Postdocs


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Tadeu Eder da Silva

UW2020 Dairy Brain (Jan 2021 - Present)

Tadeu Eder da Silva obtained his BS (2015) in Animal Science at the Federal University of Viçosa-MG (Brazil), MS (2016), and Ph.D. (2020) degree in Animal Science at the same university. His MS and Ph.D. projects were focused on ruminant nutrition and statistical modeling applied to animal production. Dr. Silva worked for Cargill Animal Nutrition from 2018 to 2021 as application consultant. His work was focused on data analysis, business intelligence, statistical modeling and building applications to help customers to make data-driven decisions. Now, He is a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Cabrera and Dr. Van Os.

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Fan Zhang

UW2020 Dairy Brain (July 2020 - Jan 2023)

Fan Zhang is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher (Research Associate) at Prof. Cabrera’s lab. His work focuses on investigating and applying prediction models and Machine Learning algorithms in the dairy farming industry and agricultural domain. Fan has been working on research and innovation aspects around the energy forecasting, Internet of things, applied AI techniques and advanced software development at the research centre and the institution for several years. Fan obtained his PhD degree from CIT Ireland in 2018. His doctoral work explored the prediction of the milk production for the Irish dairy industry using novel mathematical modelling algorithms and data fusion techniques. He obtained MSc and BSc in Computer Science from TU Dublin and BLCU Beijing.

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Liliana Fadul

UW2020 Virtual Dairy Farm Brain (Oct 2018 - Feb 2021)

Liliana Fadul got her Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Universidad de La Salle in Bogota Colombia. Then she obtained her MS degree in Agricultural Science and Natural Resources from Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico (UAEM) – ICAR in Toluca, Mexico. To continue with her studies, she moved to Quebec City (Canada) were she completed her PhD in Animal Science from Université Laval. After her pleasant experience working with the Valacta (DHIA from Quebec and the Atlantics) database during her PhD, she obtained a MITACS Elevate award (postdoctoral fellowship) to worked with Valacta on data valorization generated by automatic milking systems. Currently, Liliana is working as Research Associate (Postdoc) at Dr. Cabrera’s lab as part of the UW2020 virtual dairy farm brain project.

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Hector Delgado

UW2020 Virtual Dairy Farm Brain (Jul 2017 - Mar 2019)

Hector Delgado got his Bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Medicine from Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. After working for a short period of time as Agricultural Projects Officer in a Colombian bank, he continued with his MBA studies at Universidad Santo Tomas in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Immediately after that Hector got a faculty position at the Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science School of Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia in Bucaramanga (Colombia). After various years, he was appointed by World Animal Protection (former WSPA) as Veterinary Programs Manager for South America where he had the opportunity to introduce the concept of animal welfare in various Veterinary and Animal Science Schools of the region. Although his work was very fulfilling, he had the need to continue with his education and he moved to Montreal (Canada) where he completed his PhD under the guidance of Dr. Kevin Wade studying longevity and profitability of dairy cows.

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Di Liang

UW2020 Virtual Dairy Farm Brain (Sep 2017 - Sep 2018)

Di grew up in China and got her BS in China Agricultural University. Then she obtained a MS degree in Animal Science from the University of Kentucky, focused on dairy health economics. Di completed her PhD in August 2017 and then she worked as a postdoc in the UW2020 virtual dairy farm brain project.

Ph.D. Students


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Yijing Gong

Whole-farm system model (June 2021 - Present)

Yijing got her Bachelor’s degree in Food Science from Cornell University. Then she continued his Master’s study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she researched on cheese production under the supervision of Dr. John Lucey. At the same time, she finished her double-major Master’s degree in Computer Science from the same university. She began her PhD program in summer 2021 under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera. She is currently working on developing a holistic whole-farm system model, which could provide farmers with various decision support tools as well as improve environmental sustainability.

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Manfei Li

Ruminant Farm System (RuFaS) Model (Jan 2017 - Present)

Manfei came from China and got her BS degree in China Agricultural University in Animal Science. After that she attended Nestle DFI L4 advanced dairy management course. Her PhD program started at Spring 2017 under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera. She is currently working on generating a holistic dairy farm management tool and closely working with the Integrated Farm System Model.

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Di Liang

Dairy Farm Simulation Modeling (Sep 2013 - Aug 2017)

Di grew up in China and got her BS in China Agricultural University. Then she obtained a MS degree in Animal Science from the University of Kentucky, focused on dairy health economics.

