Many U.S. dairy farms, typically small, family-owned and multi-generational farms, have folded or are at risk of failing. Increasing consumer support for healthy food that benefits local economies may represent a channel where remaining dairy farms can find sustainable market opportunities, generate more revenue, restore profitability to sustain farmer livelihoods, keep fertile farmland in production, and meet evolving consumer preferences. This interactive tool, entitled “Dairy Market Assessment and Planning System” (DairyMAPS) was built by Atlantic Corporation and a collaborative team representing stakeholders across the U.S.. DairyMAPS is intended to reinvigorate small and medium-sized U.S. dairy farms by identifying and quantifying local market opportunities for new products and small-batch milk processing. Intensive business and economic research resulted in three accomplished objectives:
The 48-question National Dairy Consumer Survey was developed by the Atlantic team with final editorial suggestions provided by project collaborators, three dairy and agriculture experts, and the volunteer National Small Scale Dairy Development Committee. It was hosted and administered online during the summer of 2019 by Dynata, a leading international business and market research company, on behalf of Atlantic. Resulting data were reviewed, analyzed and summarized by the Maine Statistical Analysis Center (MSAC), the University of Maine, and an independent agricultural economist, Dylan Bouchard. A total of 20,000 records were collected with 400 people representing each state.
National Level:
State Level:
Nine U.S. Census Regions:
Affiliations:
This report was prepared by Atlantic Corporation under award number 2019-68006-29327 from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture AFRI program. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Atlantic Corporation is a leading agricultural business and economic research and development firm, conducting increasingly important market research for local food, agriculture, and aquaculture development, often spearheading large-scale public-private research collaborations and projects. We have completed major market assessment projects for the USDA through their SBIR, AFRI, and LFPP grant programs; NOAA; and many state governments, non-profits, and commercial enterprises. Our work has been widely published in white papers, reports, agricultural economic journals, and presented at regional and national conferences.
For data requests and questions related to this survey, please contact Atlantic Corporation.
This app is best viewed in a modern browser (such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox) on desktop mode. If you have trouble viewing, try updating your browser and clearing your browser cache.
DairyMAPS has two main results that can be found in the tabs along the top of the page: General Findings and Insights.
General Findings contain survey results on consumer spending and preferences for each of the six dairy products included: milk, cream, butter, cheese, yogurt, and frozen dairy.
Insights presents results that relate to unmet market demand, premium pricing, consumer knowledge of their local dairy, and consumer concern about industry impacts.
Below is a guide to using DairyMAPS.
Along the left side of DairyMAPS is a toggle display for you to select a variable to be displayed on the map. You can click on the category name to expand or minimize a section.
Next you can select a variable which will be displayed on the map to the right.
Now that we’ve selected a variable to view, we see different shades of blue over each state. The darker, more saturated blues indicate higher values while lighter shades of blue indicate lower values. The color palette is standardized for related variables (example: Unmet Market Demand of $10 per month is the same color for milk and cheese). The legend is located in the bottom right corner of the map and includes the units of measure.
You can hover the cursor over a state to learn about the survey responses in that area. This information appears in the top right section of the browser.
The General Findings map displays additional information about the consumer ratings of product qualities, while the Insights map displays additional demographics of consumers.
In the top left corner of the map are zoom options if you would like to view the United States larger or smaller. You can click and drag the map with your mouse to pan around and see more of the map.
If you would like to see the values averaged over a region, pan over this symbol on the upper left corner of the map, below the zoom buttons, to open up the "Level of Detail" map layers panel. Here you can select the level of detail to view averages based on state, region, or the entire United States.
Hover over the [?] on the left side of the variable name to see the full text of the survey question pertaining to that variable.
Alaska
Hawaii
Full Question: Have you consumed this dairy product in the past six months?
National Avg:
90.68 % Yes