Dairy Promotion Board Seeks New Members

New York State Acting Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said nominations for the New York Dairy Promotion Advisory Board, which administers the State’s Dairy Promotion Order and evaluates dairy marketing and promotion programs.  

Nominations must be received no later than April 1.

The Advisory Board consists of ten New York milk producers appointed by the Commissioner to oversee and make recommendations on the appropriate expenditure of assessments collected from New York dairy farmers that make up the State’s Dairy Promotion Order. 

Members serve a three-year term, beginning May 1. They do not receive a salary, but are entitled to reimbursement of actual expenses.

Any individual producer marketing milk in New York may be nominated to serve on the Dairy Promotion Advisory Board. Nominations can only be made by individual New York milk producers and must be submitted in writing and signed by the individual producer making the nomination. Cooperatives and other farm organizations are not authorized to nominate individual producers to the Advisory Board, but may endorse producers who are nominated.

Each nomination should provide the name and address of the producer being nominated and his or her cooperative or other organizational affiliation. Other information that is helpful in evaluating a nominee’s qualifications to serve on the Advisory Board include the producer’s herd size, milk market, participation in farm organizations or programs, and experience or interest in dairy marketing activities.

Authorized organizations can endorse nominees by submitting to the Commissioner, no later than April 8, a resolution of the board of directors or other governing body endorsing the nominations of at least two of its members whose nominations have been received.  

Authorized organizations are: Agri-Mark, Inc., Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.; Niagara Frontier Cooperative Milk Producers Bargaining Agency, Inc.; New York Farm Bureau, Inc.; New York State Grange, Inc.; and Rochester Cooperative Milk Producers Bargaining Agency, Inc.

Nominations by individual producers and endorsements by the designated cooperative and other farm organizations should be sent no later than April 1, 2014 for nominations and April 8, 2014 for endorsements to:

      New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
      Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services
      Attn: Bert Lue
      10B Airline Drive
      Albany, NY 12235

For further information on the New York State Dairy Promotion Advisory Board nomination process, please contact the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets’ Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services at 518-457-5731.

Milk producers pay 15 cents per hundredweight of milk produced for dairy promotion. The New York State Dairy Promotion Order, established to promote the consumption of New York milk and dairy products, retains 10 of the 15 cents paid by producers for contractual milk promotion activities and dairy research in the State.  The remaining 5 cents is used for national program activities. Last year, $13.4 million was collected through the State Dairy Promotion Order.

New York State Dairy Princess Crowned in Salina

Casey Porter, NYS Dairy Princess

Casey Porter of Jefferson County was named New York State Dairy Princess Tuesday night.

Second alternate is Mikayla MacNeil of Cortland County and first alternate is Lindsey McMahon of Rensselaer County.

Porter, who lives on her parent's dairy farm in Adams Center, goes to South Jefferson High School. For years, she and her family members have shown dairy cattle at the Jefferson County Fair and New York State Fair.

Mikayla MacNeil

The Porterdale Farm was honored in 2011 at Empire Farm Days with the state Agricultural Environmental Management Award. Porterdale Farms was started in 1938 by Glenn and Ruth Porter with 198 acres and 35 cows. The farm now has 1700 mature cows and 1300 replacement heifers. They crop alfalfa, grass, hay, corn silage and corn grain on 4,500 acres. 
 

Lindsey McMahon

About 35 young women from throughout New York state competed to become state dairy princess during a two-day pageant at the Holiday Inn on Electronics Parkway. Contestants are judged in a variety of categories, including performance on a written test, product knowledge test, prepared adult speech, impromptu questions and informal interaction with others.

The princess and alternates will  work throughout the next year making appearances throughout the state for milk promotion.