Nutrition directly impacts the health, performance, and profitability of all ruminant species and also has an impact on the environment, said University of Kentucky Extension Dairy Nutritionist Donna Amaral-Phillips. Since 1980 the UK Cooperative Extension Service has been offering a workshop to provide up-to-date ruminant nutrition information to veterinarians, consultants, feed mill and sales personnel, county Extension agents and livestock producers.The Ruminant Nutrition Workshop was offered yearly from 1980 to 1998. Since then, it has taken place every other year. This year’s event will be Oct. 27 at the Nelson County Civic Center Extension Office in Bardstown, beginning at 8:55 a.m. EDT and adjourning at 3:15 p.m.“The information we will present at the workshop can help producers better cope with the changing ruminant industries,” Amaral-Phillips said. “We’ll have some great speakers and a time for discussion and questions.”The featured speaker for the workshop is Calvin Willis, Ph.D. Willis has been a dairy consultant for 23 years. He owns CMW Nutrition, a dairy consulting business in Southern California. Willis routinely provides nutritional advice for 45 to 50 large dairies in California, Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas, representing approximately 50,000 lactating cows. At the Ruminant Nutrition Workshop, Willis will discuss what works in transition dairy cow management and what all farmers should expect of consultants, regardless of species or breed.The workshop will focus on the important topics of Premise Identification and identifyinganimals at the commerce level. Bob Harmon, Chair of the UK Animal Science Department, will tell participants about ongoing ruminant nutrition research and Extension programs at UK. Other topics of interest will include ruminant diseases, using forage analysis to balance ruminant diets, vaccine effectiveness and mineral nutrition, and the pros and cons of feeding wet byproducts.Participants who register and pay on or before Oct. 15 should send a check for $45 made out to Kentucky Ruminant Nutrition Workshop/PDCA to Dr. Donna Amaral-Phillips, 414 W.P. Garrigus Bldg., University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0215. After Oct. 15, the registration fee is $50.The workshop is hosted by the UK Cooperative Extension Service, in cooperation with the Kentucky Feed Industry and the Kentucky Veterinary Medicine Association. For more information contact Amaral-Phillips at (859) 257-7542.