Food From Our Farms… And Food For Thought About Marketing

#SWODS2026

2026 marks the 20th year of featuring dairy products selected to help us “learn from lunch,” and there is no doubt new things to think about in 2026. After many years of dealing with a surplus of “solids not fat” in the system, perhaps the biggest cause for celebration is the growth in the market for healthy milk protein, which has rebalanced component demand so that protein rather than butterfat is now driving the market. When we can balance the demand for fat and protein, we minimize waste and maximize components going into high-value products. Producers, processors and consumers all benefit from the efficiencies found in that kind of market.

Consumers are expressing a strong and growing interest in health, especially with respect to protein nutrition, and this is great news for dairy. Three years ago, when we featured fairlife’s “double the protein half the sugar” beverages, who would have thought this category would expand the way it has? This year, fairlife has donated samples of their Core Power protein shakes, a very popular sports and fitness beverage providing muscle-building protein and electrolytes after a workout. We acknowledge Coca-Cola/fairlife for the investment they have made in Ontario dairy and in their very successful product development and launch for their high-protein dairy beverages.

Milk protein and health are also growing markets for cultured products. For example, Kefir, first introduced by M-C Dairy in 1991, is scientifically credited with boosting our immune systems, and it is currently one of the fastest-growing dairy categories. We thank M-C Dairy for developing this market and for donating Kefir as one of our beverages this year.

One of our popular local processors, Mountainoak Cheese, is also exploring demand for cultured milk, with farm store sales of tasty and healthy Raspberry and Strawberry Buttermilk, sold in single-serve and 1.9-litre containers. Mountainoak is continuously expanding its product line in its on-farm store with Quark, fluid milk, and butter, along with its award-winning Gouda cheeses.

Of course, fluid milk itself is still the leading dairy beverage, and this year we feature Summit Station Dairy and Creamery as our artisan fluid processor. More choices for consumers grow markets, and Summit Station is breaking new ground with a home delivery program in the Hamilton area. They also sell white, chocolate and flavoured milk in glass bottles in speciality stores and in their very popular on-farm store. The Loewith family are great dairy promoters and help create a positive image for the industry as they develop Summitholm into a destination farm open to visitors. We salute them for that role and thank them for their donation of white and chocolate milk for our enjoyment.

As a different kind of “food for thought,” you may notice a different approach to product packaging this year. For many years, we have encouraged processors to provide attractive, convenient, hygienic, single-serve packaging when it is available. The benefits, especially in terms of convenience, have been obvious to us as we serve them here as well. But we sense that there is growing concern about sustainability, waste reduction and reducing environmental impact. Bigger multi-serving packaging reduces cost, offers more flexibility in serving size and reduces packaging waste, and perhaps product waste as well. We apologize for asking you to pour the amount you
want in a glass and leaving the rest of the bottle for someone else to enjoy, but we wonder how concern about waste will influence product development and especially packaging in the future?

As mentioned above, the surplus component in the system is now butterfat, so promoting market growth for high-value markets for this component will be important to keeping the market balanced going forward. There is no better market for butterfat than high-quality ice cream and Kawartha Dairy is one of the market leaders, enjoying growth as it expands into new grocery store markets here in our region. For many consumers, this brand evokes memories of “Life by the Lake,” and there is no better place than cottage country to build an image for ice cream. In recent years, they have expanded their own stores and scoop shops well beyond their base with 16 locations,
including in major city centres like Toronto and Ottawa, as well as two outlets in British Columbia. Thank you, Kawartha Dairy, for your donation of high-quality Blue Cow, All Canadian, ice cream for our event.

Butter is the big-volume market for butterfat, and it too has been in the news. Some customers in the bakery sector express concern about hardness, packaging and water content, and it is likely that gourmet chefs of both the restaurant and homemaker variety also have special needs. So, is butter a commodity or a gourmet food? We salute GayLea for working with further processors to address issues and for introducing and expanding a line of speciality butter which includes Garlic Parsley, Sea Salted, Grass Fed, Bakers Gold and other varieties. We hope these products will elevate the image of butter and make “butter boards” the next hot item in the world of charcuterie. We thank them for donating the butter we are sampling today.

