04/12/05 Idaho dairy growth for 2005

In 2002 Idaho ranked sixth among the states for milk production. PATTEN "We're fifth right now and at the rate we're going by the end of the year I'm pretty confident we'll surpassing Pennsylvania for milk production to move into fourth place." Idaho Department of Ag's Dairy Bureau chief Marv Patten says New York's third place ranking is also within earshot. He's making the growth prediction based on dairy permit applications already filed this year. PATTEN "We've issued milk permits to a number of facilities that are new that equates to about 12 thousand 500 new milking animals since the first of the year. In addition to that there's about 55 thousand head worth of animals that are in the process of obtaining their county permits." Another 20 thousand cows that could be added to dairies already approved but yet to start construction. The largest concentration of new dairy growth is in Elmore County and the Mini-Cassia region. Today Patten says there are about 400 thousand milking cows in Idaho but he expects that number to top 415 thousand by the end of this year. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott