ABOUT US

Mission: The University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Profitability develops and delivers effective interdisciplinary education and applied research to dairy farms and dairy industry service providers resulting in sustainable profitable decisions, and a healthy and progressive dairy industry.

Better Planning, Better Decisions

Who We Are…


Mark Stephenson is the Director of the Center for Dairy Profitability. He is an Agricultural Economist whose area of specialty is Dairy Markets and Policy. In this position, Dr. Stephenson conducts and coordinates research and outreach activities related to the dairy industry. He is involved in applied research at the firm-level, including milk assembly costs, processing costs, and efficiencies. He is also active in sector-level performance including dairy policy and price forecasting policy and price forecasting.

Contact:  608-890-3755, mark.stephenson@wisc.edu

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Kevin Bernhardt holds a fifty percent split appointment as Professor for UW-Platteville School of Agriculture and Farm Management Specialist for UW-Extension and the Center for Dairy Profitability.  Teaching includes Agricultural Prices and Risk Management, Agribusiness Management, and Agricultural Marketing.  UW-Extension research and education efforts include farm and risk management, financial analysis, building business resiliency, and commodity marketing, particularly milk marketing. Before coming to Wisconsin he held positions as a Loan Officer, Hills Bank and Trust Company; Agricultural Economist, USDA/Foreign Agriculture Service; Fellowship, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley’s Senate Office; Program Director, Agribusiness Program and Director, Pioneer Academic Center for Community Engagement – UW-Platteville.  Kevin holds a BS Agribusiness, Iowa State University; MS Economics and Business, North Carolina State University;  PhD Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He grew up on a small (hobby) farm in Northcentral Iowa and is married with four kids; living in Platteville, Wisconsin.

Contact: 680-342-1365, bernhark@uwplatt.edu

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Joy Kirkpatrick has worked in University of Wisconsin Extension since 1993.  She began her Extension career as a county-based Dairy & Livestock Agent. In 2004 she became the Outreach Specialist for the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Profitability. In her current job she collaborates with colleagues to provide educational programs and information to farm businesses on farm succession planning.  Kirkpatrick received both her BS and MS degrees from SIU – Carbondale.  Programs include Returning to the Farm, Shifting Gears for Your Later Farming Years and other programs that focus on succession planning.

Contact: 608-263-3485, joy.kirkpatrick@ces.uwex.edu

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