當下乳製品行業的一個熱門話題所討論關於奶農所面臨的最大挑戰。據不完全統計，全球奶農數量約為2.4億人，他們的農場規模大小、耕作方法、生產環境及生產狀況等方面存在顯著差異。誠然，奶農們面臨著這樣的挑戰。
為此，許多專家專門研究分析這些挑戰並以此為職，其研究領域主要涉及三大方面：
- 生存環境挑戰
- 生產效率挑戰
- 管理挑戰
事實上，大多數關於農場未來發展趨勢的討論都集中在上述問題上。在這種背景下，奶農面臨的最明顯和最重要的挑戰往往容易被外界所忽視。這種挑戰指的是溝通方面，具體而言，它主要集中於奶農與消費者之間的溝通和關係。
通常情況下，當該話題進入公眾視野後，最明顯的一點就是關於奶農對外提供生產產品的宣傳工作，由其他非奶農代表與消費者進行溝通。
事實上，乳製品加工商是與消費者進行溝通的主要渠道。乳製品加工商經驗豐富，能有針對性的向市場推廣其生產的乳製品。在美國等一些國家，通常由政府機構介入，向大眾普及喝牛奶對人體健康的益處。這些傳統推介方法在20世紀可能頗為有效，但在未來幾十年將不一定會依然有效。全球供應鏈正發生顯著變化，相應的溝通鏈也需要因時而變。為什麼奶農需要強化自身對外溝通策略提上日程，下文將從四個方面予以闡述：
No.1 重心轉移
奶農們應該注意到，大多數主要的乳製品加工商在非乳製品領域佔據一席之地。而隨著乳製品行業發展變化，這些乳製品加工商將更加專注於創造利潤而不是奶牛養殖的福祉和盈利能力。
No.2 機遇與挑戰並存
全球城市化正從根本上變革世界對食品的最新定義。在19世紀，西方社會經歷了工業革命，這意味著社會本質從自給自足農業型轉變為工業社會。這意味著農產品已產業化，城市居民依靠供應鏈來獲得食物和營養供給。
隨著與食品供應關係的根本轉變，消費者應運而生。鑑於食品產地和消費者時空差異性不斷擴大，生產者與消費者之間的信息溝通隔閡也越來越大。
事實上，雖然生產者在向消費者開放參觀方面做出了不懈努力，但兩者之間的互相理解還存在較大差距。根據尼爾森全球健康和保健調查顯示，越來越多的消費者更加希望瞭解他們的食品，願意高價購買更健康的食品。這是奶農所面臨的第二個關鍵溝通挑戰的問題，即機遇與挑戰並存。
No.3 防禦態勢
乳品業作為一種產業，常常被認為是具有防禦性的。在乳業發展過程中，令人遺憾的是，雖然全球乳業在不斷進行技術升級革新，但大眾媒體上關於此類改進信息的報道卻知之甚少，而奶農們正處於外界輿論的圍攻中，經常遭受無端地批評。因而，乳業給外界的印象就是一種防禦態勢，這種防禦態勢正是奶農所面臨的第三個關鍵溝通挑戰的問題。
No.4 反對立場
最後，全球出現了一場新的激進運動，素食主義者即動物福利活動家的敵對立場給奶農帶來了難以想象的麻煩。這些人在數量上雖然僅代表一小部分的消費者群體，但他們的活動卻得到了廣泛的關注，他們開展的“關閉農場抗議”活動使得當下奶業發展舉步維艱。
然而，這種活動的淨效應為素食主義者或準彈性素質主義者創造了更多的吸引力，從某種程度上使得消費者只是根據手頭的信息做出生活選擇-這是奶農面臨的溝通挑戰的另一關鍵因素。
不應低估這些溝通上的挑戰。奶農們不能迴避這些挑戰。乳製品消費的下降影響到許多最發達的市場，在那裡無論是乳製品替代品，還是選擇攝入較少的動物蛋白質，都被視為良好的生活選擇。
中國等發展中國家的乳製品消費基數較低，因此中國的乳製品銷售已轉向這些國家。然而，奶農們萬不可將對外溝通機制部分分包出去 ，只有將命運掌握在自己手中，成功才會勝券在握，否則不久之後全球乳品消費量將大幅下降。
作為溝通機制的一部分，奶農們需要轉變觀念，即讓他們相信其使命並非僅僅是為市場生產儘可能優質的牛奶，並以儘可能高的價格賣給奶製品公司。這僅是目的之一，與此同時，奶農們必須承擔更多社會責任，明確如何與市場和消費者之間達成良好的溝通機制。
雖然每個農場都是獨一無二的，但它們又都需要制定自己專屬的溝通策略，在此，我提供以下建議和指導準則僅供參考：
- 把溝通機制升級為事項最優級：農場對外溝通機制的建立，應從農場營運之初就著手進行，並明確其責任歸屬。農場中必須安排專人負責溝通宣傳工作。發展社交媒體展示農場形象。
- 多渠道對外宣傳農場趣聞： 農場文化遺產、即使是農場裡看似平凡的工作（如擠奶、餵食等常規事項）也可以進行記錄，向消費者展示農場那些如何真實的運作的時刻和使用視覺和數據輔助工具（如攝像機，農場數據的透明公開應該是對外宣傳農場一部分）。
- 聯絡世界各地誌同道合的奶農，並制定社交媒體策略來講述農場故事。
- 與動物保護積極分子接觸，通過對話和教育改變其觀念。
- 消除農場防禦性，接受並理解外界任何批評或誤導性評論。這些舉措均是消除緊張敵對狀態的機會。
- 帶領社區人士到你的農場實地參觀考察。
當下農場已沒有什麼信息可隱瞞，但藏在其他傳遞牛奶信息媒介但背後才加劇了外界的無端猜忌，這種不透明性為外界批評和誤解創造了條件。良性溝通機制的高效運轉可能會給農場經營帶來額外的費用和經濟負擔，但倘若此舉能夠使得更多的消費者通過溝通機制真正瞭解了你的業務和農場，消除隔閡與誤解，那麼必將有助於未來全球乳製品行業的蓬勃發展。
Consumers and Dairy Farmers: A relationship that will define our industry’s future success
A popular topic in the dairy industry is to talk about the top challenges facing dairy farmers. Dairy farmers are a group of some 240 Million people globally, with huge differences in farm sizes, farming methods, circumstances and situations. Yes, these dairy farmers are all facing similar challenges. Many experts make a great living by talking about these challenges, whether it is the environmental challenges, efficiency challenges or management challenges. Indeed, most discussions about the future of dairy farming focus on these points. Within this context, the most significant and important challenge that dairy farmers face is often over-looked. That challenge is a communication challenge, specifically, the communication and the relationship between dairy farmers and consumers.
