Contact: Marti Pupillo
(202) 220-3535
mpupillo@idfa.org
(Washington, D.C. - June 8, 2011) Nominations are now being accepted for the title of the Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year, an annual award co-sponsored by IDFA and Dairy Today magazine. The winner will be honored at the 2012 Dairy Forum, January 15-18 at the La Quinta Resort & Spa in La Quinta, Calif. The deadline for nominations is September 19, 2011, and there is no entry fee.
The call asks for nominations of active U.S. dairy farms that are improving on-farm efficiency through progressive management practices, production technologies and/or marketing approaches. Nominees will be judged on current methods as well as their positioning to meet future economic and business challenges.
The award recipient will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2012 Dairy Forum to attend a special presentation ceremony held during the program. The person nominating the winner will receive complimentary registration to Dairy Forum.
In addition, the winning operation will be highlighted in the January 2012 issue of Dairy Today.
Dairy Forum is widely recognized as the most important processor and producer conference of the year for the U.S. dairy industry. The 2011 event drew a record crowd of more than 900 industry participants.
This call for nominations begins the 14th annual competition for the award. The 2011 winner was Brubaker Farms of Mount Joy, Pa. Previous winners were Haubenschild Dairy Farm, Princeton, Minn.; High Plains Dairy of Friona, Texas; Mason Dixon Farms, Gettysburg, Pa.; Clauss Dairy Farms, Hilmar, Calif.; Baldwin Dairy/Emerald Dairy, Emerald, Wis.; Si-Ellen Farms, Jerome, Idaho; Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy, Kewaunee, Wis.; C Bar M Dairy, Jerome, Idaho; North Florida Holsteins of Bell, Fla.; KF Dairy of El Centro, Calif; Joseph Gallo Farms of Atwater, Calif.; and KBC Farms, Purdy, Mo.
Complete award criteria and a nomination form are available here.
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The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, DC, represents the nation's dairy manufacturing and marketing industries and their suppliers, with a membership of 550 companies representing a $110-billion a year industry. IDFA is composed of three constituent organizations: the Milk Industry Foundation (MIF), the National Cheese Institute (NCI) and the International Ice Cream Association (IICA). IDFA's 220 dairy processing members run more than 600 plant operations, and range from large multi-national organizations to single-plant companies. Together they represent more than 85% of the milk, cultured products, cheese and frozen desserts produced and marketed in the United States.