About Jorge

Dr. Jorge Barrientos-Blanco grew up in his family’s dairy farm in Costa Rica. In 2010, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy at the Technology University of Costa Rica (TEC). At the TEC, Jorge concentrated his work on producing forage pellets from a tropical variety of soybean. Then he worked for five years in sales of fertilizers, growth stimulators, and emends for forage production in dairy farms of Costa Rica. In 2017, Jorge obtained a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics at Purdue University under the guidance of Dr. Nicole J. Olynk Widmar and Dr Nathanael M. Thompson. At Purdue University, he developed a model to estimate the expected net present value of implementing reproduction management strategies in dairy farms. In 2019, he earned a master’s degree in Dairy Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Dr. Victor E. Cabrera and Dr. Randy D. Shaver.  During the second masters, Jorge developed a model application to systematize the implementation of nutritional grouping management in commercial dairy farms. In 2023, Jorge completed his Doctorate degree in Animal Sciences with a minor in Dairy Nutrition and Economics at Cornell University under the guidance of Dr. Kristan F. Reed. Jorge’s doctoral research focused on understanding forage quality variation and developing decision-making tools to management of forage variability to improve accuracy and precision of dairy diets.

Dr. Barrientos specializes in dairy nutrition and farm management with skills on mathematical modeling, developing computer applications for data-driven decision-making based on farm records, and developing innovative strategies to enhance the efficiency of feed nutrient utilization in dairy farming.