The Rural Voice, 1999-01, Page 22BEYOND THE
OBVIOUS
Holstein farmers explore solutions to
increasing use of dairy products
By Lisa Boonstoppel-Pot
Concerned about the future direction of their indu.ury,
Holstein producers heard of organic cheese produced at
Pine River Cheese (above and right) and efforts of Jersey
producers
(Vice-
president
//ans
Boonstoppel
and
Peesident
Bruce
Schmidt)
below with
one of their
cheeses.
18 THE RURAL VOICE
Holstein farmers in Huron County are no longer
content to sec things in black and white.
Progressive thinking and investigation into
alternative marketing indicate Holstein breeders arc ready
to look into shades of gray.
"Wc want to look beyond the obvious," says Jorge
Muchlethalcr, a dairy farmer near Auburn. "It frees up your
way of thinking."
Last year, the Huron County Holstein Club conducted a
survey which indicated the primary concern of milk
producers was quota security. That's why the Huron
County Holstein Club, under the direction of Peter Schuttel
of Godcrich, decided to tackle milk industry issues this
year instead of concentrating only on breed issues. At their
annual meeting held recently, they focused on learning
about marketing issues by listening to Michael Pearce,
marketing director for Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO),
and a three-member panel of entrepreneurs in the dairy
industry who spoke on thcir experiences in milk marketing
beyond DFO.
When Pearce took his stand behind the overhead, he had
a glass of water in his hand. "There's not a drop of milk in
the place," he chided the group. He may be responsible for
macro marketing, said Pearce, but farmers shouldn't
neglect to play their role in micro marketing — like
making sure their product is available at every event they
attend.
Pearce then launched into the multitude of ways DFO
spends the promotional dollars collected from each dairy
farmer's milk cheque. The list was more extensive than
many farmers realized and went way beyond the highly
visual television advertising featuring the 'Moo You Win'
commercials and the singing Blue Jay players. Pearce
highlighted the `Drink Milk — Love Life' billboards; the
2.4 million milk calendars printed annually (research
indicates the recipes use approximately 6,000,000 litres of
milk); DFO's service to processors as an information
source; market development incentives such as special
fluid class pricing to product development by processors;
promotional material, teaching packages and milk
programs in schools (2,350 elementary and 500 high
schools); promotion of cream in the food services industry;
and nutrition communication to teachers and doctors.
This struck a chord with dairyman Ernst Gubelmann of
Walton who said it is vital that doctors be educated about
the value of milk. He says the first thing a person gets told
when they have high cholesterol is to reduce their intake of
dairy products— but is that educated advice, he wondered?
Another dairy breeder, Ben Miltenberg, felt recipes on
milk cartons could be a profitable milk marketing strategy.
"Every morning when 1 cat my breakfast, I read the
cereal box to stay awake," he joked. "They almost always
have a recipe containing that cereal. Couldn't we put
recipes on milk cartons?"
Pearce said it's a great idea but the problem is space.
Cereal boxes have lots of room for things like recipes but
milk cartons arc much smaller and what space is left over
is often used by the processors to promote their other
products. It might be possible with bags.
A humorous comment was presented by Angelika
Hammel of Monkton who said since watching the
commercial about the parents using margarine to keep their