Dairy execs meeting at Cornell don't skim over World Milk Day


Blaine Friedlander/Cornell Chronicle
Cornelia, the Stocking Hall lobby’s full-time model dairy cow, poses with the national dairy industry executives here at the university for business meetings.

What better whey to celebrate World Milk Day (June 1) and National Dairy Month but to drink milk, enjoy dairy products and figure how to make more. Executives from Dairy Management Inc., the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board and the United Dairy Industry Association held a board meeting for the first time on a college campus at Cornell.

After all, milk is the original nutrition and energy drink.

In addition to business discussions, the groups toured the Cornell Dairy Plant, heard Cornell faculty research presentations, held graduate student and industry roundtables – and washed it all down with smiles at a Cornell ice cream break.

The dairy executives maintain the national dairy checkoff program, to which most farmers contribute to boost demand. Remember the famous “Got Milk?” marketing campaign. That was a result of checkoff. The program contributes to Cornell dairy and food science research important to the state’s dairy industry.

World Milk Day – observed for 16 years – was established by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization as a way to note milk’s importance around the globe. In 2017, June’s Dairy Month celebrates its 80th year.

Blaine Friedlander