Dr. Robert Hagevoort, a native of The Netherlands, is an Associate Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist at New Mexico State University. Prior to joining NMSU in November of 2005, Dr. Hagevoort served for over 10 years as an independent dairy management consultant primarily in California’s southern and central Valley. As an Extension Specialist, he has been working closely with the dairy industry in New Mexico and across the West regarding many regulatory and environmental issues. In an effort to rebuild a dairy program, Hagevoort is one of the co-founders of the U.S. Dairy Education & Training Consortium, which provided the incentive for a re-establishment of a minor in dairy at NMSU. A key component of his current program is the development and implementation of a comprehensive dairy workforce training & safety program. A great deal of time is spent working individually with dairies and collectively with producer associations on implementing and evaluating comprehensive workforce training programs in dairy safety, animal handling, parlor performance, calf care, feeder performance, and hospital and maternity care. A recent direction, because of expressed producer needs, is a focus on the development of effective middle-manager training programs.