Albert De Vries

Welcome! I am a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Florida. My work focuses on dairy herd management science, combining research, Extension, and teaching to improve the economics of dairy farm operations through data-driven decision making and optimization techniques.

In research, I aim to make contributions to dairy herd management science. This field tries to improve dairy farm management by valuing different decision alternatives under herd constraints, such as cattle replacement decisions, reproductive management decisions, and the use and value of genetics information. My students and I typically use simulation modeling or optimization, such as dynamic programming, linear programming, Markov chains, and Monte Carlo simulation. Excel is a favorite platform, but we also use SAS, R, JAVA, Python, and Powershell.

In the Spring semester, I teach ANS 3250L Dairy Cattle Practicum and ANS 3251 Biology and Management of Dairy Cattle. I am an advisor to the Dairy Science Club and teach a short course in advanced herd dynamics at the US Dairy Training and Education Consortium in Clovis, New Mexico.

My Extension efforts mostly follow from my research efforts. Part of the effort is making decision support tools available to the public. I work with dairy farmers and the allied industry. In return, this Extension work allows me to focus on questions that are important to the dairy industry. I also maintain the dairy Extension email listserv, and I edit the quarterly Dairy Update newsletter.

My professional service and community has been mostly through the American Dairy Science Association.

I am also available for consulting.