Dairy
Producer Sponsorship for the
Northeast
Regional Dairy Challenge Improves in 2007
2007 marked the five-year
anniversary of the Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge. The Northeast
Regional Dairy Challenge program brings together college students from across
the Northeast and places them in mixed-university teams to apply knowledge
learned in class to a working dairy farm. Teams evaluate all aspects of a
participating dairy farm and develop a consultative presentation for a panel of
judges and farm families. 2007 participating dairy farmer Jamie Robertson of
Bohanan Farms in Contoocook, N.H., stated, “It’s like having 40 consultants
evaluating the farm. This is an opportunity to make my business better.”
What began in 2003 with 77
students, two host farms and 12 participating colleges, grew to 126 students,
three host farms and 16 participating colleges in 2007. The tremendous
growth and success achieved by the North American Intercollegiate Dairy
Challenge program has been possible through generous contributions from the
Northeast agricultural industry, predominantly from agribusiness, but more
recently from a combination of dairy producers and agribusinesses.
John and Sheila Marshman of
Marshman Farms in Oxford, N.Y., were the first dairy producers to financially
support the Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge in 2003 and have remained annual
patrons. The couple views their ongoing contributions as investing in the
future of the dairy industry. Through the years 2004-2006 the Northeast
Regional Dairy Challenge gained very few dairy producer sponsors but producer
sponsorship grew dramatically in 2007.
Dairy farms providing
sponsorship for the 2007 Northeast Regional Dairy Challenge were: Barnes
Black & Whiteface Ranch, Addison, Vt.; Black Brook Farm, Shortsville, N.Y.;
Cooperstown Holstein Corp., Cooperstown, N.Y., Country Ayre Farm, Spencer,
Mass., Hanehan Family Dairy, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Hanehan Family Dairy, Mount
Upton, N.Y.; William Hanehan and Sons, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Jalco Farm,
Haverhill, N.H.; Kayhart Dairy, Addison, Vt.; Marshman Farms, Oxford, N.Y.;
McKnight’s River Breeze Farm, Chase Mills, N.Y.; Patterson Farms, Auburn,
N.Y.; Sparta Farms LP, Dansville, N.Y.; Stonyvale Inc., Exeter, Maine; Stuart
Farm and The Merrill Family, Stratham, N.H.; Table Rock Farm Inc., Castile,
N.Y.; Tiashoke Farms LLC, Buskirk, N.Y.; Woody Hill Farm Inc., Salem,
N.Y.; and Nordic Farms, Charlotte, Vt.
Dairy producers receive many
benefits through sponsorship of the Dairy Challenge.
One major benefit of sponsoring
the Dairy Challenge is dairy producer access to contact information for all
student participants. “Dairy Challenge participants are a concentrated
pool of highly qualified potential employees for today’s dairy farms,” said
John Lehr, First Pioneer Farm Credit dairy consultant. Producer sponsors
can endorse their businesses’ image by contributing to a successful
educational program that promotes the future of the dairy industry.
Also, dairy producers receive
public recognition for their support and have the occasion to inform student
participants about existing career opportunities on sponsor farms. Dairy
Nutritionist and Dairy Challenge Judge David King describes benefits to dairy
producers as, “A way to get their name in front of
the sharpest students in the Northeast and provide students the opportunity to
prepare themselves to be better problem solvers in everyday situations that they
will run into when employed with the farm or agribusiness career they choose.
Challenging the next generation to improve upon work that is being done now is
what education is all about.”
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