Smart Calf Rearing Conference 2027 · Cremona, 6–10 March 2027
Speakers
The people who will be on stage in Cremona, in their own words. The scientific programme runs on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 March in the Aula Magna of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; the Producer Day on Saturday 6 March brings part of the same work to the farm.
Biographies are published as each speaker wrote them, in English.
Melissa Cantor
Assistant Professor of Precision Dairy SciencePenn State University, United States
PresentationAI in calf management, are we ready?
Her research focuses on developing practical tools that help producers detect disease earlier, improve animal welfare, and make more informed management decisions using wearable sensors, automated feeding systems, and machine learning. She has authored 41 peer-reviewed publications and works closely with producers, veterinarians, engineers and computer scientists to ensure emerging technologies address real-world challenges. She leads Penn State's Calf Success Program and has presented her work to producers and scientists throughout North America, Europe and South America.
Jean-Baptiste Daniel
Ruminant ResearcherTrouw Nutrition R&D, the Netherlands
PresentationAre whole-milk calves deficient in trace minerals? Or milk-replacer calves overfed?
He grew up on a dairy farm in France and holds an MSc in Animal Sciences from Wageningen University. He began his research career in 2012 with Trouw Nutrition's Ruminant R&D team and completed a PhD with AgroParisTech-INRAE and Trouw Nutrition on dairy cow milk yield and composition responses to dietary changes. Since 2016 he has contributed to research in nitrogen efficiency, gut health and mineral nutrition, and has authored over 40 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals.
Amanda Fischer-Tlustos
NSERC Postdoctoral FellowUniversity of California, Davis, United States
PresentationIt starts with the dam: maternal, metabolic and mammary drivers of colostrum synthesis and calf success
Her graduate research focused on the effects of colostrum management practices on neonatal calf gastrointestinal development, and on the prepartum cow-level factors that influence the composition and production of bovine colostrum. Her current work aims to characterise dry and lactating mammary metabolism and to unravel the complexity of the prepartum process of colostrogenesis, with the ultimate goal of improving both cow and calf production efficiency.
Morteza Hosseini Ghaffari
Senior scientistResearch Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN), Germany
PresentationMetabolomic trajectories of dairy calf development: ontogeny and nutritional modulation
His research integrates nutritional physiology, metabolomics and data-driven phenotyping to investigate metabolic development and adaptation in dairy cattle. In calves he examines how colostrum and transition milk, milk-feeding intensity, milk-replacer composition, forage provision, starter formulation and weaning shape development and systemic metabolic maturation. His work aims to identify the nutritional and physiological determinants of health, resilience and lifetime performance.
Michael Iwersen
Professor, Clinic for Ruminants with Ambulatory and Herd Health ServiceLudwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany
Joint presentationBefore the cough: Early detection of respiratory disease through technology
Michael’s research focuses on animal health monitoring, including artificial intelligence and sensor technologies. He is a board member of the European Association for Precision Livestock Farming (EA-PLF) and the International Precision Dairy Farming collaboration.
Daniela Klein-Jöbstl
Professor, Head of the WG Internal Medicine and Surgery in Ruminants and CamelidsFreie Universität Berlin, Germany
Joint presentationBefore the cough: Early detection of respiratory disease through technology
Daniela Klein-Jöbstl is an EBVS certified specialist of the European College of Bovine Health Management. Her research focuses on calf health and calf management, including digital technologies.
Jimena Laporta
Associate Professor of Lactation PhysiologyUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, United States
PresentationThe Future Mammary Gland Starts Early: Shaping Developmental Plasticity Through the Early-Life Environment
Her research focuses on how environmental and nutritional factors influence mammary gland development, lactation, and long-term performance in dairy cattle, with an emphasis on perinatal programming, epigenetics, and early-life interventions in dairy calves for heat stress resilience. She holds a PhD in Dairy Science from UW–Madison and was on the faculty at the University of Florida before returning to Wisconsin in 2020.
Andrea Minuti
Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science, Food and NutritionUniversità Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy
PresentationWhat can blood tell us about the calf? From metabolic profiling to health and adaptation
His research has traditionally focused on dairy cow physiology and metabolism, with particular emphasis on the metabolic and inflammatory adaptations of the transition period. Building on that work, in recent years he has increasingly focused on dairy calves, using blood biomarkers and metabolic profiling to characterise their physiological development in early life — with particular attention to the pre-weaning and weaning periods.
Bart Pardon
Associate Professor in large animal internal medicineGhent University, Belgium
PresentationLessons learned by on-farm use of quick thoracic ultrasonography in the management of bovine respiratory disease
A veterinarian by training, he holds a PhD in veterinary sciences and is an EBVS certified specialist of the European College of Bovine Health Management. He chairs the clinic for ruminants at Ghent University, and he and his team offer problem-herd solving services to farmers and veterinarians. His calf health research group works on rationalising antimicrobial use, with current projects on rapid diagnostics, decision support and precision medicine for bovine respiratory disease and sepsis. In 2023 he co-founded the spin-off company qTUS, which trains and certifies veterinarians in lung ultrasound.
