Empowering Dairy Farmers with Data

Web Application Developer Alex Merk wore a costume for the SiteCrafting Halloween party that was udderly amazing: an inflatable cow. He said the ensemble was inspired by his work for Darigold and the Northwest Dairy Association (NDA).

“I wanted to overcommit to the project I had been a part of since May 2021,” he said.

SiteCrafting has worked alongside the dairy co-operative NDA and its marketing arm Darigold to create a digital presence that connects dairy farmers and consumers with its products and mission. It’s a noble endeavor because in addition to advocating for the dairy products it produces and sells, NDA and Darigold are committed to supporting and advocating for dairy communities, the environment and quality.

Dairy production is a business that waxes and wanes with market values, milk production, milk quality and a range of other external factors. Alex explains the simplicity of a need for a sophisticated tool that provides farmers with reliable — and accessible — data.

“Dairy farmers sell their milk and they want to know what their milk will sell for one year from now.”

I talked with Alex to learn more about the impact of the research, design and development of the updated client portal. Fun fact: Before Alex helped develop sophisticated solutions for SiteCrafting clients, he studied pastry arts and worked as a baker. We asked him about his work for NDA and Darigold as well as his preferred dairy products for baking. 

SiteCrafting: What did you build and why does it matter?

Alex: We developed a portal with a dashboard that shows stakeholders high-level information about their dairy products, including test results and forecasted market value. As an example, an NDA member such as a farmer sends in milk samples to NDA labs to evaluate the composition of their milk. Through the portal NDA members can view lab results, see the projected value of their product and explore historical data — wherever they may be over the course of their workday. It matters quite a bit because it means stakeholders have access to a range of information about their product, can make decisions in real-time and can estimate how much money they might make.

SiteCrafting: How did you know where to start with development and which features to add and improve?

Alex:  Our user experience team uncovered a range of pain points and missing features with the old portal during the research phase of the project and those findings informed requirements and recommendations for the new portal. Through interviews with NDA members, our research team learned portal users needed an experience that was optimized for mobile because a member’s workday can take them from the office to the field and a range of places in between. NDA members also told our team they wanted notifications pushed to them so they were up-to-date on the status of their milk quality. Having a deeper understanding of the priorities of the people who used the portal informed how we re-organized the dashboard so NDA members can connect with the quality components of their product the moment they log in.

SiteCrafting: I’ve heard you talk about the notifications feature of the dashboard a few times now. How did you develop notifications and what makes it so impactful for the people who use the portal?

Alex: These notifications are pretty important because they are specific to the milk quality and each NDA member with an account to the portal can customize their notifications. Take butterfat as an example. Let’s say I’m a farmer that really cares that I have a minimum butterfat level in my milk and want to know if my butterfat level goes below a certain level. With the new notifications feature, I can customize my notifications to tell me if my butterfat level goes below what I set it to. 

SiteCrafting: How is this different from the notifications in the previous portal?

Alex: Before the redesign, portal users could not customize the notification; every portal user’s notification levels were the same. That felt limited to NDA members because not each member is concerned with the same quality components. This granular level of control is impactful because it empowers each portal user to customize the notifications they receive to fit their unique needs.

SiteCrafting: What is your favorite feature of the client portal?

Alex: I think the charts are really interesting because members can see over time how quality components, such as butterfat, change over time and how it compares against the NDA average. This is powerful because it means a producer can see how their product quality has changed over time, understand how it matches with the NDA average, and make operational changes accordingly. Notifications come into play with the dashboard as well because portal users can customize notifications so they are alerted if their quality components exceed the thresholds that they determine.

SiteCrafting: We know you were a baker before you were a developer so we can’t help but ask a baking question. If I’m baking and the recipe requires milk, which kind do you recommend?

Alex: Some things are better with buttermilk (like pancakes or cornbread), some things you want two percent for, some things you want skim milk. But in general, I tend to use whatever the richest thing I could find without going overboard, which tends to be full-fat milk. But I’m thinking about it way too technically so my general answer is that two percent is fine for, like, 90 percent of home bakers I’d say.