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Elizabeth Dance Center to open a second location VOL. 88 • NO. 26
Liz Walker of Elizabeth Dance Center plans to open a location in Lena, IL., in time for the studio’s summer season. The center in Elizabeth, opened in 2016, is above the pharmacy at 218 N. Main St. The studio primarily offers classes for children ages 2 and older, as well as a few adult options. The new Lena location will be at 208 W. Main St., above Lena Fitness Club, and it also will be called Elizabeth Dance Center. Walker said the space used to house another dance studio called RAE-DiANCE, where Walker taught classes about five years ago. “The owner was ready to step away from it, and she reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in transitioning that to Elizabeth Dance Center,” Walker said. “I couldn’t say no to that opportunity. In the Lena studio, we’re reaching a whole other community of dancers. She said the Elizabeth location serves around 65 families in
the surrounding area, and she hopes to at least double that number with the addition of the Lena studio. The Lena studio also will allow Walker to offer tumbling classes. She said there is not currently enough space at the Elizabeth location for tumbling. Walker is accepting registration for both studios for the summer season, which starts in July. “My goal with these classes is to make sure these children are feeling proud and confident in what they’re doing,” she said. “They’re growing as people when they’re taking classes and performing onstage. Coming back to the Lena community, I’m hoping that I’Il be able to make even more kids gain that confidence in themselves. Elizabeth Dance Center can be reached via email at elizabethdancecenter@gmail. com. The studio also can be found online at elizabethdancecenter.com, as well as on Facebook and Instagram at @Elizabethdancecenter.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022
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Elizabeth Dance Center’s second location will sit above Lena Fitness Center on West Main Street.
June Dairy Month spotlights a resilient industry Things are generally looking up for milk producers this year after a long stretch of economic challenges. USDA recently forecast average milk prices for 2022 at $25.75 per hundredweight for all milk, $22.75 for Class III and $23.80 for Class IV. If realized, the prices would be up from $5 to $7 per hundredweight compared to last year. Tasha Bunting, Illinois Farm Bureau associate director of commodities and livestock programs who manages the Illinois Milk Producers Association (IMPA), discussed the state of the indus-
try and promotional work taking place as part of June Dairy Month. “Stronger prices are starting to come back. So, that’s certainly helpful to our dairy farmers in Illinois,” Bunting said. “We have definitely seen a shrinkage of the number of dairy farms the last several years.” The number of licensed dairy farms in the U.S. contracted from 70,375 in 2003 to 31,657 in 2020, the American Farm Bureau Federation reported. Illinois has about 450 Grade A dairy farms with a total herd around 81,000 milk cows following a multi-year stretch of consolidation.
“Fortunately, our cow numbers aren’t shrinking quite as drastically,” Bunting said. “What that tells us is our farms are getting a little larger. And with that comes different efficiencies and ways to utilize those scales of economies to maybe get a better price for feed or inputs they need.” June Dairy Month officially began in 1939 as an effort to promote sales during the annual spring flush of milk production and celebrate an industry that was facing economic struggles, which many farmers can relate to today. “June Dairy Month is really a time dairy associations and dairy men and women
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throughout the U.S. promote and highlight the different products available and the headway all our farmers made on improving the industry,” Bunting said. IMPA will promote information about the dairy industry and provide dairy-related recipes at its website, www.illinoismilk.org, and Facebook page throughout the month.
IMPA to host Dairy Tech Tour The association will also host its annual Dairy Tech Tour July 14 to highlight the latest advancements in the industry and give dairy farmers a chance to network. The Dairy Tech Tour will be held at Beer’s Robo Holsteins Dairy Farm near Mascoutah. “That farm uses robotic milkers and, from what I un-
derstand, it’s one of the first in the state to put robotic milkers in place,” Bunting said. “We’re going to talk to them about what they’ve learned the last 11 years and how that experience has gone. “It (the dairy tour) is always a great time for our dairy farmers and those in the industry to connect.”
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