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Afshin Samia Kalantari

Dairy Herd Simulation Modelling (Sep 2010 - Aug 2014)

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. Afshin worked under the guidance of Dr. Cabrera studying optimal reproductive management strategies with the aim of improving dairy cattle reproductive efficiency.

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Marion Dutreuil

Organic and Grazing Dairy Farm Systems (Jan 2010 - Dec 2014)

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.
Marion did her PhD program working on a project named: “Strategies of pasture supplementation on organic and conventional grazing dairies: assessment of economic, production and environmental outcomes.”

M.S. Students


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Wen Li

M.S. Student (Sep 2018 - Aug 2020)

Wen is from China and had his BS degree in Northwest A&F University in Animal Science focusing on dairy nutrition. He followed his father, a dairy manager and consultant, to learn farm management.

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Jorge Barrientos

Nutritional Accuracy (Jun 2017 - Aug 2019)

Jorge is from Costa Rica. He had his Agronomy B.S. from the Tecnológico de Costa Rica, San Carlos. Later, he obtained a MS degree in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University, focused on dairy reproduction economics. He worked on Nutritional grouping strategies and dairy diet precision analysis in Wisconsin dairy farms.

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Yaqi Wu

Nutritional Grouping of Lactating Cows (Sep 2015 - Aug 2017)

Yaqi Wu received a bachelor's degree in Agronomy from Anhui Agricultural University and master's degree in Animal Science from China Agricultural University. Her study field was dairy management modeling and nutritional grouping. She is interested in dairy nutrition, dairy modeling and dairy management strategy.

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Claudia Hardie

Organic Dairy Farm Systems (Sep 2011 - Aug 2013)

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.

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Mayuri Valvekar

Milk Price Risk Assessment and Insurance (Sep 2008 - Aug 2010)

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.

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Jay Janowski

Dairy Farm Expansion Assessment (Sep 2008 - Aug 2010)

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.

Sabbatical Researcher


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Édith Charbonneau

Economics of Wisconsin and Quebec Dairy Farms (2018 - 2019)

Édith Charbonneau is a professor at Laval University. Her topics of research are related to dairy farm management and cow’s nutrition. She has developed an expertise in evaluating her topics of interest at a whole-farm level. She is currently working on projects evaluating the impact of strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emission at the whole-farm level, evaluating strategies for dairy farms adaptation to climate change, and she is working on new ways to manage cows and calves for optimal farm profit.

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Huichao Zheng

Feed Ingredients Pricing (2017)

Dr. Huichao Zheng is an associate professor and extension specialist at the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Dr. Huichao Zheng research area is herbivore feed resource development and nutrition regulation. Dr. Huichao Zheng paid more attention on herbivore farm management and big data analysis in the recent years. During her short career, Dr. Huichao Zheng has published more than 20 refereed articles with 3 in English, applied for 2 patents with 1 patent granted, and given talks or presentation in more than 10 symposium and extension meetings in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei province and abroad like USA. Dr. Huichao Zheng has attracted about ¥1.0 million to support her research and extension initiatives. Dr. Huichao Zheng achieved 1 Zhejiang First Prize in Science & Technology in 2013 and 1 Zhejiang Third Prize in Science & Technology in 2008, as the third accomplisher at ZAAS. Dr. Huichao Zheng gained Zhejiang Second Prize in Science & Technology in 2006 as the fifth accomplisher at Zhejiang University.

Interns


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Andrea Bellingeri

Allocation of Nutrient Resources in Dairy Herds (2018/2019)

Andrea is a dairy consultant and nutritionist I Northern Italy who finished his PhD in dairy nutrition and management in 2020. He has extensive knowledge as agronomist, diet formulation for dairy cattle, and overall dairy farm nutrition and cost of production analyses with emphasis in production of forages and milk.

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Ramón Mur

Economics of Twin Pregancies (2017)

Ramón grew up between cows in a small farm in the deep of Spanish mountains. While working every weekend and holiday in his family farm he became Agricultural Engineer specialized in Animal Production in the University of Lleida. Since 2014 he is carrying out a PhD in Dairy Cattle Reproduction and working as consultant and reproductive technician in commercial farms under the supervision of Dr. Fernando López-Gatius. His target as researcher is to find ways to improve farms profitability and farmers quality of life. During his internship in Dr. Victor Cabrera lab he is developing tools that combine farm data with scientific knowledge to assist decisions in dairy farms.

