Progress 06/01/24 to 05/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes: • U.S. Small dairy farms • Dairy product value-added producers • Dairy stakeholders throughout the U.S. • Consumers of dairy products Changes/Problems:The following changes were made to the project: Increase of recruitment criteria from $350,000 in annual dairy revenue to $1M in annual dairy annual revenue Geographic focus of respondents on the top dairy producing states vs the proposed economic census Triple the amount of survey drafts and soft launches to ensure a more robust survey design, given the magnitude of the project and importance of the data. Significant increase in the number of months needed to complete the survey solicitation that was targeted for 6-9 months to 18 months. This task timelinemay require a no-cost-extension to be filed in April 2026 if not all outreach and extension activities are completed. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This work will occur in the final year of the project and, potentially, through an additional year of no-cost-extension work. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This work will occur in the final year of the project and, potentially, through an additional year of no-cost-extension work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Over the next period of performance, the Atlantic team will complete inferential statistics and prescriptive analysis of the survey data (July 2025), final findings report (August 2025), finalize the spatial visualization componentof the interactive data dashboard (August2025), beta testing of tools (August 2025), and outreach and extension (August 2025 to April 2026 and beyond).?

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Task 1: Consumer survey design We designed a B2B survey in collaboration with Dr. Qiujie Zheng (University of Maine) and Ms. Robyn Dumont (University of Southern Maine). In addition, we sought input from our lead advisors at Cornell PRO-DAIRY and the National Small-scale Dairy Development Committee (NSDDC) to ensure we were including questions most important to America's small farms. The B2B survey assessed the following themes related to the factors influencing the success of small and medium sized farms U.S. dairy farms: Income Equipment & Infrastructure Improvement Financing Market Opportunities Product Makeup and Profiling Regulatory Hurdles (State & Federal) Current Sales & Distribution Channels Consumer Perceptions We completed 17 drafts of the survey and 3 soft launches, which was significantly more than proposed in our application. This increased the amount of time spent on task 1 from 3-months to 9-months (4/1/23 to 12/1/23). Upon completion of our survey design (see Appendix A), we submitted it for review to Solutions IRB in September 2023, which resulted in an exemption letter provided to the USDA Grants Management office for final approval. From September 2023 through March 2024, we completed an initial launch campaign (described in task 2). Task 2: Consumer survey implementation The most time-consuming portion of the year 1 period of performance was allocated to survey implementation and solicitation. Unlike a panel used for B2C surveys, we had to research, review, and hand select farms from various contacts to include in the survey which matched our vetting criteria. Atlantic programmed the survey using Qualtrics software. We co-hosted and executed the survey with support from the Survey Research Center at the University of Southern Maine's Catherine Cutler Institute. Survey participants were recruited through various channels include the U.S. Farm Database, Extension office contact lists in the top dairy producing states, non-profit dairy organizations and milk producer commissions, and by utilizing in-house contacts at Atlantic. Our original intention was to solicit farms with $350,000 in annual dairy revenue; however, outreach to these farms proved to be more challenging and, after a two-month outreach campaign, we decided to open the recruitment to farms with $1M or less in dairy revenue. Our target sample was 200 respondents (n=200) and by the end of the first period of performance (5/31/2024), we had 26 completed surveys. To collect the remaining responses, it took a 9-month effort before completing our last survey on February 28, 2025 (n=220). The targeted sample size was chosen to generate point estimates and associated confidence intervals that are significant at the 95% level and allowed us