GREEN BAY, Wis. — Innovation in the dairy community was the central theme of Dairy Strong, a conference focused on the dairy industry held at the KI Convention Center in Green Bay, Wis.
More than 400 people attended Dairy Strong, which featured two keynotes and multiple breakout sessions focused on a broad range of topics from sustainability to how the new presidential administration may affect dairy stakeholders.
Innovation happens when ideas from throughout an organization collide, said keynote speaker Jeff Eggers, a senior advisor and partner at the McChrystal Group and co-author of “Leaders: Myth and Reality,” a Wall Street Journal best seller.
“A lot of insight comes from the bottom of the organization and it’s important for leaders to talk less and listen more,” he said. “Leaders need to create a culture of accountability and safety in their organizations.”
Eggers retired from the U.S. Navy after serving more than 20 years as a combat veteran Navy SEAL in 2013 and served as a special assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for six years in both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
“Leaders need to talk less and listen more” to inspire innovation, he said. “When it comes to leading and creating innovation, you need to learn to not take yourself too seriously, think like a kindergartner, decentralize to a point where there’s discomfort and be responsive to context.”
Sustainability
Sustainability in dairy farming remains an important topic with several Dairy Strong breakout sessions focused on what farmers can do to reduce their carbon footprint.
Tim Baye, a professor of business development/energy finance and state energy specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, said dairy farmers have a clear pathway to take steps to lower their carbon footprint, share that information and become part of a carbon marketplace, where they can be financially compensated for their efforts.
“For any new type of product — and that’s what this is — you need to be able to define it and it must be performance based,” he said.
Farmers should ideally be able to share information about their carbon footprint with their processors and pass it on to consumer-packaged goods companies, who are interested in that information as more consumers ask for that information, Baye said.
Shashi Menon, CEO of EcoEngineers, said the Climate-Smart Guidebook provides farmers with an overview of how carbon accounting and carbon markets work. The Guidebook was created as part of Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative’s USDA-funded Climate-Smart project.
“Farmers can be in control of their data and maximize the revenues back to the farm,” he said. “More and more people want access to carbon offsetting data and that is something that farms have.”
Farmers for Sustainable Food (FSF) is partnering with Edge and has a Climate-Smart Program, which launched last year and helps farmers determine what conservation practices are most effective for their individual farms and provides tools to document their environmental and financial effects.
Fifty-three farms enrolled in the program’s inaugural year and enrollment is already full for year two.
“The first year of the FSF Climate-Smart Program shows promising results as part of a five-year effort to empower farmers and add value throughout the supply chain,” said Drew Kessler, scientist and principal of Houston Engineering, Inc. Participating dairies reduced enough carbon dioxide from the air “equivalent to powering 6,602 U.S. homes for one year or removing 11,467 U.S. passenger vehicles from the road.”
Patrick Maier, a partner in Maier Farms, LLC in Dane County, Wisconsin, participated in the Climate-Smart Program because he wanted to know more about how much carbon dioxide his farm produced.
“I knew more consumers were interested in the carbon footprint of some products and thought it would be a good idea to learn more about our farm’s carbon output,” he said.
Another farmer enrolled in the program, Kristin Quist, was surprised to see her farm’s carbon score, adding it provided a good baseline for Minglewood Inc., her family’s dairy farm in Polk County, Wisconsin.
“The data is new to us, but we shared it with our creamery, who were happy to see it and that we were participating in this program,” she said.
Michael Crinion, an owner of a dairy farm in Minnesota, said consumer product manufacturers are interested in hearing what farmers are doing to decrease their carbon footprint and may be willing to pay a little extra for dairy products with a smaller carbon footprint.
Industry economics
Immigration and tariffs are two top concerns the ag industry has relayed to the new presidential administration, said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmers Cooperators, during a keynote discussion on what to look for in federal policies in 2025.
Michael Torrey, president of the Torrey Advisory Group, a bipartisan consulting group focused on farm and ag issues, said renewing the tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year, will be another priority in Washington. He predicted the Republicans will need to work with the Democrats to get the renewal passed or include it as part of a larger bill, which also has some things in it that they support.
“The Republicans have a very small advantage in the House so both sides will be needed. And if the Republicans don’t get anything done, they know they’ll lose big in two years since they control everything,” Torrey said.
During a presentation on the dairy market outlook for 2025, Mike North, president of Ever.Ag, agreed tariffs are a big deal for farmers and something they should pay attention to. He said it is possible the government may supplement farmers’ income if tariffs hit the industry hard.
“I know no one likes a handout but we may need it to get through this,” he said.
Looking at the dairy market in general, North said there has been a large increase in the amount of cheese being exported.
“We saw a new record in cheese exports in 2024 and hopefully that is something we will see continue in 2025,” he said. “It’s been great for the industry.”
This year’s Dairy Strong conference brought over 400 attendees, representing over 150,000 cows, and industry professionals to Green Bay for the annual conference.
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