Bill Woodley

Bill Woodley retired after working for 37 years for a major North American feed and nutrition company. Bill formed a dairy consulting company, Woodley Dairy Direction, focusing on dairy management and nutrition strategies to improve herd productivity.

Bill had a variety of roles over the last thirty-seven years, but always with a major emphasis on dairy nutrition and management. Bill's former role as Ruminant Technical Manager provided a critical liaison between research and the practicalities of the dairy farm. Bill has written several articles for magazines such as the Ontario Dairy Farmer and Progressive Dairyman.

One of the key areas of focus for Bill is understanding forage fibre quality. Bill has developed a training program to better understand forage fibre quality. The Life Cycle of Fibre platform examines the development and degradation of fibre – from the soil, to the plant, to the silo, to the cow and back to the soil.

The other key area of interest is working with dairy operations and dairy specialists to "unlock the potential" of dairy herds. The key strategy is uncovering bottlenecks that are holding back production and developing timelines for expected production responses.

Bill focuses on what he calls "The Legacy Effect" – understanding management and nutrition decisions made on dairy farms today that will affect future production.