Food From Our Farms… And Food For Thought About Marketing

#SWODS2025 

2025 marks the 19th year of featuring dairy products selected to help us “learn from lunch.” The products featured this year focus on the theme of “celebrating expanded processing capacity” and what it means to our market and the consumers who drive it. Dairy is a major contributor to the economy in the 13-county region that plans this program. This region produces more milk than any other part of Ontario, and regionally as well as nationally, our industry has long suffered from a shortage of processing capacity that limits new product development, restricts market growth and leads to increasingly unpopular food waste when weather, equipment failures, and holidays disrupt markets. We salute both the united determination of processors and producers and the much-needed government support that is addressing this critical issue through a combination of private and public funding from a variety of programs. The $333 million Dairy Innovation and Investment Fund ($127 million for Ontario), announced in November 2023, has been fully allocated. While details remain confidential, funded projects are in active development and implementation. Ontario dairies also received $21.5 million from the Supply Management Processing Investment Fund (SMPIF), and several of the processors that participated have donated product for our enjoyment this year.

We salute Sheldon Creek Dairy for a SMPIF-supported expansion that has added new cultured beverages like fruit smoothies and kefir to their product line. By making their plant accessible for co-packing, they provide opportunity for other entrepreneurs to explore possibilities without investing in hardware. Their focus on whole unhomogenized milk, A2 and artisan flavoured milk sourced from their own farm is contributing to market growth and building a positive image for all dairy producers and products. Their expansion has led to a wide variety of new cultured products that we are sampling today.

Large processors are critical to our future, and we are grateful that multinational Lactalis, number 1 in gross sales in the world and number 3 in Canada, continues to invest here. They are adding new processing capacity at their Ingleside cheese plant with support from SMPIF. We thank them for their donation of a new product, Lactantia 1% chocolate milk for our symposium.

While coffee is not a dairy beverage, making it white is a multi-million dollar undertaking and ensuring that happens with real dairy is important to us. We thank Farm Credit Canada for sponsoring our coffee and we thank Kawartha Dairy for providing coffee cream for our event. With both their head office and several outlets and numerous retailers in cottage country, the Kawartha brand makes memories from cottage life and builds loyal dairy clientele with their high-quality ice cream and other products.

We featured them just two years ago for their health focus, and now we welcome back Modhani 2% Yogurt with Turmeric and Fruit as we celebrate the new processing capacity provided by their new plant in Tillsonburg. Completion of the plant last July, supported with SMPIF funding, increases Modhani’s processing capacity by 400% and allows them to expand into new grocery markets.

When an Ontario dairy farmer is a panelist on our program and he is also a processor, it makes sense to make that part of the conversation. Korb Whale owns and manages Clovermead Holsteins, a modern 160-cow freestall dairy with a digester, as well as Mapleton’s Organic Dairy featuring organic ice cream and fluid milk made from the 70 organic cows housed in their compost pack barn open to visitors. Mapleton’s includes on-farm retail, as well as agri-tourism, barn tours and farm adventure experiences. Personal connections with consumers made at dairies like Mapleton’s play an important role in educating our clients about sustainability, animal care, and all that dairy has to offer. As a contribution to “dessert for you,” DeDell Seeds, who offer high sugar silage varieties they call “dessert for cows,” are cost-sharing in the ice cream donation, and we thank them for this additional sponsorship.

Cheese processing is a key area where we can benefit from expanded capacity to accommodate growth, new product development and flexibility. Three companies with expansion projects benefitting from the SMPIF program have donated cheese products for us to sample and we appreciate the confidence they have shown by investing in new capacity. The Borgo brothers, William, Albert and Joseph, are the fourth generation of a cheese-making tradition that started in the Asiago region of Italy. Their father Almerigo moved the family to Ontario in the 1950s and today Quality Cheese is a thriving family business marketing Italian cheeses under the Bella Cassara and Albert’s Leap labels.

Founded by Joe Galati in 1988, Galati Cheese is also a family-run cheese business with Italian roots. They are growing with new investment in processing capacity at their Windsor plant and retail store. This is their first time participating in our symposium and we welcome the opportunity to sample some of their “locally produced cheeses”.

Our third cheese sponsor is Arla Foods Canada. The well-known and highly regarded Arla Foods company based in Denmark and Sweden has been part of the processing scene in Ontario since 1961. It’s great to see their growing commitment to manufacturing here with Canadian milk and the blue cow logo on all their Canadian-made products.

On the subject of cheese, your Dairy Symposium team wants to thank our speakers with a gift, and we choose to give dairy. The eight cheese baskets used as speaker gifts and for the early bird draw are sponsored by Scotiabank and are provided by specialty retail cheese shops in the region listed by name and location below. The interest in specialty cheese products these retailers create is a big factor in the growing market for these high-value products. As dairy farmers who take pride in our industry, we need to “give dairy” as gifts at every opportunity.

Vodkow, distilled in Almonte, Ontario is the only “Canadian” dairy-based product in our liquor stores and is a unique phenomenon for our industry. Vodkow is distilled from milk permeate, a low-value by-product that would otherwise go into animal feed. With Vodkow as the base, this company also makes a wide variety of excellent quality Vodkow Cream Liqueurs using all Canadian cream.

Finally, we want to remind you that our farms produce other foods in addition to dairy products. This year we are once again serving veal on a bun to acknowledge the local veal producers who we rely on to market bull calves and surplus heifer calves as premium quality veal products. Our veal purchase for lunch was supplied and subsidized by Highland Packers, a local family-owned meat processor in Stoney Creek, and we thank them for their contribution.

