Wisconsin Dairy Industry Supported by New Research Team

By Blake Jackson

The Dairy Innovation Hub, a Wisconsin-funded initiative, has recently expanded its faculty with four new members at UW-Madison and UW-River Falls.

This expansion aims to bolster research in key areas: land and water stewardship, human health and nutrition, animal health and welfare, and farm business and community growth.

Funded by a $7.8 million annual state investment, the Dairy Innovation Hub supports the $52.8 billion Wisconsin dairy industry, ensuring its continued global leadership in nutritious dairy production with an emphasis on economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

These new faculty members join fourteen existing researchers, fostering collaboration across UW-Madison, UW-Platteville, and UW-River Falls campuses.

• At UW-Madison, Yun Jiang, an assistant professor in Animal and Dairy Science, focuses on dairy nutrition. Her research aims to improve ruminal fermentation and feed efficiency, while reducing methane emissions and enhancing feed quality.
• Gregg Sanford, an assistant professor in Soil and Environmental Sciences, specializes in soil carbon and cropping systems ecology. He brings extensive experience from on-farm research trials and long-term cropping experiments at UW research stations.
• Rebecca Smith, an assistant professor in Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences, focuses on plant science for dairy sustainability. As a co-investigator in the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, she works on genetically engineering plant cell walls in forage and bioenergy crops to improve digestibility and animal nutrition.
• At UW-River Falls, Md Azhar Uddin joins the Department of Agricultural Economics as an assistant professor. His research will cover dairy-related topics such as agribusiness marketing, behavioral and experimental economics, and health economics.

These appointments, all effective as of August 2024, will enhance the Dairy Innovation Hub’s capacity to support Wisconsin’s dairy industry through innovative research and collaboration.

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