Now more than ever, consumers are wanting to know exactly where their food comes from, how it’s produced and most importantly—who is producing it.
A majority of the population resides in urban areas, making it difficult to visit a dairy and get to know local dairy farmers.
That’s why Dairy MAX developed the Our Land, Our Cows, Our PassionSM program, more than eight years ago. Through the years, this program has connected consumers to meet the individuals who work 365 days a year to provide them with the dairy foods they love.
“Dairy farmers are known for their cow care practices, stewardship of the land and passion for working hard to supply consumers with the best quality dairy foods; and Our Land, Our Cows, Our Passion is one way we show that to consumers,” says John Cass, director of industry image and relations at Dairy MAX.
Consumers can find the Our Land, Our Cows, Our Passion families under “Dairy Families” located on DairyDiscoveryZone.com.
The online tool contains videos covering various dairy farming topics including: cow comfort, technology, land stewardship, family passion and dairy farmers’ commitment to their communities.
Farm families are spotlighted from around the region with videos, photos and biographies telling their stories of life on the dairy farm, bringing together dairy farmers and dairy consumers.
“The program really allows consumers to get to know the families that produce their dairy foods,” says Cass.
Each featured dairy farm family in the campaign have their own landing page with photos of life on the farm—from feeding and milking, to snapshots of cows and pictures of family fun. These individual landing pages also have a short biography of the family with the history of their respective dairies.
In addition to getting to know the dairy farm families by name, consumers can see first-hand life on dairy farm along with the family’s generational experience.
“Many of these dairies have been in their families for generations. It is important that we show farmers’ experiences to build consumer confidence in the dairy foods these farmers produce,” states Cass.
Just like every farm family, each video is unique and different. Videos highlight individual personalities of the different family members to demonstrate dairy farm families are much like consumer families.
For example, John and Pauline DeVos left their family farm in Holland almost 35 years ago to start a dairy in Canada. Ten years and 80 cows later, the DeVos family moved again, this time to Plainview, Texas, for the space and the warm climate. They opened Fox Dairy – named for the Dutch translation of DeVos, and soon grew to 2,100 cows.
Each dairy farm family also shares some of their favorite recipes. Recipes feature dairy foods, to encourage consumers to cook and consume dairy foods in the process.
“Recipes are always a big hit with consumers, so we included recipes in this section as well,” says Cass. “By showing that dairy farm families eat the dairy foods they work to produce, it further builds consumer confidence. Each spotlighted family is also showcased in DairyMAX’s recipe brochures and have proved to be a favorite among consumers.”
Our Land, Our Cows, Our Passion is an outlet for dairy farm families and consumers to relate to each other’s lifestyles by sharing stories of life on the farm.