It is our hope that these products and the information presented about them will increase awareness and stimulate interest among producers in the marketing side of the industry. We salute these products and the companies behind them as opportunities to expand markets, add value and strengthen the industry.

We also acknowledge the important role of government in providing funding to stimulate the expansion of processing capacity that is taking place. Producers and processors, working and lobbying together, along with financial support from our governments, are reshaping our supply chain in a way that will reduce waste, improve sustainability and encourage growth, ensuring a healthy future for the dairy sector.

Jack Rodenburg, on behalf of the Planning Committee.

Thank You to Farm Credit Canada for sponsoring our coffee…

…and to Kawartha Dairy for their 10% and 18% coffee cream.

Kawartha Dairy has been family-owned and operated for over 85 years, still located in the small town of Bobcaygeon where it all started back in 1937. We are proud to still make our premium, rich and creamy dairy products the traditional way with fresh milk and fresh cream right from Ontario farms. We receive fresh milk daily from Ontario farms and make it into packaged products within about a day of the farm. Our business started with milk and cream in the 1930s, being delivered by horse and wagon, and grew to include our iconic ice cream in the 1950s. Thank you to the hard-working Ontario dairy farmers for producing such high-quality milk! We thank Kawartha for their donation of coffee cream at the Symposium.

Sheldon Creek Dairy

Already well known for their easily digested non-homogenized A2 milk, their expanded processing capacity has added a wide range of delicious new cultured products like kefir and yogurt smoothies in a great variety of flavours. Their line of flavoured milk will keep you engaged with new flavours like Apple Pie, Crème Brûlée, Pina Colada and S’mores. Hats off to Sheldon Creek for making dairy so much more interesting.

4300 Concession Rd 5 Loretto, Ontario
Open: Mon-Sun, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
(705) 434-0404

Lactalis Canada

Thank you for the new 1% chocolate milk donated for us to sample, and thank you to this multinational processor for their big commitment to Canadian dairy, with new processing capacity and blue cow labelling.

Modhani

New investment in a processing plant in Tillsonburg is expanding markets for this company’s healthy 2% Greek Style Fruit Bottom Yogurt with Turmeric which we are sampling at the symposium.

Health benefits of Turmeric include reduced risk of cancer, reduced inflammation and arthritis pain, lower cholesterol and reduced risk of heart disease, easier weight management and control of diabetes, improved mental health and reduced risk of dementia.

Modhani also makes a variety of ethnic dairy products like Dahi, Makhani and Ghee.

Mapleton’s Organic

Mapleton’s Organic ice cream is sold in specialty stores as well as on the farm, where memories are made with agri-tourism adventures that connect us with consumers. Unique ice cream flavours like Dandelion, Cappuccino, Ginger, Raspberry and Chai make Mapleton’s ice cream a very special treat.

Visit the store, the barns and the Adventure Area at 8548 Wellington Road 7, Moorefield
519-638-1115

DeDell

The Mapleton’s ice cream served here as dessert for us is co-sponsored by DeDell Seeds, who make “Dessert” corn silage hybrid for your cows.

Thank you to these cheese companies for investing in new processing capacity and for the cheeses we are sampling today.

111 Jevlan Drive, Vaughan, Ontario
Open: Mon-Sat, 8:30 – 5:00
(905) 265 – 9991
info@qualitycheese.com

931 Tecumseh Road West, Windsor, Ontario
Open: Mon-Fri 9-4, Sat 9-12
519-973-7510
sales@galaticheese.com

Expanding in Ontario with the blue cow on the label!

VODKOW

Vodkow is a distillery located in Almonte ON.  They make an award-winning triple distilled vodka by repurposing unused milk sugars from the dairy process. Their carbon-neutral vodka is used to power a line of “lactose-free” cream liquors in the following flavours: coffee, maple, chocolate, classic cream, eggnog, London fog, mango sunrise, key lime and strawberry social. Less sugar, Canadian cream and better ingredients for a better-tasting product than other cream liquors.

Highland Packers

Thank you to Highland Packers for their support in providing partial sponsorship for the veal on a bun served at the Dairy Symposium. This family business started by the DeJonge family in 1958 includes meat packing, as well as retail. It has a strong focus on local foods including the freshest meats and deli items, cheese and other dairy products and fruits, vegetables and baked goods.

Cheese Gift Basket Sponsor

This year Scotiabank has purchased our gift baskets from these selected specialty cheese shops located throughout the region. The stores listed below are ambassadors for gourmet artisan cheeses that are growing high-value markets for our industry.

Two Girls and a Cheese Shop, 20 Brock Street West, Tillsonburg; 519-688-2228

The Cheesy Cow, 525 Dundas Street, Woodstock; 519-900-8692

The Wine Cellar and Cheese Shop, 188 Thames Street S., Ingersoll; 519-425-4999

Village Cheese Mill – 333744 Plank Line, Salford; 519-485-0600

Devizes Cheese Factory Outlet – 23498 Highbury Avenue, Denfield; 519-225-2646

The Milky Whey Fine Cheese Shop, 118 Ontario Street, Stratford; 519-814-9439

The Tipperary Bog Cheese Shop – 84 Charing Cross Street, Brantford; 519-771-9174

East Hamilton Cheese Company – 205 Ottawa Street North, Hamilton; 905-920-2314

La Fromagerie – 209 Lexington Road, Waterloo; 519-897-6994

Encouraging dairy farmers and agribusiness to take pride in their products and give the gift of dairy!