May 2012 Highlights « Back

Fuel Up to Play 60 in Kansas

On April 13, Midwest Dairy Council and the Kansas City Chiefs helped reward Queen of the Holy Rosary in Bucyrus for being selected as the Kansas winner of Fuel Up to Play 60’s Cooking Show Challenge.  The school celebrated with special guests, including Kansas City Chiefs tight end, #81 Tony Moeaki, KC Wolf and Kansas dairy producer and Mo-Kan Division board member Lynda Foster of Fort Scott.  Lynda talked with the students about dairy farming and Fuel Up to Play 60.  Moeaki talked with the 250-plus students about the importance of eating right and staying active, judged a hula-hoop competition and enjoyed samples of the nutrient-rich snacks featured in the winning video.  The Kansas Team Nutrition representative from the Kansas State Department of Education was also in attendance.  You can read more about the event, see pictures, and view the winning video at our website.

Dairy’s role in child health and wellness was highlighted at the Kansas Dietetic Association and Nutrition Council Annual Conference on April 12.  We sponsored child nutrition expert Dayle Hayes as a keynote speaker, and Kansas dairy producer and Mo-Kan Division Board member Steve Ohlde introduced Dayle.  The two of them fielded questions after the session at the Midwest Dairy exhibit booth.

The presentation included Hayes’ endorsement of Fuel Up to Play 60 as a solution to childhood obesity.  She also emphasized the importance of flavored milk in schools, discussed dairy’s overall nutrient contribution to the diet and spotlighted Kansas school nutrition success stories, including the school meal program in Blue Valley School District and the Fuel Up to Play 60 Governor’s event at Wichita’s Wilbur Middle School. She also conducted a radio interview on Topeka’s WIBW Ag Issues show, tweeted about the conference (@schoolmealsrock) and made related posts throughout the week on her School Meals That Rock Facebook page.

On April 11, Bridget Sheehan, your Health and Wellness program manager serving Missouri, presented at the Kansas Council of Superintendents meeting in Topeka, at the request of the Kansas State Department of Education’s commissioner of education and the director of Child Nutrition.  She spoke about the Kansas School Breakfast Challenge “Pregame Phase” and the upcoming two-year challenge promoting increased breakfast participation.  To learn more about the Challenge, you can visit the KSDE’s website. 

Other Kansas Updates

The newly named Mo-Kan Division of Midwest Dairy elected its leadership during the Annual Meeting earlier this month.  New board members from the former St. Louis Division were seated. They are Kevin Frankenbach of Hannibal, Mo.; Larry Frederick of Baring, Mo.; and Donna Telle of Uniontown, Mo. The following officers were elected: 

• Chairman - Byron Lehman, Newton Kan.;
• Vice Chair – Steve Strickler, Iola, Kan.;
• Secretary – Donna Telle, Uniontown, Mo.; and
• Treasurer – Curtis Steenbock, Longford, Kan.

Bill Siebenborn of Trenton, Mo., will join Byron Lehman on the Corporate Board.

We were pleased to speak recently to the Dairy Science Club at Kansas State University, sharing how the checkoff operates and pointing out career opportunities in the dairy industry. Our schedule also included the Kansas State open house event, where we displayed Sophia the Milking Cow and passed out dairy educational materials to hundreds of attendees. Midwest Dairy also helped sponsor the Little American Royal, a showmanship contest for University students.

We also participated in the western Kansas dairy farm tour sponsored by the Kansas Dairy Commission. The tour stopped at Fort Hays State University, McCarty Dairy-Rexford, Mas Cow Dairy-Liberal, Plymell Dairy-Garden City, Royal Farms Dairy-Cimarron, and Forget Me Not Farms-Cimarron. The tour also included a visit to Reeve Energy power plant.

In addition, weattended the 2012 North American Leader's Session on Animal Agriculture sponsored by the U.S. Soybean Association. The conference, organized by the Center for Food Integrity, was attended by individuals involved with state agricultural coalitions.Ron Grusenmeyer was a guest panelist during the conference, sharing experiences regarding the Missouri Farmers Care and the Kansas Animal Agriculture Coalitions. We explored opportunities to collaborate on projects which align ethics and values in food animal agriculture with consumer expectations to build consumer trust and confidence.

On May 30-31 in St. Louis, Mo., the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's (NRECA) Cooperative Research Network (CRN) and the University of Missouri are bringing together researchers, manufacturers, and utility and agricultural experts to share research results on the use of solid-state lighting (SSL) in livestock production. The forum is intended for utility staff, agricultural producers and researchers. The forum fee is $290. Preliminary research conducted by CRN, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative and the University of Oklahoma is very promising. The LED conversion resulted in a validated 55 percent energy savings, 30 percent increase in average illumination (footcandles), and early evidence of a 6 percent increase in milk yield from the cows on the LED side of a freestall barn. This forum will review potential benefits and risks with the new lighting technologies. More information is available on NRECA.coop.