In the most recent MyDairy newsletter, we asked dairy farmers to share how they advocated for dairy farming. The feedback back and comments were great and I’ve decided to share a few below.
Students Bring Dairy Farm Life to Chik-Fil-A
Danielle A. Mzyk, DVM/PhD Candidate at NC State, and several dairy medicine focused students, a dairy science undergraduate and a CVM veterinarian hosted a “Dairy Day at Chik-Fil-A” outreach event.
As a member of the 9th class of the Young Dairy Leaders Institute, I was charged with hosting an outreach event in our community. With the support of several CVM alumni, faculty, house officers and students, as well as the leaders of the Howling Cow Dairy Enterprise and Lake Wheeler Dairy Research and Teaching Farm, I brought two jersey calves to meet with the public and answer any and all questions they had about the dairy industry.
Over 100 people stopped by our booth to come take a look at the calves and talk with the future leaders of the dairy industry. We also had carnival games set up and prizes for the kids to win, as well as information, gifts and milk fact pamphlets donated from the Southeast Dairy Association.
We have been asked by the management at several Chik-fil-a to continue this project and make it a regular occurrence!
30-Day Blog Challenge Features Over 60 Dairy Farming Women
Mary Mackinson-Faber from Mackinson Dairy, took on a 30-Day blogging challenge in November. Her blog series, Women in Dairy, started out with a goal of 25 profiles.
When the series concludes next Tuesday, Mary will have featured 61 women from all over the world. She tells us, “I am so proud of how the series has turned out.”
Positive Feedback From Local Dairy Farmer Newsletter
Amanda Freund, who helps run three different businesses (Freund’s Farm Inc., Freund’s Farm Market & Bakery and CowPots), says she got the idea of putting out a newsletter to her surrounding communities from following Jessica Ziehm at Tiashoke Farm in NY.
She writes, “The week before Thanksgiving, I sent out just under 2,500 double sided newsletters to all the physical mailing addresses (and po boxes) in our town and the 2 neighboring towns. I also uploaded the newsletter onto our website, www.cowpots.com and shared it on social media. The expense was just over $500 and I hope to make it a biannual activity.”
“Even though snail mail seems like a ‘thing of the past’ I wanted to reach the people that drive by our farm each day and open up the line of communication. Realizing how critical the support of our community is to us being able to continue to farm here, it was important that we let people know what we’re doing. We’ve received LOTS of very positive feedback from visitors to our farm market and people we see at the grocery store or bank. It was definitely a good investment for us!”
Toy Holstein Calf Replaces “Elf on the Shelf”
Kelly Giller is the herd manager at Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company in South Woodstock, Vermont.
She writes, “A big part of my job as well as taking care of the herd has been to help our farm become transparent to our cheese customers by using social media. This was something totally new to me and has been a big learning experience. I absolutely love the dairy industry; the hard yet beneficial work as well as the great sense of community that comes from working with such great people.”
“I have been trying to learn how to interact with our customers, teaching them about what goes on everyday on our farm without being too informative. I recently launched a series of Facebook posts called “who’s seen the holstein” instead of “elf on the shelf”. I posted pictures of a toy calf in areas of the farm, as well as our creamery. This has been a fun way to teach and people have enjoyed being a part of it as well.”
Producer Grant Made Centennial Celebration a Dairy Success
Annie Link of Swiss Lane Farms writes that Swiss Lane Farms is very thankful for the producer grant that made it possible to purchase the dairy products for the Centennial Celebration this past summer. More than 600 guests visited the farm and enjoyed Mac & cheese, gourmet grilled cheese, ice cream, and milk before heading out to enjoy a hayride and pet the calves. The fun-filled night ended with a spectacular fireworks show!
Do you have a 2015 advocate story to share? You can leave it in the comments or send me at email at don.schindler at gmail.
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