Guest Columns

Perspective:
WCMA

Investing in dairy’s future

John Umhoefer

John Umhoefer is executive director of the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association. He contributes this column monthly for Cheese Market News®.

Trade associations serve the future and the now, a stimulating dichotomy never more true than the last two months.

Dairy industry associations can come together with other industry partners to establish scholarships for the future, advocate for investment and expansion, and work with government representatives to advance the interests of their members.

This week, Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) is looking to the future. The 28 industry leaders on our board of directors voted to invest WCMA earnings from our Championship Cheese Auction in a new, permanent fund at the University of Wisconsin created to directly support the Center for Dairy Research (CDR).

WCMA has a proud tradition of reinvesting dollars from our generous auction bidders back into the dairy industry. Our association launched the “Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association CDR Fund” this week with a $100,000 initial gift, and with the hope that dairy manufacturers and suppliers will pile on and fund a powerful legacy in support of CDR.

This UW Foundation-based fund stipulates that the CDR director has the authority to make decisions on how to use fund dollars, backed by WCMA’s enthusiastic support for CDR’s mission to provide world-class research, training, technology and education.

Five weeks ago, WCMA made a similar investment in the future. The WCMA board approved a $90,000 gift to the Wuethrich Family/Grassland Dairy Center for Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

This gift, and a matching investment of $90,000 from Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, will enable UW-River Falls to accelerate the use of its new dairy pilot plant: providing hands-on learning opportunities for students; increasing the number and frequency of dairy education and training seminars; and connecting dairy processors with production, training and research opportunities at the plant.

These gifts, fueled by bidding at the annual Championship Cheese Auction, reflect the WCMA board’s vision that our association has the opportunity to rise above daily challenges and focus on the next 50 years facing the dairy industry.

And we’ve been doing just that. Over the past 20 years, WCMA has reinvested Championship Cheese
Auction earnings in the dairy industry. All told, WCMA has invested $1.75 million in dairy scholarships, employee training programs and university dairy education.

Some highlights:

• WCMA’s $500,000 gift in 2012 ignited the international fundraising effort to build the new Center for Dairy Research facility at the University of Wisconsin.

• Since 1997, WCMA student scholarships have paid out $262,000 to students pursuing careers in the dairy industry.

• Three WCMA gifts totaling $250,000 launched the construction of the Wuethrich Family/Grassland Dairy Center for Excellence at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

• To date, WCMA has offered $55,000 in support of the Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest.

• WCMA member reimbursement programs totaling $150,000 have helped members enroll staff in industry management and technical trainings.

WCMA’s sharp focus on the “now” has been no less rewarding. In February,

USDA froze grant programs across the board, including funding for the Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives (DBII), a dairy development program championed in the last U.S. farm bill by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.
WCMA members, led by our dedicated staff, launched an immediate effort to accelerate the Trump administration’s review of DBII in order to release grant funds awarded by this crucial innovation program.

WCMA made clear to USDA, congressional leaders and the national media that the fund freeze impacted 420 dairy businesses, mostly dairy farms and small dairy processors who had already been awarded more than $28 million in grants but saw USDA payments stop cold — for items these small businesses had already purchased.

For many of these entrepreneurs, the stalled payment of promised dollars was an existential threat to their businesses. On March 3-4, WCMA led a member delegation to Washington, D.C., joined by International Dairy Foods Association staff, and met with key congressional offices, and USDA and administration staff.

Days later, on March 7, USDA confirmed that it was releasing DBII grant funds with no changes to the program after its review.

It was good news for dairy in the now, and an effective use of the uniting power of associations. DBII is impactful now, but also embodies dairy’s future: It’s stimulating the next great product ideas and a next generation of successful entrepreneurs in dairy.

CMN

The views expressed by CMN’s guest columnists are their own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheese Market News®.

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