# Dairy Farmers of Ontario

> Dairy Farmers of Ontario is the farmer-elected marketing board, regulator and sole delegated authority for cow's milk marketing in Ontario. It coordinates production quotas, quality assurance, farm pickup and processor allocation for more than 3.1 billion litres a year, while running consumer campaigns, school programs, research and processor-innovation support. Its unusual advantage is structural: one organization can connect the regulated machinery behind the milk supply with a simple consumer promise - local milk from Ontario farms.

- **Founded:** 1965
- **Headquarters:** Mississauga, Canada
- **Team size:** Approximately 170 employees in the supplied company data; LinkedIn publicly lists a 51-200 employee range.
- **Products:** Milk marketing and supply management, Raw Milk Quality Program, Milk transportation coordination, proAction administration in Ontario, Consumer marketing
- **Notable:** Coordinated 3,180,497,317 litres of annual milk production from 3,153 Ontario dairy farms in fiscal 2025., Supported a dairy sector reporting C$3.11 billion in farmgate value, C$8.7 billion in Ontario GDP contribution and 91,940 jobs in 2025., Managed more than 228,000 annual producer, transporter and processor transactions valued at more than C$6 billion.

## Products & services

- **Milk marketing and supply management** — Forecasts demand, administers producer quota, pools returns and allocates raw cow's milk to Ontario processors under delegated authority.
- **Raw Milk Quality Program** — Administers provincial quality rules, inspections, sample testing, penalties and farm support under authority delegated by Ontario's agriculture ministry.
- **Milk transportation coordination** — Coordinates licensed transporters collecting milk from more than 3,100 farms and delivering it to about 90 processing plants.
- **proAction administration in Ontario** — Implements the national on-farm quality-assurance program covering milk quality, food safety, animal care, traceability, biosecurity and environment modules.
- **Consumer marketing** — Runs the Milk masterbrand, nutrition and culinary campaigns, the Milk Calendar, sports partnerships, community activations and social content.
- **School Milk and Dairy Education** — Provides milk-access support, curriculum-aligned K-12 resources, live educator visits, online lessons, YouTube content and Dairycraft.
- **Dairycraft** — A free dairy-farm learning world available through Minecraft Marketplace and Minecraft Education, expanded as Dairycraft 2.0 with six curriculum-aligned lessons.
- **Start Up/Scale Up Innovation Program** — Mentoring and navigation support for dairy processors, with eligible Scale Up participants able to claim a matching grant of up to C$10,000.
- **Milk Producer magazine** — Monthly producer publication translating research, farm experience and operating practices for Ontario dairy farmers.

## Achievements

- Coordinated 3,180,497,317 litres of annual milk production from 3,153 Ontario dairy farms in fiscal 2025.
- Supported a dairy sector reporting C$3.11 billion in farmgate value, C$8.7 billion in Ontario GDP contribution and 91,940 jobs in 2025.
- Managed more than 228,000 annual producer, transporter and processor transactions valued at more than C$6 billion.
- Recorded 99% of Ontario producers registered under proAction as of October 31, 2025.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs Milk jersey patch generated a reported 44.9 billion impressions over its first three seasons.
- School milk and breakfast rebate programs delivered more than three million servings to more than one million students in 2025.
- Dairy educators made 8,919 presentations at 980 schools, reaching 224,550 students in 2025.
- Milk & Cookies donations to four Ontario children's hospitals reached a cumulative C$3.6 million in 2025.
- Milk Producer magazine marked its 100th anniversary and the Dairy Education Program its 30th in 2025.
- DFO reported 25 on-farm processors in the province and awarded five Start Up/Scale Up grants in 2025.

## Latest updates

- **2026-02** — Published its 2024-25 annual report covering 60 years of the organization, 3.18 billion litres of production and the year's audited operations.
- **2026-02** — Published new proAction requirements tied to the updated Dairy Cattle Code of Practice, whose provisions phase into proAction through April 2027.
- **2026-01** — The board re-elected Mark Hamel as chair and John Wynands as vice-chair; Brian Burnett became second vice-chair.
- **2025-11** — Launched the 2025 Milk & Cookies campaign and Magic Milk Glass initiative while reporting cumulative children's-hospital donations of C$3.6 million since 2019.
- **2025-10** — Closed fiscal 2025 with national milk requirements up 3.3%, P5 quota up 2.5% and Ontario production above 3.18 billion litres.
- **2025-09** — Joined the Ontario Chamber of Commerce as a Premier Member to deepen business and policy engagement.

## Links

- Website: https://milk.org
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dairy-farmers-of-ontario
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ontariodairy
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYUa19-yakVPyPwV2Ou998w
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ontariodairy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OntarioDairy
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ontariodairy

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dairy-farmers-of-ontario
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-23