GREEN BAY, WI – (WGBW & WISS) – June Dairy Month is coming up quick. It’s a month-long celebration of all the dairy-goodness the state has to offer. 

Millaine Wells is the host of Midwest Farm Weekly on WFRV Local 5. She says that a majority of the milk produced in Wisconsin goes to products sold elsewhere.

“In Wisconsin, 90 percent of our milk goes to make cheese and 90 percent of that is sold outside of Wisconsin,” said Wells. “We eat a lot. We eat 655 pounds of dairy products per person per year.”

To make sure that your dairy products are from America’s Dairyland, Wells said there is a simple marking on the packaging to look for.

“You can look on those labels. There’s a little badge. It says proudly Wisconsin cheese. It’s on all of our cheese products,” said Wells. “Proudly Wisconsin. It’s on ice cream. It’s on butter. You know that you’re shopping Wisconsin when you see that badge.”

Fewer Farms 

Wells said that farming has changed from an industry of small producers and a lot of back-breaking work to tech-based agriculture and larger operations, making dairy farming a different business than it was just a few decades ago.

“Some people look at a larger farm, and they’re intimidated by the size of it. That farm, I always encourage people to go and see. They have a maternity ward. They have an on-staff veterinarian. They have somebody specializing in feed.” Wells said, “And that’s not to say that the guy who’s caring for 60 cows isn’t doing all of that himself, because he’s doing that and more, or she’s doing that and more. There’s a growing number of women farm leaders in our state too–but it has become due to the cost of labor, the cost of machinery, the cost of renting land– We have to do things on a different scale to even be viable.”

June Dairy Month Events

June Dairy Month kicks off this weekend with Grilled Cheese Day at the Egan Farm in Omro and Brown County Breakfast on the Farm at the Wiese Brother’s Farm in Greenleaf.

The bottom line is wherever you are, there is a June Dairy Month event near you. And everyone does it a little different. You get to tour the host farm. You get to meet people who are in that community that are making it happen,” said Wells “Because I always say at these things, we need our truck drivers, our processors. I mean, there’s a lot of hands that make this work.”

For a complete list of events scheduled for June Dairy Month visit https://www.wisconsindairy.org/national-dairy-month/Dairy-Breakfasts