We are excited to introduce our 2025 speakers!

Nick is an independent herd health veterinary consultant based in south of the UK and Honorary Associate Professor at Nottingham University. He grew up on a small sheep and beef farm and qualified as a vet in 1999. After 3 years as a practicing veterinarian, he took on a PhD project at Bristol in 2002 on dairy lameness control programs, then worked on the Healthy Feet Project in 2007-10. He has been a director of a large animal veterinary practice in Dorset and has 17 years’ experience working as a dairy health and welfare consultant. He is a member of the European Board of Veterinary specialists.

Dr. Mireille Chahine is a Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist in the Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences Department at the University of Idaho. Her Extension programs have focused on applied dairy management and training of dairy Employees. Her contributions address the entirety of the dairy enterprise from calf management and training of personnel to milk quality and business management. Dr. Chahine coordinates dairy Extension programming throughout Idaho and serves as a resource for stakeholders. Dr. Chahine has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and has given more than 300 presentations nationally and internationally.

Dr. de Haro-Martí is a Professor and Extension Educator in Dairy/Livestock Environmental Management at the University of Idaho. His Extension programming focuses on dairy and livestock environmental management, manure, nutrient, and waste management, agricultural sustainability, air and water quality, and training the dairy workforce. His applied research focuses on manure and nutrient management and ways to increase the dairy industry's sustainability.

Steve and Connor Jameson co-founder Valley Ag Software in 1981. They developed Dairy Comp 305 for helping dairy farmers manage their farms. He continues to help develop tools, but most of his focus now is on the impact of herd longevity on dairy cattle welfare, sustainability, and farm profitability.

Pete Erickson is Professor of Dairy Management and Extension Dairy Specialist at the University of New Hampshire. His research interests are in the area of dairy nutrition specifically in the area of dairy calves and heifers. He has conducted research in the area of feed additives and alternative feeds for post-weaned heifers. He received his Ph.D. in Dairy Science from the University of Illinois and is the President of the American Registry of Animal Scientists.

Dianne Finstad used her farm roots to build what's become a long communications career in television, radio and writing, covering agriculture and rodeo. She's based in the Red Deer area. Dianne has been an Emcee for the Advancing Women in Agriculture conferences and other ag events. She enjoys announcing at places like the Ponoka and Calgary Stampede, and writing rodeo and agriculture stories. She has served on the board for Lakeland College, and Westerner Park.

Dr. Paul Fricke was raised on his family's row crop and dairy farm in Nebraska. After receiving a B.S. degree in Animal Science from the University of Nebraska, Paul went on to complete M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Reproductive Physiology from North Dakota State University. Paul joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998. Dr. Fricke’s research program focuses on understanding the biology underlying the many reproductive problems of dairy cattle. Dr. Fricke’s extension program strives to improve reproductive efficiency of dairy cattle by applying scientific research to develop practical management strategies and assess new reproductive technologies.

Dr. Julio Giordano, DVM, MS, PhD is the Director of the Dairy Cattle Biology and Management Laboratory (DCBML) at Cornell University. His group's research focuses on the development, implementation, and evaluation of technology for dairy production systems. The overarching goal of his program are to integrate concepts of animal biology, farm management, engineering, and data-analytics for enhancing the reproductive performance, health, and profitability of dairy cattle while reducing environmental impacts. Ultimately, his research efforts contribute to enhancing the economic viability, sustainability, and resilience of dairy operations.

Courtney Halbach is the Outreach Specialist for The Dairyland Initiative, an outreach program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Veterinary Medicine. Her areas of interest include calf and adult cow barn design and ventilation, positive pressure tube systems, and robotic milking facility design.

Dr. Marcos Marcondes is a Dairy Research Scientist at the Miner Institute. With over 14 years of experience spanning Brazil, Washington State University, and the United States, his career has focused on teaching, research, and extension. Currently, Dr. Marcondes oversees projects addressing methane reduction in dairy cows, microbial protein production in calves, and fat sources in milk replacers, contributing to innovative solutions in dairy science.

