7-27 FB Bi-Lingual Dairies

UI?Extension’s dairy workshops improve milking, nutrition, calf care, and artificial insemination (AI)?skills. IDAHO’S HISPANIC DAIRY WORKERS are honing their job skills to improve their value to Idaho dairies and hopefully their own bottom lines, thanks to a team of bilingual University of Idaho Extension specialists and educators from the Treasure and Magic valleys and eastern Idaho.

Joe Dalton, Caldwell’s UI Extension dairy specialist, helped design the artificial insemination workshops with UI Extension faculty member Scott Jensen, Owyhee County. They also teach the workshop. “The students have greater success if they can learn the topic in their native language. We offer a lot of programs in Spanish given that the vast majority of workers in Idaho dairies and dairies throughout the Northwest are Spanish speakers 1st.”

Dairy workers are grateful for a chance to learn best practices closer to home. It helps so much to have nearby classes in both Spanish and English. The classes are hands on, so we not only learn in the classroom, but also out in the barn. The teachers watch us do what we just learned, to make sure we get it right. means there is a constant need for training and retraining of AI technicians.