04/27/05 Gerhardt to retire from Id Ag Statistics

When Don Gerhardt walks out the door on Friday he'll end a 37-year career in agricultural statistics. Gerhardt is retiring after 17 years as the head of Idaho Ag Statistics. He's seen a lot of changes in that time. GERHARDT "We've gone from you know tenth or eleventh in the country to the number five producer of dairy in the whole country so Idaho's become a major dairy state particularly on the processing side of the dairy industry." Gerhardt says the dairy expansion started with some Midwest companies relocating to southern Idaho. GERHARDT "Actually a foreign country now with Glanbia decided this was a pretty dog gone good place to produce their product." But Gerhardt says there's one black cloud on the horizon and it's water, a problem that's not easily solved. GERHARDT "That's going to have a tremendous affect because as you well know all the agriculture in the southern part of the state in particular virtually is all irrigated agriculture. There's some dryland. This water issue has to be solved in some way because its really going to impact how much land we're going to be able to farm in this state." Don Gerhardt's new concern, how to enjoy his retirement years beginning this weekend. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott