Cheese and yogurt

72% of Idaho’s milk cows are located in Southern Idaho, according to the Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization. And while those milk cows are producing milk, cheese producers, such as, Glanbia which has it’s $15 million headquarters and Cheese Innovation Center in southern Idaho, are turning that milk into a tremendous volume of cheeses. I talked with Bob Naerbout, Executive Director of the Idaho Dairymen’s Assoc. “I was surprised to learn that cheese is the number one export from the state of Idaho, which is the potato state. But cheese? Yes cheese. Remember you have to have lots of dairy products to put on those potatoes to make them taste so good. Anyway, cheese is the number one export in the state of Idaho and that is not totally surprising given the amount of milk that we produce and the majority of that goes into cheese production of all varieties.