Another state is recruiting California dairies again trying to increase their numbers in the industry to help support their systems.
One of the hundreds of exhibits at the World Dairy Expo is from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture. AgNet West talked with North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring, who said they specifically want to reach dairy producers here in California. Goehring told AgNet West about dairy in his state. “We certainly have quite a range and when I say large entities, keep in mind that’s from a perspective here in North Dakota. We have a couple thousand head dairies to 70 or 80 head mom-and-pop operations. The average might be 200 or 300 cows if you averaged them all out,” Goehring said. “But we’re certainly starting to see some things in agriculture change, like economies in scale and investment in dairy, so that people can manage more cows knowing that there is only a certain amount of margin available.”
Goehring said it’s important to keep stable numbers so process facilities stay open. “Supporting our processing facilities, we don’t want to lose those,” Goehring said. “So it also means trying to maintain numbers or increase those numbers. That’s part of the reason we are out working hard to encourage more dairies to come to our state.”