Speaking of charcuterie, to keep things simple, we have limited our cheese selection this year to three local processors that have a great reputation for quality. We congratulate the Weber family at Stonetown Cheese for their Grand Trunk, awarded overall grand champion artisan cheese at the 2025 Royal Winter Fair. The Zeldenrijk family at New Galma Cheese and Creamery is making a name for themselves with interesting flavours and varieties of Gouda-style cheeses in mini wheels. Their popular “Farmers Secret” variety is just one example of great marketing with a name that
guarantees uniqueness and mystery. Much of the growing local artisan cheese sector is new, but one valued local processor probably has more experience than all the rest combined — Bright Cheese and Butter Company was founded in 1874 and has been in continuous production, making high-quality cheddar and other traditional cheeses for 152 years. We thank these three companies for their contribution to the diverse and growing local cheese industry, and we thank them for donating cheese for us to sample.

As is our custom, your Dairy Symposium team wants to thank our speakers with a gift, and we always choose to give dairy. The six cheese baskets used as speaker gifts and for the early bird draw are sponsored by Scotiabank and are provided by the three processors featured at our event. As dairy farmers who take pride in our industry, we need to “give dairy” as gifts at every opportunity. We are especially pleased to welcome two unique ladies to our event this year. Polly
and Sarah, sisters who started life in Yorkshire, England and learned to appreciate the merits of good food, good company, and a good laugh, went on to have successful careers — Sarah in media and Polly in food development and production. When Sarah moved to Tillsonburg, she quickly realized something was missing — a truly indulgent, high-quality chilled chocolate dessert. During a Thanksgiving visit from Polly, the idea of GoodPud was born! Today they manufacture three delicious flavours: GoodPud Belgian Milk Chocolate Dessert, Belgian Dark Chocolate Dessert, and Salted Caramel and Belgian Dark Chocolate Dessert. Since this is a very new business venture, they have teamed up with a cost-sharing sponsorship from DeDell Seeds. So, what do DeDell and GoodPud have in common? GoodPud is an amazing dessert for you that is truly unique. DeDell also sells an amazing dessert, but their high-sugar “Dessert” corn silage variety is meant to increase feed and energy intake in your dairy cows. We thank both GoodPud and DeDell for the opportunity to sample this amazing dessert made with Canadian dairy.

As a final note about balancing milk component markets, the growing market for milk protein does not always help us with marketing the other part of “SNF,” the lactose or milk sugar. A lot of that ends up in a low-value byproduct called milk permeate. VodKow, distilled in Almonte, Ontario is the only Canadian dairy-based product in our liquor stores, and it is a unique phenomenon for our industry. Vodkow is distilled from milk permeate, thereby turning low-value surplus lactose into high-value vodka. With Vodkow as the base, this company also makes a wide variety of excellent quality Vodkow Cream Liqueurs using all Canadian cream. The makers of Vodkow also work with dairy processors to turn large volumes of permeate into fuel ethanol, and they have recently started working on a major project with Gay Lea.

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.

Jack Rodenburg, on behalf of the Planning Committee.

Thank you to Farm Credit Canada for sponsoring the coffee at the dairy symposium.

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.

Mountainoak Cheese

Mountainoak Cheese has added fluid milk and butter to their farm store product line, and in response to the growing demand for healthy dairy protein beverages, they are also offering raspberry and strawberry buttermilk in single-serve and 1.89 litre containers. We salute this local processor for their innovative marketing approach and their efforts to grow markets for Canadian Dairy.

Summit Station offers home delivery, on-farm sales, and sales in specialty stores.

Family-owned and sold in grocery stores across the province. Their retail stores and scoop shops now include 10 locations in cottage country and 6 more in major urban centers.

Specialty Butter  . . . Turning a commodity into gourmet food.

We craft small-batch, deeply indulgent chocolate desserts that are rich, creamy, and utterly irresistible.

GoodPud sampling is partially sponsored by DeDell Seeds. GoodPud, a great dessert for you, and DeDell “Dessert” seed corn  . . . a high sugar variety for your cows!

VODKOW

Vodkow believes a better future comes from improving traditions of the past. That’s why we make our award-winning Vodkow vodka from milk sugars that would once have been thrown away, helping dairy farmers and taking stress off the environment.

We also make our cream liquors from scratch at our distillery in Almonte, Ontario. They’re the first lactose-free dairy creams in North America and the first spirit products to ever sport the Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Blue Cow logo.

Thank you to these local artisan cheese makers for their product donations.