At last week’s Livestock Event the team behind the ‘make mine Milk’ campaign launched a new competition - to find Britain’s Best Dairy Cow.
The new competition encourages farmers to nominate their ‘best in herd’ – so the dairy cow that they think has the best personality, is the best looking, or the one that they are proudest of for whatever reason. All entrants have to do to be in with the chance of winning the inaugural ‘Britain’s Best Dairy Cow’ award is email a picture of the cow that they believe should win the prize and explain why they should win in a maximum of 50 words, to bestdairycow@makeminemilk.co.uk, by the 31 August 2013.
Once all the entries have been received, the entries will be uploaded to the ‘make mine Milk’ Facebook page, where the 136,000 strong community will vote on the winner. Besides winning the hotly contested title, the winning farmer will also be whisked off for an all expenses paid trip to the races - this includes all travel within the UK and also £150 spending money on the day.
Sandy Wilkie, Chairman of the Milk Marketing Forum comments: "Not only do British farmers produce the best milk in the world, but they have some of the most outstanding dairy cows among their herds too. Over the years we've noticed that a lot of farmers have their favourites - so this is a great opportunity not only for them to tell us why their cow is best, but also to win a great day out. We're really looking forward to seeing the entries."
The ‘make mine Milk’ campaign has gone from strength to strength since it launched – contributing to improvements in both rational and emotional attitudes towards milk.
The following increases have been reported by independent research company, Researchcraft, between the launch of the campaign in April 2010 and the present day:
· ‘Milk is cool’ - up by +32%
· ‘Milk is becoming more popular’ - up by +29%
· ‘Milk is low in fat’ - up by +20%
Furthermore, market data shows an increase in milk consumption in Great Britain. For teenage girls, as shown by Kantar (figures Spring 2012 vs Spring 2011), consumption has risen by a substantial +18% for milk on its own and by +9% increase in milk consumed at breakfast time. The ‘make mine Milk’ campaign is the only dairy marketing campaign in the UK specifically targeting this audience.
On a broader scale, further figures from Kantar highlight consumption spikes across the board, with year-on-year-on-year increases: +1.6% for the 52-week period ending December 2010, +1.3% for the same period ending December 2011 and a further +0.9% for the same period ending December 2012. This equates to milk volume sales in 2012 being +3.9% higher than in 2009 (the period before the campaign started) – equivalent to incremental volume of 726 million litres*.
After many years of consistent decline, per capita consumption of milk in 2012 was +1.6 litres higher than 2009 (source: Kantar/Dairy UK, Office for National Statistics).
