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Penn
Soil RC&D Council 265 Holiday Inn Road, Suite 3
Clarion, PA 16214 |
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Make
$omething More from Your Milk"
Educational Video Series
An educational video series designed to help those
interested in learning more about value-added dairy
processing. Series is available for purchase in VHS and DVD
formats from Penn Soil RC&D. |
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The Penn Soil Resource Conservation and Development Council introduced the concept of a statewide value added dairy processing project at the PA State Association’s annual meeting in August, 2004, and has been making steady progress since. This three phase project is intended to assist PA dairy farmers become aware of the economic potential of shifting their operation from producing milk for a wholesale commodity market to become more involved in adding value to their milk at the farm and becoming more involved in direct marketing to the consumers of dairy products. Dairy farmers are always interested in receiving better prices for the milk that they produce, but usually have to settle for whatever price is being paid for the blend milk price according to the federal milk marketing order. Farmers who “add value” to their milk have found that consumers are willing to pay a premium for locally produced farmstead products, including cheese, yogurt, butter, ice cream, and farm-bottled milk. By comparison, the value of 100 pounds of milk shipped as a wholesale commodity could be worth about $15, while the same milk converted to a value added product such as farmstead cheese or ice cream could be worth as much as 150-200 dollars. The three phases of the project are considered to be: 1. Create awareness of the economic potential of value added dairy processing. 2. Assist PA farmers in determining the feasibility for their own operation to create interest in pursuing value added dairy opportunities. 3. Develop technical and financial resources to assist interested farmers to make the transition to expand their business into value added dairy markets. The project began with an eight module detailed educational program called MAKE $OMETHING MORE FROM YOUR MILK. This workshop was a cooperative effort between Penn Soil RC&D and the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) held in conjunction with PASA’s annual Farming for the Future Conference. Over 100 people attended the workshop which included an overview of sanitation regulations, labeling and processing logistics, developing a brand, and the elements of a good business plan. In the afternoon, six concurrent sessions gave participants an opportunity to delve more deeply into specific value-added products. These sessions were led by farmers who have already successfully entered the value-added business producing bottled milk, raw milk, ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. Another module concerning Raw Milk was also developed to add to the series The MAKE $OMETHING MORE FROM YOUR MILK educational video series is designed to help those interested in learning more about value added dairy processing. The video series provides detailed information related to production and marketing of value added dairy products as presented by both educators assisting farmers and farmers who are successfully producing and marketing their own farm produced retail products including raw milk, cheese, yogurt, bottled milk, and ice cream. This program will be particularly useful in assisting producers in evaluating their own potential to develop or expand a value added dairy processing enterprise of their own. The entire program was videotaped thanks to financial commitments from Penn Soil RC&D, PDA, PA DEP, PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), The Weston A. Price Foundation, and Northwest Project Grass Chapter and has been compiled into finished educational video units which will continue to be utilized for educational programming across the state. The nine modules are available for sale as individual units or as a complete set.
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Penn
Soil Projects | |
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