But dairy is part of the state’s identity, ag groups say
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
If the president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) gets his way, state license plates would no longer feature the slogan “America’s Dairyland.”
License plates in Wisconsin have had the dairy-themed slogan since 1940. But it’s time for a change, according to WMC president Kurt Bauer, who suggested using the state’s official slogan, “Forward.”
“I think it’s time that we consider removing ‘America’s Dairyland’ from our license plate in favor of something more contemporary,” Bauer said on Oct. 17, according to WMTV.
But has there been an industry that’s shown more progress than agriculture?
People would be hard pressed to find one, says Mike North, president of the Dairy Business Association.
“At the end of the day, the dairy industry is as much about technology as any other,” he told Farms.com today. “If you look around Wisconsin dairy farms, there’s robotic milkers all over and massive uses of technology on the farm. … Forward progress has a big impact on the dairy industry and farming in general.”
With an annual economic impact of about $43 billion, Wisconsin’s dairy industry is only second in the U.S. to that of California, where dairy farming contributes about $65 billion to the state economy each year.
But Wisconsin is the top-cheese producing state. Green Bay Packer fans are affectionately known as “Cheeseheads” for wearing cheese-shaped hats to games.
And the dairy industry is part of state’s identity.
“We’ve earned this position of America’s Dairyland and we’re very proud of it,” Patrick Geoghegan, a spokesperson with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, told WMTV.