10-15 FB Otter Ag Economy

 How much does Idaho’s economy depend on ag? I’m David Sparks and you might be pleasantly surprised. I had a recent visit with Governor Otter and, obviously, one of my biggest concerns was the state of Idaho’s economy and how much the ag sector contributed. Here’s his response. It’s a big chunk and the biggest part is dairy. Farmgate prices on dairy need to be improved. But the gross amount of income we get off dairy and its by-products, cheese, yogurt, etc. that value added that we put into Idaho is because of our low energy costs and a tremendous work force. I think the farm commodities, especially beef, sugar beets you’ve already mentioned onions, potatoes are starting to look good, our farm/ag economy this year is going to be tremendous for two reasons: (1) Worldwide situations. Wheat has gone up $1.25 because of the drought in Russia. Once we get into that market and they find out the quality of our malt barley, wheat, onions, potatoes, they’ll say we can’t afford to grow this ourselves as cheap as we can buy it.