A team from Cornell received a first-place "Platinum Award" at the ninth annual North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge (NAIDC) held April 9-10, in Visalia, Calif.

This year's challenge brought together 120 students on 30 teams from the United States and Canada. Cornell's first-place, four-person team, coached by Mike Van Amburgh, associate professor of animal science, included Breanna Fulper '11, Brett Feldpausch '10, Chad Wall '11 and Shane Reynolds '10. Each team member received a $200 scholarship.

At the dairy challenge, teams receive information about a working dairy, including production and farm management data. After an in-person inspection, participants interview the herd managers and develop a farm analysis and presentation -- including recommendations for nutrition, reproduction, milking procedures, animal health, housing and financial management. The teams present these findings to a judging panel that includes a dairy business owner and experts in dairy nutrition, herd health, reproduction and financial management. Teams are then judged on their analysis of the operation, recommendations and overall presentation.

"The dairy challenge brings the future of the dairy industry together in one location where knowledge and experiences are shared and gained, and where they gain a broader perspective of the market we participate in," said Barry Putnam, NAIDC chairman and district sales manager at Genex Cooperative, Ithaca. "That is why the Dairy Challenge is so highly thought of by all of those who have participated throughout our history of now just over 2,000 future leaders."

NAIDC is a two-day competition for students representing dairy science programs at North American universities. It enables students to apply theory and learning to a real-world dairy, while working as part of team. The dairy challenge was designed by professionals from the dairy industry as well as university educators to bring classroom training to life in the real world for students preparing for dairy careers. It was hosted by California Polytechnic State University and California State University, Fresno.