Dairy Boom

Idaho is on track to surpass New York state as the nation's third largest milk producer after California and Wisconsin, generating 37 million pounds each day. Since January 2014, Idaho has outpaced New York in milk production and exported $213 million in cheese, dry milk, whey, butter and lactose, a 52% increase from previous years according to the latest state numbers.

Jan Rogers, executive director, Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization says that..."Increased milk production has been important to meet growing demand from our booming yogurt and cheese industry." Southern Idaho, known as America's most diverse food basket, has recently attracted Chobani's $450 million yogurt plant and Glanbia's $15 million headquarters and Cheese Innovation Center. The region has also recently attracted investments from food giants Clif Bar, Monsanto and Frulact Group.

I talked with Bob Naerbout, Executive Director of the Idaho Dairymen's Assoc.: "The milk industry in Idaho has recovered strongly. We have really strong margins right now which is being reflected in an increase in production. It is not a huge increase but for the first seven months of the year we were up about 2.7% over the previous seven months. That small increase in production did push us past New York for the first six months so we are on track right now to potentially regain third in the nation for the state that produces the most milk."