During the mid-1990s, many Wisconsin dairy producers were expanding and modernizing to stay competitive with the emerging dairies in the western United States. Producers faced many challenges in expansion, one of which was a need to manage and find quality workers in a tight job market. Faced with these challenges, many dairy producers turned to workers of Latino descent to fill their labor shortage. This practice solved an immediate need to hire milkers, but led to training needs and language and cultural barriers.

Two programs for dairy producers and workers emerged in response to their cross-cultural training needs, as well as a coordinated effort to collect bilingual resources from across the state.

Training Programs

The following training programs have been developed to meet the growing needs of dairy producers, farmworkers and their families. To learn more about these programs, please click on their names to be directed to their websites.

Bridges/Puentes
The Puentes/Bridges program is designed for dairy producers and their Mexican employees. The mission is to build bridges of understanding between dairy producers and their employees through cross-cultural educational programs. Puentes/Bridges offers coursework through UW-River Falls, a Holistic Resource Management course and travel programs to Mexico.

Contact
Shaun Judge Duvall
Puentes/Bridges Program
1245 Riverview Drive
Alma , WI 54610
Phone: 608-685-4705
shaunjd@tds.net

Dairy Technician Certification Program
The Dairy Technician Certification Program is cooperative program between Puentes/Bridges and the Mexican government to offer certification as a basic dairy technician. The program is an 8-hour course that includes employee skills, a milk quality seminar and a written or oral exam and observation by officials of the Mexican government.

Contact
Shaun Judge Duvall
Puentes/Bridges Program
1245 Riverview Drive
Alma , WI 54610
Phone: 608-685-4705
shaunjd@tds.net

UW-Extension, Outagamie County www.co.outagamie.wi.us/uwex/dairy_and_livestock.htm

The UW-Extension Dairy Team sub-group on Hispanic Labor is coordinating educational programs in Wisconsin. They provide dairy farmers and Latino workers with employment training. They currently are running pilot programs on Milk Quality and Mastitis, Dairy Cow Reproduction, Calf Care and Herdsmanship. This group is also planning DVD’s on cow-side exams and the birthing process.

Contact
Zen Miller
UW-Extension, Outagamie County
3365 W. Brewster Street
Appleton , WI 54914
Phone: 920-832-5119
Email: zen.miller@ces.uwex.edu

ESL Continuing Education Program http://www.uwec.edu/ce/iep.htm

UW-Eau Claire, in collaboration with UW-Stout and UW-River Falls, offers customized English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in both summer and academic-year sessions.

Contact
Kelly Wonder, Program Coordinator
UW-Eau Claire

ESL Summer program, EC, Stout, RF – www.uwec.edu/ce/iep.html
Kelly Wonder, Program Coordinator
Phone: 715-836-3636
Email: wonderka@uwec.edu

Wisconsin Technical College System http://www.witechcolleges.com/

Through their Adult Basic Education program, WI Technical colleges offer instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) which is designed to assist individuals whose dominant language is other than English with reading, writing and communicating in English. ESL programs include one-to-one instruction, independent study (often with computer-aided instruction), group instruction, and work with bilingual tutors. Campuses that offer this course include:

Contact
Wisconsin Technical College System Office
Chris Vandel
345 West Washington Avenue , 2nd Floor
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: 608-266-2222