Publication

The structure of the dairy industry has changed significantly over the years in the United States. The number of registered dairy herds has decreased, and dairy herds have become larger. The California dairy industry structure has followed the same trend. With these changes, fewer individuals are directly involved with on-farm management, and dairy producer participation in cooperative extension (CE) dairy educational programs has decreased. Furthermore, land-grant universities continue to struggle with financial pressures that have affected programming and staffing. University of California CE staffing levels in the dairy programmatic area have decreased significantly, from 8 county-based advisors in 2001, to 4 in 2017. Cooperative extension has been an essential part of California’s dairy industry, serving as a source of unbiased science-based information for dairy producers. Resource limitations and a changing dairy industry motivated our effort to assess the priorities for CE dairy extension and research programs in the state of California. The objective of this assessment was to identify dairy producer needs and how to best direct and deliver CE programming. While this abstract submission covers the peer-reviewed publication in the Journal of Dairy Science, results of the needs assessment were also extended through traditional Extension methods, including a newsletter article in University of California’s statewide California Dairy Newsletter (2,900 + subscribers). Cooperative Extension Farm Advisors J. Martins, B. Karle and J. Heguy worked collaboratively to develop questions, interpret the data and edit the publication. J. Martins analyzed the data and drafted the publication. The results of this assessment will serve to develop future CE dairy programs in California that will prioritize the most important topics identified in this survey and information delivery methods desired by producers located in different regions of California.