dairy industry has not done so yet. What are the obstacles and challenges the industry needs to overcome? Find out what several companies are already doing and the insights they have gained.

1:00 PM

Gordie Jones: All Seasons Hybrid: A new take on dairy ventilation

Tackling two of the biggest issues in dairy housing, Gordie introduces an all seasons hybrid strategy. He’s found success in both new and retrofit facilities, getting the best of both worlds. Gordie walks us through the steps to getting fresh air to all parts of the barn without the risk of freezing.

1:20 PM

Tim Peart: Mobility Technology, the Connected Worker, and Enterprise Success

Connecting your workers with the success of your dairy is more important than ever and mobile technology, gamification and process  consistence are all connected. The dairy cannot have success without process consistency. Hear what these two industry experts have to say about how their technology choices connect workers with key processes and successful implementation.

1:40 PM

Panel: Mobility Technology, the Connected Worker, and Enterprise Success

Facilitator: Paul Rapnicki

Members:

• Tim Peart

• Francisco Rodriquez

• Geoff Gerrits

• Oren Drori

The need for talent and labor in the dairy industry grows each day. Implementing various forms of technology can help a farm reduce labor  costs through mobility, repeatable decision making and work flow management. This panel will focus on what opportunities exist and what challenges come when implementing technology to reduce or place labor.

2:20 PM

First Day Summary – Molly Sloan, URUS

2:30 PM

Networking in the Technology Kiosk Area

3:00 PM

Innovation Break-out Sessions

3:00 PM – 3:30 PM

and

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Innovation Break-out Sessions

• Holm & Laue – Dr. Tobias Nieschulze
  • Select your future profit – An intelligent view on calf management!
    For maximizing the profit of your dairy at given resources you need to raise the best calves. Combining single data sources to a pool allows to identify the profit maximizing cow already after weaning. This session will give you an overview of modern tools and possibilites for intelligent data inquiry and combination.
• Nedap –Roxie Muller
  • Herd insights brought to life with augmented reality
    Relevant information presented at the right time and place
    With a growing need to feed the world, herd sizes and the level of technology implemented are rapidly increasing, resulting in an overload of data. In this tech talk Roxie shares Nedap’s vision on technology and shows how the use of futuristic technologies like augmented reality can provide relevant insights from Nedap CowControl and other systems presented in the most intuitive way above the animals in the barn. A technical solution aimed to make the interaction with the technology much easier.
• VAS – Maite Muse & Thomas Robledo
  • Implementing Technology to drive Efficiency

The Innovation Break-out Sessions allow the Connect Summit Attendees to learn about what individual companies are doing to bring technological value to the dairy business. Attendees can interact with members of these companies in a smaller setting and see live demos of the value each can bring to the farm. The sessions by each company are repeated and attendees can choose to attend two of the three presentations.

4:00 PM

Technology Area / Free Time

6:00 PM

Dinner

7:00 PM

Keynote: Apple at Work – Mark Sargent, Worldwide Industry Lead at Apple

8:00 PM

Q & A: Peyton Manning, Super Bowl Champion

Going from the top of his game, to being injured and out of football, and back to the top as a Super Bowl Champion, few have overcome more adversity than Peyton Manning. Hear what motivated Peyton to fight his way back to greatness as he shares his thoughts and memories of Hall of Fame career.

6:00 AM

Breakfast and Highlights – Molly Sloan

7:00 AM

Keynote: Alexander van der Lely, Lely

Lely’s future farm vision and the importance of data

Hear Lely’s story from the CEO of Lely, Alexander van der Lely. A brief history of the innovations and how strategic business decisions are made. Robotics and automation for the dairy farm have come a long way and there are many lessons learned. Learn Lely’s vision for the future farm including the role of data.

7:45 AM

Tim Scott: The Power of Storytelling

In the chaos of today’s world, with a barrage of messages coming at us 24/7, everyone is becoming more and more self-selective to the messages they are willing to allow into their “message banks”. We do this mental filtering by necessity, not only to cull, but also to balance the good and bad, and to save those things of meaning. In these overly-messaged and highly-filtered times, storytelling becomes mission-critical for brands and companies….for without it, their messages end up in the “clutter file” of almost everyone.

Our brains are wired to receive stories, not lists of facts. It’s why the telling of stories long precedes any written language. Yet we complicate even the simplest of stories. We overthink, we overanalyze and, instead of providing our audiences with things of value that are worth saving, we send them more clutter because we are convinced that OUR clutter is MUCH more interesting than anyone else’s.

So how should we think about storytelling? And why is it so powerful? Hopefully this presentation will provide some easy to use ideas and principles for breaking through and getting your customers to embrace you as a brand, as a company, and as the PEOPLE behind the stories you tell.