Dave Renaud
Professor, Department of Population MedicineUniversity of Guelph, Canada
PresentationWe Know What Works. So Why Aren’t We Doing It? Closing the Gap Between Calf Research and Farm Practice.
He serves as Graduate Program Coordinator and Service Chief of the Ruminant Field Service at Guelph, and received his DVM from the Ontario Veterinary College and a PhD in epidemiology. His research focuses on calf health, welfare and antimicrobial stewardship, with an emphasis on colostrum management, disease prevention and transportation in the dairy industry. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and remains an active practising veterinarian working with dairy producers and calf raisers in Ontario.
Andrea Rosati
Head of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP) and of the World Association for Animal Production (WAAP)Italy
PresentationFrom Tradition to Artificial Intelligence. The Future of Italian Dairy Farming
An Italian animal scientist trained at the University of Perugia, he holds a Master's degree and a PhD in Genetics earned in the United States, and has extensive international experience in animal performance management and genetic evaluation. A lecturer at the universities of Bologna and Camerino, he has coordinated EU research projects and co-founded four scientific journals. For over twenty years he has led EAAP and WAAP, and he is a recognised consultant on innovation in agriculture and animal science. He recently published a widely read book on the use of artificial intelligence in the livestock sector.
Lautaro Rostoll Cangiano
Assistant Professor in Bovine Immunology, Department of Animal and Dairy SciencesUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison, United States
PresentationStarting Off on the Right Hoof: Management strategies to get most out of colostrum
Dr. Lautaro Rostoll Cangiano is an Assistant Professor in Bovine Immunology in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned his PhD from the University of Guelph and his master’s degree in Animal Sciences from the University of Florida. His research examines how nutrition and on-farm management shape immune development, intestinal health, and disease resistance in dairy cattle. His work connects immunology with practical management strategies to help producers raise healthier, more resilient calves, including understanding how colostrum influences immune development beyond the transfer of maternal antibodies.
Marta Sfulcini
Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Animal Science, Food and NutritionUniversità Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy
PresentationWeaning dairy calves: more than just taking milk away
She earned her PhD studying how early-life nutrition and management shape the development and adaptation of dairy calves. Her research focuses on the transition from milk to solid feed, rumen development and fermentation, metabolism, and the physiological responses of calves to nutritional and management strategies. Growing up in a dairy farming family, she developed an early connection to animal production that continues to shape her interest in practical, science-based approaches to calf rearing.
Michael Steele
Professor, Department of Animal BiosciencesUniversity of Guelph, Canada
PresentationNew concepts in beef-on-dairy early life nutrition
Michael Steele is a Professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences at the University of Guelph, Canada. His research program focuses on ruminant nutrition and physiology, with particular emphasis on neonatal calf nutrition, colostrum biology, gastrointestinal development, transition cow physiology, and dairy-beef production systems. His research combines fundamental physiology with applied nutritional strategies aimed at improving animal health, productivity, and efficiency. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has received numerous awards recognizing his contributions to animal and dairy science, including membership in the Journal of Dairy Science 100 Club, as well as several awards from the American Dairy Science Association, American Society of Animal Science, and Canadian Society of Animal Science. He works extensively with industry and academic collaborators in Canada and internationally and has trained numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in dairy cattle nutrition and physiology.
Julia Steinhoff-Wagner
Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition and MetabolismTechnical University of Munich, Germany
PresentationPostnatal feeding management, adaptation processes and development of dairy calves
She studies calf nutrition, health, and welfare. Her work covers neonatal nutrition and metabolism, milk feeding, drinking water quality, farm hygiene, and ways to reduce antimicrobial resistance in livestock production. She earned her doctorate in farm animal physiology at the Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine. She then led a junior research group at the University of Bonn and chaired a One Health study center at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). She supervised more than 240 bachelor’s and master’s thesis projects and has authored more than 70 publications.
Nina von Keyserlingk
Professor and Research Chair in Animal WelfareThe University of British Columbia, Canada
PresentationCaring for the milk-fed dairy calf: striving for good welfare outcomes by motivating change on farm
Her interdisciplinary approach focuses on identifying measures and ways of improving the lives of farm animals under our care, and she is among the first in her field to combine experimental and qualitative methods when addressing farm animal welfare. She has published over 400 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is a sought-after speaker nationally and internationally. Her work has changed the way people think about farm animals and has guided animal agriculture towards meaningful change worldwide; in 2025 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
More speakers, and the full programme of each day, will be published
here as they are confirmed.
Tickets and prices · Questions and answers