to capture views of current U.S. dairy farms, their operational and financial approaches, and the factors impacting sustainability. Our survey implementation followed a pre-designed and proven project life cycle that includes soft launch, full launch, monitoring and quota management, and data cleansing. Quota management and data cleaning eliminated many of the completed surveys from farms attempting to complete the survey that did not make it through the filtering questions. By collaborating with over 25 different extension offices, dairy advocacy groups, and state departments across the U.S, we mimicked a multi-sourcing panel recruitment model, which maximizes reach and capacity, and improves consistency. We initially proposed mimicking the number of respondents in each of the nine U.S. economic regions, we learned through the initial outreach campaign and meetings with Cornell PRO-DAIRY and other advisors that focusing on top day producing states would be more fruitful and generate a more meaningful data set. All participants were compensated for participation in the study with a stipend of $150. Participating organizations included: Center for Dairy Excellence, Dairy Agenda Today, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, Dairy Herd Management, Dairy Together, Farm and Dairy, Indiana Dairy Producers, Kentucky Dairy Development Council, Maine Cheese Guild, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Massachusetts Department of Ag Resources, Missouri Dairy Association, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, New Mexico Cheese Guild, Northeast Ohio Dairy Conference, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Association, Southeast Dairy Business Innovation Initiative, University of Maine Extension, University of Minnesota Extension, University of Tennessee Extension, University of Vermont Extension, Vermont Creamery, Virginia State Dairymen Association, Washington Cheesemakers Association, and Western Organic Dairy Producers Association. Task 3. Data Analysis and Descriptive Statistics. Working with the University of Southern Maine, the Atlantic team analyzed the survey data collected and cleaned the data file. This resulted in n=20 of our n=220 surveys being removed for incomplete data. The remaining data set (n=200) was analyzed, and we presented descriptive statistics to summarize our results about small dairy farm success factors. We calculated descriptive statistics, such as means, medians, and standard deviations, for continuous variables. Cross tabulations were used for dichotomous variables to explore correlations. We also created easy to interpret tables, charts, and graphics to describe findings and interpret them in an informative way to highlight key findings. These figures were presented in our descriptive statistics report but will be used in the final report and in presentations to communicate results in year 3 and 4 of the project. This work was completed March 1, 2025 to May 1, 2025. Task 6. Interactive Data Dashboard Development. Atlantic created an extensive, web-based, searchable presentation of project data where users can explore all aspects of project data using the Microsoft Power BI Pro® platform. The dashboard is valuable for farmers and value-added producers, as well as federal and state departments of food and agriculture, dairy and agricultural advocacy and certification groups, research scientists, and Extension professionals. By default, the data is shown for all survey respondents, but users can filter the data using dropdown and checkbox menus. The dashboard is also interconnected so that users can select one visualization, and all other graphics will be filtered to the components' value. This dashboard allows deep dives into the complete data archive and will be of use to stakeholders in the industry developing education and extension/outreach programs. Visualizations include bar and line graphs, summary tables, and treemaps. More advanced types like heatmaps, waterfall charts, and bubble charts are also used where appropriate. Once the inferential statistical analysis is complete, an additional layer of the dashboard will be added to include a spatial-visualization component and contain HTML iframes to easily embed the data on any website. The embedded iframe feature has allowed Extension professionals across the U.S. to easily share the tools on their own websites, press releases, and publications. This work was completed between April 1, 2025 and May 31, 2025.

