June 11, 2009

Dairy industry provides big contribution to rural economies

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Nebraska’s dairy industry produced about 1 billion pounds of milk last year, and in the process it helped drive the economy in many rural communities through employment, taxes, purchasing feed and equipment and more, the Nebraska Corn Board said in a news release today.

“The state’s dairy receipts totaled about $200 million last year, but when you figure in the impact that reverberates through the economy based on those dollars, the true economic impact is in the neighborhood of $500 million,” said Randy Klein of the Nebraska Corn Board.

Klein noted that for each 75 cows a dairy has, it directly employs one person. That means a 300-head dairy would employ about four people. A 1,200 cow dairy would employ about 16 people.

“Really, employment goes well beyond the dairy farm because a dairy needs feed, veterinary care, equipment, trucking, milk processing and more. Dairies are incredible at boosting rural economies,” Klein said.

An average cow consumes about $1000 in feed each year, which means Nebraska’s 58,000 dairy cattle consume about $58 million in feed.

The Nebraska Corn Board also plugged the great videos produced by the Alliance for the Future of Agricutlure in Nebraska (A-FAN), particularly the dairy videos. You can check those out at A-FAN’s YouTube channel - www.YouTube.com/NebraskaAgriculture.

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