Two men who have had a major influence on the dairy industry will not be as intimately involved with it in 2006.

Jeff Manning, the creator of got milk? resigned his position as executive director of the California Milk Processor Board this month, and Gary Hanman president and CEO of Dairy Farmers of America will retire at the end of the year.

Manning says that he is starting his own consultancy, “Got Manning?” and had been planning the move for about a year. He will focus his services on helping to vitalize mature brands and categories.

“I love the dairy industry,” he told Dairy Foods. “But it was pushing 13 years working on the same project. I just really had a strong desire to get back to thinking about brands and about categories other than milk.”

Manning said the decision had nothing to do with the recent controversy over got milk’s controversial baseball campaign.

Hanman turns 72 in January and has been at the helm of DFA and one of its predecessors since 1975. DFA will name a new CEO before the year’s end.