New Prague, Minn. (January 30, 2025) – With a theme of “Raising the Bar! Elevating Global Milk Quality,” nearly 300 National Mastitis Council (NMC) members from around the world gathered for the group’s 64th annual meeting, held Jan. 27-30, in Charlotte, N.C. Attendees hailed from 31 U.S. states, five Canadian provinces and 21 countries, and represented milk quality, mastitis and udder health researchers, dairy producers and dairy industry partners. Meeting topics ranged from data-driven milking diagnostics to milk quality in high throughput milking systems to mammary development and mastitis risk in pregnant heifers to what to prepare for when using recycled bedding materials.
“NMC continues to expand its reach beyond North America – with members in more than 40 countries. That’s why ‘global’ played a key role in executing this year’s NMC Annual Meeting,” stated Justine Britten, NMC Annual Meeting program chair and Udder Health Systems laboratory director. “Additionally, NMC continues to ‘raise the bar’ for higher milk quality and animal care standards through educational programming and hands-on training opportunities.”
During this event, NMC honored Graeme Mein, Werribee, Victoria, Australia, who spent more than three decades with the Australia Department of Agriculture. He received the NMC Award of Excellence for Contribution to Mastitis Prevention and Control, which is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. After leaving the Australia Department of Agriculture, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Melbourne. Also, he worked as a vice president and then director of research for BouMatic, DEC International.
In the National Dairy Quality Awards program, NMC honored six dairy operations as Platinum winners. These top-quality milk producers included Cottonwood Dairy, South Wayne, Wis.; Country Aire Farms, Greenleaf, Wis.; Diamond J Dairy, Merced, Calif.; Green Hill Dairy, Scipio Center, N.Y.; Michigan State University Training and Research Center, Lansing, Mich.; and Stuart Farms Inc., Lowell, Mich. Judges selected outstanding dairies to receive this honor based on quality milk production indicators, such as somatic cell count and bacteria count, along with milking routine, systems of monitoring udder health, treatment protocols and strategies for overall herd health and welfare. These herds ranged in size from 255 to 1,897 cows. Annual milk production (per cow) averaged from 23,383 pounds to 33,260 pounds. For average somatic cell count (June 1, 2023-May 31, 2024), these dairies varied from 53,000 to 97,000 cells/ml.
NMC awarded scholarships to six remarkable graduate students to attend the NMC Annual Meeting. This year’s NMC Scholars were Ridwan Adesola, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo.; José Augusto Ferronatto, Penn State University, University Park, Pa.; Ana Beatriz Montevecchio Bernardino, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.; Alexandre Rico Fernandez, University of California-Davis, Davis, Calif.; Matías Goddard, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile; and Gregory Rota, University of Ghent and University of Liège, Belgium. The NMC Scholars program fosters the development of mastitis research and milk quality professionals from around the world.
During the NMC Annual Business meeting, members elected Jessica Belsito, IBA Inc., Sutton, Mass.; Jeffrey Bewley, Holstein Association, USA; Elizabethtown, Ky.; and Carolina Pinzón-Sánchez, University of Wisconsin-Division of Extension, Madison, Wis.; to the NMC board of directors. Executive committee members are Justine Britten, Udder Health Systems, Meridian, Idaho, president; Roger Thomson, Michigan State University and MQ-IQ Consulting LLC, Battle Creek, Mich., first vice president; Alfonso Lago, DairyExperts, Inc., Tulare, Calif., second vice president; Christy Dinsmoore, Michigan Milk Producers Association, Novi, Mich.; secretary-treasurer; and Keith Engel, GEA, Hampshire, Ill., past president. Other board members include Simon Dufour, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Rick Watters, AgroChem, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Amy Vasquez, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.; Stephen Jones, DeLaval, Trinity, Fla.; Ian Ohnstad, The Dairy Group, Dorchester, Somerset, England; Justin Graham, BrooksCo Dairy, Quitman, Ga.; and Pamela Adkins, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Christina Petersson-Wolfe, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va.; Juan “Rodrigo” Pedraza, Zoetis, Willow Park, Texas; and Brandon Treichler, Treichler Consulting Services, Canyon, Texas; retired from the board.
Additionally, NMC members approved a name change for the National Mastitis Council. The organization will now be referred to as NMC: The Global Milk Quality Organization.
NMC thanks its annual meeting sponsors who contributed to the program’s success. The Diamond sponsor was DeLaval International AB. Platinum sponsors were Boehringer Ingelheim, GEA Farm Technologies, Inc. and Zoetis. Gold sponsors included Acepsis, AgroChem USA, Ecolab, Land O’Lakes and Merck Animal Health. Silver sponsors were Axiota and BouMatic. Bronze sponsors included ABS Global, Corner Window Communications, McLanahan Corporation, Michigan Milk Producers Association and Safeguard Biosystems, Inc. Dairy Partner sponsors included Christian Hill Dairy, Luck-E Holsteins and Tollgate Holsteins.
The 65th NMC Annual Meeting is set for Jan. 26- 29, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. For additional information, go to: www.nmconline.org.
NMC: The Global Milk Quality Organization is a non-profit professional organization devoted to reducing mastitis and enhancing milk quality. NMC promotes research and provides science-based information to the dairy industry on udder health, milking management, milk quality, animal welfare and food safety. Founded in 1961, NMC has about 1,000 members in more than 40 countries throughout the world.