Publications

Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience includes: • U.S. Small dairy farms • Dairy product value-added producers • Dairy stakeholders throughout the U.S. • Consumers of dairy products Changes/Problems:Changes to the Scope of Work There were no changes to the scope of work, although some slight modifications to the proposed strategy which includes: 1) increase of recruitment criteria from $350,000 in annual revenue to $1M in annual revenue; 2) geographic focus of respondents on the top dairy producing states vs the proposed economic census; and 3) triple the amount of survey drafts and soft-launches to ensure a more robust survey design, given the magnitude of the project and importance of the data. There was an anticipated delay in the collection of all 200 responses, but even though our forecasted delay was exceed given the target date was 6/30/2024, but we do not expect to have all 200 responses collected by that time. It has been extremely challenging to get small farms (under $1M in revenue) to participate in the detailed survey assessment and this has required multiple attempts using different methods of solicitation. While we expect the delay for this task not to exceed 60 days, the overall project timeline is not anticipated to be altered, as we will speed up deliverables associated with tasks 3 and 4 (data analysis and statistics). Changes to the Project Budget The company did not make any changes to the budget but has not drawn down all of the forecasted funds. Survey stipends for farms completing the survey will be paid upon completion of the task which has not yet occurred. This has left $29,800 in unspent funds carried forward into the second period of performance. *A detailed technical report was also submitted to the Awards Management Division and National Program Leader on 6/13/2024 via email. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This work will occur at the end of period of performance 2 and all of period of performance 3. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This work will occur in Q3 of period of performance 2 and all of period of performance 3. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Task 1: Consumer survey design We designed a B2B survey in collaboration with Dr. Qiujie Zheng (University of Maine) and Ms. Robyn Dumont (University of Southern Maine). In addition, we sought input from our lead advisors at Cornell PRO-DAIRY and the National Small-scale Dairy Development Committee (NSDDC) to ensure we were including questions most important to America's small farms. The B2B survey assessed the following themes related to the factors influencing the success of small and medium sized farms U.S. dairy farms: Income Equipment & Infrastructure Improvement Financing Market Opportunities Product Makeup and Profiling Regulatory Hurdles (State & Federal) Current Sales & Distribution Channels Consumer Perceptions We completed 17 different drafts of the survey and 3 separate soft launches, which was significantly more than proposed in our application. This increased the amount of time spent on task 1 from 3-months to 9-months (4/1/23 to 12/1/23). Upon completion of our survey design (see Appendix A), we submitted it for review to Solutions IRB in September 2023, which resulted in an exemption letter provided to the USDA Grants Management office for final approval. From September 2023 through March 2024, we completed an initial launch campaign (described in task 2). Task 2: Consumer survey implementation The most time-consuming portion of the year 1 period of performance was allocated to survey implementation and solicitation. Unlike a panel used for B2C surveys, we had to research, review, and hand select farms from various contacts to include in the survey which matched our vetting criteria. Atlantic programmed the survey using Qualtrics software. We co-hosted and executed the survey with support from the Survey Research Center at the University of Southern Maine's Catherine Cutler Institute. Survey participants were recruited through various channels include the U.S. Farm Database, Extension office contact lists in the top dairy producing states, non-profit dairy organizations and milk producer commissions, and by utilizing in-house contacts at Atlantic. Our original intention was to solicit farms with $350,000 in annual dairy revenue; however, outreach to these farms proved to be more challenging and, after a two-month outreach campaign, we decided to open the recruitment to farms with $1M or less in dairy revenue. Our target sample was 200 respondents (n=200) and as of 5/31/2024 we had a commitment for close to 50 completed surveys by 6/18/24. We anticipated the remaining 150 surveys to be completed between June 15, 2024 and July 15, 2024, which we will report on in the next reporting cycle. The targeted sample size was chosen to generate point estimates and associated confidence intervals that are significant at the 95% level and will allow us to capture views of current U.S. dairy farms, their operational and financial approaches, and the factors impacting sustainability. Our survey implementation followed a pre-designed and proven project life cycle that includes soft launch, full launch, monitoring and quota management, and data cleansing. Quota management and data cleaning eliminated many of the completed surveys from farms attempting to complete the survey that did not make it through the filtering questions. While the complete survey total appears low, this is common in necessary in this type of study to ensure quality data is captured and used in the research. By collaborating with multiple extension offices across the U.S we are mimicking a multi-sourcing panel recruitment model, which maximizes reach and capacity, and improves consistency. We initially proposed mimicking the number of respondents in each of the nine U.S. economic regions, we learned through the initial outreach campaign and meetings with Cornell PRO-DAIRY and other advisors that focusing on top day producing states would be more fruitful and generate a more meaningful data set. Participants have been compensated for participation in the study with a stipend of $150. This work began with soft launches in September 2023 through March 2024, where the team was able to solicit responses, clean data, and revise the survey based on knowledge gained. The final official launch occurred on April 1, 2024. Potential respondents have access to completing the survey online, by phone, or via hard copy mail.

Publications