Lately there’s been an international flavor here at Majestic Crossing Dairy. In the last month, we’ve hosted more than 40 visitors from Europe: a group of 15 Italian farmers, my friend from France who is in the dairy business, 3 German distributors, and 19 folks from Denmark. European farmers are impressed with our dairy industry here in Wisconsin. Many of them come from smaller farms, so they see our farms as big and grand.
Right now the European dairy industry is struggling to adapt to new realities. Their quota system went away, and milk prices are low. The reality is they’re going to lose some farms. It’s an uncertain time.
Getting to know these farmers has made me even more appreciative of what we’ve got here in our state and our nation. Our open market, our expert support system of veterinarians, nutritionists and suppliers, and our dairy innovation with new products like whey protein and cheeses are nothing to take for granted. All of these things are extremely important to the success of Wisconsin and U.S. Dairy.
Our visitors were also impressed with our new digester. It’s common to use digesters in places like Germany. But what we’re doing in terms of creating potable/usable water with our system is completely new. We think we’re doing the right thing in leading by example with this new technology. We hope we’ll inspire others to do the same.