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Veronique Ouellet

Economics of Heat Stress on Dairy Cows (2017)

Veronique Ouellet is currently a PhD student at Laval University in Canada under the advisement of Dr. Edith Charbonneau. Her research focuses on the impacts of climate change on dairy farms and on the implementation of adaptation strategies. Prior to starting her PhD program, she completed her Bachelor degree in agronomy at Laval University. While pursuing her bachelor degree, Veronique worked as a research assistant at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She received her Masters degree in animal science in 2015 from Laval University. She also did a research fellowship at the Berlin Universitat in the fall of 2014 under the advisement of Pr. Wolgang Heuwieser.

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Lenka Krpálková

Replacement Decisions (2013)

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.

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Mónica Piccardi

Farm Management and Decision Making (2010)

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.

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Emiliano Demarchi

Adjust Decision Support Tools to South America (2010)

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 worked to translate and adjust some decision support tools to the Argentinian conditions.

Outreach Specialists


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Francisco E. Contreras-Govea

Feed Efficiency of Dairy Cattle (2011 - 2016)

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. He was an 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.

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Connie Cordoba

Repro Money Project (2010 - 2015)

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. She was 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."

Project Assistants


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Mihir Jagtap

Software Developer, Project Assistant (March 2022 - Present)

Mihir takes on the responsibility for the research, design, and execution of web-based tools that are crucial for performing data analysis and visualization. This supports decision-making processes in dairy farming, with a strong focus on research driven by scientific models. Additionally, Mihir is tasked with fine-tuning and troubleshooting already established research web-tools. He has developed the "Optimal Allocation of Nutritional Resources and Crop Planning in a Dairy Herd" tool with many more tools in progress for completion. Mihir joined the team in March 2022. He is currently on the path to earn his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Data Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. (LinkedIn)

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Ze Yu

Software Developer, Project Assistant (Past)

Ze is responsible for the design and implementation of web-tools to perform analysis and visualize the data to support dairy farming decision-making focusing on model-based scientific research. He is also responsible for refining and debugging pre-existing research web-tools. He joined the team in April 2021. Ze is pursuing MS in Biomedical Data Science at UW-Madison.

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Fardeen Meeran

Software Developer, Project Assistant (Past)

Fardeen is responsible for the application development for the website. He is also responsible for the development of web tools for dairymgt.info which focuses on scientific based research that helps dairy-farming decision making. He is currently a senior undergraduate student at UW-Madison pursuing a B.S in Computer Science.

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Ashish Singh

Software Developer, Project Assistant (Past)

Ashish is responsible for the design and implementation of web-tools to perform analysis and visualize the data to support dairy farming decision-making focusing on model-based scientific research. He is also responsible for refining and debugging pre-existing research web-tools. He joined the team in May 2020. Ashish is pursuing MS in Biomedical Data Science at UW-Madison.

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Sayem Wani

LAMP Stack Web Developer, Project Assistant (Past)

Sayem was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Development and IT support for Dr Cabrera and the Dairy Management group. He joined the team in September 2019. Sayem pursued his undergraduate degree in Computer Science at UW-Madison.

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Ajmain Naqib

LAMP Stack Web Developer, Project Assistant (Past)

Ajmain was responsible for developing and managing the website design and it's content for Dairy Management alongside developing, refining, and debugging new, and pre-existing research web-tools. He joined the team in late January 2018. Ajmain pursued a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and intended certificate in Mathematics and/or Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison.

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Zachary Harrison

Project Assistant (Past)

Zachary was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Development and IT support for Dr Cabrera and the Dairy Management group. He joined the team in January 2018. Zachary pursued his undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science at UW-Madison.

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Pedro Melgarejo

Project Assistant (Past)

Pedro was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Developement and IT support for Dairy Management group. He joined the team in July 2013. Pedro pursued his Ph.D in Computer Engineering at UW-Madison.

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Prasanth Krishnan

Project Assistant (Past)

Prasanth was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Developement and IT support for Dairy Management group. He joined the team in January 2015. Prasanth pursued his Masters in Computer Sciences at UW-Madison.

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Sathiya Kumaran

Project Assistant (Past)

Sathiya was responsible for Web Based Application Development, WebSite Developement and IT support for Dairy Management group. He joined the team in September 2013. Sathiya pursued his Masters in Computer Sciences at UW-Madison.

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Varun Vats

Project Assistant (Past)

Varun worked with Dr. Cabrera to implement dairy management tools using web technologies. He was 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 pursued 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.

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Anjali Gola

Project Assistant (Past)

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

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Krishnendra Nathella

Project Assistant (Past)

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

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Nikhil Suryanarayanan

Project Assistant (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 pursued his Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering at UW-Madison.