Dairy farmers in Arizona supporting education through contest

Aug 05, 2015

$30,000 in scholarship money available to be won

Anyone who has had a glass of milk has suffered the ill-fated milk mustache.

Thanks to dairy farmers in Arizona, that same milk mustache could help high school seniors and college students pay for part of their tuition.

The Arizona Milk Producers Annual Scholarship Program is offering up to $30,000 in scholarship money for the top three milk mustaches in the state.

Milk mustache

The first place winner will receive a $12,000 scholarship, second place a $10,000 scholarship and third place will receive $8,000.

"The Kerr family has been providing nutritious milk to Arizonans for four generations," said Bill Kerr, owner of Kerr Family Dairy. "Our roots are here so our commitment to community goes beyond producing high quality, farm-fresh milk and I'm thrilled to be part of a program helping students earn an education."

Students are encouraged to upload photos of their best milk mustache to Instagram, tagging @azmilkproducers and using the hashtag #ampscholarshipcontest in the process. Entrants are encouraged to show how dairy plays a role in their daily lives and because football tickets are also available to be won, they should specify which tickets they want by using the hashtags #asu, #uofa or #nau.

The scholarship winners will be announced at the Fiesta Bowl game on January 1^st, 2016 – a game that will be attended by 15 finalists.

Entries must come from students who are eligible for the 2016 term or currently enrolled with a minimum of 12 credit hours at an Arizona university.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.