LANSING, Mich. – The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) has announced that six Michigan dairy businesses have received grants from a federal program called the Dairy Business Innovation Initiative, a program started by the 2018 Farm Bill.

The farm bill initiative is being administered via a partnership between the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The state-level partnership is called Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA).

“At MDARD, we’re dedicated to supporting our strong dairy industry,” said Kathy Angerer, acting MDARD director, in announcing the Michigan grants. “Our new partnership with DBIA resulted in six Michigan businesses receiving funding allowing them to increase innovation and expand. Michigan’s dairy industry provides nutritious foods produced and processed locally while making a significant economic impact across the state. Continuing to invest in our food and agriculture boosts rural and agriculture economic development, helping us to make Michigan strong.”

A total of $2.4 million in grants were given out through the program this time around, to 31 businesses in multiple states. The federal program is administered via organizations in several host states, Wisconsin being one of them, according to Tom Guerin, Wisconsin’s DBIA program manager. The selected Michigan businesses are Charlevoix Cheese Co.; Furniture City Creamery, Grand Rapids; Saltless Sea Creamery, Traverse City; Semifreddo LLC, Hart; Thistle Dew Creamery, Vassar; and VernDale Products, Detroit.

In September of last year, MDARD joined the federal program. The DBIA aims to support small to medium sized dairy businesses in diversifying on-farm activity, creating value added products, enhancing dairy by-products and creating or enhancing dairy export programs. Since its creation in 2018, the initiative has administered technical assistance and more than $3.7 million in grants to dairy businesses in five Midwestern states. “A lot of the farmers are trying to set up locally, but they don’t know how to do it,” Guerin said. “That’s why we set up some webinars for farmers, to help them develop a sound business plan.” Guerin said that once the DBIA started offering the webinars, applications for funding from the program were much improved, with business plans that were much better developed than they had been before. “We know there’s got to be people who haven’t heard about this yet,” he added. “We absolutely want to get the word out about it. The more people there are who know about this the better.”

According to Guerin, beginning sometime in February, the DBIA will start to accept new applications for this grant, with an open period of approximately two months. To find out more about the Wisconsin DBIA, visit https://www.cdr.wisc.edu/dbia. To get an overview of the federal program, also known simply as the Dairy Business Initiative, go the Agricultural Marketing Service web page at https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/dbi.