07/08/08 Bi-lingual dairy manual

The spoken word, it's a major part of communication. But with different languages there are barriers. In Idaho where the majority of the dairy farm workers speak Spanish and the majority of the owners are English speaking there can be communication gaps. Mireille Chahine with the University of Idaho ag extension in Twin Falls worked on a bi-lingual dairy manual. Its available now on the DAIReXNET web site, the cooperative extension's national webpage www.extension.org/dairy+cattle. And just as there are many English dialects so it is with Spanish. CHACHINE "We made sure had several people from different countries read it to make sure that it would be clear and that there are no dialects. The challenge was, more than the Spanish language is to really keep it science based while at the same time simple so people from a variety of education backgrounds can understand the information." The manual is produced for use in the Idaho dairy industry but Chahine says dairyman around the world can learn from it via the Internet. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott