James “Cricket” Jacquier farms alongside his wife, parents, brother, nephews, niece and son at Laurelbrook Farm in East Canaan, Connecticut. Together they run a diversified agricultural business that includes a 1,500-head dairy operation, 3,00 acres of corn and alfalfa and a compost and soil business. Cricket’s grandparents started the farm in 1948. The family has gradually grown the business as family members have come back home. Cricket joined the operation right out of high school and he started as a herdsman of a then 500-head herd. Today Cricket oversees the dairy and its 23 employees. “My passion is the cows,” said Cricket. He focuses his work on managing production, components per cow, reproduction efficiency and nutrition. And he is proud that the fourth generation is engaged and involved on the farm.

Cricket is Chairman of the Board for Agri-Mark, Inc., where he has served as a director for more than ten years. He serves on the board for the New England Dairy Promotion Board, Dairy Management Inc. and the National Milk Producers Federation. He is a long-time supporter of FFA and is the chairman of the Ag Advisory Committee for the Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Cricket and his wife Jenn have two children, Morgan and Colby.

Kate grew up on a pear orchard and beef cattle ranch in Parkdale, Oregon and her family continues to farm there. She graduated from Linfield College with a BS in Biology and played Division 3 soccer there for two seasons. She followed her childhood dream to become a veterinarian and graduated from Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2004. Kate was introduced to dairy cattle her first year at MSU and has focused on it ever since doing an internship at a 3600-cow dairy for a year, then practicing in Michigan for 8 years as a food animal veterinarian.

She, her husband, their two sons moved to Washington and managed an 800-cow dairy for a year, before moving to Tillamook. Kate managed a mobile dairy vet medicine practice for 3 years until June 2017, when she went to work at Tillamook County Creamery Association as the Director of Farm Engagement.

Her role at TCCA centers around farm services; providing resources and services to Tillamook member farms and maintaining a comprehensive farm assurance plan to insure we are continuously improving our farming practices and supporting the Tillamook brand.

Kate has participated with NMPF FARM Animal Care Program for several years, first as a trained Version 3 evaluator and then joined the NMPF Animal Health and Well-Being (AWHB) committee in 2019 to work on Version 4. She is committed to cows and advocate for them, while being realistic about farm facilities, management, and profitability.

In her spare time, she coaches her sons and watch them play soccer and baseball, raise goats, garden, cook and enjoy living on the Oregon Coast.

Jennifer Van Os is an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in Animal Welfare in the Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). The research in her lab at UW-Madison focuses on understanding, evaluating, and improving the welfare of dairy animals from both biological and social perspectives.

Dr. Van Os believes understanding and promoting animal welfare to be an essential part of achieving sustainability in food animal production. To this end, the applied questions in her research program follow these broad themes: (1) understanding the needs of dairy animals from a biological, species- and life-stage-appropriate perspective: what behaviors are important for them to be able to express and what resources do they need? (2) Improving the fit between dairy animals and their environments: how do housing, management, and handling decisions affect cattle behavior, physiology, and production? (3) How do we evaluate animal welfare effectively in both research and commercial farm settings? To complement her research program, the goal of Dr. Van Os’ extension program is to promote best practices in management and housing to help the dairy industry adapt as our scientific knowledge about animal welfare continues to grow.

Dr. Van Os earned a B.A. in Psychology in 2004 from Harvard University, where she conducted original research on memory and aging in humans. After gaining 6 years of professional business experience, Dr. Van Os attended graduate school at the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis) from 2010-2015 and received her PhD in the interdisciplinary Animal Behavior graduate program. She then conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Animal Science at UC-Davis in 2016 and in the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia, Canada in 2017. From 2016-2020, she served as the Communications Officer on the Council for the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE). She joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 2018.

Dr. Emily Miller-Cushon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida. Her research program focuses on improving knowledge about dairy calf rearing and management and developing novel ways to measure animal welfare. She has specifically investigated the role of dairy calf feeding and housing management in behavioral development, performance, and health, with the aim of refining early rearing practices to improve long-term dairy cattle welfare.

She has received the New Investigator Award from the International Society for Applied Ethology in recognition of her research accomplishments. She also leads an active teaching program in animal behavior and welfare.

Dr. Miller-Cushon serves on the program committee for the Dairy Cattle Welfare Council and has served as chair of the Animal Behavior and Well-being Program committee for the American Dairy Science Association Annual Meeting. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Guelph and B.S. from the University of Waterloo.

Nathan Chittenden farms alongside his two brothers and his parents at Dutch Hollow Farm LLC, in Schodack Landing NY. Starting with a small herd of 55 registered Jerseys in 1976, the family has grown steadily through internal growth to the herd of 800 today. The families commitment to the registered Jersey breed as well as their public outreach has earned them a spot in the National Dairy Shrine. After receiving his BS in Animal Science at Cornell in 2000, Nate returned home to the family farm where he married his wife Jill. Today they have 3 children, Zachary, Jonathan, and Anna. In addition to managing the calves and young heifers, Nathan has also been active as a 4H leader and past president and Vice President of the local board of directors of Cooperative Extension. Nathan has also served as President and Vice President of the YC’s of his Coop, Agrimark.

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