Happy June Dairy Month! Across the state, Wisconsinites are celebrating the start of summer by enjoying a little more ice cream, cheese, milk, and other delicious dairy foods. I’ve been attending dairy breakfasts this month, and it’s great to see such strong community support.
The diversity of farms hosting breakfasts is impressive. Local dairy promotion groups along with Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin work to highlight different farm sizes and management philosophies; even university research farms take a turn hosting their local dairy breakfast!
The future of the dairy workforce relies on these community events and other extra-curricular experiences to showcase dairy to diverse audiences in hopes of igniting a passion that turns into a career. In fact, most students in post-secondary dairy and ag programs do not have direct farming backgrounds.
With the help of two undergraduate interns, we developed a simple marketing campaign to highlight animal and dairy science programs at UW–Madison, UW–Platteville, and UW–River Falls. Prospective students choose schools based on their own unique circumstances, and what’s important is that they choose WISCONSIN for their educational pursuits, regardless of the campus.
This campaign started with an animal emphasis, and version 2.0 will include other areas such as environmental science, food science, economics, and engineering – all areas important to the dairy community!
Check out a few print elements of the campaign:
Look for additional content on our digital platforms highlighting student and alumni perspectives at each participating campus.
Recently, Dr. Heather White, faculty director for the Hub, traveled to the beautiful Northcentral Technical College campus to speak to the Wisconsin Agricultural Education and Workforce Development Council (WAEWDC), which is a function of the Department of Workforce Development. She highlighted examples of outstanding undergraduate and graduate students working on Hub-funded research. Many of whom had no previous dairy or research experience.
As these students complete their studies at UW–Madison, UW–River Falls and UW–Platteville, their experiences follow wherever their careers takes them.
One student we profiled, Rachel Skinner, recently completed her bachelor’s degree at UW–River Falls and is starting a master’s program at Kansas State – her major professor is a previous Hub-funded post-doctoral fellow from UW–Madison! Her research project at Kansas State will build off the work funded by the Hub in Wisconsin.
After four years, we’ve logged more than 500 students who have worked on Hub-funded research. The Hub has created a mechanism for collaboration between the three campuses and unique opportunities for students across multiple locations. This collective synergy makes each campus more attractive to prospective students.
Recruiting, training, and retaining the next generation of dairy talent is a core expectation for the Hub. We look forward to sharing more student stories and looking for ways to grow workforce development opportunities at our three campuses and beyond.
Maria Woldt serves as the program manager for the Dairy Innovation Hub. In this role, she assists in the management of the Hub budget, develops, and disseminates communications, and organizes events. Maria and her husband Nick own and operate a small dairy farm in Dane County. They have two girls, Lexington (6) and Giovanna (2.5).
ABOUT THE DAIRY INNOVATION HUB
The Hub represents a $7.8 million per year investment by the State of Wisconsin to keep our dairy community at the global forefront in producing nutritious dairy products in an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable manner.
It doesn’t have to be June to celebrate the good things happening in dairy! The team behind the Dairy Innovation Hub strives to maintain open and transparent communication about our efforts, funded by the State of Wisconsin. For our latest news and to join our mailing list, visit dairyinnovationhub.wisc.edu
We have created some public-facing communications to help explain the Hub concept to the general public. Please use these resources in your travels to promote this unique collaboration.