06/28/05 Idaho`s growing cheese industry

Glanbia Food's Jeff Williams may have put it best when he said. WILLIAMS "We couldn't do this without the excellent quality of milk and volumes of milk that are produced very day by the dairymen here in Idaho we think they're the best dairymen in the country." Those dairymen provide 25 million pounds of milk every day to processing facilities in southern Idaho. Glanbia is the top Idaho producer using nine and a half million pounds of milk for its cheese plants in Gooding and Twin Falls. Jon Davis and his family have built number two producer Jerome Cheese around a growing dairy industry. DAVIS "We employ about 230 people, we process about six million pounds of milk a day into 600 thousand pounds of cheese a day and be buy that six million pounds of milk from about 80 dairies." Washington-based West Farm Foods at five million pounds of milk and Sorrento near Nampa with three million pounds round out the top producers. But there's a new kid on the block, Gossner Foods, the Utah based cheese maker that is building a processing facility at the old Simplot plant in Heyburn where 50 to 60 people will be employed. Next week we'll wrap up our Dairy Month series by going to a dairy that's a throwback to the past but very much in the present. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott