Few agricultural vocations are as time encompassing as a dairy producer.
Yet finding opportunities to network is important to Courtney Lintkner of Venedy, Illinois. She oversees a dairy operation that includes 40 head of milking cows on a farm outside of St. Louis, Missouri. The farm has primarily milked Holsteins, but in 2009 the family brought in Jersey crosses to help boost butter fat content.
Lintkner experienced the lows from the COVID-19 pandemic when schools and many institutions closed in spring 2020, but those reopened in the fall and the market has returned and prices have strengthened, she said.
Lintkner is a member of the Dairy Experience and Agricultural Leadership program. DEAL is an 18-month, three-phase program created by Midwest Dairy that helps young dairy farmers in its region to better understand how the checkoff works and how they can benefit from engagement with consumers.
Lintkner has learned how milk produced on her farms is used by restaurants, for example. That information can help her with quality and marketing decisions.
“It has been eye opening about how the checkoff impacts dairy producers,” she said.
She praised the checkoff program and Midwest Dairy for their willingness to help connect and train her with skills that are not easy to learn because of farm commitments. They demonstrate the importance of effective communication with consumers.
“It is very cool how they engage with audiences,” she said. Teachers have showed her and classmates how to effectively reach out to Generation Z, the generation that follows Millennials, and using new media tools to reach those potential consumers.
Running a dairy does not leave much time for social media and dealing with multiple platforms but Lintkner is eager to learn.
“It is important for dairy farmers to share our story,” she said. “We are the ones producing the milk and we know we have high quality milk.”
She has learned to have “tough skin” to deal with negative comments. The good news is many consumers enjoy learning about the quality of the milk and the care dairy cows receive, Lintkner said.
She has completed two of the three phases in the DEAL program. The first phase was in Denver, Colorado, where she met her classmates. The focus was on how to work with others. That phase was enlightening to her, and she learned more about Midwest Dairy and the checkoff. The second phase was in Chicago, Illinois, where detailed training occurred on how to engage with consumers and share stories on social media and other platforms. The third phase in 2023 will build on media instruction and further training.
About the program
Midwest Dairy represents 4,800 dairy farms and it works to build dairy demand by inspiring consumer confidence and as part of the national dairy checkoff it focuses on promotion, nutrition education and research. The association is funded by farmers across a 10-state region, including Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.
The Dairy Research and Promotion Program, also known as the Dairy Checkoff Program, is a national producer and importer program for dairy product promotion, research and nutrition education, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To fund the program, U.S. dairy farmers pay a 15 cents per hundredweight assessment on their milk and importers pay 7.5 cents per hundredweight on dairy products imported into the U.S. The program was created and is administered under the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 and the Dairy Promotion and Research Order.
Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].
