Extension Education 1

摘要

The dairy industry in Tennessee faces challenges with fluid milk oversupply,lower prices, and dairy farms struggling to survive. While manychallenges revolve around supply, an overall decline in consumptionof fluid milk is also occurring. Many states, including Tennessee, havepushed for a marketing shift toward local milk and dairy products inan effort to increase product demand and farm revenue. This projectwas focused on understanding the underlying reasons for these trends.The primary study objective was to understand consumer preferencesand willingness to pay for local, organic, generic brand, and fluid milkin general. A secondary study objective was to understand consumerperceptions on milk production, safety, health, and retail markets. Thisstudy occurred from January 29 to February 2, 2019, in the form of asurvey to elicit information on consumer preferences, milk preferences,local choices for dairy, health, and purchaser demographics. A 42-questionsurvey was disseminated through Qualtrics, returning 440 completedsurveys. The FREQ procedure of SAS 9.4 was used to assess consumerresponses. All respondents resided in Tennessee. Mean age was 42 ±15 yr with 81% being female. Price (35%), taste (31%), and expirationdate (26%) were considered the first, second, and third most importantconsiderations when purchasing milk. This was further reflected in theprice consumers were willing to pay for generic ($3.20 ± 1.00), local($4.20 ± 1.60), or organic ($4.20 ± 3.60) branded milk. Respondentsconsidered milk “local” if it was produced within the surrounding counties(32%) or within the state (25%). For the secondary objective, 77%of respondents indicated they knew nothing to some about cow’s milk.The majority of respondents used personal physicians or pediatricians(23%) and online articles (21%) to learn about milk. Milk safety wasnot a concern. Although a small price discrepancy existed betweengeneric and specialty branded fluid milk, more research is needed onthe economic consequences to dairy producers. Educating physiciansand pediatricians could better reach consumer audiences and potentiallyincrease milk purchases.