The Milk Producer - February 2009 - (Page 4)

EDITOR’SNOTES By Bill Dimmick THE MILK PRODUCER is published monthly by Dairy Farmers of Ontario 6780 Campobello Road, Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 2L8 EDITOR: Bill Dimmick ASSISTANT EDITOR: Sharon Laidlaw Co-ordinated by Communications and Planning Division, Bill Mitchell, Assistant Director. Change of address notices should be sent to: THE MILK PRODUCER 6780 Campobello Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2L8. Subscription rates: $25.20 for one year, $46.20 for two years and $63.00 for three years in Canada (includes GST), $36 per year in the U.S., $36 per year overseas. Single copy: $2.50. Make cheques payable to Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Canada Post Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40063866. Return postage guaranteed. Circulation: 10,500. ISSN 0030-3038. Printed in Canada. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE James Fitzgerald and Associates, 257 Huntingdon Avenue, Stratford, Ontario N5A 6P7. Toll-free advertisers only: 1-888-460-6212 Phone (519) 273-9369/Fax (519) 273-9289 E-mail: jfitzger@milk.org Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and/or editor and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policies of Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Publication of advertisements does not constitute endorsement or approval by The Milk Producer or Dairy Farmers of Ontario of products or services advertised. The Milk Producer welcomes letters to the editor about magazine content. PHONE: (905) 821-8970 FAX: (905) 821-3160 E-MAIL: bdimmick@milk.org slaidlaw@milk.org DFO WEB SITE: http://www.milk.org/ Now, it’s your turn Our readership survey lets you tell us what you think lmost seven years ago, we learned The Milk Producer pleased most of you most of the time. That’s what you told us in a readership survey we conducted in 2002. However, you told us a lot more than that. As a result, we put in motion plans to add new features and beef up our emphasis on some critical issues of the day with the goal of pleasing even more of you more of the time. The survey results underscored our responsibility. In Ontario alone, more dairy farmers read this magazine, then known as Ontario Milk Producer, than any other farm publication available in the province by a wide margin. At the time, we also appeared to be developing solid readership in other provinces where we were distributed. Ninety-six per cent of you who responded to the survey said you read the magazine regularly. What made that result particularly gratifying were the data showing what a well-read group dairy farmers are generally. At that time, we listed 12 farm publications and asked you to check the ones you read regularly. Most of you checked off two or more publications. Other major farm publications all had respectable readership among those of you who responded. In years since we conducted the 2002 survey, much has changed. For a start, we changed our publication name to The Milk Producer to reflect our broader distribution to even more provinces. This also mirrors changes within our industry. By the end of February, boards of five milk marketing organizations, representing producer interests in five Eastern provinces are to decide whether to go ahead with plans for a harmonized P5 quota policy. In early 2009, all signs pointed to the likelihood of approval. At the same time, the P5 and Western pools have begun talking about harmonized fluid milk pricing. Many dairy leaders continue to espouse their belief publically that the industry needs to eventually come together in one national pool. As all this has unfolded, we’ve done our best to keep you informed about changes made, and changes that could still be in the offing. We’ve put this information in a package that also includes articles about cutting edge research into crucial farm management issues. Now, it’s your turn to tell us, once again, whether you like what we’re offering each month, or whether we need to be taking some new approaches and tackling some new subjects. The broad aim of the readership survey is to ask you how we can make your magazine better. This survey is printed on paper and included with this issue. While we looked into the advantages of an Internet survey and found them alluring, we also realized many readers might not participate for numerous reasons. However, one of the questions we’re asking is whether you would prefer to do future surveys online. We look forward to your answers to this and all the other questions. A 4 | February 2009 | MilkPRODUCER http://www.milk.org/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - February 2009

The Milk Producer - February 2009
Contents
Editor's Notes
DFO Chair's Message
Dairy Update
DFC Promotion
Industry Roundup
Issues Update
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Markets
New'n'Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - February 2009