FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  March 25, 2009

NOTE TO EDITORS – If you have included the March 2010 Dairy Tour on your published calendars, please note the change in destination.

Pennsylvania Groups Change Destination for March 2010 Dairy Tour

Recent reports out of Mexico have raised serious concerns about the safety of U.S citizens traveling in that country. After careful consideration, the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania and the Penn State Dairy Alliance (an initiative of Cooperative extension) have announced that they are canceling a tour of dairy farms that had been planned to Mexico for the Spring of 2010. The planning committee is shifting its attention to a tour of the upper northeastern states with a special emphasis on featuring value added operations.

The two groups, which have jointly planned an annual tour for many years, began notifying the dairy public immediately of the new destination, because they don’t want people to go to the expense and time of applying for a passport in anticipation of the trip crossing the border.

Dairy producer Glenn Gorrell, who is chairing the tour committee, said, “there is actually a great deal of excitement about the new tour destination.” He indicated the choice of New York and New England site visits seemed natural to the committee. According to Gorrell, “Because these farms in the upper northeastern United States share so many things in common with our own dairy industry in Pennsylvania, we believe this new tour location is likely to generate lots of enthusiasm and that logistics may make the event more accessible to a larger group of dairy producers.”

The committee expects to announce specific dates for the March 2010 tour and more details about tour stops later this spring.