If you had $10 Million to invest in dairy production how would you do so?

This was one of the questions presented during Alltech's dairy panel discussion, "Forecast 2025: A vision for the future". All of the panelists agreed that they would like to have a little more than $10 million to get started and they would probably try to borrow additional money.

Randy Shaver from the University of Wisconsin said that he would look for a place that would allow him to minimize his feed costs and he would also look for niche opportunities to bring in additional revenue and provided the example of the Crave brothers, Wisconsin dairy farmers who have had great success by expanding into cheese production and building Crave Cheese into a strong brand.

Mandi McLeod of Dunvegan Farms Ltd, in New Zealand had a different niche in mind. She described an education farm to teach people from the city the reality of farming.

It would be a farm based on the practicality of farming, not necessarily the technology of farming. Teaching people how to do the basic things like fixing water troughs, fences, things like that... Because in New Zealand one of the biggest issues facing us is the distance between rural and urban communities...