Long considered one of the top lobbyists in Ottawa, Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Executive Director, Richard Doyle, will retire this year, after a remarkable career of 38 years of continuous service to Canadian dairy farmers. While he plans Aug. 31 will be his last day as executive director, he will stay on as special adviser to the president until December.

In order to further stimulate milk production, an adjustment of quota issuance of 1.5 percent, effective April 1, is required to address longer term needs. This increase includes the 0.5 percent quota issuance increase announced last month. Therefore, the total increase will be 1.5 percent.

Pierre Lemieux, parliamentary secretary to Canada’s Minister of Agriculture, and Gord Brown, member of Parliament for Leeds – Grenville, have announced support of nearly $945,000 under the AgriMarketing Program for the dairy sector to develop and implement a national traceability program and implement an assurance program for dairy production.

The government of Canada announced on Sept. 16 that it would invest $12 million in a second Dairy Research Cluster to drive innovation in dairy.The Dairy Research Cluster program, which is now in its second term, is led by Dairy Farmers of Canada. It builds on research themes carried over in part from the first cluster program (2010-2013) and will run for the next five years.

All you need is cheese this fall
This fall, Dairy Farmers of Canada’s All You Need Is Cheese (AYNIC) campaign was revitalized with a brand new positioning: “Cheese. An Excellent Source of Pleasure.”

New messages were created around this positioning to create a meaningful association between cheese and pleasure in the minds of consumers.

1. Salt in cheese
A research team led by Dr. Steve Labrie (Laval University) looked at the impact of reducing the sodium content on the safety, texture, functional properties and taste of Canadian cheddar, mozzarella and soft cheeses.

They found reducing sodium in cheeses could negatively affect the ripening process, cheese hardness and melting properties.

  Delegates from all 10 provinces have voted in favour of Dairy Farmers of Canada’s (DFC) proAction Initiative at its recent annual general meeting in Toronto.

For its 11th year, the North American Manure Expo will live up to its name and, for the first time, take place outside of the U.S. The 2013 event will be held Aug. 20 and 21 at the University of Guelph Arkell Research Station in Arkell, Ontario.