ARPAS Symposium
Join us at the ARPAS Symposium, which alternates between being hosted at either the American Dairy Science Association or the American Society of Animal Science Annual Meetings.
The 2026 ARPAS Symposium will be hosted at the ADSA 2026 Annual Meeting from June 20 to June 24, 2026, in Milwaukee, WI.
Explore the event lineup below, and be sure to mark your calendar to join us this June!
Joint ARPAS and Ruminant Nutrition Symposium: New Insights in Calcium Utilization, Metabolism, and Dietary Management (morning session)
The transition period is the most critical stage of the dairy cow’s production cycle and, despite decades of research, nutrition during this period remains an active frontier, with new insights into nutrient metabolism and immune regulation. Transition cow management is consistently cited by dairy producers, nutritionists, and veterinarians as a top priority because it directly drives herd profitability and long-term sustainability. Nutritional strategies that improve metabolism reduce metabolic disease, support fertility, and increase efficiency. This symposium will address both foundational mechanisms and field-level applications, featuring well-recognized researchers in the fields of calcium metabolism, nutritional modulation of inflammation and immunity, and energy and protein metabolism.
The morning session will focus on recent insights into calcium absorption and transport, its interaction with inflammation, and potential outcomes of both established and novel hypocalcemia-management strategies. The afternoon session will focus on dietary strategies to optimize transition cow performance. Attendees will be provided with timely, actionable knowledge regarding this key period in the dairy cow’s production cycle.
| Speaker, Affiliation |
Presentation Title |
| Claira Sealy, University of New Hampshire |
Inter-relationships between calcium and inflammation |
| Laura Hernandez, University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Calcium balance and its impacts on endocrine and metabolic status |
| Mirja Wilkens, Leipzig University |
Phosphorus homeostasis and implications for managing hypocalcemia |
| Walter Grunberg, Justus Liebig University Giessen |
Recent insights into calcium absorption and metabolism |
Joint ARPAS and Ruminant Nutrition Symposium: Nutritional Management of Transition Dairy Cows—Basic Physiology to Field Translation (afternoon session)
The transition period is the most critical stage of the dairy cow’s production cycle and, despite decades of research, nutrition during this period remains an active frontier, with new insights into nutrient metabolism and immune regulation. Transition cow management is consistently cited by dairy producers, nutritionists, and veterinarians as a top priority because it directly drives herd profitability and long-term sustainability. Nutritional strategies that improve metabolism reduce metabolic disease, support fertility, and increase efficiency. This symposium will address both foundational mechanisms and field-level applications, featuring well-recognized researchers in the fields of calcium metabolism, nutritional modulation of inflammation and immunity, and energy and protein metabolism.
The morning session will focus on recent insights into calcium absorption and transport, its interaction with inflammation, and potential outcomes of both established and novel hypocalcemia-management strategies. The afternoon session will focus on dietary strategies to optimize transition cow performance. Attendees will be provided with timely, actionable knowledge regarding this key period in the dairy cow’s production cycle.
| Speaker, Affiliation |
Presentation Title |
| Jose Santos, University of Florida |
Practical dietary strategies for the prevention of postpartum hypocalcemia |
| Jim Drackley, University of Illinois |
Nutritional strategies to control the energy balance of transition cows |
| Thomas Overton, Cornell University |
Protein and amino acid nutrition for transition cows |
| Barry Bradford, Michigan State University |
Nutritional interventions to modulate the inflammatory status of transition cows |