The Discover Dairy Experience hosted by AHDB Dairy at the Royal Highland Show, Edinburgh, Scotland (Thursday 18th – Sunday 21st June) was hailed a huge success in helping promote dairy products and targeting consumer awareness of quality branded produce such as the Red Tractor.
One of the farmer ambassadors at the event was renowned Scottish dairy farmer James Rankin, who farms 10 miles from Glasgow, and who helped champion the initiative by featuring in the AHDB stand imagery. The display content included James’s own personal story and his farming experience, milking his 160 cow herd of Ayrshire and Jersey cows. Speaking at the conclusion of the show Mr Rankin said.
“It’s important that dairy farmers pass on important messages to the consumer and we have to take every opportunity to engage with the public at a ‘face-to-face’ level. We cannot do enough to promote awareness of our products and the benefits of incorporating the Red Tractor logo as a quality assurance brand.
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“I know from my own farm, we have the finest animal welfare standards, complete traceability from ‘farm-to-fork’ and offer protection to the environment. These are all concerns to the consumer, who is the end-buyer of our produce. The campaign message ‘It’s in our hands’ is appropriate and we are pro-actively informing the consumer. The response from the public to the campaign has been fantastic and our dairy industry messages have been extremely well supported.”
Over the course of the four-day event, the AHDB Dairy campaign was supported by 12 dairy farmer ambassadors, as well as Scottish veterinary student, Joe Cameron, all meeting the general public and showcasing a positive and passionate image of dairy farming. The keynote messages shared with the public included animal welfare aspects covered by the Red Tractor scheme. Over 200 pledges of support to the #DairyPromise campaign were provided by the public.
The general public were able to engage in a pro-active journey to learn the facts about dairy farming as well as, hear real farmer word of mouth stories. Children were able to engage by using interactive games to identify the Red Tractor logo and score points on a leader board. Consumers were also informed why on-farm quality assurance is important.
Amanda Ball, AHDB Dairy Head of Marketing and Communications said: “The general public have demonstrated incredible support to British dairy farming and as an organisation working on behalf of dairy farmer levy-payers, we appreciated the feed-back and support received over the four days of the show. The interactive game was played over 1,000 times and over 200 pledges of support to dairy farmers were provided by visitors.”
