5-16 IAT Dairy Checkoff

 In Washington, there was a landmark announcement for the U.S. dairy industry from Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.  Gallagher says this development is incredibly exciting for dairy farmers. The USDA will join with US dairy farmers in extending their investment in sustainability research for the future of the dairy industry says Tom Gallagher, CEO of dairy management Inc. which manages the dairy checkoff. "Today   Secretary Vilsack has announced that there will be ten million dollars provided to research universities around the country, to fund what we call our FarmSmart research program. What this research is aimed at is a variety of things to improve efficiencies on the farm and other research methods that will bring value to dairy farmers."   

The USDA grant will be administered by the University of Wisconsin and will include researchers from the innovation Center for US dairy as well as at land-grant universities across the nation. Ultimately, Tom Gallagher says, the farm smart research will provide valuable decision-making tools for dairy farmers..  "This is ten million dollars from the Department of Agriculture, that after the research is done  will exponentially grow that ten million dollars in terms of its value --  meaning the farmer will see benefits way beyond the ten million dollars.