Technical Assistance and Grants for Midwest Dairy Farms and Businesses
The Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA) is a partnership between the Center for Dairy Research (CDR) and the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) that develops and administers programs providing technical assistance as well as grants to dairy farms and businesses in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
"Let's Get Started" Webinars
The DBIA has initiated a series of “Let’s Get Started” webinars. These webinars will identify local resources, expertise and technical assistance to support dairy farmers and processors who have decided to move forward on diversifying their enterprise or developing a new product but are not sure on how to get started.
- The focus of these eight webinars will be to identify the local resources, expertise and technical assistance that can help you develop and implement your ideas.
- Webinars will be targeted at dairy farmers, processors and/or converters as they seek to diversify and/or create “high-value” dairy products or who are considering in getting into exporting.
- The webinars will be a combination of general information presentations, breakout sessions and interviews with farmers and processors willing to share their experiences and lessons learned.
DBIA Awards $230K in 2020 Grant Program
Applications for the DBIA 2019 grant program were made available on
June 14, 2020 with a deadline of August 14, 2020. Seventy-seven
applications were received for a total request of approximately $1.5
million.
The applications were scored by the DBIA project team as well as a
representative from each of the five Departments of Agriculture
representing IA, IL, MN, SD and WI, as well as a representative from
Midwest Dairy. Grants were distributed until the fund of $230,000 was
exhausted. View the list of 2020 DBIA grant recipients.
Unfortunately, only $230,000 was available in this grant cycle.
There were many strong applications that were not successful in this cycle due to the limited funding. Future cycles will have significantly more funding, so DBIA strongly encourages unsuccessful applicants to apply again when the 2021 cycle opens.
Funding for the DBIA was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant AM190100XXXXG079. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.