Webinar series discusses handling stress on dairy farms

Three ISU Extension and Outreach webinars will be held in July

Farming is one of the most stressful occupations in the United States. This is particularly true for dairy farmers as they are experiencing an extended period of low milk prices.

To help dairy farmers deal with stress, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will host a series of three webinars that discuss how to recognize the signs of stress, how to deal with dairy farm families experiencing stress, analyzing a dairy for profits, the profitability of various dairy systems and what FINBIN says about production costs.

The webinars will be held at 12 p.m. on July 10, 17 and 24 and will be conducted by extension specialists from ISU Extension and Outreach, the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and University of Minnesota. ISU Extension and Outreach dairy specialists Larry Tranel, Fred Hall and Jenn Bentley will present during the webinars, as well as John Shutske, extension specialist with the University of Wisconsin, Jim Salfer, extension dairy specialist with the University of Minnesota, and Phil Cardoso, extension dairy specialist with the University of Illinois.

The topics discussed in the webinars are:

• July 10 - Recognizing and Managing Stress in Dairy Farmers
• July 17 - Knowing your cost of production and Dairy Outlook
• July 24 - Making Production Decisions During Challenging Times

To join the webinars, log onto https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/isuedairy. For more information contact Tranel at tranel@iastate.edu or 563-583-6496, Bentley at jbentley@iastate.edu or 563-382-2949 or Hall at fredhall@iastate.edu or 712-737-4230.

The webinars are sponsored by ISU Extension and Outreach, University of Minnesota Extension, University of Illinois Extension and University of Wisconsin Extension.