04/23/07 Dairy leaders meet

The topics ranged from dairy exports to nutrition marketing to value added milk. Those were some of the issues in Stevenson, Washington at the just completed National Dairy Leaders conference. ROVEY "It's an opportunity for all of the dairy leaders from across the country to come together to discuss ideas and meet new unmet demand that can be created. And so then that brings back for all of us producers an opportunity to sell more dairy products, to sell more of our milk that we produce on our dairies, to be able to find new homes for it, and new opportunities for a very strong and stable market." That was Arizona dairy producer Paul Rovey, chairman of Dairy Management Inc., which manages the national dairy checkoff. South Dakota dairy producer Donna Sharp believes product and packing innovation have already made a difference. SHARP "In fact, the dairy checkoff has been a catalyst in helping companies, helping industry come up with ideas on how to innovate and how to create new products. As a dairy producer I'm very proud of that fact." Sharp says fun shapes for kid-friendly cheese and milk in plastic, re-sealable bottles are innovations that resulted in more dairy sales. The seed for the next idea may have been planted at the 2007 conference. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott