Manuel Peña is the new Regional Dairy Educator for Sheboygan, Fond Du Lac, Dodge, and Ozaukee Counties. He is originally from Duitama, a small city in Colombia, 3 hours north of Bogotá, the capital city. He received his bachelor’s degree in Animal Science at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. In the last semesters he worked for a national breeding association. After graduation he did an internship at NC State University working on Dairy management and another one at University of Florida working on forages and nutrition.
Working at UF he linked with a Clemson’s University professor who later would be his adviser on his master’s and PhD degrees. His research has been focused on ruminal nutrition and forage management for the dairy industry. Manuel is looking forward to giving back to the community, helping as much as possible with issues that affect dairy farmers as much as to learn from their success and work together to find solutions. In addition, he is looking forward to working with Extension specialists. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities and sports but also listening to music, reading, and writing and even though he is not a great player he enjoys chess a lot. Extension has been working with farmers for more than 100 years, and we’re diversifying our staffing portfolio to meet the evolving needs of our clientele. The Regional Dairy Educator position is designed to work with dairy producers and agribusiness professionals across a multi-county service area to solve production challenges and incorporate new research findings into outreach and educational materials that improve the efficiency and profitability of dairy production while also considering environmental sustainability. Manuel Peña will work with producers in their service area to identify needs and deliver research-based solutions to help them meet their goals. This position covers Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Fond du lac & Dodge Counties. To learn more about the UW-Madison Division of Extension Dairy Program visit our website: https://dairy.extension.wisc.edu/.
