Canadian milk logo spells trust for consumers

Friday, July 26, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

Dairy Farmers of Canada’s blue cow 100 per cent Canadian milk logo has achieved trusted brand status, delegates to the organization’s annual meeting in Toronto were told this week.

Eastern Ontario farmer Ron Versteeg says the meeting’s keynote speaker, marketing specialist Terry O’Reilly, explained there are three levels of brands. The trademark is the basic level, while the next step up is the trusted brand, which consumers recognize and trust. “The ultimate level is the treasured brand,” which is one consumers seek out, Versteeg notes.

He says according to O’Reilly “our logo has achieved the level of a trusted brand. We want to take it to the next level.”

Versteeg was elected to one of the four DFC vice presidents’ positions, The other three vice presidents elected at the meeting are: David Wiens of Manitoba, Bruno Letendre of Quebec and Reint-Jan Dykstra of New Brunswick. In addition, Wally Smith was acclaimed to a second two-year term as president.

In other news from the annual meeting, delegates adopted a 10-year plan to develop and implement proAction, which brings together existing and new programs related to on-farm practices in areas such as food safety, milk quality, animal care, environment, traceability and biosecurity. “With this initiative, farmers will show their commitment to society and strengthen the Canadian dairy brand,” it says in DFC’s July 25 press release.

Versteeg says all the elements of proAction are “responding to concerns that consumers have, whether it’s about animal care, the environment, traceability or milk quality. Our plan is to have all those elements come under the 100 per cent Canadian milk logo – that’s our brand.”

At the Dairy Farmers of Ontario annual meeting in January, delegates were told that proAction is a way to deliver a range of six different on-farm programs uniformly across the country.

The six program elements under proAction will be mandatory for farmers, Versteeg says. Some of the other principles of proAction are:

• It will be cost-efficient, user friendly and valuable to farmers.
• It will use existing on-farm expertise to minimize the number of required on-farm visits.
• It will have the same timelines and the same obligations, consequences and, if applicable, financial incentives for all dairy farmers in Canada.
• It will improve the overall productivity and management of Canadian dairy farms.

So far, one of the program elements of proAction, the CQM (Canadian Quality Milk), is already being implemented on dairy farms across the country. Versteeg says that program is slated to be fully implemented by 2015.

The next step is to start work on developing “how we’re going to roll out the remaining five elements,” he says, noting they need to work with the provinces. “Our objective is to have it (proAction programs) rolled out consistently across the country.”

The next program to be implemented on farms is traceability, he says. BF