Cyndi Hammond tells Brownfield their members would like to allow checkoff dollars to buy milk and dairy products for donation.  “Our promotional dollars are really not being used like they should, and there are no real results in regards to how that money is being spent.”

The dairy checkoff takes fifteen cents for every hundredweight of milk, with part of the money going to national efforts and part of it to Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.  Hammond says the checkoff should educate consumers more about the antiviral qualities of whole milk and other health benefits.  She says they would like to also see more product purchases from the checkoff.  “When the price goes down, then, we’re buying, and we’re buying fresh dairy products and donating them. It’s been going on and it’s pretty phenomenal in regards to how many members we’ve had in the last twelve years and the number of pounds of raw milk we’ve moved to donation.”

Hammond says the Dairy Pricing Association would like to see a permanent move of two cents from the existing checkoff to go toward purchasing the dairy donations, which helps support milk prices at the farm gate.