Normally, when this topic is raised, the most obvious point that is raised is that dairy farmers are represented by others in communicating the benefits of the products that they create are well-understood by consumers. Indeed, dairy processors are the primary conduit to communicate with consumers. Dairy processors are highly sophisticated and run targeted and focused campaigns to promote dairy amongst consumers. In some countries, such as the US, there are government agencies that promote the general benefits of milk to consumers. These traditional methods may have been effective tools in the 20th century, but this will not be effective for the coming decades. Supply chains are changing; communication chains need to change too. Here are the four reasons, why dairy farmers need to put a communication strategy on their agenda:
Firstly, dairy farmers would do well to note that most of the major dairy processing companies are taking some sort of positions in non-dairy products and indeed as the landscape for dairy changes, these companies will become more focused on generating profit over the well-being and profitability of dairy farming.
Secondly, global urbanization is fundamentally changing how the world thinks about food. In the 19th century, societies in the Western world went through the industrial revolution, which meant that societies went from being agricultural in nature, to industrial. This mean that agricultural produce became an industry and people in cities relied on supply chains to receive their food and nutrition. With this fundamentally altered relationship with food, consumers emerged. As the time and distance between where food is produced and consumed is widened, the gaps in understanding are also widening. Indeed, while there are many great efforts to open farming to consumers, there is still a large gap in understanding. According to a Neilsen Global Health and Wellness Survey there is an increasing desire for consumers to understand more about their food and a willingness to pay more for healthier food. This is a crucial second dimension to the communication challenge facing dairy farmers, both a challenge and indeed an opportunity.
Thirdly, dairy farming as an industry often comes across as being defensive. There is a frustration in the dairy farming industry that while constant improvement is being achieved, there seems to be little recognition of these achievements in the general media, and dairy farmers are under siege, with lots of arm-chair critics. This creates a defensive posture and this defensive posture is the third element of the communication challenge.
Finally, there is a new activist movement globally, the vegans, the animal welfare activists, whose hostile positions are incredibly problematic for dairy farmers. While these people only represent a small fraction of consumers, their events gain lots of publicity and some of their farm-gate protests have been outright dangerous. The net effect however has created more traction for vegetarianism or being flexitarian, which means that people are simply making life choices based on the information at hand- another element to the communication challenge.
These communication challenges should not be underestimated. Farmers cannot shy away from these challenges. There is a drop-off in dairy consumption affecting many of the most developed markets, where both dairy alternatives, or choosing to consume less animal protein are being seen as good life choices.
There has been a pivot towards selling dairy into developing markets, such as China, where consumption is coming from a low base. However, dairy farmers must not sub-contract out the communication part of their business and take their fate and success into their own hands, or else there could be before too long, a decline in global consumption.
As part of that, dairy farmers need to make a mental shift from believing that their jobs are to produce as a good a quality milk as possible and sell it at as good a price as possible to a dairy company. This is the first part, at the same time, the farms must meet social responsibilities and have a plan as to how to communicate with their community and consumers.
While each farm is unique, each farm will need to develop its own communication strategy, and I offer the following advice and guidelines:
1）Make communication a priority: Identify that the responsibility for communicating the benefits of your dairy farm start from the farm. Put someone in charge of communication. Develop a social media presence.
2）Find multiple ways to communicate the story of your farm.
- Farm heritage
- Even tasks that seem mundane on a farm (milking, feeding) can be moments to show consumers how farming really works
- Use visual and data aids (camera, farm data and transparency should be part of telling the story).
3）Find like-minded farmers around the world and develop social media strategies to tell the story.
4）Engage with the animal welfare activists, through conversation and education perceptions can change.
5）Don’t be defensive, take and understand any criticism or misguided comments. These are an opportunities to engage.
6）Bring the community into your farm.
Dairy farms have nothing to hide, but hiding behind others who are in charge of communicating the message of milk create the room for criticism and misunderstanding. While a communication strategy may seem like extra expense and extra burden, if more consumers understand your business and your farm, then it will help to secure the future of our whole industry.
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