Donna Westman and Marianne Peterson are dairy moms. Together with their husbands, they own and operate dairy farms near Pine City. Also, both women are mothers.
As is typical with dairy families, everyone contributes – youth learn about the rewards of hard work, responsibility and what it takes to sustain a successful business that will reach into the future.
[source: Shirley Schmidt, TownNews.com] Besides their involvement in day-to-day farming activities, both women are very active in dairy organization functions. Recently, Westman and Peterson were selected by the Midwest Dairy Association to attend a seminar held in Kansas City focused on promoting the dairy industry using social media – Facebook, Twitter and blogging in particular. Also, they were invited to join the Dairy Farm Mom Network that is focused on promoting dairy with positive messages and recipes. This network is a rich source from which the women can draw inspiration and the expertise of professionals. Now they will be able to apply what they’ve learned.
“Dairy Farm Mom Network is a closed site for those of us who are working with Midwest Dairy on developing information we can use for social networking,” Marianne Peterson noted. “There are about 40 dairy moms on it and we communicate with each other about ideas on networking. Also, Midwest Dairy Association communicates with us in this way.”
“As a group of moms, our goal is to get a positive message out there about the things that we do every day such as providing healthy quality products from our farms,” Donna Westman observed. “As a group, we are passionate about being moms and about dairy. What better resource than ourselves to promote our industry. Social media seems to be here to stay and we can make good use of it. Facebook, Twitter or blogging are just a few ways to share how we feel about dairy.”
Marketing research indicates that social media is the direction of the future. With most of today’s population two generations removed from agriculture, social media establishes a farmer to customer connection that is not restricted by locale. Peterson summed it up well. “If we want to compete, we need to be up to speed with the rest of the world. Every business has the ability to be global.”
There are more than 11,000 dairy farm families in the 10 Midwest states producing an astounding 23.5 billion pounds of milk annually. Dairy farmers represent jobs and thriving economic activity in their communities. For many dairy farmers, it’s all about preserving the history of their families and teaching strong values to future generations.
The Midwest has a long tradition of dairy farming that, for many, reaches back to the last century when the first settlers emigrated. Donna Westman, husband Jim and their three daughters are the third and fourth generations on their farm, Rock Elm Holsteins. They were awarded Century Farm status in 1991. Marianne and Jeff Peterson purchased their farm from in-laws in 1978. They have five grown children. Their oldest son Jacob has joined them in their family business venture, J. M. Peterson Farm.