The studies are devoted to the currently incompletely solved both in theoretical and practical aspects problem of managing the development of the dairy industry. One of the tasks aimed at solving it is the need to develop a nonstandard approach to the theoretical foundations of regulation of this industry and recommendations for its practical application. The research is based on the methodology of systematic, integrated and territorial approaches using methods of economic interpretation of the obtained results, functional and comparative analysis. Scientific novelty is the theoretical substantiation of a multi-level paradoxical model of the relationship between the parameters of the dairy industry. The paradox is the hypothesis that there is a relationship between the regulatory effect and the parameters of the dairy industry that does not have a functional relationship with it (the correlation coefficient is close to 0), through a multi-level chain of indirect relationships of parameters that have a closer relationship with the regulator and indicators that are dependent on it indirectly. To implement the proposed hypothesis, a new mechanism of action is proposed, which allowed, based on actual data taken from open sources, to develop digital models of the dairy industry in Siberia, the maximum margin of error of which does not exceed 10%. Based on the results of developing a digital model and testing its information and computer technology, it is concluded that it can be used to predict the development of the dairy industry depending on the regulatory effect in the form of the invested volume of state support funds. The proposed paradoxical theory was tested for Siberia for 2019, calculated using the proposed digital technology.