8:30 AM

Panel: Connected Dairy Before and After the Farm Gate

Facilitator: Scott Sexton

Members:

• Ryan J. Yonkman

• Adam Hardie

• Ernie Yates

The importance of connecting the on-farm milk production data to the milk processor and distribution channels is growing. Consumers want to know how something was made, where did it come from, and how were the animals & workers treated. This panel discussion will focus what progress has been made in data flow and data connection on both sides of the farm gate.

9:15 AM

Networking in the Technology Kiosk Area

10:00 AM

Norm Mullin: Connecting with the Consumer and the Success of the Dairy Industry

10:20 AM

Jamie Zimmerman: Sustainability and Resource Efficiency

10:40 AM

Panel: Metric-Driven Success and Sustainability

Facilitator: Don Niles

Members:

• Steve Martin

• RC Ludke

• Norm Mullin

• Jared Fernandes

It seems everyone is talking about sustainability now days but who is really doing it and are they seeing any value. Although important, what can the dairy industry do to make sustainability more than just a feel-good measure? Listen to what dairy producers and leading companies are doing to achieve tangible results and create a viable dairy ecosystem.

11:25 AM

Networking in the Technology Kiosk Area

12:00 PM

Lunch

• Technology Kiosk Area Open

12:45 PM

Panel: Transparency in the Dairy Value Chain

Facilitator: Yoav Levsky

Members:

• Tim Leviny

• Tim Taylor

• Alexander van der Lely

• Brian Bolton

• Robert Erhardt

1:25 PM

Francisco Rodriquez: Growing our business for the generations to come, are we shaping the right model?

In the current milk production system and growth model, cows in large dairies are grouped together to help make labor more efficient. This approach has been successful for the past several decades, but the game has changed. Traditional labor is no longer available. In addition, with the consolidation of the dairies, their closeness to cities, and the amplification of consumers’ opinions on social media, that model raises additional challenges like the lack of succession planning, poor consumer perceptions, and permitting and regulatory constraints. To reverse the result of the status quo and help dairies achieve sustainable, profitable growth we propose a new revolutionary growth model, optimizing what we have and expanding by taking advantage of the great benefits robotic milking has to offer. Recently, our proposed growth model has been impacting and advancing a few of the most innovative dairies around the world, now it is time to take it to the next level and help shaping the modern industry we all want for the generations to come.

1:45 PM

Ronan Loftus: Connecting with the Consumer and the Success of the Dairy Industry

Consumers are seeking greater levels of information on where and how their food is produced. Ronan will share his experiences on how DNA technology has helped achieve full tractability through complex meat supply chains and how this is being communicated to consumers to support brand building. He will also share some perspectives on how the technology could be used within the diary sector, either to authenticate specific attributes, or ultimately help trace milk back to farms of origin.

2:05 PM

Brian Bolton  – Closing Keynote – Let our cows tell our story…

2:30 PM

Networking in the Technology Kiosk Area

3:00 PM

Innovation Break-out Sessions

3:00 PM – 3:30 PM

and

3:30 PM – 4:00 PM

Innovation Break-out Sessions

•  AgSource Dairy – Angie Coburn
  • Milk – The Master Key to Unlock Your Herd Information
    Milk analysis for ketones, fatty acids and milk quality can now provide insights into cow health, immune response and nutritional changes. Listen to lessons learned from herd trials for weekly milk sampling on groups of cows and the potential for improved management decisions.
•  Foerster-Technik  – Thomas Foerster
  • What is possible with automatic calf feeders already today and what is around the corner.
    Automatic calf feeding systems are known to save labor and increase calf growth due to the higher milk intake. At the same time, modern machines generate a wealth of data that can be used for assessment of health status and weaning success. Together with new sensors like activity neckbands with search-LED or cloud-connected thermometers, the calf health insight can even be broadened and partly run automatically. This breakout session will demonstrate how to access data and come to fact-based decisions on future usage of the animal.
• VES Environmental Solutions Inc. – Dr. Mike Wolf
  • Emerging Motor, Data, and IoT Technologies Optimizing Cow Health and Comfort
    For decades, dairy facilities were only naturally ventilated, or more recently ventilated with fans. But emerging technologies are enabling dairy farmers to transform barns and milking parlors into climate-controlled environments, centered around the biology of the cows and people inside them. We’ll explore how smart motors, real-time data, and the Internet of Things are improving the health and productivity of innovative dairy farm, all year round.

The Innovation Break-out Sessions allow the Connect Summit Attendees to learn about what individual companies are doing to bring technological value to the dairy business. Attendees can interact with members of these companies in a smaller setting and see live demos of the value each can bring to the farm. The sessions by each company are repeated and attendees can choose to attend two of the three presentations.

4:00 PM

Technology Area / Free Time

6:00 PM

Dinner

Everyone will be taking the enclosed gondola up the mountain for dinner and band entertainment. You will enjoy amazing views and sunset, social activities and entertainment. A great way to conclude the Connect Summit!