You need go no further than any dairy farmer here at the Global Dairy 500 Conference to know that the big issue is money. Take Daniel Williams, seated to the left in the photo. Daniel has an 800 cow dairy in Madison, GA.
When it comes to challenges he says right now it’s “money.” That includes becoming more efficient and watching what you spend and on what. He thinks the Conference has been very helpful, especially one of the morning speakers the first day.
Like others I’ve spoken with, he says that all dairy farmers in the world are having trouble making it right now. He thought that getting to talk with other farmers has made him feel better about where he’s at with his operation right now.
You can listen to my interview with Daniel below:
2009 Global Dairy 500 Conference Photo Album
AgWired coverage of the Global Dairy 500 Conference is sponsored by 
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This is what the moon looked like tonight after a full day of the Global Dairy 500 Conference. This is a hand held shot on the way back from the Alltech Lexington Brewery.
More than 3,000 international scientists, professionals, educators, and students will present new technologies and discuss emerging trends in agriculture, energy, climate change, carbon trading, science education, and related issues at the event November 1-5 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Other informative sessions will focus on nutrition, wines, food security, invasive species, organic agriculture, hazardous waste, plant breeding, and turfgrass science.
The Global Dairy 500 Conference is a truly international one. There are farmers here from all over the world which requires a lot of translators who are working very hard in their booths at the back of the conference presentation rooms.
In the middle of this happy group is Henry. He spoke very good English so he got volunteered to speak with me. He has about 450 dairy cows and also row crops on his farm. He says he’s always on the search for new technology because it will make him more efficient. Henry echoes a comment I’ve heard a number of times today and that is that dairy farmers globally are suffering with the same problems, namely the price of milk. 
Providing the first remarks on the program for the Global Dairy 500 Conference was Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and President, Alltech. The theme of his opening remarks was to answer the question, “Is there a future for dairy in these turbulent times?”
Looking to the future the key is efficiency and that will come about from the use of new technology. Besides efficiency he urged attendees to focus on more lactations per cow; quality in Production systems; more education; looking for Branding; traceability and to be conscious of the environment. I love his description of the dairy cow as a “walking fermenter.”
Principal Research Scientist for Insect Resistance Dirk Benson talked about Syngenta’s global research capabilities during a symposium for agricultural reporters during the grand opening event. “In Europe, we have insecticide development, we have herbicide technology development, in the US we have formulation development on the crop protection side,” Dirk said. “On the seeds and traits side, we have capabilities for biotechnology in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, we just opened a new site in Beijing, China to augment that. We do other seed research in Australia, we do some in Toulouse, France for our vegetable businesses, we do sugar beet work in Scandinavian countries.”
The man who is guiding the marketing efforts for 
During a day in Fluidigm headquarters in South San Francisco I spoke with Howard about why he contacted us and what the company hopes to accomplish with our project. He says that agribusiness is a critical business for them. They’ve been working more with pure research companies up to this point but he says agricultural research comprises high volumes of samples and testing and that’s where they believe they offer the industry some significant advantages.