Do you love dairy? Prove it.

Okay, so the title may sound like a bit of a second grade playground dare. But, we do want you to take this as a challenge. Dairy Management, Inc. (check-off organization) along with its social media guide and website, myDairy, have launched the Why I Love Dairy Video Contest. The contest hopes to get the creative and humorous juices of the dairy industry flowing to create a viral video to be used as a promotional piece for the dairy industry.

Packed into just two minutes, the videos will tell your story why you love milk and dairy products, being a dairy farmer, life on the farm, showing/caring for cows, working with dairy farmers/being part of the dairy business, and/or producing nutrient-rich food. While cramming all that information (or what you can) into two minutes, they also encourage you to be funny, unique, quirky, and engaging. If you aren't sure what that means, check out some of YouTube's most watched videos, and you'll get the picture.

The check-off organization hopes that video creators will tell the dairy industry's story while reinforcing key messages regarding dairy product quality, safety and nutrition, animal care and well-being, sustainability/environmental stewardship, and dairy’s contributions to the economy and local communities. If you want to know more about these messages, click here.

To enter, you must register as a member of the myDairy website. (Don't worry, it's easy, and you won't get a ton of e-mails for signing up). You must also be actively engaged in the dairy industry as a dairy producer or dairy family, dairy association or business, college student or dairy club, or a youth member or club involved in 4-H, FFA, or breed organization.

A winner in each of those categories will be selected to receive a $200 Target gift card in addition to its video being utilized for online dairy promotion. We'll post them on our blog, too, as soon as we find out who wins! Winners will be announced on the last day of World Dairy Expo 2010 — Sunday, October 3, 2010. Entries are due by 5 p.m. CST, August 31, 2010. To register, submit your video, or for more information visit myDairy's video contest page.

Hoard's visits with DMI board member Steve Maddox

We recently sat down with Steve Maddox of Riverdale, Calif., to visit with him about some of the current initiatives of your checkoff dollars. Maddox currently serves on the national DMI (Dairy Management, Incorporated — the umbrella organization of the checkoff) board. If you enjoyed this video, you're in luck. We just posted another video over on our Bonnie's Brush with Hoard's Blog today! Bonnie visits with viewers about the underpainting — the monochrome-painted framework of the artwork.

Greenhouse emissions create cloud over dairying

If you're both confused and concerned about how this whole environmental sustainability thing will affect those of us in the dairy industry, you are not alone. We've read and heard more on the subject already than we would like to think about, and we still don't feel very informed.

We realize that there is a lot of misinformation out there on this topic. Some of it is from well-meaning people who just maybe haven't had a chance to get all of the facts straight yet (there's a lot that nobody knows at this point), and some of it is from people who are trying to make a buck, either by selling some product or service.

We' re glad that Dairy Management, Inc., and others in the industry are making a serious attempt to put together some sound and needed information through the Innovation Center for Dairy. Among other things, the Center has formed a "cow of the future" working group with the goal of seeing what can be done to reduce methane emissions from our cows (the single largest component of the dairy industry's carbon footprint). DMI CEO Tom Gallagher recently said that cutting the dairy industry's emissions by 25 percent would be equivalent to removing 1.25 million passenger cars from the nation's roads.

In the background of sustainability issues is what kind of public policy will evolve and how that will affect dairying and agriculture and other businesses and industries. Any policies and laws developed will need a strong consensus in Washington because of action taken recently by U.S. Senate. A total of 65 Senators rejected a procedural move that would have limited debate on any "cap and trade" legislation. In other words, any "cap and trade" legislation would need 60 votes in the Senate, not just a simple majority of 50.

That should give some comfort to those in our industry and the rest of the business community that economic impacts will be considered along with environmental impacts as our nation addresses climate-related issues.

More cheese please

Cheese is the flavor highway for pizza," said Dave Brandon Domino's chief executive officer when discussing the launch of the "American Legends" product-line which features six pizzas with 40 percent more cheese on them. "This is a permanent menu platform. We hope to build on it," says Brandon. Dominos anticipates using 10 million pounds of cheese annually with the American Legends product line. This premium product will use American, Cheddar, feta, mozzarella, Parmesan, and provolone.

U.S. dairy farmers, through the producer-funded check-off program, partnered with Dominos to help make the launch possible. "This is just another step in the evolution we started five years ago when we began partnering with companies to promote dairy products," noted Tom Gallagher the chief executive officer for Dairy Management, Inc. "The first partnership started with McDonald's and the single-serve milk offering," Gallagher said. Gallagher reports the current partnerships with Dominos got rolling with a $12 million commitment with DMI. Dominos is expected to match four to five times that level.

When asked if DMI's $12 million made the project possible, Domino’s Brandon said, "It was the stimulus to make it happen," playing off the current economic headlines. Brandon went on to say, he was not willing to say it would never have happened, but, without the partnership, it would have taken much longer to get done.

No doubt, pizza is an important product for the dairy industry . . . 25 percent of all U.S. cheese goes on pizza. "If we were able to add one ounce of cheese to all pizza sold in the U.S., that would equal 250 million pounds of cheese," said Paul Rovey chairman of DMI. (Milk equivalent would be 2.5 billion pounds or 1.4 percent of U.S. milk production.) And anything that can be done to return pizza sales to the level of just a few years ago is a must. In fact, DMI will be holding an emergency pizza task force meeting by bringing together major pizza chains in the next few weeks.

This announcement is no small rollout. Dominos has 9,000 stores in 61 countries across the globe with over 1 million transactions per day. The American Legends product offering is focused on the domestic chains of which Dominos has 5,000 stores. "We (Dominos and DMI) have shared goals, to sell more pizza, and more cheese," says Brandon.