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Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center Annual Meeting recap

August 24, 2023

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2 minute read

The Midwest Dairy Foods Research Center (MDFRC) held its Annual Meeting on July 24th and 25th in St. Paul, Minnesota. This meeting was an open invitation to Operational Advisory Committee (OAC) members, faculty, and students to evaluate and score research proposals for potential funding in the next funding cycle.

The research that gets funded will educate and build trust among farmers and consumers. There were 14 projects presented at the annual meeting. Each proposal was required to fall under one of the four focus areas: exports, food quality safety, consumer solutions, and sustainability. ​​​​​​​

The two-day meeting started with a social gathering and a poster display of all projects being presented. Following the poster display were presentations from keynote speakers Marla Buerk, Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) Executive Vice President of Global Innovation, and Norrie Wilson, DMI Global Innovation & Insights Consultant, and checkoff updates from Midwest Dairy and DMI. The universities in attendance also gave updates, including Iowa State University, South Dakota State University, and the University of Minnesota.

Day two focused primarily on research proposals, which consisted of selected researchers presenting their proposed project. The OAC provided feedback on critical needs, objectives, research plan, budget, and duration and recommendations for funding. These reviewing steps were interactive and provided an opportunity for feedback and modification.

Midwest Dairy would like to extend a special thank you to our Executive Director, Dr. Jayendra Amamcharla, and Associate Directors, Prafulla Salunke, Kumar Mallikarjunan, and Stephanie Clark, for all their hard work and support in making the MDFRC meeting a success.

Researchers standing in a row smiling