Scott Bentley says the World Dairy Expo board is pleased with the outcome of their discussions with Dane County and the City of Madison, Wisconsin, which has some of the most restrictive COVID-19 guidelines in the dairy state. “With the quality of our communications and some of the things that they’ve been able to extend to us in terms of how the next six months look, we just felt like it was the right decision for our event. It was the right decision for our exhibitors and attendees and stakeholders.”

The board vetted alternate locations in January, not knowing if the COVID restrictions for crowds at the Alliant Energy Center would be lifted. Bentley would not say how many proposals they received for hosting World Dairy Expo or where the bidders were located. “We had more than one and we had less than five.”

And with the nine-year-old New Holland Pavilions for cattle, “The world-class housing that we have at the Alliant Energy Center is just hard to match anywhere, quite frankly.”

World Dairy Expo begins September 28th.

Public Health Madison and Dane County relaxed several COVID-19 restrictions related to mask use and crowd sizes over the weekend.