Grassland Dairy Products has is the newest member of the Dairy Strong Sustainability Alliance (DSSA), a diverse group of partners who have come together to ensure that all touchpoints in the production of dairy foods are continuously improving.

The goal of the alliance is to show tangible continuous improvements in animal care, environmental conservation, food safety and other practices through collaborative efforts in all aspects of the dairy community.

Grassland Dairy Products joins a host of other partners in a working group charged with developing the program: American Society of Agronomy, Dairy Business Association, Dairy Business Milk Marketing Cooperative, Foremost Farms USA, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, The Nature Conservancy, Peninsula Pride Farms, U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, Wisconsin Farm Bureau, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey and Yahara Pride Farms.

“Our dairy farmers are committed to producing milk in a sustainable manner for the environment, their animals, employees and business in general. Grassland is excited to cultivate this knowledge and offer a platform on which farmers can share that knowledge to the betterment of the dairy community and dairy market as a whole,” said Trevor Wuethrich, president of Grassland Dairy Products. “Dairy farmers are innovative by nature and the DSSA allows a platform to build on that unique skill set.”

The alliance focuses on establishing “milksheds” throughout Wisconsin. A milkshed is a group of farms working together with a dairy processor. Farmers and their processor use established tools to measure their environmental footprint and track progress toward being more sustainable. Combining farm data with processor data provides customers with a more complete picture of the overall sustainability of Wisconsin’s dairy community.