Midwest Dairy staff reflected on another encouraging year at the National Farm Broadcasters Association (NAFB) convention. Lucas Lentsch, CEO of Midwest Dairy, credits the dairy checkoff program for the industry’s recent success.
“In the last 35 years, dairy farmers have been investing in Dairy Checkoff to increase sales and promote trust in dairy products,” Lentsch said. “Midwest Dairy’s mission is bringing dairy to life and giving consumers an excellent dairy experience along that journey. If you think about it – Today, in a consuming marketplace full of information, we have to continue to drive home the nutrition profile of dairy and the on-farm practices we know 7,000 dairy farmers, across 10 midwestern states bring home.”
There were some “bright spots” within the industry this past year.
“The fact is – Whole milk, as a category, is growing faster month-over-month than all of the imitation beverages combined. That’s a bright spot, even in a 40-year trendline of less and less milk consumption,” Lentsch said.
However, whole milk is not the only category to show growth over the years. Lentsch says the role milk play’s in today’s diet has seen a steady increase each year.
“A consumer in 1984 (versus) a consumer today – A consumer today eats 140 more pounds of dairy a year. Four-point-three pounds of growth every year since 1984, in some ways, can be tied back to the promotion, education and nutrition profile dairy brings to the marketplace,” Lentsch said.
The way farmers now connect with consumers greatly differs. Midwest Dairy launched a podcast, called “Dairy on the Air,” in an attempt to connect with consumers and younger generations.
“Consumers (and) young farmers are getting their information differently. What we’ve done is featured the dairy farmer conversation with today’s consumers,” Lentsch said. “In our third iteration of the podcast, we had Lauren Lane, a food enthusiast from Kansas City, alongside a dairy mom, talking about her on-the-farm dairy practices. If’s that farm-to-table journey and having a real conversation around what that looks like and what does that mean to me as a consumer.”