Governor Otter Discusses Ag Economy

In a recent conversation with the Governor, I asked for his perspective on the Idaho agricultural scene as it relates to the economy. He cited the dairy industry as an example and took a stoic view of our situation.

(Otter) “I noticed a report the other day that we slaughtered over 250,000 dairy cattle. That displaces beef because dairy cattle are about 85% lean, they’ll go for hamburger. So to the extent that we’re deep culling the herds and eliminating the light milkers and light butter-fat animals, that’s gonna hurt cause they’re getting about $1100-1200 a head whereas as a milker they’re getting $2800-2900 a head. I see milk has slipped off from our price, I think it was $1.65-1.70 a year ago, today it’s about 80 cents. We’re going to go through some pain but we’ve been through pain before. To the extent that we have those people still in the business that can remember the pain and know how to manage through an economic crisis, there’ll be some pain but we will survive.”