When it comes to glasses of milk, NFU Scotland Milk Chairman Gary Mitchell prefers to see the industry’s as half full this World Milk Day

This year’s World Milk Day is certainly a strange one, but I don’t think it could be any better timed. As an avid user of Facebook and Twitter I am always excited for this day come around and watch our industry come together with positive messages around our fantastic products.

This year more than ever we need to see positive messages because, for obvious reasons, it is getting all too easy to be bogged down in the negativity.

One positive that I am taking into World Milk Day this year is AHDB’s Milk Your Moments campaign which is looking to bring people together (while still social distancing) during these difficult times.

The campaign celebrates and inspires moments of connection that bring people together whilst physically apart due to coronavirus and highlights the key role dairy plays in those situations.

Small moments speaking to loved ones, friends and even colleagues have never been more important and so often these conversations happen over a cup of tea or coffee with milk, even if they are over Skype or Zoom.

The campaign is looking for dairy farmers across the country to capture and share moments from their farms, helping to connect consumers to those who are producing their milk for these moments.

This doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy, it can be as simple as a photo with your cows, you and your workers enjoying a tea break together or even with the family at dinner time.

The campaign is a fantastic idea and one which I hope every dairy farmer in Scotland buys into. We aren’t just selling our milk; we’re selling our story and it’s a fantastic story to sell.

For more information on how to get involved in Milk Your Moment go to https://ahdb.org.uk/farmer-support-milk-your-moments where you can download guidance.

Away from the Milk Your Moment campaign, I hope everyone in the industry is doing well, staying safe and keeping going through this difficult time.

It is important that we as an industry take the lessons of Milk Your Moment and apply to our own lives and businesses. That could mean making sure to talk to your employees and making sure everything is okay, catching up over the fence with your neighbour or calling that friend or fellow farmer you think might not have spoken to anyone in a while.

We need to stick together, even while we stay apart, during this.