By james art Manuel Peña is the new regional dairy educator for Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Dodge and Ozaukee counties. He is originally from Duitama, a small town in Colombia, 3 hours north of Bogotá, the capital. He received his bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. In recent semesters, he has been working at a national breed association. After graduation, he did an internship at North Carolina State University working on dairy management and another at the University of Florida working on feed and nutrition. While working at UF, he connected with a Clemson University professor who would later serve as his advisor for his master’s and Ph.D. His research focuses on ruminant nutrition and forage management for the dairy industry. Manuel looks forward to giving back to the community, helping as much as possible with issues that affect dairy farmers, as well as learning from their success and working together to find solutions. In addition, he looks forward to working with extension specialists.
In his spare time, he enjoys outdoor activities and sports, but also listening to music, reading and writing, and although he is not a good player, he is very fond of chess.
Extension has been working with farmers for more than 100 years, and we are diversifying our employee portfolio to meet the changing needs of our clients. The Regional Dairy Educator position is designed to work with dairy producers and agribusiness professionals in a multi-county service area to solve production challenges and incorporate new research findings into informational and educational materials that improve production efficiency and profitability of dairy products while taking environmental sustainability into account.
Manuel Peña will work with manufacturers in their service area to identify needs and provide research-based solutions to help them achieve their goals. This position covers Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Fond du lac & Dodge counties. To learn more about the UW-Madison Division of Extension Dairy Program visit our website: