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By Shelly Mayer, PDPW Executive Director
What just happened? The little girl I put on the bus to school 12 years ago is about to graduate high school.
If you’re a parent, you likely share my sentiments—that tightness in your stomach as you wrestle with the sense that something is coming to an end; that giddiness as you think about the exciting future this young adult has in front of her. Cassie, our daughter, is ready for the next step…now it is time for her parents to grow a little more too.
Like many dairy producers, family life is blended with professional life as we live and grow together on the farm. So as I reflect upon the emotion of my daughter’s graduation, I cannot help but think about dairy producers as a class of students, solidly schooled by our experiences, nostalgic for the past, yet needing to be prepared for the next challenge in a bigger world.
If you are first getting started in business, or if you can recall those early years, you know that as a young dairy producer you spend your days learning the basics of the business, becoming better at your strengths and learning how to find answers on the difficult subjects. You explore possibilities to apply your talents as you grow.
As you progress through your career, you find that there are always new challenges to conquer. Yes, there are the usual ones brought on by weather, seasonal time crunches or economic cycles. Then there are new challenges brought on by stronger winds of change: the village line than moves a little closer to your farm. Environmental regulations that are more challenging than ever to decipher. Consumer questions about what we do. The growing family that wants to transition into ownership of the farm.
Mounting pressures from these challenges reveal one important fact of life: You never outgrow your need to learn. Maybe you hold a degree from one of our outstanding high schools, technical colleges or university dairy science programs, yet those degrees were just a beginning for you. Agriculture’s winds continue to shift everything in the industry, and we need to be prepared. That’s why PDPW exists—to equip producers with lifelong learning opportunities, so they can thrive amidst change.
PDPW’s producer committees are working hard right now setting the course for our professional development programs for the 2010-11 year. (Look for that calendar to be released in July.) Plans are set for our 2011 Youth Leadership Derby at DeForest High School in November. And to enable producers to communicate within our changing communities, PDPW is introducing a series of twilight meetings through our Agriculture Community Engagement (ACE) program. These meetings are designed for our local elected leaders from Wisconsin Towns and Counties Associations to visit dairies and then discuss issues that connect agriculture and our communities. Meetings are August 11-12 and will be held at the Joe Bragger’s family farm near Independence and Karl Klessig’s family dairy near Cleveland. The events will begin around 6:30. This is an opportunity for dairy producers and other leaders to share and learn from one another.
You can visit www.pdpw.org for more information on all these opportunities.
For her next life step, my daughter has enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am thankfulthat we have such great choices of educational institutions right here in our back yard, so she will not be far from home and still be able obtain a world class education.
Likewise, think about the privilege that is ours having a professional development organization like PDPW, designed by dairy producers for dairy producers. It’s a credible voice to the world, because it is our producer voice. Standing together in an organization like PDPW, we can send the message out into the changing world that we dairy producers are committed to continuous improvement and lifelong learning. For consumers and other stakeholders, that builds confidence in our profession.
If you have not renewed your PDPW membership, or if you have not been to a PDPW event recently, consider it your privilege and responsibility to continue your education through your professional development organization. With all the changes happening in our industry, it is unlikely that you will remain unruffled by the winds of change. I urge you to be prepared. In my years as your executive director, I’ve witnessed the growth and development of many dairy producers through PDPW, and they are stronger today because of it.
It’s a time of change for Cassie as she prepares to leave behind the familiar and move into the exciting world of higher education. It’s a time of change for her parents too, watching this butterfly spread her wings, praying that she can handle the winds of change that will be blowing all around her.
It’s time to enroll in continuing education. And do it now. Time flies.
This commentary appeared on May 25, 2010 in Agri-View and is posted here with permission.
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