Summer is here, and so are the highlights from our annual partnership with Discover Dairy’s Adopt a Cow program. This program connects a local dairy farm family with educators and students across the globe to help grow trust in where dairy foods come from.
This past school year, Midwest Dairy supported over 4,100 educators in the program from our 10-state area, reaching approximately 110,400 students. With the incorporation of a new app to manage the program, this was the first year we were able to monitor engagement and saw that 84 percent of the educators are using the program. Survey data also showed that trust in dairy’s environmental impact and animal care increased by 20 percent compared to last year.
“I used resources from the Adopt a Cow program to teach students during science. Students were excited to receive updates about our cow Anna Sue and they also learned so much about dairy and where it comes from,” said Rosseli Ramirez from Gurnee, Illinois. Special appreciation to Midwest Dairy’s six farm hosts supporting the program this year: Berning Dairy (Illinois), College of the Ozarks (Missouri), JCC Jerseys (Nebraska), Miron Farm (Minnesota), Rottinghaus Holstein Farm (Kansas) and Takes Dairy (Iowa). Their dynamic storytelling through photos, stories and live calf chats helped make the program so successful.