The highly successful social media platform Daughters of Dairy Farmers was born from the negative effect the $1/L milk campaign was having on farmers.
Speaking at the Queensland Country Life Food Heroes forum, one of the three founders of the Facebook site, Lisa Harrison, said it was all about connecting with consumers to show the true effect the $1/L milk was having on the dairy industry.
“There were great stories covered on the dairy industry by newspapers such as Queensland Country Life, and television shows such as Landline, but these predominately are viewed by farmers,” Lisa said.
“We saw the need to get a message out to the wider community and give consumers an avenue to be able to ask questions they might have.
“Unlike 10 years ago, today generation X and Y don’t pop down to the local shop shop to grab a daily paper - they simply open up Facebook or Twitter and the information is all there.
“The great thing about sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is you can get your message to the world instantly.”
The main vessel Daughters of Dairy Farmers use is Facebook.
In it’s first six month Daughters of Dairy Farmers hit 1000 likes and this was contributed to their first campaign ‘show us what’s in your fridge’.
The first viral viral post was in relation to the ‘make it possible bags’ that Animals Australia had for sale in Coles.
“Although this was not dairy related, we felt the need to get our message across for farmers,” Lisa said.
“Coles took only a few hours to withdraw these bags from it’s shelves when it was made known to them that without farmers it wouldn’t have too much on the shelves to sell.
“In response we outlined the tireless work of Australian farmers who even the paying field for all animals by housing and vaccinating the babies, some of which would not normally survive if they were left out in the elements. It was shared over 100 times and reached around 20,000 people in Australia.
One of the last posts by Daughters of Dairy Farmers reached more than 10,000 people.
“We shared our recent trip around the flood-affected farmers along the Albert and Logan Rivers covering 200km and visited 30 farms in a day,” she said.
Lisa said that unfortunately recent reports by the Queensland Dairy Organisation indicates that consumer habits are trending back to the buying of $1/L milk.
“We will continue to do our best to promote the importance of a fresh milk industry, especially in Queensland,” she said.
“Daughters of Dairy Farmers will always strive to help the dairy industry remain sustainable through the support of consumers.”