Tell Your Story, Or Someone Will Tell It For You

Dairy Management Incorporated’s Stan Erwine was back in Monday’s “DMI Update” to continue his series on the dairy check off program’s “Telling Your Story” campaign. One of its three modules is called “Connect with Your Community,” Erwine said, and it specifically deals with helping dairy farmers to develop public relations plans and tools for their dairy.

Erwine repeated his comment from last week that most consumers are two to three generations away from the farm and are therefore unfamiliar with what farmers do. The good news, he said, is that a majority of those consumers have a very positive opinion of dairy products, dairy farms, and dairy farmers but “as we enter the information age, there is more information that confuses consumers.

They have concerns about how we care for the environment, our cattle, and how we insure safe, high quality, and wholesome dairy products, Erwine said, and “That is where the rule of “PR 101 comes into play, tell your story or someone will tell it for you.”

The “Connect with Your Community” program gives producers the tools and skills to communicate how they care for the environment, their cows, and how they’re committed to producing safe, high quality, nutritious milk.

A provided workbook provides worksheets, mission’s statements, value statements, talking points and is available through many of the local state and regional organizations that are trained and ready to provide this to farmers.