From robotic milkers to grilled cheese sandwiches: World Dairy Expo has it all

It's dairy week in America's Dairyland.

Hundreds of vendors and thousands of cows have converged in Madison for World Dairy Expo, which will run from Tuesday through Friday at the Alliant Energy Center.

The world's largest dairy-focused trade show, now in its 57th year, is expected to draw an estimated 55,000 to 60,000 attendees from all over the U.S. and about 90 other countries. It will stay in Madison through at least 2028 under an agreement the trade show and Dane County reached last year.

For dairy farmers, the expo is a "one-stop shop" with a mix of entertainment, education and new products to discover, said Laura Herschleb, World Dairy Expo's general manager.

"A lot of folks think of it as a family reunion," Herschleb said. "This is the time of year that they get to come back together and reconnect and get re-energized."

It won't be all farmers, though. Thousands of FFA students plan to compete or cheer on their friends. More than 1,000 Dane County fourth graders are set to pass through on field trips. And plenty of other non-farmers will also visit the sprawling expo in the coming days.

World Dairy Expo is the biggest event the Alliant Energy Center puts on all year.

This year, there will be exhibits in the Exhibition Hall and the Coliseum. The two New Holland Pavilions and a pair of temporary tents will house roughly 2,600 cattle, while the trade show — featuring about 625 companies across 550 booths — will spill over into a third tent and an "outdoor trade mall."

"We use basically every square inch of the Alliant Energy Center grounds," Herschleb said.

The trade show has evolved over the years to keep up with the changes in the dairy industry. Among the many products on display at this year's show are robotic milkers, robotic feed pushers and other technologies meant to ease farmers' workload.

Herschleb recommends that attendees take the opportunity to talk to farmers and vendors and see some of the hulking equipment used on dairy farms up close.

One can't-miss part of the expo, she said, is the stand where the UW-Madison Badger Dairy Club sells grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milkshakes.

"They work with dairy farmers in Wisconsin to get amazing cheeses from Wisconsin," Herschleb said of the Badger Dairy Club. "There's no bad time of day to have a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate shake."

Growth and development reporter