A new brand of milk called Udderly Kentucky – produced, pasteurized and bottled in Kentucky – is now available in 32 Wal-Mart stores in the central and south-central parts of the state. State Agriculture Commissioner James Comer unveiled the new brand this week and said that 7 cents from every gallon sold will be returned to participating Kentucky dairy farmers.
The brand is a pilot project between Wal-Mart, processor Prairie Farms and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Kentucky Proud farm marketing program.The ag department is maintaining a website for the brand, to educate consumers about where their milk comes from and to encourage them to support the pilot project.
The site points out, "You may not realize it, but when you go to the supermarket now, your milk could come from anywhere – from one of Kentucky's 105 farms or any other state in the region. And even if it's from a Kentucky dairy farm, chances are it's processed in another state and then shipped back to Kentucky."
The site also lets consumers know that the number of family dairy farms in Kentucky is decreasing, from 3,500 in the early 1980s to fewer than 850 today.
Click here to read about researchers' efforts to study declining milk production in the Southeast.
It also spotlights three specific dairy farmers: Patrick Patterson of Long Cedar Dairy, Tony Compton of Compton Dairy Farms and Dante Carpenter of KC Farms. PD
—Compiled from various sources
