A panel charged with dairy promotion has recommended $15 million worth of projects for approval by state Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball.
Enhancing dairy’s image is important now more than ever in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted an already struggling industry.
“Agriculture remains an essential industry during these challenging times, and yet our farmers have faced extreme difficulties as a result of lost markets and uncertain demand,” Ball said. “New York is a leader in dairy and by funding another critical round of these projects, we hope to further increase consumer awareness and demand of New York dairy products.”
But as people spend more time online and rely more heavily on the internet for activities ranging from business meetings to grocery shopping, a great deal of promotion is becoming more digitally oriented, also.
“We’ve learned from this,” said Eileen Jensen, New York Animal Agriculture Coalition executive director. “When our world went virtual in March, a lot of people were interested in learning from afar. We’ve used that to our advantage.”
One of the coalition’s main activities is running the Dairy Cow Birthing Center at the Great New York State Fair, a highly popular attraction seen by more than 300,000 visitors annually. But the cancellation of this year’s fair, in Syracuse, has prompted the coalition to pursue new promotional efforts such as one called Dairy on the Moo-ve.
“During the fair we’ve engaged people in conversations about a lot of different dairy-related topics,” Jensen said. “So over the next few months we’re going to farms in all regions of the state, talking about things like animal nutrition, the milking process, calf care and showing calves being born. We’ll do a different region each week.”
Plans also call for giving Birthing Center updates, by finding cows and calves born at the fair in past years and showing what life on the farm is like for them today.
These live-on-location programs will be shared on a variety of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and the coalition’s website. Many farms have their own social media followings and will be encouraged to share programs, too. In addition, the coalition will promote the series with paid social media ads in an effort to gather new followers.
Another promotion called Vision 2020, begun in January, consists of 10 short films highlighting New York dairy producers. Each video, up to two minutes long, deals with a different topic designed to promote industry transparency and openness, in an attempt to engage the public and build consumer confidence.
Topics include coronavirus-related issues such as what farms are doing to keep their employees safe, and how farm supply chains have been affected.
Another coalition promotional effort called Documenting Dairy uses a more traditional form of communication to reach people. Begun in June, this project is a series of written articles that highlight things such as the economic impact dairy farms have on their communities, how farm families are involved in their community, and how much of a positive asset they are.
Stories also deal with topics such as technological advancements and environmental sustainability. Articles may be found on the coalition website, but they’ll also be pitched to local media to reach the general public.
The 10-member state Dairy Promotion Order Advisory Board has recommended giving $150,000 to the coalition for this year’s promotional campaign, which is twice the amount it received last year, the first year it applied for such funding.
The board, consisting of farmers and industry leaders from across New York, is charged with advising Ball on the annual distribution of approximately $15 million in funds collected from milk producers under the producer-approved New York Dairy Promotion Order.
The board meets regularly to consider allocations to new programs and review the progress of currently funded projects.
During its latest meeting, the board was given updates on the projects it funded last year. All projects presented will continue during this calendar year and funding recipients will provide a year-end update once their projects are complete.
In addition to the coalition, groups recommended for funding, their respective dollar amounts and projects are:
• VentureFuel: $475,000 to launch a competition among start-up firms to create an innovative new dairy product.
• American Dairy Association North East: $10.5 million for a comprehensive youth initiative to enlist and train dairy farmers to tell their stories of production, animal care, and more to consumers, as well as to enhance the image of New York dairy through traditional and social media.
• New England Dairy Promotion Board: $1,650,000 to increase dairy consumption among young people, improve the image of dairy, and oversee the 2020 Annual Dairy Checkoff Unified Marketing Plan for National Programming.
• Cornell University: $1,500,111 to research new dairy products and improve product food safety procedures.
• Milk for Health: $450,000 to develop dairy-themed cooking classes and to create advertisements marketing New York dairy. The ads will be placed on television and radio, in movie theaters and schools, and at fairs, as well as on social media.
• U.S. Dairy Export Council: $100,000 to increase overall dairy exports, including cheese and other products.
Source: lancasterfarming.com
