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A new round of Dairy Innovation funding ahead

A new round of funding is coming for dairy farmers and processors under the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative.

Rebekah Sweeney with the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association says a new round of 100-thousand-dollar grants will be open for application in mid-August. “A few times a year, we open up a grant application opportunity and together with our partners at the Center for Dairy Research, and all of the state departments of ag involved in the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance, which is the center we run here out of Wisconsin, we determine which projects should be funded.”

Sweeney says there has been great demand for the dollars as producers add on-farm processing and processors upgrade their facilities.  She says past grants have funded several outstanding ideas for processors and farmers. “We’re seeing them expand their operations, increase their processing capacity, modernize their facilities, train their employees, hire more employees.”

Information about the grants can be found at the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association website or through the University of Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research website.

Federal funds also assist three other Dairy Business Innovation Initiative regions in Tennessee, Vermont, and in the Pacific Coast states.  The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee recently approved five million more dollars for 2025, bringing the total for next year to 17 million dollars.