02/09/06 Idaho`s dairy industry growth

University of Idaho ag economist Garth Taylor says the growth in the Idaho dairy industry in the past ten years has changed the face of the agriculture in the state. Taylor says in the mid-90's four ag commodities each brought in about 20 percent of the total Idaho cash receipts. TAYLOR "Dairy, beef, potatoes and your grains each of them comprised about a fifth of the total. Today only ten years later dairy is up to almost a third of the total." That growth puts Idaho fourth in the nation and soon to be third when it bypasses New York. Only industry giant California and Wisconsin would then be ahead of Idaho's dairy production. Taylor says there are many reasons for Idaho's dairy growth, water being one of them. TAYLOR "Cheap feed, a lot of space to grow our dairy industry in, a great climate to have dairy cattle in." Idaho has gone from crop based agriculture to livestock based because potatoes and grains now each only bring in about ten percent of the cash receipts. Dairy receipts rose seven percent last year over 2004 to a record 1.46 billion dollars. And as Taylor said, that's about one third of the 4.5 billion dollars in Idaho commodity and livestock receipts for all of last year. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott