SYRACUSE, N.Y. – American Dairy Association North East, the local dairy checkoff, was a key sponsor for the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, held February 7-9, in State College, Pa.
ADA North East hosted one of the keynote speakers – John Dickinson and Luke Getty from Ideal Dairy Farms in Hudson Falls, N.Y., who discussed their diversified family business where they milk about 3,500 cows and bottle milk, raise heifers, and focus on genetics with their Cookiecutter Holstein herd.
Dairy Management Inc.’s Stan Erwine joined dairy farmer Brett Reinford from Mifflintown, Pa., and Katie Morison from Hershey Foods in a panel discussion about consumers and environmental sustainability.
“If we’re going to progress, we have to do it together as a value chain,” said Erwine.
Reinford added, “We need to move in the direction of meeting the criteria of what consumers want, and what the companies that are buying our products want.”
Dairy Management Inc. Chair and Pennsylvania dairy farmer Marilyn Hershey and ADA North CEO John Chrisman participated in a Q&A session, “What Has Checkoff Done for Me Lately?”
“It all comes down to partnerships with other organizations – those that have larger budgets than we do at both the national and grassroots levels, and that support our initiatives to build sales and demand for dairy – to get things done in checkoff,” said Chrisman.
Dairy farmer Rob Barley from Star Rock Farms in Conestoga, Pa., agreed, saying, “Checkoff’s budget is so much smaller than what a cola or beer company has, so it’s important to continue to embrace all kinds of promotion ideas – and to help independent-minded dairy farmers to understand how their investment is working.”
ADA North East also hosted a meal for the young producers panel discussion that featured dairy checkoff of partner Domino’s pizza.
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Photo captions:
Ideal: Luke Getty and John Dickinson from Ideal Dairy in Hudson Falls, N.Y., were keynote speakers at the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit, sponsored by American Dairy Association North East.
Reinford & Erwine: Dairy Management Inc.,’s Stan Erwine (right) and dairy farmer Brett Reinford of Reinford Farms, Mifflintown, Pa., (left) were part of a panel discussing consumers and sustainability at the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit.
Hershey & Chrisman: Dairy Management Inc. Chair Marilyn Hershey of Ar-Joy Farm in Cochranville, Pa., and American Dairy Association North East CEO John Chrisman (back, center) held a dairy checkoff discussion at the Pennsylvania Dairy Summit.
About American Dairy Association North East
American Dairy Association North East (ADA North East) is the dairy farmer-funded organization funded by participating dairy farmer’s checkoff investment to build demand and sales for milk and dairy foods throughout the local region. Representing nearly 9,000 dairy farm families in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia, ADA North East develops and implements local programs to drive milk and dairy sales at retail outlets and in schools. The organization also conducts consumer education about dairy through events, traditional and social media, and in collaboration with health professionals through National Dairy Council®. ADA North East works closely with Dairy Management Inc.™, the national dairy checkoff organization, to support nutrition research, national partnerships and developing export markets for dairy to bring a fully integrated promotion program to the region. For more information, visit www.AmericanDairy.com, or call 315.472.9143.
