I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends: NDFA, NDSA Hold First Events of 2021

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

NDFA, NDSA Hold First Events of 2021

BY ALEX WALSH

On June 9, 2021, the Northeast Dairy Foods Association and the Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association held their first in-person event of 2021 — and the first since the 2019 Northeast Dairy Convention 18 months ago. As we emerge from the pandemic, the dairy industry continues to show its resiliency and enthusiasm to participate in events and opportunities to network with others.

The afternoon began with the Northeast Dairy Suppliers’ annual plant tour at Byrne Hollow Farm in Cortland, New York. Historically, the plant tour is held at a dairy processing or manufacturing plant in the fall. However, as the fall and holiday time can be very busy for these companies, and because of the eagerness to resume association events, it was moved to the spring. There was a tremendous amount of interest to get inside this culture product facility that is part of Byrne Dairy. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, it was limited to 40 Northeast Dairy Supplier members who received a bird’s eye view of what goes on inside this plant.

The Byrne Hollow Farm plant was designed and built with agri-tourism in mind and has a mezzanine with glass windows for guests to view the operations — from milk intake to packaging storage. Visitors can overlook the entire manufacturing sector of the facility. Byrne Hollow Farm produces Extended Shelf Life milk and yogurt under its name and also has co-packing capabilities with locally sourced milk from Central New York dairy farmers. The Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association members were guided through the stages and areas of the plant by Byrne Dairy employees who had knowledge and expertise of the production processes, as well as other employees and managers from areas like human resources, operations, engineering and distribution.

Following the tour, the first ever Dairy Blender networking event was held at the Double Tree Hotel in E. Syracuse, New York, where over 100 people gathered to see old friends, make new connections, enjoy great food and drinks and enjoy a live performance by Studio Two, a Beatles tribute band. This was a fantastic precursor to the associations’ traditional summer events and a great way to really kick off the ability to socialize once again. The Dairy Blender saw members from the Northeast Dairy Foods Association, the Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association, the New York State Cheese Manufacturers Association and the Pennsylvania Association of Milk Dealers. While this event was a light and social gathering, it also provided an opportunity for members to network and casually discuss business.

It is because of the support of the members of the Northeast Dairy Foods Association and the Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association that the Byrne Hollow Farm tour, Dairy Blender and all of the associations’ events are always a huge success. As John Lennon and Paul McCartney famously sang, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” Well, so do the associations.

The Northeast Dairy Foods Association and the Northeast Dairy Suppliers Association would like to again thank Byrne Dairy for opening their doors and being a gracious host for this year’s plant tour. Special thanks also goes out to the Dairy Blender sponsors that helped make the evening possible — Gold Sponsors: Custom Fabricating, Hydrite Chemical; Silver Sponsors: Eurofins, Evergreen Packaging, Tracey Road Equipment, Mac LTT; Bronze Sponsors: Sitzman Supply, Earl T. Wadhams; Cup Sponsor: Klockner Pentaplast; and Napkin Sponsor: Equitable Advisors.