Afshin Samia Kalantari

Afshin got his BS in Animal Science from Shiraz University in Iran. After finishing his BS, he continued immediately with his MS studies in Animal Breeding and Genetics at the Tehran university. During his MS studies he became highly interested in dairy herd management topics, and especially in optimum replacement decisions in dairy herds. Currently, Afshin is working under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera studying optimal reproductive management strategies with the aim of improving dairy cattle reproductive efficiency.

Marion Dutreuil

Marion is a French student. She grew up near Paris. When she was 18, she decided to study Agriculture and especially Dairy Science. She worked for 2 years at the INRA (equivalent to the USDA, in France). She was part of 2 projects. The first one was a survey named: “Characterization of tank milk composition according to the livestock management practices in the Atlantic West Plain.” The second one was an experimentation to learn more about the impact of milk storage duration in the udder on milk fat quality.

Today, Marion is starting a PhD program at the Dairy Science Department at the University of Madison-Madison working in a project named: “Strategies of pasture supplementation on organic and conventional grazing dairies: assessment of economic, production and environmental outcomes.”

Claudia Hardie

Claudia Hardie is from a small, organic dairy farm in Blair, Wisconsin, where her family still milks a herd of 25 cows containing representatives of all six major dairy breeds. She earned her B.S. degree in Dairy Science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2010. Upon the completion of her education, Claudia intends to remain involved with the dairy industry through extension or some other realm. Specific areas of interest include grazing and organic dairy farming.

Mayuri Valvekar (Past)

Mayuri holds a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences from Acharya N.G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, India (1999-2003).  She then did a Post-graduate diploma in Agri-Business Management from the National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, Jaipur, India (2003-05). Later, she joined Tinna Oils and Chemicals Ltd, New Delhi, as a Trading Officer, where she worked in the area of commodity research, trading and procurement.  Mayuri also worked at the National Spot Exchange for Agriculture Produce, Mumbai, as an Executive in Market Operations.  Some of her research interests are in the area of Dairy Economics, Farm management and decision systems modeling.

Mayuri is working under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera starting her Master studies in Dairy Science at the UW-Madison.

Jay Janowski (Past)

Jay grew up in rural Luxemburg, WI surrounded by a vibrant farming community.  As soon as he was able to work, he spent most of his time working on a neighbor’s dairy – a job that he held up until the last summer before graduation from UW-Madison with a degree in Dairy Science (2007).  Throughout the years of hands-on experience, he gained a deep appreciation for what farmers do in their noble profession.  There’s so much agricultural heritage in Wisconsin and he is very thankful to have the opportunity to help many more producers as he pursues his master’s degree.  When not busy with coursework and research duties, He enjoys Badger sports, Packer football, Brewers baseball, running, and spending quality time with his family and friends.

Jay is currently starting his M.S. studies in the Dairy Science Department, UW-Madison, working on evaluating the economics of dairy expansion under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera.

Lenka Krpálková

Lenka is an agricultural engineer who completed her BS in 2010 in the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (CULS). Her master's program focused mainly on breeding cattle and on evaluating and determining breeding values and selection indexes. Currently, she is doing her PhD in Agricultural Science at the same university but she became interested in dairy herd management topics. As part of her PhD studies she worked for 5 months under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera at the Dairy Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) as an intern. She dealt mainly with optimum replacement decisions in dairy herds and dairy herd economics.

Mónica Piccardi

Mónica Piccardi is an agricultural engineer who completed her BS in 2008 in the Agricultural Science College at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina (FCA-UNC). Currently, she is doing her PhD in Agricultural Science at the same college. As a part of her studies she worked for 6 months under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera and Dr. Wiltbank at the Dairy Science Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA) as an intern. She studied the trends and patterns of culling in Wisconsin dairy herds and also in Argentinean dairy herds. Her research interests are in the area of Dairy Economics, Farm management and decision systems modeling.

Emiliano Demarchi

Emiliano Demarchi is an agricultural engineer from Argentina who finished his B.S. in 2007 in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at the National University of "Litoral". Currently he works as dairy farm consultant in the Central West part of the Santa Fe Province in Argentina. Additionally, Emiliano is a coordinator of Dairy Commision for the region CREA Santa Fe center (CREA; http://www.redcrea.org.ar) (Comisión de Lechería" de la Región CREA "Santa Fe Centro") and an associate instructor of administration of organizations of the Department of Agricultural Sciences at the National University of "Litoral" (http://www.fca.unl.edu.ar). As a part of a grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Babcock Institute, Emiliano is working to translate and adjust some decision support tools to the Argentinian conditions.

Francisco E. Contreras-Govea, Ph.D.

Native from Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, with a Ph.D. in Agronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Extensive research and field experience in forage crops and silage nutritive value. Currently working as Outreach Specialist at the Department of Dairy Science, UW-Madison in the genomic selection and herd management tools to improve feed efficiency of the dairy industry project under the supervision of Dr. Lou Armentano and in collaboration with Dr. Victor Cabrera. In addition, Dr. Contreras-Govea is conducting field and laboratory research in topics related to silage fermentation of ensiled crops.

Connie Cordoba, D.V.M

Connie Cordoba earned her veterinary degree in Argentina. She got a Masters degree in Dairy Cattle Reproduction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Dr. Paul Fricke. Now she is an outreach specialist in dairy Cattle Reproduction at the Dairy Science Department running the Repro Money Program, which is the extension branch of the USDA-NIFA granted project called "An integrated approach to improving dairy cow fertility."

Varun Vats

Varun works with Dr. Cabrera to implement dairy management tools using web technologies. He is responsible for administering this website and providing IT support for the Dairy Management group. He joined the web application development team in September 2011.

Varun is currently pursuing his Master's in Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is passionate about technology and its innovative use. In his spare time he enjoys thermocole carving, hiking, and playing volley ball.

Anjali Gola (Past)

Anjali is currently responsible for WebSite Developement, Web Based Application Development, IT support for Dr Cabrera & Dairy Management Team. She joined the team in Feb 2012. She is currently pursuing her Masters in electrical engineering at UW Madison.

Krishnendra Nathella (Past)

Krishnendra is currently responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Developement and IT support for Dr Cabrera & Dairy Management. He joined the team in December 2010. Krishnendra is pursuing his Masters in Computer Engineering at UW-Madison.

Nikhil Suryanarayanan (Past)

Nikhil was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Developement and IT support for Dr Cabrera & Dairy Management. He joined the team in August 2008 and continued till December 2010. Nikhil is pursuing his Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering at UW-Madison.