While USSEC ‘s marketing program in Poland focuses mainly on working with poultry and swine feed manufacturing industries, the dairy sector has not been overlooked as offering considerable potential to use U.S. soybean Hi-Pro meal and bypass meal as well.
In FY16, USSEC combined financial and human resources with a Polish feed compounder and feedstuff distributor, ETOS, to organize a dairy nutrition and management seminar, which was attended by almost 70 dairy growers and managers from many provinces.
The main speakers at the seminar were Dr. Jan van Eys, USSEC contractor based in France, and Dr. Lynn Davis, Nutrition Professionals Inc. of Neenah, Wisconsin.

Dr. van Eys explained the feeding of dairy cows during the so-called transition period (four weeks before calving and for another few weeks after calving) that plays a critical role in the cows’ milk production, health, reproduction and length of their productive life. Dr. Davis, who has worked for 30 years as a nutritional advisor to commercial dairies in Wisconsin and Colorado and co-owns three dairy farms in Wisconsin, discussed the management of dairy farms. Dr. Davis’s second presentation focused on staying ahead of the curve by adapting to evolving farm environment.

Other presentations were offered by local experts, including Marcin Winkowski of DSM-Poland and Piotr Chełminiak of ETOS, who highlighted nutritional products and services that contribute to the improved feeding efficiency of various components and overall success in a dairy operation. Quality control and assurance system was another important topic covered at the seminar, partially in the conference room and partially at ETOS’s feedstuff quality control laboratory, where Małgorzata Jędrzejczak, head of the lab, explained what the company does for their clients. The principles and benefits of GMP+ quality assurance system that is in place at ETOS were also presented to the visitors.

After the seminar, USSEC followed up with participants about their impressions and evaluation of the completed seminar and received positive opinions from the vast majority of attendees. Małgorzata Lisiecka, co-owner and manager of a 1200 head dairy complex at Czechnów in the western part of Poland said, “It was a very useful event and learning from the two experienced foreign experts allowed us to pick up some smart ideas we can implement in our operation. Like the software Dr. Davis recommended to us to use to monitor the time cows spend on various things during the day – this simple tool and approach has potential to save money.”