By Ollie Cultrara, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
Dairy Marketing & Branding Services Grant Now Accepting Applications
Dairy processors in Vermont and the Northeast are invited to apply for a Dairy Marketing & Branding Services Grant from the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center. These funds allow dairy processors to contract with professional marketing firms to develop marketing tactics, brand improvements, and overall strategy. Whether you're looking to update your website, develop a brand strategy, refresh your brand, get into e-commerce, or build a social media plan, this grant can help give your business a marketing boost. Awards will range from $10,000 to $50,000 with a 25% cash or in-kind match required. Applications are due June 23. For more information, visit agriculture.vermont.gov/dbic/activities/dairy-marketing-branding-services-grant or contact Brockton Corbett at brockton.corbett@vermont.gov or (802) 498-5111.
Photo courtesy of Ploughgate Creamery in Fayston, VT
Dairy Business Viability & Technical Assistance Grants Awarded
The Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC) is pleased to announce the award of Dairy Business Viability & Technical Assistance Grants to eight businesses and organizations in Vermont and the Northeast. This grant program supports coordinated technical assistance projects that enhance dairy farmer and processor business operations and strengthen market opportunities.
A total of $398,143 was awarded in grants ranging $18,000 to $100,000. The grantees will undertake a range of technical assistance projects. Grantees were required to match at least 25 percent of the awarded funds with either in-kind or cash funds.
- Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick, VT was awarded $18,000 to hire experienced technical assistance providers to work with eight small dairy farms in northern Vermont and New Hampshire on production efficiency, herd health, and milk quality.
- The Center for Dairy Excellence in Harrisburg, PA will use their $65,000 grant to fund technical assistance providers to help small-scale, farm-based value-added dairy businesses in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey with business development.
- Northwest Regional Planning Commission in St Albans, VT was granted $27,000 on behalf of the Healthy Roots Collaborative to provide a range of technical services to Vermont dairy farmers and processors.
- Jasper Hill Creamery in Greensboro, VT will use $32,363 to work with food safety, business, and legal advisors to write a milk purchasing contract and create tools for other cheesemakers and dairy farmers to write their own contracts.
- Local Goods Gathered in Sebago, ME was awarded $100,000 to expand their food brokerage services by piloting a business model that provides customized technical assistance to Maine creameries.
- Maine Cheese Guild in Sidney, ME received $30,000 to hire a part-time executive director to lead educational and technical assistance opportunities for the cheesemaking and dairy producing community.
- Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in Unity, ME was awarded $41,230 to provide technical assistance to Maine dairy farms for production and business needs resulting from New England dairy market shifts.
- Vermont Cheese Council in Waitsfield, VT will invest $84,550 in expanded educational and professional development programming for cheesemakers.
Photo credit: USDA
Creating a Culture of Farm Safety
By Dan Baker, University of Vermont & Jed Davis, Agri-Mark/Cabot
The University of Vermont (UVM) was awarded a $350,000 grant from the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center to develop and deliver a dairy farmworker safety training program in conjunction with regional support organizations. The training will be responsive to needs identified by the farmworker community and offered in both English and Spanish.
The dairy farmers who have the longest careers in agriculture are those who have spent some time thinking about and prioritizing farm safety. Large dairy cows, heavy machinery, repetitive motion, and farm chemicals are just a few of the daily encounters that farmers and farmworkers must consider. And while some other industries have seen injury rates decline over time, the rate of farm accidents has remained stubbornly high.
As the size of average Vermont dairy farms has grown, so has the need for many farms to hire non-family labor to help milk the cows, care for youngstock, fix equipment and manage cropland. Chronic labor shortages have been challenging. To make up for this shortfall, Vermont farmers have turned to migrant labor, mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, to help keep their farms running. Most of these workers are employed as milkers and Vermont dairy depends heavily on these workers.
A migrant Spanish-speaking workforce with related cross-cultural communications issues and safety concerns adds to the challenge farmers face running their business safely and efficiently. Many Latino migrant farmworkers are relatively new to dairy, without the background knowledge of those raised in a dairy environment. In farmer surveys in 2010 and 2018 we found many farmers relying on off-farm translators and hand-signals to communicate with their employees. While the situation has gotten better with technology, such as cell phone translator apps, explaining risk in an already challenging environment remains difficult. In fact, in two research studies of Latino dairy workers in 2016 and 2018/19, UVM researchers found that concern about being injured on a dairy farm was among the top sources of farmworker stress reported by migrant dairy farmworkers.
Vermont has not had a comprehensive farm safety training program since George Cook at UVM Extension and Louise Waterman from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture ran their program more than five years ago. The state has never had a statewide Spanish-language dairy farm safety training program. With funding from the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center, that situation is changing. The University of Vermont and Agri-Mark/Cabot are teaming up with the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety to offer free farm safety training programs in both English and Spanish.
Beginning this spring, UVM Extension will interview both farmers and farmworkers about the farm safety training in which they are most interested. Subsequent trainings based on the interviews will be offered on-farm and will be tailored to the specific circumstances and interests of that farm. Some farm safety issues require more than training; they require changes in behavior and perspective. Next year, projects will offer farms an opportunity to explore strategies with the aim of achieving a culture of safety on Vermont dairy farms.
For more information, please contact Dan Baker at UVM: daniel.baker@uvm.edu or Jed Davis at Agri-Mark/Cabot: jdavis@cabotcheese.coop
Photo credit: USDA