Geert R.G. Opsomer graduated as a DVM at the Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium) in 1989. In 1995 obtained a masters degree in Animal Production, and in 1999 earned his PhD entitled: 'Postpartum anoestrus in high yielding dairy cows: a field study'. At the moment he is full professor of bovine reproduction and herd health management at the Veterinary Faculty of the Ghent University and is heading the Ambulatory Clinic at the Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine. Besides educating undergraduate and graduate students, he is currently supervising multiple PhD students researching a variety of aspects of bovine herd health and reproduction.

Sara is a production animal veterinarian based in the UK. She runs Farm Dynamics Ltd, a consultancy business that provides training and advisory services to the agricultural industry on topics relating to cattle health and welfare. Sara’s main focus is to provide sustainable, cost-effective solutions based on evidence-based research and cost-benefit analysis. Her key areas of interest and focus are cow comfort and cattle foot health.

Dr. Steele earned his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. from the University of Guelph in Ontario. Excitingly he is a Full Professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences at his alma mater. His research is aiming to explain ruminant physiology through a systems approach from the molecular to whole animal level. His research program is inspired by his upbringing on a progressive dairy farm in Southwestern Ontario, where he became fascinated by the integration of advanced scientific technologies and livestock production systems. The global hypothesis of his current research program is that during early-life, gastrointestinal function and health in the ruminant are regulated by specific interactions among diet and microbiota that can impact gastrointestinal physiology later in life.

Frank van der Meer DVM PhD is a veterinary virologist at the University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine, with 25 years of experience as an educator and researcher of animal and human viruses. His research focuses on the antigenic recognition of bovine viral diarrhea virus, elimination of bovine leukemia virus, scours (rotavirus) in calves and piglets, discovery and characterization of wildlife viruses (Marten, muskoxen and caribou) and animal models for several human viral pathogens (HIV and Hepatitis B). He is currently the chair of the Veterinary Sciences Animal Care Committee which provide oversight of the animal use at the Clinical Skills Building, the Veterinary Sciences Research Station of the University of Calgary and at field sites when research is focused on veterinary medicine.

Dr. Mike von Massow joined the University of Guelph in 2010 upon completing his PhD.  Mike is interested in how people think about food with recent work focusing on labeling, novel food products, animal welfare and antibiotic use.  He is also active in the interdisciplinary Guelph Food Waste Research Project with Dr. Kate Parizeau. Mike's research also considers the structure and performance of food value chains as they evolve in response to changing consumer preferences and other factors.

Dr. Wallace grew up on a dairy farm in Herdman, Quebec. She graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph in 2002. In 2004, Dr. Wallace returned home to Ormstown, Quebec, Canada, where she began her work as a dairy veterinarian and associate owner at the Ormstown Veterinary Hospital. She completed a Masters of Veterinary Science from the University of Montreal in 2009. Currently, in addition to full-time everyday veterinary practice, Dr. Wallace performs calf health and milk quality consultations conferences, and seminars for dairy producers and veterinarians throughout Canada and abroad.

John Winchell comes to us from Eden, NY. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University, and John has been involved in dairy cattle nutritionist for over 25 years. He has focused on forage quality for the last 20 years, and is nationally recognized for his harvest analytics and forage harvest timing. Very comfortable on the farm, he has a reputation for troubleshooting herd and forage challenges. John is a very popular speaker and speaks at many conferences, throughout North America. John also has many articles published in Progressive Dairyman and Progressive forage.
John currently is on the Alltech Global Support team, focusing on forage, inoculant, dairy nutrition, and mycotoxin management.

Dan Wong is President of the Western Dairy Council, the association for dairy processors in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Mr. Wong holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Political Science from the University of British Columbia as well as the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors/Rotman School of Management. As head of Right Hook Business Strategies Ltd., a public affairs consulting firm, Mr. Wong has provided business strategy, public policy and communications services to major national and international corporations and to state governments in the US. Earlier, he led the Corporate Relations practice at Dairyworld Foods and was Vice President of Corporate Development at BC Ferries Inc.