Aaron was introduced to the dairy industry in 2000 after serving 4 years in the United States Navy when he took a job on a small dairy farm. It was on this farm that he found his passion for working with cows. Fascinated with many aspects of the farm, he took a particular interest in hoof trimming and decided to start his hoof trimming business in 2004. After completing a course on the Dutch Method Aaron continued to study the anatomy and bone structure of the bovine hoof to refine his hoof trimming style, called “The Balance Method”. In 2014 Aaron founded Midwestern Hoof Trimming School and has since been requested to consult for large dairy farms worldwide. Aaron has trained hundreds of hoof trimmers with various skill sets, from beginners to veteran professionals, on The Balance Method. He has been selected to speak at conferences and universities globally and has hosted workshops in 7 different counties. Aaron continues to exercise his passion as an active hoof trimmer and services several local top dairy farms in Wisconsin.
Aaron is a husband, a father of 6, and a grandfather. He enjoys spending time with his family and participating in outdoor activities such as hunting, camping, and fishing. His other passions include woodworking and primitive skills.

Contact information: midwesternhoofcare@gmail.com

Intracare improves the health and well-being of animals, plants and consumers. Our innovative strength creates sustainable growth and financial returns for farmers and businesses.
The Intra Hoof & Skin Care programme is scientifically proven to realize lameness below 5% and is safe for the user, animal and environment.

Its practical protocol and convenience to use sets the fresh green standard for hoof trimmers and dairy farmers. Intracare is the only company with non-antibiotic veterinary medicines to cure digital dermatitis with a gel or aerosol spray. Complementary footbath and spray products have been developed for full herd maintenance.

Intra Hoof-fit Technology includes chelated organic minerals and a firm adhesion. Production under GMP pharma conditions guarantees a consistent high product quality.

Sophie was born and educated in Australia, with a background of agriculture and livestock. She now lives in Sweden and has worked as an animal science researcher for the Swedish University of Agriculture for 16 years (during which time she gained her PhD). Her research activities included a wide range of cattle and pig industry funded projects relevant to improving farm animal welfare during handling, transport and at slaughter, and its link to improved product quality. She also started a company based on her livestock experiences both in Australia and Sweden, where she has conducted both consultation services and practical workshops, promoting low stress handling of cattle, pigs, and sheep. She has delivered over a 100 practical handling courses throughout Scandinavia, where both people and livestock attended.

Piet Kloosterman is a world-renowned and well respected Dutch hoof trimming trainer. He was born and raised on a farm in Friesland and worked from 1980 – 2017 as an instructor/ trainer in Dairy Husbandry at Practical Training Centre (IPC/ PTC +/ DTC) in Oenkerk, The Netherlands. In 1988 he became Head of the Hoof Trimming Department of the Training Centre, training hoof trimming in a wide range of countries over the world.

The main subject for training is hoof trimming in the “Dutch Method” developed by Mr. E. Toussaint Raven from the Veterinairy Faculty of Utrecht. The method is adopted and tutored by the Training Centre Oenkerk to agricultural students, farmers, farm workers, veterinarians and professional hoof trimmers (Diploma course), not only in the Netherlands but also abroad. The Training Centre Oenkerk is an international college for practical training in animal husbandry and grasslandmanagement. Location Oenkerk was the international college for Dairy Husbandry and training goats, sheep and horses.

Piet started international hoof care courses in 1986 in Ireland and from 1987 regularly in the UK (Farmkey, later Genus). He worked for the last 25 years closely with Embryonics in the UK. He was the Secretary and founder of the Dutch Hoof Trimmers Association for 17 years and is a regular visitor of the International Symposia of Lameness in Ruminants, North American congresses of the Hoof Trimmers Association and the annual meetings of the NACFT (UK hoof trimmers association).

Hobbies: ice skating, reading, hiking, traveling

Contact information: mailpietkloosterman@gmail.com

Intracare improves the health and well-being of animals, plants and consumers. Our innovative strength creates sustainable growth and financial returns for farmers and businesses.
The Intra Hoof & Skin Care programme is scientifically proven to realize lameness below 5% and is safe for the user, animal and environment.

Its practical protocol and convenience to use sets the fresh green standard for hoof trimmers and dairy farmers. Intracare is the only company with non-antibiotic veterinary medicines to cure digital dermatitis with a gel or aerosol spray. Complementary footbath and spray products have been developed for full herd maintenance.

Intra Hoof-fit Technology includes chelated organic minerals and a firm adhesion. Production under GMP pharma conditions guarantees a consistent high product quality.

Kurt Bach is a veterinarian employed by Viking Denmark, where he works with development, teaching and advice in better hoof health in dairy cows. Kurt is a trained farmer and trained as a veterinarian in 2008, where he wrote a thesis on finding digital dermatitis in the milking parlor. From 2013 to 2018, Kurt has been employed as a lecturer and PhD student at the University of Copenhagen. Here he has primarily worked with ultrasound scanning of hooves and research into changes in the hooves around calving. Kurt has passed the Danish hoof trimmer exam and currently teaches the Danish hoof trimmer education.
Viking Denmark is Denmark's largest breeding association.

Jessie studied Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University from 2017 - 2021, with a focus on farm animals and public health. She performed her Masters program in Melbourne, Australia, where she did a 3 months research internship investigating the prevalence of Digital Dermatitis among cattle in Victoria, Australia. This work has been published in The Australian Veterinary Journal (10.1111/avj.12859). In 2018 she performed a research internship at Utrecht University to investigate different treatment approaches for digital dermatitis. This study is currently under review for publication. Next to claw health, she independently investigated the prevalence of udder cleft dermatitis and effect of a treatment with a copper- and zinc chelates spray. The results of study will be presented at the KVK Symposium.

Currently Jessie is working as a ruminant veterinarian in the South of the Netherlands. Besides cows, she treats sheep, goats and alpaca's. She is also really interested in horses, having 2 sporthorses, which she rides under the saddle (dressage, cross country and hunting). Besides horses, she’s owning a dog named Broome, a lovely Australian Shepherd.

Hobbies: Jessie loves spending time outdoors; trailrunning, mountainbiking and road cycling. 

Mail: jessiehesseling@live.nl