Northwest Iowa — June is Dairy Month. Normally we would be telling you of a dairy open house put on by the Western Iowa Dairy Alliance. This year, that event was another casualty of the pandemic.
But Alliance Executive Director Brandi Hansen of Sheldon tells us they are doing some other things instead.
(As said, “We have a greater presence on our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter right now. We are actually doing like ‘Tasty Tuesdays’. We do a video of how to use dairy in a recipe, and so far we’ve made butter, ice cream in a bag, and cheese. This week we doing some yogurt. Every Tuesday we have a new video and recipe for everyone to try. We try to make them kid friendly so that’s been fun. We’ve also done a calf program with a local producer, and we have a little calf that was born on June 10th, and tomorrow we’ll be revealing the name of our calf, and then we’ll be following the calf through all of it’s stages of life. From here on out we’ll be following this calf, and hopefully it will be a good experience for everyone to see the day in the life of a dairy calf.”)
It’s been a tough few years for dairy producers, and then the pandemic struck. But Hanson says there is good news on the horizon.
(As said, “Actually our exports have continued to climb. That has been a really good positive note. The milk market prices also are looking good. Our consumers are still out there buying lots of dairy and we’re happy about that. Fortunately the supply wasn’t as affected here in Northwest Iowa. We haven’t had to dump any milk. It’s looking up and hopefully it’ll kind of level out a little bit here on the second half of the year.”)
She gives us some reminders for consumers.
(As said, “Dairy, of course is a really important part of our diet. We encourage you to have 3 servings of dairy a day, at least. Go ahead and add a little extra cheese to your pizza. You can also purchase milk now that it has lower sugar and higher protein so you can ensure that your getting your protein. Use milk as a source of protein in your diet. My favorite thing to do is drink a big glass of chocolate milk after a workout. That will make my muscles feel good, and makes me feel charged and ready to go.”)
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